1866 — Feb 2, steamer W.R. Carter boilers explode, MS Riv., Isl. No. 98 ~Vicksburg, MS–125

— 215 NYT. “The Disaster to…Steamer W.R. Carter; Account from a Passenger…” 2-27-1866.
— 150 Scientific American. “Record of Boiler Explosions,” Vol. 14, N9, Feb 24, 1866, p. 128.
— 125 Berman, Bruce D. Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks. 1972, p. 196.
— 125 Daily Milwaukee News, WI. “Later from the Carter,” Feb 6, 1866, p. 1.
— 125 Lytle and Holdcamper. Merchant Steam Vessels of the [U.S.] 1807-1868. 1952, p. 271.
— 125 Nash, Jay Robert. Darkest Hours. 1977, p. 689.
— 125 Twaintimes, “W. R. Carter,” Feb 9, 1866, p. 4.
— 125 Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994…Steamboats…MS Riv. System… 1994, p. 477.
— 123 Bragg. Historic Names…Places on…Lower Miss. River. “Willow Cutoff,” 1977, p. 150.

Narrative Information

Bragg: “Willow Cutoff. Mile 464.3 AHP…When Albemarle Bend was still a part of the navigation channel of the river, Island No. 98 lay close to the Mississippi shore in the bend. On February 3, 1866, the steamboat W. R. Carter was hustling past the island, southbound for New Orleans. As she slid past Island No. 98, here was a tremendous explosion as the boat’s boilers burst. As usual, a raging fire followed the explosion.

“The W. R. Carter, built in 1864, had accommodations on board for more than 100 passengers. Her large staterooms were luxuriously furnished, and opened into a main cabin that was 225 feet long. There was a nursery on the boat, where small children were cared for while their parents enjoyed the splendid meals that were served in the large dining room. The boat had just been overhauled when she exploded on February 3, 1866, and was believed to be in perfect condition. She was carrying a full load of passengers and freight.

“The survivors of the accident—and they were pitifully few—were picked up by a passing steamer and rushed to Vicksburg for medical attention. Twenty-four hours after the accident, only three bodies had been recovered and debris and wreckage was still floating past Vicksburg’s waterfront. It was estimated that 123 persons had died. For weeks afterward, Vicksburg newspapers were filled with heart-rending notices and advertisements from relatives of the missing victims, begging for information and assistance in locating bodies.

“The W. R. Carter had been one of the fast packets of the Atlantic & Mississippi Steamship Company. The company and its hopeful stockholders had spent about $3.5 million on 24 boats in 1866. By 1869, the investors were counting their losses. Fierce competition from independent owners and the loss of 11 of the company’s boats by explosions and other accidents wrecked the enterprise and cost the stockholders about $2 million.” (Bragg. Historic Names…Places on… Lower Miss. River. “Willow Cutoff,” 1977, p. 150.)

Feb 6 report, Daily Milwaukee News: “Vicksburg, Feb 3.—Two hundred passengers were aboard the Carter. One hundred and twenty-five lives were lost at the lowest estimate. Eight bodies were taken from the river yesterday and today….” (Daily Milwaukee News. WI. “Later from the Carter,” Feb 6, 1866, p. 1.)

“Cincinnati, Feb. 5—The steamer Carter exploded her boilers thirty-five miles above Vicksburg at four o’clock Friday [Feb 2] morning. The boilers passed forward of the pilot house, tearing away the forward part of the cabin. After the explosion the boat took fire and continued to burn till 7 o’clock, compelling all who had escaped death by the explosion to jump into the river.

“Capt. Hurd had just gone off watch when the explosion occurred, and was not afterwards seen. The steamer Evening Star picked up all the survivors floating in the water, and carried them to Vicksburg. It is not known how many lives were lost.” (Daily Milwaukee News, WI. “Another Fearful Boiler Explosion,” Feb 6, 1866, p. 1.)

