of March, after discharging 50 tons of coal at the West Marina for Mr. John Austin, the wind freshened, and after heaving off the vessel, the hawser snapped, as in the previous case, and the rudder got unshipped. The sloop was then carried broadside on to the beach, and her starboard side broke away. About ten tons of coal still left in the hold washed along the beach. The crew were saved, but not their clothes.
Coast Defences
Great Activity was going on in the month of March in the mounting of 68 pounder guns, weighing 96 cwt. on the Martello Towers between St. Leonards and Galley Hill, and between Bexhill and Pevensey. Preliminary official enquiries were also being made in the matter of erecting a battery at St. Leonards, and one also on the lower hill at the back of Government House, the latter building being the site of a battery that existed in the 18th century.
Sixty-eight Pounders, 27 in number, were conveyed by rail from Woolwich arsenal during the first week in March to Eastbourne, and 20 of the same calibre, with tackle and stores, to Newhaven.
Shot and Shell, with other munitions of war, made up a heavy train in the first week in May, from Woolwich to Bopeep and Bulverhithe for defence of the coast. At a later date, detachments of garrison artillery were sent down to man the Towers from Dover to Hastings.
Accidents and Fatalities
A Coroner’s Inquest was held at the Infirmary on the 18th April on the body of Peter Rowland, a carter, who had been knocked down and run over in the London road by a runaway horse and cart, belonging to Mr. Edmund Strickland, and driven by his nephew, Samuel Waghorne, butcher, of Norman Road – Verdict “Accidental”.
John Stephen Butler, a boy of 13, the son of a flyman, on the 19th of March, rode a horse sharply round the Eversfield corner into Warrior Square, when the horse slipped and the boy was thrown down, causing concussion of the brain, from which he died. (Hastings accidents are noticed in next chapter).
Child Murders
On the 1st of March, a well-dressed male child was the subject of a coroner’s inquest. It had been found by Edward Kenward, a labourer, in a well at 7 Cross street. Dr. A. H. Marks, who made a post-mortem examination, believed the child was about 3 months old, that it had been well clothed and fed, and that it had lain in the water ten or more days. The house was untenanted, -
