WORCESTER

BATTLE OF.—In the civil war fought between the Royalist army and the forces of the Parliament, the latter commanded by Cromwell, a large body of Scots having marched into England to reinstate Charles II, Cromwell signally defeated them, and it afforded to him what he called his crowning mercy ; more than 2000 of the Royalists were slain, and of 8000 prisoners, nearly all were sold as slaves to the American Colonies. Fought, September 3rd, 1651. The following is an account of the flight of the young King, after the disastrous day of battle:— “Charles, in his progre towards Bristol, was pursued by a party of the enemy to the new ferry over the Severn. He rode through Shire Newton, and cro ed the Severn at Chis well Pit, on the Gloucestershire side. The boat had scarcely returned, before a body of the republicans, amounting to 60 men, followed him to the Black Rock, and threatening them with instant death if they refused, compelled the ferrymen to take them acro . The boatmen were royalists, and left them on a reef called English Stones, which is separated from the Gloucestershire side by a lake, fordable at low water; but the tide, which had just turned, flowed in with great rapidity, and they were all drowned in attempting to cro . Cromwell, when informed of this disaster, abolished the ferry, and it was not renewed until the year 1748. The renewal occasioned a law-suit between the family of St. Pierre and the guardians of the Duke of Beaufort. In the course of the suit, documents were produced which tended to confirm this anecdote.” WRECKS.—The most remarkable shipwrecks of British men of war or transports, or of ships, connected with military events, are the following which have happened within the last 85 years: A tremendous storm occurred in October, 1780, in the West Indies, and the following ve els of war were all lost. Thunderer , of 74 guns; Stirling Castle , of 64 guns; Phœnix , of 44 guns; La Blanche , of 42 guns; Laurel , of 28 guns; Andromeda , of 28 guns; Deal Castle , of 24 guns; Scar borough , of 20 guns; Barb a does , of 14 guns; Cameleon , of 14 guns; Endeavour , of 14 guns; and the Victor , of 10 guns. The Royal George —June 28th, 1782,—1000 persons and brave Admiral Kenpenfeldt perished by the sinking, or rather oversetting of this 100 gun man-of-war. The guns on one side all rolled over to the other, and with the extra weight immediately overset the ship riding at anchor at Spithead. Ramilies , of 74 guns, off Newfoundland, September 21st, 1782. 100 souls perished. Pandora Frigate , on a reef of rocks, August 28th, 1791. 100 souls perished. Droits de l’Homme —A British ship of the line, and the Amazon , a frigate, lost off Hodierne Bay. Many hundreds perished, January 14th, 1797. Na au , of 64 guns, October 25th, 1799. 100 of the crew and marines perished. Queen , transport on Tref us is Point, January 14th, 1800. 369 souls lost. Queen Charlotte , of 110 guns, lost March 17th, 1800. This was the flag ship of Lord Keith, commanding in the Mediterranean Sea, burnt by accidental fire off the harbor of Leghorn. More than 700 perished. The ship took fire just before day break. It was occasioned by a match kept burning for the purpose of firing salutes, having communicated itself to some hay, ., and so rapidly did the fire rage, that nothing could save the noble ve el. She burned rapidly to the water’s edge, and then blew up. Invincible , of 74 guns, March 20th, 1801. 400 souls perished. Apollo , frigate, lost April 2nd, 1804, in a heavy gale off Capo Mondego. 61 of her crew and her commander, perished, and with her 40 sail of the outward-bound West India fleet, lost. Venerable , of 74 guns, Nov. 24th, 1804. Crew saved. Tartar us , of 74 guns, December 20th, 1804. Crew saved. Æneas , transport, off Newfoundland, lost October 23rd, 1805. 340 perished. Aurora , transport, lost on the Godwin Sands, December 21st, 1805. 300 perished. Athenienne , of 64 guns lost off Sardinia, October 20th, 1806. 347 perished. Ajax —Lost by fire off the Island of Tenedos, February 14th, 1807. 300 perished. Boreas , man-of-war, lost upon the Hannois Rock in the Channel, November 28th, 1807. Anson , frigate, lost near Land’s End, December 29th, 1807. 125 persons drowned. Magicienne , frigate, August 16th, 1810. She ran aground at the Mauritius, and was abandoned and burnt by her crew. Satellite , sloop-of-war of 16 guns, December 14th, 1810. Upset and all on board perished. Minotam , of 74 guns, wrecked on the Haak Bank, December 27th, 1810. Of 600 persons on board, about 480 were drowned. Amethyst , frigate of 36 guns, lost in the Sound, February 15th, 1811. Barham , of 74 guns. Foundered July 29th, 1811, on the coast of Corsica. Saldanha , frigate, lost on the Irish coast, December, 1811. 300 souls perished. St. George , of 98 guns, and the Defence , of 74 guns, stranded on the coast of Jutland, and all souls perished, except 16 seamen, December 24th, 1811. Seahorse , transport, near Tramore Bay, January 30th, 1816. 365 souls, chiefly soldiers of the 59th Regiment, and most of the crew, lost. Lord Melville , and Boadicea , two transports lost near Kinsale, Ireland, when several hundred of the 82nd Regiment, and almost all the crew perished, January 31st, 1816. Harpooner , transport, off Newfoundland, November 10th, 1816. 