The contractor, Mr. Dawes, now in the 66th year of his age, having performed a part of his outward journey on the 19th September, 1902, left Clevedon for Yatton quite sober as ever, and in his usual health. Then comes the mystery. He did not reach Yatton in due course, and the railway signalman intimated the failure to Bristol, from which office the postmaster of Clevedon was advised, who at early dawn started out a scout on a bicycle to search for the missing mailman and mail bags. The scout discovered no signs of man or mails between Clevedon and the Yatton apparatus station, and going back over the same ground, he eventually met an individual who had seen an aged man with a whip in his hand wandering on the road. This he knew to be his man, and he discovered Dawes walking aimlessly along the road at about 7 a.m. His explanations were not coherent. The horse had ran away with him, and flung him off the cart into a ditch; he had tumbled off the cart, and walked into a ditch; he had tried to knock people up to assist him in trying to find what had become of the missing mails! In the meantime, a farm labourer going out on to the Kingston Seymour moors to milk the cows discovered the mail cart turned over on to its side, and thus embedded in a rhine on the roadside. The horse also was in the rhine, up to his back, partly in mud and partly in water. The milkman immediately started off to Clevedon to give the alarm, and his employer, who was accompanying him on his journey to the milking ground, took prompt steps, in conjunction with moor men, to drag horse and vehicle out of the mud and mire. Fortunately, the mailbags were uninjured, and the postmaster of Clevedon, who had set out on a search, had them conveyed back to his office. Dazed contractor Dawes, the muddy mail cart, and horse coated with mud from head to hoofs, were got back into the town at about 11 a.m. It would seem that the contractor fell asleep and tumbled from his box into the road, and that his horse wandered on, grazing from side to side of the road, till eventually in the dark of night horse and cart fell into the rhine. On coming to himself, the contractor, after trying in vain to arouse the inhabitants of roadside houses, wandered about all night, or it may be laid down somewhere to await morning light. The animal was injured to such an extent that it had to be destroyed.
During the fierce gale which, with unparalleled severity, raged in the Bristol Channel on the night of Thursday, the 10th September, 1903, a vessel was driven ashore on the Gore Sands. Soon after daybreak a call was made for the Burnham Lifeboat, but, in consequence of the heavy seas, the crew was unable to launch her. The coxswain, therefore, telegraphed for the Watchet Lifeboat to proceed to the rescue. Every endeavour was made by the Postal Telegraph authorities to expeditiously transmit the message, but the elements which had operated against the vessel, had likewise played havoc with the telegraph wires, with the result that the telegram sustained such delay in transmission as to retard the launching of the Lifeboat. Fortunately, no serious consequences followed.
As regards mail communication, the night journey by road from Bristol to Bath and Chippenham could not be made, owing to the roads being blocked by fallen trees.
The gale was far reaching in its effects, and carried away parts of Weston-super-Mare Pier, landed boats on promenade, blew down walls, chimneys, and laid low hundreds of trees, was especially "a howler," and disastrous as regards interference with telegraphic communication. Wires were blown down in all directions, and Bristol suffered greatly. On the 11th, at 11.0 a.m., there was no wire whatever available to South Wales, and telegrams had to be sent by train. There was no wire available to Scotland or to the north beyond Birmingham, or to Cork and Jersey. Several local lines were down, such as Wedmore, Hambrook, Yatton, Portishead, Wickwar, etc. Delay of 50 minutes occurred to Birmingham, which office transmitted all work for the north. The delay to London was 40 minutes. Trunk telephone communication was impossible. Every wire was interrupted, and remained so all day. In the evening there was still no wire which could be used to Scotland, Cork, or Channel Islands. Cardiff was reached at 3.0 p.m., on one wire.
CHAPTER XIII.
BRISTOL REJUVENATED.—VISIT OF PRINCE OF WALES IN CONNECTION WITH THE NEW BRISTOL DOCK.—BRISTOL AND JAMAICAN MAIL SERVICE.—AMERICAN MAILS.—BRISTOL SHIP LETTER MAILS.—THE REDLAND POST OFFICE.—THE MEDICAL OFFICER.—BRISTOL TELEGRAPHISTS IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR.—LORD STANLEY.—MR. J. PAUL BUSH.
Bristol "lethargic" was for years the general idea of the place. Bristol "awakening" followed, and it is now realised that Bristol has fully awakened to her vast potentialities. The eyes of the populace of Great Britain, and, it may be, of many of the dwellers in the King's dominions beyond the seas, were in March, 1902, cast in the direction of the ancient city of Bristol, erstwhile the second port in importance in the British Isles. This national looking to what Bristolians proudly call the "metropolis of Western England" was occasioned by the visit of the Prince of Wales, with H.R.H. the Princess, to turn the first sod in connection with the great works then about to be undertaken for the extension of the docks at Avonmouth, so as to render them capable of accommodating and berthing steamers of a magnitude greater than any yet built—a work then expected to be completed in four or five years. The function was a notable one, and the occasion may be briefly summed up as "a grand day for Bristol." Two millions are being spent on the dock, which will have a water space of thirty acres, with room for further extension. The lock will be 875 feet long and 100 feet wide. There will be 5,000 feet of quay space, with abundant railway sidings and other appointments of a first-class port.
