Volume Six - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - Select Aspects - Working the Ely Tidal Harbour . . .

At about 4:45 this afternoon, while on board my boat, which is now lying under the iron stage in the tidal harbour, I observed the barge 'John' start her engines and steam down the river, and she got as far as the Penarth pier head when I saw her suddenly blow up. I did not hear any loud- report, but the wind, perhaps, carried the sound away from me. I went to the mast-head of my boat, which was at this time nearly a mile from the 'John', and saw that her after-part had been torn away, and some of her men were strewn about the hatches.

I proceeded to her, and going aboard, found the men I had seen somewhat recovered from their insensible condition, but though not seriously hurt, were still stupefied from the effects of the explosion. I rendered, them every assistance it was in my power to afford, and sent for refreshments. I was glad to find that medical aid was not required. I learned that the captain and engineer had been blown overboard and were drowned, and had not yet been picked up ; that the mate of my own boat, who had sailed in the 'John' for Bristol, had been cast, by the violence of the shock, headlong from the quarter-deck into the mid-ships ; that the engines and machinery were hopelessly damaged, and that what remained of the boiler had been forced right among the cargo.

I took charge of the vessel, and employed a tug, by whose help the boat was brought back into the harbour. She is not yet in a sinking condition. We intend this evening to search for the bodies of the captain and engineer. I knew both of these men. They belonged to Bristol, and leave families - the former a wife and four children, and the latter, a wife and two children.

The men who have escaped with their lives are ignorant as to the circumstances which existed on board the ill-fated boat when the explosion took place, and it will never perhaps be known what was the pressure of steam and the exact state of the boiler before it burst. The 'John' is the same vessel which some years ago knocked the Bath Bridge, Bristol, on which occasion the lives of many persons were lost." Nottinghamshire Guardian [170] 8th September 1871.