Volume One - Into the Victorian Age - Some newspaper reports from the 1880's

• April 1886 - The Explosion on Board a Ship at Penarth Dock - Death of One of the Injured Men - "On Saturday evening the coroner for the district, Mr. E. B. Reece, held an inquest at the Hamadryad Hospital Ship, Cardiff, touching the death of Peter Thiels Neilsen, who died from injuries sustained by an explosion of coal gas on board the German steamship Wuotan on the 29th March.

William Powell, who was the first witness called, deposed that he lived at John-street, Penarth, and was out door foreman for Messrs. Hodge and Hills, shipwrights. At half-past ten on the night of the 29th of March he was standing on the quay near to the German barque Wuotan, which was lying in Penarth Basin ready to proceed to sea. He heard no explosion and the first intimation that one had occurred was conveyed to him by the captain, who approached him, and enquired where he could procure the services of a medical man. Witness volunteered to go for Dr. Rees, and on return with that gentleman went on board the Wuotan. In the forecastle he found three men, who were seriously burnt about the head and body, and who were subsequently taken to the Hamadryad Hospital Ship, in accordance with the doctor's instructions.

Witness afterwards examined the ship generally, and the stokehold particularly, but found nothing to indicate that the explosion had occurred. The mate, however, told him that at the time of the accident the starboard bunker was open, and the gas which had escaped from thence had become ignited by the fire. The bunker door was about 5ft. from the furnace. The hatch was off the bunkers for the purposes of ventilation, and the other hatches were also off with the same object.

Heinrich Reichard, one of the injured men, deposed that he and the deceased were firemen on board the Wuotan, and Woosencraft, the other injured man, was a coal trimmer. At the time of the accident there was a lamp burning in the stokehold, and the port bunker door was slightly open. He believed that the gas had escaped from the port bunker, and had become ignited by the flame of the lamp.

Mr. Hughes, medical superintendent of the Hamadryad Hospital Ship, said the deceased and two other injured men were received on board the Hamadryad early on the morning of the 30th of March. The three were badly burnt, the deceased most severely ; the whole of his back and chest, and likewise his face and hands, were badly burnt. He gradually sank, and died from exhaustion on the 8th inst. - The coroner having briefly summed up, a verdict of "Accidental death" was returned." Weekly Mail [067] 17th April 1886.