100 persons drowned. Kent , shattered by a dreadful storm, February 28th 1825. Afterwards she caught fire; but the pa engers and crew were providentially saved by the Cambria . There were on board 301 officers and men of the 31st regiment, 66 women, 45 children, and 139 seamen. “The Kent , India man , was making her way in the Bay of Biscay on the morning of the 1st of March, 1825, acro the heavy swell common in that stormy entrance to the Atlantic, when her progre was arrested by a fatal accident. An officer, who was sent into the hold to see whether the rolling of the ve el had disturbed the stowage, perceiving that a cask of spirits had burst from its lashings, gave the lamp he had in his hand to a seaman to hold, while he should replace the cask. Unfortunately, in the continued rolling of the ve el, the man let the lamp fall near the spirits, to which it set fire in a moment. The flames spread; attempts were made to smother them by wet blankets and hammocks, but all was in vain, and they soon a umed an aspect so tremendous, as to show that it would be impo ible to subdue them. At this moment of despair, the man at the mast-head exclaimed that a sail was in sight; guns were fired, and a signal of distre hoisted. The gale, however, was so heavy, that it was for some time doubtful whether the strange ve el perceived the signals, or was likely to turn aside from her course; but this painful suspense was soon removed by her approach. The boats of the Kent were now got out and placed, not alongside, on account of the flames and the danger of staving the boats, but a-head and a-stern. In the latter many got out from the cabin-windows, but the chief part were let down from the bowsprit into the boat a-head, and the men sliding down by a rope, while the soldiers’ wives were lowered into the boat slung three together. The fire had burst out about ten o’clock, and about twelve the signal of distre had been perceived by the strange sail, which proved to be the Cambria , outward-bound to Mexico, with mining workmen and machinery, shipped by the Anglo-Mexican company. It was two o’clock when the Cambria received the first boat-load of pa engers, consisting of ladies and children, half clothed, and pale with fright and fatigue. The whole afternoon was pa ed in exertions on board the one ve el in sending off the sufferers, and in the other in receiving them. The Cambria had amongst her pa engers several stout workmen, who took their station at the ship’s side, and were indefatigable in hoisting the poor sufferers on board; so that, out of 642 persons in the Kent , no le than 547 were safe in the Cambria before midnight. The remainder (95 in number) were lost, chiefly in getting out and in of the boats, the swell of the sea being very great all the time. The captain of the Kent was the last man to leave her. She blew up at a few minutes before two o’clock on Wednesday morning. It may naturally be asked how the ve el could keep so long together amid so destructive a conflagration? She could not have kept together two hours, had not the officers, to avoid one danger, encountered another by opening the ports and letting in the water, when she shipped such heavy seas as to become water-logged, which of course prevented her burning downwards. The Cambria , a ve el of little more than 200 tons, was previously sufficiently filled, having goods in her hold, and about 50 persons in pa engers and ship’s company. How great then must have been the pre ure and confusion caused by the influx which carried the total on board to more than 600! The progre of the fire in the Kent had been so rapid, as to prevent the sufferers from saving any clothes, except what was on their persons, and both officers and soldiers were thus ill prepared to encounter the wet and cold of the deck. The cabin and the ’tween decks (the space for the steerage pa engers) were thus crowded beyond measure, and most fortunate it was that the wind continued favourable for the return of the Cambria to an English port. She reached Falmouth in 48 hours after quitting the wreck, and landed her unfortunate inmates on the 4th of March.” Lord William Bentinck , lost off Bombay; 58 recruits, 20 officers, and seven pa engers perished. This lamentable occurrence happened June 17th, 1840. Abercrombie Robinson , and Waterloo , transports, in Table Bay, Cape of Good Hope; of 330 persons on board the last named ve el, 189, principally convicts, were drowned, August 28th, 1842. H.M.S. Fantome , of 16 guns, lost off Monte video, June 25th, 1843. The troop ship Albert from Halifax with the 64th Regiment on board which was miraculously saved July 13th, 1843. H.M. Frigate Wilberforce , lost on the coast of Africa, February 2nd, 1844. Birken head , troopship, from Queens town to the Cape of Good Hope, with detachments of several regiments on board. She struck on a pointed rock off Simon’s Bay, and 454 of the crew and soldiers were drowned; 184 only were saved by the ship’s boat. The Trent , and a great number of other ships of all capacity, wrecked off the Crimea during the war. A tremendous tornado swept the Black Sea and literally dashed many of the brave ships of England and France to pieces.