1835 — May 15, Steamboat Majestic boiler collapse/explosion, Memphis, TN –38-40
–38-40 Blanchard tally based on sources below.[1]
— 60 (“reported killed or severely scalded…” Hunter. Steamboats on the Western Rivers. 435.
— 60 (“scalded, most of them fatally…” Kotar/Gessler. Cholera: A Worldwide History, 137.
— <56 Killed/seriously injured. Young. Standard History of Memphis, Tennessee. 1912, 375.[2]
— 40 Adams Sentinel, Gettysburg. “Horrible Steam-Boat Explosion!” 6-1-1835, p. 6.
–38-40 Coggins, A.R. Tennessee Tragedies: Natural, Technological, and Societal. 2011, p. 258.
— 38 Keating, John M. History of the City of Memphis Tennessee. 1888, p. 200.
— 10 Drownings
— 8 Scalding (initially)
— 20 Scalding (afterwards)
–26-38 Indiana Journal, Indianapolis, IN. “Awful Steam Boat Accident.” 5-29-1835, p. 2.
Narrative Information
Coggins: “May 25, 1835. Riverboat accident – As the riverboat Majestic was pulling out of the port of Memphis, a large number of passengers moved to the starboard side to view an object of interest on the riverbank, causing the boat to list considerably. As the passengers dispersed, the boat righted itself, and the larboard boiler (i.e., the one on the left side of the vessel) collapsed and exploded. The explosion resulted in a fire that killed thirty-eight to forty people and injured about fifty-six.” (p. 258)
Hunter: “On the explosion of the Majestic in 1835 sixty were reported killed or severely scalded, ‘all German emigrants’.”
Keating: “The third casualty,[3] and one of the saddest, was occasioned by the explosion of the boilers of the steamboat Majestic, on the 15th of May, 1835. There was a large number of Swiss emigrants on board, many of whom were destined never to reach their destination. The boat was just leaving the Memphis landing for St. Louis when the accident occurred, by which ten persons drowned, who had jumped into the river to escape the steam, which killed eight and scalded forty others, twenty of whom afterwards died.”
Kotar: “Cholera appeared in Memphis, Tennessee (population 2,000), in early May 1835, forcing the Gazette to publish only a half sheet on the 14th, as three of their journeymen were sick….Four days later [18th?], however, attention turned to the explosion of the Majestic. Bound for St. Louis from New Orleans, the steamboat put in at Memphis. But owing to the fact so many passengers flocked to one side of the steamboat, it dangerously listed, producing a transfer of water from the starboard to the larboard boiler. Sixty persons were scalded, most of them fatally, although in this case deck passengers were believed to have entirely escaped. As an afterthought, one report indicated ‘thirty-four deaths by Cholera had already occurred in that ill-fated city…and four transpired on the day of the accident’.”
Newspapers
May 28 report, Republican and Banner: “From the Louisville Journal. The steamboat Majestic was blown up, three or four days ago, near Memphis.[4] The effects were terrible. As many as sixty persons were either drowned or badly scalded. The wounded, at our last accounts, were hourly dying. The Majestic was passing between New Orleans and St. Louis.
“Since the above was in type, we have received farther information, which states the number killed, drowned, and died since the explosion from scalds, at about thirty.” (Republican and Banner, Madison, IN. “From the Louisville Journal.” 5-28-1835, p. 3.)
May 29 report, Indiana Journal: “The steam boat Majestic collapsed the flue of her boiler on the 15th instant, at Memphis. Forty persons were scalded, eight of whom have since died, and from ten to fifteen not expected to live. From eight to fifteen drowned. The mate was badly scalded, and the engineer slightly wounded. No cabin passengers were injured. This information is obtained from passengers off a boat bound upwards; gentlemen whose personal appearance is a passport to their assertions.” (Indiana Journal, Indianapolis, IN. “Awful Steam Boat Accident.” 5-29-1835, p. 2.)
June 1 report, Adams Sentinel: “Forty persons killed and missing! On the 18th ult. [previous month], the steam-boat Majestic, while stopping at Memphis, Tenn. On her way from New-Orleans to St. Louis, burst her boiler, by which disaster forty persons were either killed or missing. We have no particulars. Another account says ‘sixty persons were scalded, a large portion of them mortally, and nearly all of them dangerously’.” (Adams Sentinel, Gettysburg. “Horrible Steam-Boat Explosion!” 6-1-1835, p. 6.)
Sources
Adams Sentinel and General Advertiser, Gettysburg, PA. “Horrible Steam-Boat Explosion!” 6-1-1835, p6. Accessed 2-18-2015 at: http://newspaperarchive.com/ThumbImage.ashx?i=199375260
Coggins, Allen R. Tennessee Tragedies: Natural, Technological, and Societal in the Volunteer State. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2011. Google preview accessed 2-18-2015 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=SfK6aBuqohQC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Hunter, Louis C., with the Assistance of Beatrice Jones Hunter. Steamboats on the Western Rivers: An Economic and Technological History. NY: Dover Publications, Inc., 1993. Originally published in 1949 by Harvard University Press.
Indiana Journal, Indianapolis, IN. “Awful Steam Boat Accident.” 5-29-1835, p. 2. Accessed 2-18-2015 at: http://newspaperarchive.com/ThumbImage.ashx?i=198022660
Keating, John M. History of the City of Memphis Tennessee with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of its Prominent Men and Pioneers. Syracuse, NY: D. Mason & Co., 1888. Accessed 2-18-2015 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=nGVAAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=true
Kotar, S. L., and J. E. Gessler. Cholera: A Worldwide History. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., Inc. 2014. Google preview accessed 2-18-2015 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=I3bzAgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Republican and Banner, Madison, IN. “From the Louisville Journal.” 5-28-1835, p. 3. Accessed 2-18-2015 at: http://newspaperarchive.com/ThumbImage.ashx?i=196864645
Young, Judge John Preston. Standard History of Memphis, Tennessee From a Study of the Original Sources. Knoxville, Tennessee: H. W. Crew & Co., 1912. Google rpreview accessed 7-15-2019 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=5PkpAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
[1] There is a fair amount of discrepancy in the accounts herein – not the least of which has to do with the date of occurrence as well as how many people died from what cause. Keating, writing a history of Memphis, surely had archival material at his disposal and he notes May 15 as the date of the incident. As one can see in reading the accounts herein, other dates put forward are May 18 and May 25. Unable to solve the mystery, we choose May 15. One source has 38 dead, one 38-40, one 40. The other sources are less clear on fatalities. We choose 38-40 range.
[2] “…on May 15, 1835, the Majestic blew up at the Memphis landing, in which accident fifty-six passengers were killed or seriously injured.”
[3] Keating had just noted the Helen McGregor boiler explosion and the burning of the Brandywine.
[4] We do not know, though, the date of the Louisville Journal note on the Majestic.