2-888-777 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Terrific Explosion at the Raj Ghaut Ferry, Benares, [India], 1850. '...a fleet of thirty-four boats, laden with military stores, consisting of 16 brass guns, 9000 rounds of shot and shell...and 3000 barrels of gunpowder, had put to at Raj Ghaut...one of the boats caught fire...there must have been at least 400 men on board the fleet, of whom only 64 have been found...116 dead bodies were dug out of the ruins and taken out of the water; and the limbs and shattered portions of human beings lay strewed far and wide...Two of the Delhi Princes, and the wife of Prince Mirza Bolakee, were crushed under the ruins, but the Prince himself escaped...Within a range of five hundred yards or more every way, almost every house was unroofed, or most seriously injured. The doors and windows of every house within a mile and more were blown in'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.