1857 — Oct 15, Steamer Tropic snagged, Missouri River, near Waverly, MO –10-15

–10-15 Blanchard estimated death toll.*

–15-20 Warrick Democrat, Newburgh, IA. “The steamer Tropic.” 10-27-1857, p. 2.
–12-15 Bangor Daily Whig and Courier, ME. “The Steamer Tropic.” 10-21-1857, p. 3.
— >15 Daily Quincy Whig, IL. “Loss of the Tropic.” 10-24-1857, p. 2, col. 2.
–12-15 New Albany Daily Ledger. “By Telegraph.” 10-21-1857, p. 3, col. 3.
–12-15 Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994: Passenger Steamboats…MS River Sys. 1994, 459.
–10-12 American Almanac and Repository… “General Events for 1857.” 1859, p. 364.
–10-12 Missouri Republican, St. Louis. “Particulars of…Sinking of the Tropic.” 10-26-1857, p. 1.
— 8-10 Daily Hawk-Eye, Burlington IA. “By Telegraph.” 10-20-1857, p. 1.
— >10 Blanchard listing of fatalities noted in sources herein.
— 8 Lytle and Holdcamper. Merchant Steam Vessels of the [U.S.] 1807-1868. 1952, p. 245.

* Blanchard estimated death toll. We employ a death-toll range due to the variation in death-toll estimates in sources cited. Our own attempt to compile a list of fatalities from sources results in a death toll of at least 10 (provided that such reporting was accurate.) If the death toll for deckhands was larger than the three we include in our listing (a number we take as a minimum based on reports that “a number” of unnamed deck hands were known to have drowned), then it would be plausible that twelve to fifteen deaths occurred, as Way reports.

Narrative Information

American Almanac: “1857….Oct. 15. – The steamer Tropic is snagged in the Missouri River, near Waverley, and sinks in deep water. Of her 130 passengers, ten or twelve are drowned.” (American Almanac and Repository…for the Year 1859. “General Events for 1857.” 1859, p. 364.)

Lytle and Holdcamper: “Tropic. 242 [tons], snagged, 10-15-1857, Waverly, MO, 8 [lives lost.”

Way: “Tropic. SW p wh b. Brownsville, Pa., 1853. 242 tons. 225 x 23. Snagged and lost on the Missouri River one-half mile below and opposite Waverly, Mo., Oct. 14, 1857. Life loss was estimated at twelve to fifteen.” (Way, Frederick Jr. (Compiler). Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994: Passenger Steamboats of the Mississippi River System… (Revised). 1994, p. 459.)

Newspapers:

Oct 19: “St. Louis, Oct. 19 [Monday]. The steamer Tropic sunk at Waverly, Mo. River, on Thursday [Oct 15] – 8 or 10 lives reported to be lost. No particulars.” (Daily Hawk-Eye, Burlington IA. “By Telegraph.” 10-20-1857, p. 1.)

Oct 20: “St. Louis, Oct. 20. We have received the following particulars of the sinking of the steamer Tropic, which occurred on the Missouri river, near Waverly, on Thursday last [Oct 15]. The steamer ran against a snag, crushing her wheel and tearing away a portion of her hull, when she immediately sank in 30 feet of water. She had on board 150 passengers, 12 or 15 of whom are supposed to be drowned.” (Bangor Daily Whig and Courier, ME. “The Steamer Tropic.” 10-21-1857, p. 3.)

Oct 20: “St. Louis, Oct. 20. A few particulars of the sinking of the Tropic have been received. William Hester and Joel Cross, of Company B, second artillery; son of Mr. Stephens, of Kentucky, and a negro belonging to the same gentleman, are known to have been drowned. A number of deck hands, names unknown, were also lost. The steamer was blown against a snag, crushing her wheel and tearing away a portion of her hull, sinking her in thirty feet water. One hundred and fifty passengers were on board, twelve or fifteen of whom are supposed to be drowned.” (New Albany Daily Ledger. “By Telegraph.” 10-21-1857, p. 3, col. 3.)

Oct 24: “The Evening News of yesterday furnishes the following additional particulars of the sinking of the steamer Tropic:

“The boat was descending the river, and had a large number of passengers aboard; some suppose about one hundred and fifty. The boat was sweeping down a bend of the river, close into the shore, where the current was rapid and the channel deep. The river bank was perhaps twenty feet high, and as the current was cutting into it, it was of course very steep, and afforded no means of climbing it. There was a high gale of wind prevailing, broken at intervals with irregular and story [?] gusts. The boat was caught by one of these blasts and dashed broadside against the shore with such force as to drive, it is supposed, the paddles of the wheel thro’ the side of the hull. The force of the wind drove the boat on the bank and careened it so badly that the passengers in the cabin could not keep their footing. There was a panic of course, men, women and children rushing out, and many of them, most unfortunately, running below instead of striving to gain the hurricane deck.

