1850 – Apr 28, Sternwheel Steamer Cora snags, sinks MO Riv. below Council Bluffs, IA-15

–15 Catholic Telegraph and Advocate, Cincinnati, OH. 5-11-1850, p. 8, col. 3.
–15 Lytle and Holdcamper. Merchant Steam Vessels of the [U.S.] 1807-1868. 1952, p. 229.
–15 Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994: Passenger Steamboats… 1999, p. 110.

Narrative Information

Lytle and Holdcamper: “Cora…144 [tons]…snagged…4 28 1850…Council Bluffs, Iowa…15 [lives lost].” (Lytle and Holdcamper. Merchant Steam Vessels of the [U.S.] 1807-1868. 1952, p. 229.)

Way: Cora; sternwheel wood-hull packet built at Rock Island IL, in 1846, of 144 tons; 140 x 24 x 5. “She was single engine, stiff shaft…Engines made in St. Louis. Two boilers. Capt. Throckmorton ran her on the Upper Mississippi; she was the first arrival at Fort Snelling, 1847. Ran Galena-St. Peters, 1848, and also made tips to St. Croix Falls. Capt. Frank Dozier and others bought her fall 1848 for Missouri River. Snagged and sunk below Council Bluffs, Iowa with loss of 15 lives, May 5, 1851.” [Incorrect dating of loss.]

Newspaper

May 11: “St. Louis, May 4th. – A report was current at St. Josephs on the 30th April, and it was believed true, that the steamer Cora, on her way to Council Bluffs, with many Californians on board, was suck, and that fifteen persons were drowned.” (Catholic Telegraph and Advocate, Cincinnati, OH. 5-11-1850, p. 8, col. 3.)

Source

Catholic Telegraph and Advocate, Cincinnati, OH. 5-11-1850, p. 8, col. 3. Accessed 8-22-2020 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/cincinnati-catholic-telegraph-may-11-1850-p-8/

Lytle, William M., compiler, from Official Merchant Marine Documents of the United States and Other Sources; Holdcamper, Forrest H. (Editor, and Introduction by). Merchant Steam Vessels of the United States 1807-1868. “The Lytle List.” Mystic, CT: Steamship Historical Society of America (Publication No. 6), 1952. Accessed 8-16-2020 at: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015018039084&view=1up&seq=9&size=125&q1=ceres

Way, Frederick Jr. (Author and Compiler), Joseph W. Rutter (contributor). Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994: Passenger Steamboats of the Mississippi River System Since the Advent of Photography in Mid-Continent America (Revised). Athens OH: Ohio University Press, 1999.