Feb 13, NYT: “Summers Forest, Feb. 13, 1866. On the night of the 2d inst., …I concluded to make one more effort to sleep. This was about 3 o’clock at night… two boilers burst….the first thing that awakened me was a desperate effort to get air. I felt and heard the tremendous explosion, and at once the doors of my room were thrown open, the air-windows and the planks in the floor, and the hot steam poured in and was about to suffocate me when I rushed for the cabin, but I felt the steam growing hotter and thicker. I then made for the guards, and got out of breath in the narrow way between my room and the wheel-house, but made a desperate lunge and found myself getting air, but I could see nothing, so dense was the steam. I could hear screams. Two men rushed against me and cried out, ‘Jump, jump.’ They came near throwing me overboard, but I caught a rope and with one foot held on to the boat. The two men leaped forward, and as they did so, a gust of wind blew the steam and smoke aside, and I saw that they had jumped into the crater where many others were vainly struggling, but being rapidly burned to death. They had jumped right on the red-hot boilers, and not off the boat into the water.

“I could not keep my footing on the boat, being on the edge of the planks near the wheel-house, could not recover my position as the rope I seized was not very tight, so I had to go down, and by a desperate leap I swung to the left of the fire – the awful crater – and fell into the debris of the boat…. The flames forced me to take to the water. I jumped on a few planks, and then seized a cotton bale, but found it very unwieldy and wholly at the mercy of the strong current. I then saw a sunken boat with four scalded men in it; I made for it and threw some bran-bags out, baled-out the water and got a plank, and after an hour’s work reached the shore. Our boat sunk, but we got hold of roots, and persons came along and helped us up on the bank.

“It was like the explosion of a mine, or a stroke of lightning – so sudden, so instantaneous, so destructive. There were certainly two hundred and fifty souls on board – thirty-five were saved – but of these more than half were terribly scalded or burned.” (NYT. “The Disaster to…Steamer W.R. Carter; Account from a Passenger….” 27 Feb 1866.)

Way: “W. R. Carter. SW p wh b [Sidewheel, wood hull, built] Louisville, Ky., 1864. 563 tons. Built for Capt. Linas Logan, and named for a citizen and merchant of St. Louis, formerly of Louisville. Exploded boilers at Island 98, about 35 miles above Vicksburg, Feb 9, 1866. The life loss was set at 125 persons. She had ‘tubular’ boilers…These tubulars had won wide acceptance due to fuel economy, but a series of disaster resulted. The Missouri’s tubulars had exploded several days prior to the Carter tragedy; the Sultana tragedy was another such case. The U.S. Inspectors outlawed tubular boilers soon after the Carter exploded, and many packets were promptly taken out of service until reboilered with proven Western style boilers….The Evening Star brought some survivors to Vicksburg, and Luna took others to Memphis. The Emerald also picked up a few.” (Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994…Steamboats…MS Riv. System. 1994, p. 477.)

Sources

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

Bragg, Marion. Historic Names and Places on the Lower Mississippi River. Vicksburg, MS: Mississippi River Commission, 1977. Accessed 9-15-2020 at: ftp://ftp.library.noaa.gov/noaa_documents.lib/NOAA_related_docs/US_Army/Mississippi_River_names_1977.pdf

Daily Milwaukee News, WI. “Another Fearful Boiler Explosion” [W. R. Carter], 2-6-1866, p. 1. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=119996860

Daily Milwaukee News, WI. “Later from the Carter,” Feb 6, 1866, p. 1. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=119996860

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

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.

New York Times. “The Disaster to the Steamer W. R. Carter – Account from a Passenger on the Vessel.” February 27, 1866. Accessed at: http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9A07E2DE1631EF34BC4F51DFB466838D679FDE

Scientific American. “Record of Boiler Explosions,” V14, N9, 2-24-1866, 128. Google digitized: http://books.google.com/books?id=FzdJAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

Twaintimes. 1857-1867. Accessed at: http://twaintimes.net/page4.html

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.