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The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
84
"The
'Atalanta'
was
fitted
out
at
Charlestown,
mounted
eight
3-pounders,
and
carried
65
men,
French,
Americans,
and
Irish,
of
whom
49
were
killed
or
wounded
in
the
action;
the
'Antelope'
having
only
two
killed
and
three
wounded--one
mortally.
"The
House
of
Assembly
at
Jamaica,
as
a
reward
for
this
most
gallant
action,
voted
500
guineas--200
to
be
paid
to
the
master's
widow,
100
to
the
first
mate's,
100
to
the
boatswain,
and
100
among
the
rest
of
the
crew."
Another
adventure
of
a
mail-packet
worthy
of
mention
happened
a
few
years
later.
The
'Lady
Hobart,'
an
Atlantic
packet
of
200
tons
burthen,
left
Halifax,
Nova
Scotia,
for
England
in
June
1803,
and
a
few
days
after
leaving
port,
fell
in
with
a
French
schooner,
called
'L'Aimable
Julie,'
laden
with
salt
fish.
Captain
Fellowes
of
the
packet
took
possession
of
the
schooner,
and
put
a
prize
crew
in
charge.
A
few
days
later,
however,
the
'Lady
Hobart'
ran
into
an
iceberg;
and
there
being
no
hope
of
saving
the
ship,
the
mails
were
lashed
to
pigs
of
ballast
and
thrown
overboard.
The
crew
and
passengers
took
to
the
boats,
and
the
'Lady
Hobart'
shortly
thereafter
foundered.
After
suffering
great
hardships,
the
voyagers
reached
Newfoundland
on
the
4th
July.
The
illustration
is
from
a
contemporary
print.
The
duty
of
throwing
the
mails
overboard,
when
serious
danger
was
apprehended,
appears
sometimes
to
have
been
carried
out
with
undue
haste;
for
we
find
an
account
in
the
'Annual
Register'
of
March
4,
1759,
that
the
Dutch
Mail
of
the
23d
February
had
been
thus
disposed
of
through
an
unlucky
mistake.
The
ship
conveying
it
was
of
Dutch
nationality,
and,
being
boarded
by
a
privateer,
those
in
charge
had
hastily
concluded
that
the
visitor
must
be
an
enemy.
When
too
late,
they
discovered
their
mistake,
for
the
stranger
proved
to
be
a
friendly
English
cruiser;
and
they
thereafter
reached
Harwich
with
a
budget
of
regrets
in
place
of
the
mails.
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