“As soon as the wind relaxed at all, the boat slid back into the water; and as fully thirty feet of the side of the hull was broken in, she sunk instantly to her upper deck. – This was of course a complete deadfall to those who had rushed to the lower deck. – They were all submerged and left to struggle in the water. It is surprising that so many saved themselves as did; but our informant thinks that not less than fifteen lives were lost. Among these, however, he could only name positively a son of a Mr. Stephens, of Kentucky, who was aboard, and another child, not known, two sergeants of U.S. Army, names Wood and_____, belonging to two disbanded companies of artillery, and two negroes. A number of deck hands, names unknow, were drowned.

“Our informant, Mr. Larkin, who is just returning from Santa Fe, crossed the plains with the two drowned sergeants. Mr. L. saved himself by clambering from the upper guard to the hurricane roof. He witnessed from his position, the heroic, but in some cases, hopeless struggles of those in the water. One mother actually swam out, or made her way out of the deep, strong current, with her child. The cook of the boat distinguished himself by saving a mother and two daughters who were clinging for life to the ropes of the derrick. When he was about to remove one of the little girls, she said, ‘no, save mother and sister first, I can hold on.’

“The citizens of Waverly received the wrecked passengers with great humanity, and fed and clothed them liberally. Many had lost everything by the catastrophe, except the wet clothes they wore. The boat is a total loss.

“P.S. Since the above was written, we have been kindly furnished with notes by another passenger, giving a slightly different version of the accident, which he says was caused by a snag, and that the boat went down in twenty feet water, and about 75 feet from shore. He adds:

The boat sunk so quickly, that all who were on the boiler deck were carried off into the river, among the wood and other loose articles that floated. The number was large, from the fact that the first impulse was to run down stairs and jump for the shore. The river was literally covered with me, women and children, mingling with wood, mattresses, barrels, &c.

The officers did all that was in their power to save the drowning, and secured the boat with a line to the shore – her hurricane deck remaining above water.

“….A gentleman with his family, going from Missouri to Kentucky, lost his colored boy, about eighteen years old, who went down carrying in his arms his young master, about ten years old. The name was Stevens….” (Daily Quincy Whig, IL. “Loss of the Tropic.” 10-24-1857, p. 2, col. 2.)

Oct 27: “The steamer Tropic, which sunk in the Missouri river on the 16th inst. [sic], was one of the most melancholy disasters that has occurred on the Western waters for a long time. — The Tropic had a large number of passengers onboard, including twenty-one soldiers and two officers of the second artillery, companies B. and D., just from New Mexico, and bound to New York. The whole under the command of Capt. Carlisle. Sergeants Thomas Hester and Joel Cross were drowned. These poor fellows belonged to New-York, and after a long absence in the service of their country, they were returning home to their friends, full of hope, and anxious to rejoin those from whom they had been so long separated. Capt. Carlisle and Lieut. De Laguel, displayed the utmost coolness and gallantry, and were each successful in saving the life of a lady from a watery grave. There were numberless other acts of daring intrepidity exhibited by soldiers and Capt. Marshall and his officers, all of whom are deserving of great praise. The soldiers lost all their baggage, as did many of the passengers. No reliable information has been yet obtained as to the number of persons drowned, although it is supposed that it amounts to some fifteen or twenty.” (Warrick Democrat, Newburgh, IA. “The steamer Tropic.” 10-27-1857, p. 2.)

Listing of Fatalities Noted in Sources Cited Herein

1. Cross, Joel Sergeant, Company B, U.S. Army
2. Hester, William Sergeant, Company B, U.S. Army
3. Stephens, son of Passenger from Kentucky
4. Stephens Slave of Mr. Stephens
5. Unnamed child Different child than the son of Mr. Stephens.
6. Unnamed black #1
7. Unnamed black #2
8. Unnamed deckhand #1 of at least three. (“A number of deck hands…unknown…drowned.”)
9. Unnamed deckhand #2 of at least three. (“A number of deck hands…unknown…drowned.”)
10. Unnamed deckhand #3 of at least three. (“A number of deck hands…unknown…drowned.”)

Sources

American Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowledge for the Year 1859. Boston: Crosby, Nichols, and Co., London, 1859. Google digitized at: http://books.google.com/books?id=BlITAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Athens Messenger, OH. “Particulars of the Sinking of the Tropic – Loss of Life – Incidents, &c.” 10-30-1857, p. 1, col. 6. Accessed 11-2-2020 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/athens-messenger-oct-30-1857-p-1/

Bangor Daily Whig and Courier, ME. “The Steamer Tropic.” 10-21-1857, p. 3. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=6301322&sterm=steamer+tropic

Daily Hawk-Eye, Burlington IA. “By Telegraph.” 10-20-1857, p. 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=136869372&sterm=steamer+tropic

Daily Quincy Whig, IL. “Loss of the Tropic.” 10-24-1857, p. 2, col. 2. Accessed 11-2-2020 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/quincy-daily-quincy-whig-oct-24-1857-p-2/

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=8&size=125

New Albany Daily Ledger. “By Telegraph.” 10-21-1857, p. 3, col. 3. Accessed 11-2-2020 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/new-albany-daily-ledger-oct-21-1857-p-3/

Warrick Democrat, Newburgh, IA. “The steamer Tropic.” 10-27-1857, p. 2. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=189972751&sterm=steamer+tropic

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.