1882 — Sep 30, steamboat Rob’t. E. Lee burns, Miss. River, Yucatan Landing, LA — 22-30

— 22-30 Blanchard estimated death-toll range.*
— 30 Bragg. Historic Names… Places…Lower Miss. River. “Yucatan Cutoff,” 1977, p. 172.
— ~30 Way. Entry 4778. Rob’t. E. Lee. P. 398. in Way’s Packet Directory.
— ~25 Ohio Democrat, New Philadelphia. “Another Steamboat Disaster,” Oct 5, 1882, p. 2.
— 22 Janesville Daily Gazette, WI. “The Lee Burning…Fastest River Boat…,” 10-2-1882, 1.
— 22 Supervising Inspector-Gen. Steam-Vessels. An. Rpt.…Year Ended June 30, 1883, p.16.
–14 crew
— 8 passengers

* Blanchard estimated death-toll range. We are not comfortable discounting either the Supervising Inspector-General of Steam Vessels 1883 report of 22 fatalities nor Way’s estimate of about thirty. Thus we resort to the use of a range of fatalities, incorporating both as the low and high ends of an estimated death toll range.

Narrative Information

Bragg: “Yucatan Cutoff. Mile 407.3 AHP….A boat with a famous name had met with a misfortune in Yucatan Bend in 1882. The steamer Robt. E. Lee, successor to the famous racing steamer of the same name, was rounding the point at Yucatan on October 30, 1882, when a fire broke out. Thirty of her passengers died in the holocaust that followed, and the 315-foot steamboat was a total loss. She had been built in 1876 and had carried some fantastic cargoes of cotton in her career, but by the time she went down at Yucatan the steamboat trade was virtually at an end.” (Bragg. Historic Names and Places on the Lower Miss. River. “Yucatan Cutoff,” 1977, 172.)

Supervising Inspector-General of Steam-Vessels (U.S.): “Tenth District….September 21 [sic]. – The steamer Robert E. Lee was destroyed by fire, thirty miles below Vicksburg, whereby eight passengers and fourteen of her crew were lost.” (Annual Report of the Supervising Inspector-General of Steam-Vessels (U.S.)…for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1883, p. 16.)

Way: Sidewheel packet, wood hull. “Rob’t. E. Lee…b. [built] Jeffersonville, Ind, by Howard, 1876: 314 x 48.5 x 10.5. Engines, 40’s- 10 ft. Nine boilers, each 42” by 32 ft. Paddlewheels 40 ft. dia. working 17 ft. buckets. Much equipment of the former Rob’t E. Lee went into her construction….designed for the New Orleans-Vicksburg trade….She was downbound from Vicksburg at 3:30 A.M. Sept. 30, 1882, at Yucatan Plantation, when fire was discovered. Witnesses said she ‘went up like gunpowder,’ with loss of some 30 lives….” (Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994, pp. 397-398.)

Newspapers

Sep 30: “Vicksburg, Miss., September 30.—The palatial steamer Robert E. Lee was burned to the water’s edge at an early hour this morning, at a point about forty miles below the city, while on her first trip for the season from New Orleans. The news of the disaster has caused the wildest excitement here, as many residents of this city and a large number of prominent passengers were known to be on board. The boat was one of the finest and fastest of the floating palaces on the lower Mississippi and was valued at $160,000. No complete list of the lost can yet be made, but it is known that many of the passengers and crew were fatally burned, while scores of others lost their lives in the water after jumping from the burning vessel….The books of the boat and the United States mail were lost, together with her cargo of 500 bales of cotton.” (Boston Daily Globe. “The Robert E. Lee Burned,” Oct 1, 1882, p. 1.)

Oct 1: “Vicksburg, Oct. 1.—The steamer R. E. Lee, one of the most noted boats on the Mississippi river, was burned to the water’s edge yesterday morning about thirty-five miles below Vicksburg. Twenty-one persons were lost. The boat had been freshly painted, and the flames spread rapidly. One of the passengers said: ‘She burned like gunpowder.’ The Mississippi boats at best are frail and inflammable structures, but this one was particularly fitted to burn quickly and carry as many as possible of the passengers to their graves. She was not only freshly painted, but loaded with 500 bales of cotton, which added fuel to the flames. She was the crack boat of the Mississippi river, here celebrated race with the Natchez being still the favorite topic of river gossip, and an invaluable reminder of the days when river traffic in the south was more important than the railroad competition.

“She left Vicksburg Friday evening for New Orleans with 500 bales of cotton and a good list of passengers. While opposite Point Pleasant, at 3:30 a.m., she was discovered on fire, and was immediately headed for the Louisiana shore and landed at Yucatan plantation, thirty-five miles below Vicksburg. In a few minutes she was completely enveloped in flames.

