The New York Packet

On Saturday morning last a melancholy catastrophe happened near Brooklyn ferry.—Mr. Wagner, baker, of Ferry-street, having purchased a quantity of bricks, with which he intended to erect an oven on Long-Island, hired a boat to carry them over; in which went himself, the boatman and another. They had nearly gained the opposite ferry, when the boat was observed suddenly to go down, and notwithstanding several boats immediately pushed off, and used every effort to succour them, Mr. Wagner and the boatman perished; the other was taken up. It appears that the boat filled (being deeply laden) as the wind was fresh, and the waves ran high. It has often been a matter of surprise to many to see those boats, in particular, which carry bricks, so heavily burdened, that nothing but the calmest weather, and smoothest surface, could give them a chance of escaping a fate equally dreadful with that just mentioned: —but, while we regret the untimely end of these unfortunate victims of their own folly and temerity, we hope that this example will impress on the minds of all others who may have occasion for the transportation of a similar cargo.