7 Sep 1767:31 (1668)
Boston Evening Post (Fleet)          
BEP(F.767.048                                                           
7 Sep 1767:31 (1668)                                                    
Newport, Aug. 31. The following is a particular and                     
authentic account of the melancholy accident which happened             
on board the brig Dolphin, Capt. John Malbone, of this town,            
viz. Last Wednesday night she arrived off Point Judith, from            
Jamaica, and when within about 5 miles of the land, at about            
ten o'clock the same night, a Negro boy went down between               
decks, among the rum, where there stood several puncheons of            
water, and (as he says) with an intention to draw some                  
water, but mistook, and broached a cask of rum; at the same             
time the door of the lanthorn in which he carried a candle              
being open, and the candle falling into the rum, set it on              
fire: This so affrighted the boy that he neglected to stop              
the running of the rum, and in less than half a minute the              
head of the cask flew out, and the flames were immediately              
communicated to fifteen casks more, so that all possible                
means used to extinguish them proved entirely ineffectual;              
the vessel was in flames in a very few minutes, which                   
reduced 26 persons, being the number of people, including               
passengers, on board, to a distress and horror that must be             
left to the reader's imagination; among many of them                    
subsisted the tender and endearing connections of husband &             
wife, parent & child, brother & sister, &c. between whom the            
merciless flames were now effecting a cruel and inevitable              
separation; and it was with the utmost difficulty that a                
soul on board saved his life.--There were eleven passengers,            
viz. Messrs. John Henry, William Brooks Simson, & Nathaniel             
Green; Mrs. Storer, Mrs. Henry, Miss Ann Storer, Mrs.                   
Frances Storer, Miss Maria Storer, Miss Sarah Storer, and               
Mr. Henry's two children, being in the cabbin, where                    
suffocated with the smoke before the two small boats could              
be got out; Mrs. Henry was upon the deck, with her sisters,             
and might have been saved with them, but, overcome with                 
maternal love and affection, on hearing her mother cry out,             
the children--oh the children, she ran and threw herself                
headlong down the companion, into the flames, & was                     
instantly consumed. The remainder of the people got ashore,             
with difficulty, in the two small boats.--The vessel burnt              
till 8 o'clock the next morning, and then sunk. The above               
brig belonged to Messr. Evan & Francis Malbone, of this                 
town, was upwards of 200 tons, and valued with the cargo at             
4000L. sterling, and the effects of the passengers at                   
2000L.sterl. more.