1886 — Jan 2, steamer W.D. Chipley, grounds/sinks, Chattahoochee Riv., ~7m no. Fort Gaines GA-8-11

–11 Supervising Inspector-General of Steamboats. Annual Report…1886. 1886, p. 17.
–10 passengers
— 1 crew-member
— 8 Listing of the “lost or missing” by Chipley captain, O. M. Sparks.

Narrative Information

Supervising Inspector-General of Steamboats: “January 2, 1886. – The steamer W. D. Chipley, while descending the Chattahoochee River, struck a snag at Stark Clay Landing, and sunk, proving a total loss. Ten passengers and one of her crew were drowned.” (Annual Report of the Supervising Inspector-General of Steamboats (U.S.)…for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1886. 1886, p.17.)

Newspaper

Jan 4: “Down In The Darkness. Wreck Of A Steamboat in a Georgia River. Appalling Scenes on Board – Six Lives Known To Be Lost – Graphic Description of the Disaster in the Bay of Colon.”

“Fort Gaines, Ga., Jan. 4. – While the steamer W. D. Chipley was trying to make her landing at Stark’s Clay, ten miles north of this place, on the Chattahoochee river, Saturday night [Jan 2] between 7 and 8 o’clock, she struck a protruding rock. A cry of alarm went up and a moment after it was evident that the vessel was sinking. As she began to lurch, the passengers, of whom there were about fifty on board, were overcome with terror, and jumped wildly into the water below. The night was dark, the rain pouring in torrents, and as the vessel sunk to the bottom the bottom the passengers clung to her timbers, wildly shrieking for help. While this state of affairs existed the Naiad came up, and after desperate work succeeded, as her officers supposed, in rescuing the whole crew. There were about 300 bales of cotton on board. As these were swept off by the current washing over the deck, many of the affrighted passengers clung to them as life-preservers, and went floating down the river. The Naiad, guided in the darkness by calls of human voices, picked the unfortunates up as best she could. When daylight came, however, it was made apparent that there was much loss of life. Up to night six bodies have been reported found at various points down the river, and as the passenger list was lost it cannot be ascertained how many more may be gone. Two of the bodies recovered are white persons, four colored, one of the latter being Sam Alexander, a member of the crew. The scenes are described as appalling. After the Naiad had rescued the passengers from the sinking seamer many cotton bales caught fire, and presented a strange spectacle as they went floating down the river. The Chipley was a new boat, having been but two years on the river, and belonged to the Merchants’ Mechanics’ & Planters’ line, of Columbus, W. L. Tillman, president. She cost $20,000 and was insured for $5,000. The total loss is about $45,000. Capt. O. M. Sharks was the master. The scene of the disaster is one of the most dangerous points on the Chattahoochee, the terrible casualty of the Wylly have occurred there three years ago, and several others previously.” (Elkhart Review, IN. “Down in the Darkness.” 1-4-1886, p. 4, col. 1.)

Jan 4: “On Floating Bales of Cotton.”

“Fort Gaines, Ga., Jan. 4. – Six miles above Fort Gaines on the Chattahoochee river, the steamer W. D. Chipley ran into the rocky bank. The boat was so badly damaged that she sank almost instantly. A strong current was running, and the panic-stricken passengers and crew were swept from the deck into the water. Luckily the deck was filled with bales of cotton and other cargo of a buoyant nature, which the people struggling in the water could cling to. They had not been in the water an hour when the steamer Naiad, which was coming up the river behind the Chipley hove in sight and began picking up the people floating among the drifting wreckage. Six lives had been lost, however, before the Naiad appeared on the scene.” (Trenton Times, NJ. “On Floating Bales of Cotton.” 1-5-1886, p. 3, col. 1.)

Jan 7: “The Chipley Disaster. Captain Sparks Tells the Story of the Accident.”

“The main facts connected with the sinking of the steamer W. D. Chipley have already been given to the readers of the Enquirer-Sun, but it will not be uninteresting to read the story of the disaster as told in detail by one in a position to be so familiar with the circumstances as Captain O. M. Sparks, the master. Believing this to be the case a reporter of the Enquirer Sun called upon Captain Sparks yesterday and obtained from him the following statement:

“We left Eufaula at 5 o’clock, Saturday afternoon, January 2, Pilot C. C Carpenter was on watch. Captain Charles Brockway came on watch at the foot of Weaver’s Reach, and Mr. Carpenter went to supper. Carpenter came up on the roof where I was standing. Just at that time Brockway rang a slow bell. I saw two lights and thought one of them was a log raft, and some one commenced hailing and waving a light. I asked Carpenter what that was, a raft or what. He replied: ‘This in Starks Clay landing.’ I said to Captain Brockways ‘Stop her and back her,’ which he did. I haloed to the negro waving the light to ‘put out that light,’ and asked what he wanted. We had then entered an immense bank or drift of fog, and the light and fog so blinded me that I could not see anything. Just then she struck a shelving rock on the Georgia side, knocking an immense hole in her port bow. I called for the electric lights and they were responded to with promptness.

