The raft and the first day

The construction of a raft from an ad hoc assembly of timbers garnered from the wreck of the Méduse was the only way all the crew and passengers could be safely brought ashore. Those involved in its construction called it "the machine". 

The frigate's mission was to accept the British return of Senegal under the terms of France's acceptance of the Peace of Paris. The appointed French governor of Senegal, Colonel Julien-Désiré Schmaltz, and his wife and daughter were among the passengers.

In an effort to make good time, the Méduse overtook the other ships in the small fleet, but due to poor navigation it drifted 100 miles (161 km) off course. On 2 July, it ran aground on a sandbank off the West African coast, near today's Mauritania. This disaster was probably due to the incompetence of De Chaumereys, the leader of this expedition, a returned émigré who lacked experience and ability, but had been granted his commission as a result of an act of political preferment. 

Efforts to free the ship failed, so, on 5 July, the frightened passengers and crew started an attempt to travel the 60 miles (97 km) to the African coast in the frigate's six boats. Although the Méduse was carrying 400 people, including 160 crew, there was space for only about 250 in the boats. The remainder of the ship's complement—at least 146 men and one woman—were piled onto a hastily built raft. 

One by one as they boarded the raft, and as this complement of this remainder of people grew in number and weight, the raft although still floating was gradually submerged. When all these people were standing on the raft the level of the sea and its waves came up to most peoples waists.

The surgeon Savigny, one of the survivors, later recalled that "it had sunk at least a metre, and so closely were we huddled together that it was impossible to move a single step. Fore and aft, we had the water up to your middle."

Seventeen crew members opted to stay aboard the grounded Méduse. The captain and crew aboard the other boats intended to tow the raft, but after only a few miles the raft was turned loose as the enormous weight of the raft and its human cargo meant that making headway to the safety of the shore seemed impossible.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-europe-migrants-rescue-idUKKCN0ZL2BG

Reuters

World | Tue Jul 5, 2016 7:29pm BST Related: WORLD

Italy rescues 4,500 migrants in Mediterranean in one day, coast guard says

Some 4,500 migrants were rescued from rubber dinghies and a wooden boat in the Mediterranean on Tuesday, Italy's coast guard said, as the sea calmed after a rough weekend.

More than 67,000 migrants have arrived in Italy by sea so far this year, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said before the coast guard reported the latest rescues.

Arrivals are down from the same period of 2015, but the number of deaths on the perilous route has jumped. Ten women were found dead in the bottom of a rubber boat last week.

The coast guard said it had coordinated more than 30 rescue operations, which were carried out by its own ship Diciotti, Italian navy ships, and vessels working for EU border agency Frontex and humanitarian organisations.

Giving its latest estimate on Tuesday for the number of people who have crossed the Mediterranean this year, the IOM said most of the boats set off from Libya, followed by Egypt.

(Reporting by Isla Binnie, editing by Larry King)

The Sun

'JUST F*** OFF AND DIE' What Chris Evans told friends before he quit Top Gear – as he dedicates today’s Radio 2 show to former colleagues

The 50-year-old quit the motoring show amid plummeting ratings and a sexual assault probe
BY COREY CHARLTON, DAN WOOTTON, RYAN KISIEL AND PAUL REVOIR 5th July 2016, 8:16 am

FED up Chris Evans quit Top Gear after growing sick of taking criticism for the revamped show’s failings, it has been claimed.

A friend of the 50-year-old explained that towards the end of the season’s run they believed his detractors needed to “f*** off and die”.

On this day in 1687 Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica by Isaac Newton was first published

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Latin for Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy), often referred to as simply the Principia, is a work in three books by Isaac Newton, in Latin, first published 5 July 1687.  The Principia states Newton's laws of motion, forming the foundation of classical mechanics, also Newton's law of universal gravitation, and a derivation of Kepler's laws of planetary motion (which Kepler first obtained empirically). The Principia is "justly regarded as one of the most important works in the history of science".