1866 — Dec 27, Steamer Fashion Fire, Miss. Riv., 7-12 miles above Baton Rouge, LA — 43

–50-60 Janesville Gazette, WI. “Telegraphic Summary,” Dec 31, 1866, p. 1.
— 43 Berman, Bruce D. Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks. 1972, p. 168.
— 43 Lytle and Holdcamper. Merchant Steam Vessels of the [U.S.] 1807-1868. 1952, p. 273.
— 43 Nash, Jay Robert. Darkest Hours. 1977, p. 685.
— 43 USSIS. “Annual Report…Board…Supervising Inspectors…Steamboats,” Oct 1867, 322
— 43 Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994…Steamboats…MS River System. 1994, p. 164.
— 20 Bangor Daily Whig and Courier, ME. “Telegraphic,” Dec 29, 1866, p. 1.

Narrative Information

Lytle and Holdcamper: “Fashion…1,194 [tons]…burnt…12 27 1866…Baton Rouge, La. … 43 [lives lost].”

U.S. Steamboat Inspection Service: “The steamer Fashion took fire about fifty miles above Baton Rouge, while on her way from Vicksburg to New Orleans, about 3 ½ a.m., December 27, 1866, from sparks getting into the cotton, and proved to be a total loss. She had about 175 passengers and 2,700 bales of cotton on board at the time. The pilot, chief engineer, and some six of her crew, and about thirty-five passengers, were lost (mostly deck)….” (U.S. SIS. “Annual Report of the Board of Supervising Inspectors of Steamboats,” Oct 23, 1867, p. 322.)

Way: Fashion – sidewheel packet built in Cincinnati, OH., in 1865. “Downbound with 250 passengers and 2,700 bales of cotton she caught fire seven miles above Baton Rouge and burned, Dec. 27, 1866. Thomas Montague, pilot on watch, got the boat landed and was not seen afterward. Oliver Fairchild, engineer, stood at the throttle ‘til the last bell, then perished. When the cotton burned off the head of the boat she drifted down to the head of the reach above Baton Rouge and lodged. The Magenta, downbound with cotton, came by and rendered aid, and was afire three times doing so. The body of pilot Thomas H. Montague was found months later, and was brought to New Orleans for burial aboard the Magenta. The Louisiana legislature voted $300 annually to his widow as a token of respect. Other than pilot and engineer, six of the crew and 35 passengers lost their lives.” (Way 1994, p. 164.)

Newspapers

Dec 27: “Vicksburg, Dec. 27. The steamer Fashion, a splendid vessel, employed in the trade between this city and New Orleans, was burned this evening 12 miles above Baton Rouge. Twenty lives were lost, but the names of the sufferers have not yet been ascertained. The captain and other officers of the boat were saved. The cargo, consisting of 2600 bales of cotton, was a total loss.” (Bangor Daily Whig and Courier, ME. “Telegraphic,” Dec 29, 1866, p. 1.)

Dec 31: “It is now reported that fifty or sixty lives were lost by the burning of the steamer Fashion, on Thursday, below Vicksburg.” (Janesville Gazette, WI. “Telegraphic Summary,” 12-31-1866, p. 1.)

Sources

Bangor Daily Whig and Courier, ME. “Telegraphic” [Burning of the Fashion], Dec 29, 1866, p. 1. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=4004473

Berman, Bruce D. Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks. Boston: Mariners Press Inc., 1972.

Janesville Gazette, WI. “Telegraphic Summary” [Steamer Fashion Fire], Dec 31, 1866, p. 1. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=53352015

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

Nash, Jay Robert. Darkest Hours – A Narrative Encyclopedia of Worldwide Disasters from Ancient Times to the Present. New York: Pocket Books, Wallaby, 1977, 792 pages.

United States Steamboat-Inspection Service. “Annual Report of the Board of Supervising Inspectors of Steamboats,” Oct 23, 1867. Pp. 293-324 in: Report of the Secretary of the Treasury on the State of the Finances for the Year 1867. Wash.: GPO, 1868. Google digitized: http://books.google.com/books?id=850FAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false

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.