From Phil Smith:
‘some of our family ancestors were ‘watermen’ on the Severn, living at Upton – the Oakleys – and I found this reference to one of them: “A most melancholy accident on the river Severn at Upton upon Severn. Eight young men consisting of a corporal, fifer, and four recruits of the 2nd regiment of foot and two watermen Pumphry and Oakley took fisherman’s boat intending to go Hanley quay and back by water. They were returning from Hanley to Upton when Pumphry who was conducting the boat said he would frighten the recruits a little and began rocking it. The water came in on one side and the recruits being alarmed immediately rushed to the opposite which so overbalanced the boat that it was filled with water. Oakley and the fifer swam to the shore, procured another boat and rowed after their companions who by the force of the current had been carried a considerable distance. They succeeded in picking up one of the recruits, who was saved but the other five were drowned.”’
The Annual Register 1813