In the local Dutch newspaper called the Schiedamsche Courant dated 28 December 1850 a found a news item dated 29 November dealing with the explosion on the roads of Macao of the Portuguese frigate Donna Maria II. Officers of the American ship Marion were invited on board of the Portuguese frigate to celebrate the birthday of the consort of the Portuguese queen. When all were on board, the usual salutes fired, when suddenly a fire broken out and almost simultaneously exploded the ship. Of the officers and the rest of the crew, totally 200 men, were just 15 saved by the Marion. (1)
Surfing on the internet I found several references to this disaster and which adds quite a lot of information to the small item in the Dutch newspaper.(2)
The Australian newspaper Argus (www.newspapers.nla.gov.au) published also a large item dealing with the disaster, originally published in the Boletin de Governo, 16 November 18590. In the afternoon joined the frigate, decorated with flags, the Monta Forta, firing the above mentioned salutes around 12.00 o’clock. Around 14.30 was the whole town alarmed by a sudden crash and within a few moments there was just a cloud to be seen and the burning hull of the ship, ‘all but a small part of the stern, in possession of flames, was left to indicate the spot’.
‘The Donna Maria II was a teak built ship, about forty years old: strong and capable of noble service”. Of the 224 men on board, 188 died. This number can’t be correct; according to the same source were crewmembers on the shore. Among the victims were her commanding officer Francis de Assis e Silva, five lieutenants Placido Joze de Souza, Luiz Maria Bordallo Francis Xavier Tellos de Mello, Francisco Cypriano de Sanque Raposo and the native lieutenant Samgi, midshipmen Jean Bernardo de Silva, assistant surgeon Joze Matthias Lucas d’Aguair and the pursuer Manoel Marques. ‘These officers were, for the most part young men, well known to have possessed superior talents, and who had promised at a future day to adorn, and to have added lustre, to the Royal navy of Portugal.’ The reason of the explosion was still unknown, although men didn’t believed that is was caused by the salutes. “These circumstances lead to be belief that the explosion was effected by the means of fire purposely placed in the magazine; but by whom, or how, only God knows.’
The in the Dutch item also mentioned American corvette Marion succeeded in picking up 10 survivors from the burning rests, of which 5 later died. Among the 5 survivors were 2 Chinese of the approximately 30-35 on board. There were also on board 3 prisoners, sailors of the French ship Chile, of which none survived.
Notes
1. See for this ship also the note on this weblog published 24 July 2009 “The strength of the Portuguese navy around 24 July 1833 according to admiral Chares Napier’.
2. See for instance the books Kathay: A cruise in the China Seas, written by W. Hastings Macaulay in 1852 and The Logbook of the Captain’s Clerk. Adventure in the China Seas, published in 1906.