“Everything was then in immense confusion –everybody excited and jumping overboard. She was sinking rapidly. Her port bow was against the Georgia bank, with stern swinging diagonally across the river. She listed considerably to the starboard; cotton tumbling in the river and people began catching to the floating bales. The excitement grew worst. Those who jumped off on the port side got out without getting wet. At this time she began to drift and the port bow had left the Georgia bank. I could not get out a line. I was then handed a line from the lower deck by Mr. Camp, a passenger. I tried to throw this line ashore, but could not do so, as it was too heavy. At this time water was running over her lower deck. Mr. Camp and wife were then standing in water on her bow, the water up to their waist, he holding one child in his arms and she one in hers. I took one of the babies and gave it to a cabin boy to save. Mr. Camp appealed to me for God’s sake to do something for his wife and children and let him drown. Mr. Camp again handed me the line and he and I took off our suspenders and tried to tie the line to a pole that we might get it ashore and fasten the boat, but could not do so. I then resorted to jumping overboard with the line, but it was too heavy and I dropped it. I was compelled to swim then to the bank. Sam Brown, stevedore, said to me: ‘Captain, you swam that with your clothes on; I can swim to her bow with my clothes off.’ With that he stripped so as to swim and get the yawl boat. Sam Alexander, deck hand, said: ‘I will follow you.” The latter was drowned, or he is missing and has not been heard from. With this Mr. Hogan Sudbury, Sam Brown and Jesse Odom got the yawl boats, procured our lines and fastened as best we could, and saved all the passengers that remained on board. Had all remained on board as I begged them to do, no one would have been drowned. Many of my fellow officers were knocked overboard. Pilot Carpenter was knocked overboard, swam ashore and then back to the boat, and assisted greatly in saving the lives of many….Capt. Brockway had to use a billet of wood to prevent too many passengers jumping into the yawl boat and sinking it. Mr. I. J. Lowe, engineer on watch, was scalded from the bursting of a steam pipe…..

“The Chipley…listed so far to the starboard that no one would dare go aboard her….

“I laid on a mattress on the bank of the river and watched the wreck all night, with Pilots Brockway and Carpenter, and Purser C. W. Moye. The river continued to rise rapidly and the drift was immense. The steamer continued to list to the starboard all during the night, and by morning she was lying on her beam’s end, water running all through er cabin. The river was still rising so rapidly, nothing could be done except to save what cotton we could. Pilot Carpenter, assisted by deck hands, tied over 200 bales of drifting cotton during Sunday. I left the scene of disaster at 4 p.m., Sunday…for Fort Gaines….

“The river rose Sunday night, after the heavy rain of Sunday afternoon, about twenty feet, which broke loose her cabin. It passed along by For Gaines about 11 o’clock Monday morning. The cotton that was caught and tied the day before, to limbs and bending trees, was also carried away.

“The sinking of the Chipley was an unavoidable accident, and for which there is no ground, in my opinion, for any of the officers of the boat to be censured.

“Those who are lost or missing are as follows: [we break paragraph into separate lines]

J. F. McAllister, white;
T. McNeal,
Hamilton Milton,
Henry Mahone,
Sallie Greene,
Mary Wilson
and child, all colored.
Sam Alexander, deck hand, is also missing.”

(Daily Enquirer-Sun, Columbus, GA. “The Chipley Disaster.” 1-7-1886, p. 5, cols. 1-2.

Sources

Daily Enquirer-Sun, Columbus, GA. “The Chipley Disaster.” 1-7-1886, p. 5, cols. 1-2. Accessed 1-28-2021 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/columbus-sunday-enquirer-jan-07-1886-p-5/

Elkhart Review, IN. “Down in the Darkness.” 1-4-1886, p. 4, col. 1. Accessed 1-28-2021 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/elkhart-review-jan-04-1886-p-4/

Supervising Inspector-General of Steamboats. Annual Report of the Supervising Inspector-General of Steamboats (U.S.) to the Secretary of the Treasury for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1886 (Treasury Department Document No. 900, Steamboat Inspection, dated 10-18-1886). Washington: Government Printing Office, 1886. Accessed 1-27-2021 at: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nnc1.cu09189980&view=1up&seq=169&q1=vernon

Trenton Times, NJ. “On Floating Bales of Cotton.” 1-5-1886, p. 3, col. 1. Accessed 1-28-2021 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/trenton-times-jan-05-1886-p-3/