as taken up by the boats and carried to Commissioner
Fanshaw's house in the dock-yard, very weak with the exertions he had
made, and so shocked with the distressing cause of them, that he at
first appeared scarcely to know where he was, or to be sensible of his
situation. In the course of a day or two, when he was a little
recovered, he was removed to the house of a friend, Dr. Hawker of
Plymouth.

Sir Richard King had given a public dinner in honor of the coronation.
Captain Charles Rowley, of the Unite frigate, calling in the morning,
was engaged to stay, and excused himself from dining, as he had
previously intended, on board the Amphion.

Captain Darby of the Bellerophon, was also to have dined with Captain
Pellow, and had come round in his boat from Cawsand Bay; but having to
transact some business concerning the ship with Sir Richard King, it
detained him half an hour longer at Stone-house than he expected. He
had just gone down to the beach and was stepping into the boat to
proceed up to Hamoaze, when he heard the fatal explosion. Captain
Swaffield was to have sailed the next day, so that the difference of
twenty-four hours would have saved that much lamented and truly
valuable officer. His brother Mr. J. Swaffield, of the Pay-Office,
being asked to the same dinner, had set off with him from Stone-house,
but before he had reached Dock a person came after him upon business,
which obliged him to return, and thus saved him from sharing his
brother's untimely fate.

Many conjectures were formed concerning the cause of this catastrophe.
Some conceived it to be owing to neglect, as the men were employed in
drawing the guns, and contrary to rule, had not extinguished all the
fires, though the dinners were over. This, however, the first
lieutenant declared to be impossible, as they could not be drawing the
guns, the key of the magazine hanging, to his certain knowledge, in
his cabin at the time. Some of the men likewise declared that the guns
were drawn in the Sound before they came up Hamoaze. It was also
insinuated, that it was done intentionally, as several of the bodies
were afterwards found without clothes, as if they had prepared to jump
overboard before the ship could have time to blow up. As no mutiny had
ever appeared in the ship, it seems unlikely that such a desperate
plot should have been formed, without any one who survived having the
least knowledge of it. It is, besides, a well known fact, that in
almo