“Twenty-one persons are believed lost, including many of the crew. The steamboat J. M. White passed the wreck about 5 a.m., and took the remaining passengers and crew to Vicksburg….The fire, it is supposed, originated in the pantry room. So rapidly did the flames spread that it was impossible for passengers or officers to save anything except what they had on at the time. Capt. W. S. Cannon states that the steamer was owned by the estate of his father, John W. Cannon, and her commander, Capt. William Campbell. The crew was composed almost entirely of men who had been on the river twenty or thirty years. The boat, besides supply pumps, had a new fire-pump with a fourteen-inch cylinder and 700 feet of hose. There were always three watchmen on deck.

“The Lee left this city last Tuesday on the first trip for five months….

“Mr. Ovid Bell, second clerk of the Lee, who was up at the time the accident occurred, stated: ‘I never saw anything burn so quick. I was aft at the time, and when I heard the alarm, knowing my partner and other officers were in the texas and in great danger, I rushed up to awaken them. The fire followed me so fast that by the time I had them all up my partner had his hair singed in getting down stairs from the hurricane roof, and I was forced to climb over the rail….

“Mr. Bell and a passenger who was interviewed think the fire originated in the pastry-room of the cookhouse, ‘though I don’t see,’ said the former, ‘what the fire was doing in there so early, as the cooks are not called before 4 o’clock.’….

“Mrs. Dan Scarls, with heroic presence of mind and motherly devotion, grasped her sleeping infant, and arranging a life-preserver in her state room about her person, jumped boldly into the water. By disarrangement of her life preserver she was thrown upon her back and lost her grasp upon her child….

“The saved owe their lives to the admirable courage of Pilot John Stout. He stood at the wheel and gave hope to all by his firmness, and as the steamer rounded at Yucatan Landing the flames were fast enveloping the brave man in the pilot-house, who, despite the fire around him, with almost the last hope of escape gone, remained at his post until he gave word to the engineer that the boat had made the shore. Not until this was done did he for one minute take his hand from the wheel. He made his escape by the hurricane roof down the hog-chain to the lower deck, and from there ashore….

“Much credit is given William S. Perkins, who was in charge of the engines at the time of the disaster. He stood nobly at his post until the boat landed and Pilot Stout told him he could go….

“She was 315 feet long and forty-eight feet beam, had nine steel boilers each thirty-two feet long and forty-two inches in diameter, forty-inch cylinders, and ten-foot stroke. She had storage room for 9,000 bales of cotton. She left this city last Tuesday on her initial trip of the season, after laying up seven months, during which time she was thoroughly repaired and overhauled at an outlay of many thousand dollars….While the hull that has just burned was not the one that made the fast and famous trip to St. Louis, the machinery is, and the same master mind conceived the more recent model, transferred the great name, and the pubic were wont to look upon the boat as one and the same…The Robert E. Lee was built in Jeffersonville, Ind., in 1879. She was of 1,470 tons….She was inspected by Messrs. Butler & Applegate, United States assistant inspectors…on the 5th of September….

“The Captain’s Statement.

‘We left Vicksburg about 6 o’clock on Friday evening with about…thirty passengers, and a crew of about ninety or one hundred, including officers. We first discovered the fire just below Brooks Landing, Miss., about thirty-five miles below Vicksburg. The fire was first seen in the kitchen a little after 3 o’clock Saturday morning. Pilot Stout, Engineer Perkins, the second mate, R. E. Patrick, Clerks Hall, Wells, and Bell, and myself were on watch at the time. I shouted to the pilot to land the boat as quick as he could, which he did. We ran a line out, made the boat fast, and lowered the stage. All persons forward got ashore safely. Those aft were cut off from the stage by the fire and smoke, and went to the stern of the boat to save themselves. Some were saved and some were lost. The yawl was lowered and picked up many persons in the river who sprang overboard to escape the flames. All my men did their duty as long as the flames allowed them to. One lady from Pittsburg, going to Natchez, saved herself and seven children….All the cabin boys who were lost gave up their lives in trying to save those of others….The hose was worked, but all to no purpose….The flames spread quicker than I can tell. When the shore was reached the flames had already wrapped some portions of the boat. In an hour the boat was burned to the water’s edge. We gathered up all we could and waited for the dawn of day….At about 6 o’clock in the morning the J. M. White came along and took the whole crew on board….”

(Janesville Daily Gazette (WI). “The Lee. Burning…Fastest River Boat…,” 10-2-1882, 1.)

Sources

Boston Daily Globe. “The Robert E. Lee Burned,” Oct 1, 1882, p. 1. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=161875033

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

Janesville Daily Gazette, WI. “The R. E. Lee. Burning of the Fastest River Boat that Ever Turned a Wheel. A Mississippi Horror Linked With the Career of the Noted Vessel,” 2Oct1882, p. 1. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=53210175

Ohio Democrat, New Philadelphia, OH. “Another Steamboat Disaster” [Robert E. Lee], 10-5-1882, p. 2. At: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=16223976

Supervising Inspector-General of Steam-Vessels. Annual Report of the Supervising Inspector-General of Steam-Vessels (U.S.) to the Secretary of the Treasury for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1883 (dated 10-9-1883). Washington: Government Printing Office, 1883. Accessed 1-22-2021 at: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nnc1.cu09189980&view=1up&seq=169&q1=vernon

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.