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Dreadful Explosion of His Majesty's Frigate Amphion,
of Thirty-Two Guns, in the Hamoaze, Plymouth Dock,
September 22, 1796. Israel Pellew, Esq, Commander.

Including the Melancholy Consequences and Remarkable Preservation of the Captain,
Boatswain and a Few Others as Communicated by One of the Survivors.
Also the Loss of a Spanish Frigate on the Coast of Mexico in 1678.

by

Thomas Tegg

London: Cheapside, Printed for Thomas Tegg (1809), illus, 28, (71) pp.

Transcribed by Michael Steer

An account of the Amphion explosion, which is also recorded in James' "Naval History of Great Britain." Being about to set to sea, the Amphion, commanded by Captain Israel Pellew, exploded while many wives and children of the seamen were on board to bid their men goodbye. The dramatic frontispiece engraving depicts a massive explosion with bodies of the unfortunate victims flung high into the evening sky. 300 of the approximately 310 persons on board were killed. The brief narrative (barely 5 pages) is followed by the account of the wreck of a Spanish frigate (un-named) in 1678, told in the first person by its un-named captain. This rare book was produced from a digital copy held by the Bodleian Library that can be downloaded from Google Books. Google has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. Those on which copyright has expired are available for free educational and research use, both as individual books and as full collections to aid researchers.

 
 Page
Chavarria, Don Domingo de22, 27-8
Darby, Captain11
Fanshaw, Commissioner11
Hawker, Dr11
King, Sir Richard8, 11-2
Legnares, Don Louis de19-20
Macotela, Alonzo22, 27
Pellew, Sir Edward7
Pellew, Captain Israel7, 9, 11
Rowley, Captain Charles11
Salinas, Don Juan de27-8
Swaffield, Mr J11
Swaffield, Captain William9, 11