Plagiarising my own words from the profile of my great-great-grand-Uncle John Gordon:
Tragedy Strikes the Family
As reported in the Empire on Wednesday 29th March 1865, a "terrific explosion" occurred at the dry dock in Waterview Bay, Balmain, the day before, where 3 persons were known to have been killed and 6 others dangerously wounded. Those killed were Joseph Porter, engineer's apprentice, aged 17, originally from London, skull fractured, scalded, and otherwise injured; John Gordon, turner, lower part of body smashed; scalded and bruised; and Robert Craig, fireman, leg blown off, and so disfigured that, he could only be recognised by his hands and the watch, chain and waistcoat he had been wearing. Craig left a wife and two children.
As reported in the Empire on Thursday 30th March 1865, John's youngest brother, Samuel Gordon (who would have been aged 16), identified the body of his deceased brother, John, aged 27, an engineer. An inquest was begun on the 29th March, at which Dr Owen B Evans deposed that he was a legally qualified medical practitioner residing in Balmain, and that at around half past ten the previous morning he had been called to the dock where he found Joseph Porter and Robert Craig dead and John Gordon dying. Dr Evans described the conditions in which he found Porter and Craig and went on to say that Gordon died soon after his arrival.
The further examination of the witnesses to the inquest was postponed until Tuesday the 4th April at 10 o'clock.
As reported in the Empire on Wednesday 19th April 1865, the delayed inquest into the Mort's Dock explosion was concluded before the City Coroner, at the Warwick Castle Inn, Balmain, on the 18th April.
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Adding to the family's tragedy, John's brother Robert and wife Mary had two children two years apart; one in 1872, the other in 1874. Neither survived long enough to be named.
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Their sister Margaret lost her second child (a son) at the age of 2 years, due to a chest inflammation after measles. She then lost her first husband to a boating accident a couple of years after brother John's death in the boiler explosion. She remarried, and lost that husband as well. She then married for a third time. (A real never say die type of woman.) Margaret was the grandmother of my longest-lived (known, at least) cousin .. 105 years.
