1962 — Aug 18, overloaded Sunday School boat capsizes, Lake Talquin near Quincy, FL– 18

— 18  AP. “Picnic Boat Sinks; 17 Children Drown [plus teacher].” NY Times. 8-19-1962, p. 1.

— 18  Sunday Star-Banner, Ocala, FL. “Seventeen Children, Teacher Drown…” 8-19-1962, p. 1.

— 17  Panama City News-Herald, FL. “Eighteen Drown at Lake Talquin.” 8-18-1962, p. 1.

 

Narrative Information

 

Aug 18, AP: “Quincy, Fla., Aug. 18 – Seventeen children and their Sunday School teacher drowned today when a small boat they had taken on a picnic outing filled and sank in Lake Talquin, near here.

 

“Seven of the children were from a single family. Their ages ranged from 5 to 14 years old.

 

“The boat, operated by the Sunday School teacher, Joseph Bouie, 25, plunged under water about 300 feet from shore. The water was more than seven feet deep. One child who clung to a part of the fourteen-foot wooden boat was rescued.

 

“The picnic group, all Negroes, was from the Blessed Hope Church near Quincy, a northwest Florida town about twenty miles from Tallahassee.

 

“Mrs. Alzora Green, who was preparing the picnic lunch, said she saw the disaster from shore. Describing the scene, she said: ‘All of a sudden, the boat started sinking. It went down so fast they didn’t have time to say anything. They just reached up their hands, and went down. And there I was, just standing helpless.’

 

“All but one of the bodies were recovered within a matter of hours….

 

“The boat, which was equipped with an outboard motor, was still floating in the water hours after the drowning. The bow of the boat rose back to the surface after it first went under.

 

“Seven children of Esther and Mattie May Watson, who lived about six miles north of here, were drowned. The Watson children were J. B., 14, Deloris, 12, Esther, 11, Leonard, 9, Bernard, 8, Jennifer, 6, and Terry, 5.

 

“Other victims, in addition to Mr. Bouie, were:

 

Rosa Battle, 10, Glaena Battle, 6, Louis Gordon, 12, Dorothy Baker, 10, Mathilda Green, 10, Queen Gremin, 10, Emanuel Green, 9, Ruby Green, 11, Annie Young, 8, and Rose May Huntly, 8.

 

“Eleven-year-old Jerome Maples was rescued. He managed to seize the boat and hold on until a passing fisherman could reach him.” (Associated Press. “Picnic Boat Sinks; 17 Children Drown [plus teacher].” New York Times. 8-19-1962, pp. 1 and 32.)

 

Aug 18, UPI: “Quincy (UPI) – A 16-foot fishing boat jammed with Negro children off on a church picnic swamped under the heavy load Saturday and 18 of the 19 persons aboard drowned. All but one of the victims were children ranging in age from 6 to 12 years. The lone survivor was 11-year-old Jerome Maples, who was saved by a fisherman who managed to push a cane pole within the boy’s reach. The only adult aboard was Joseph Bouie, 25, who was operating the small, green, flat-bottom boat.

 

“Witnesses said the boat had just left Jessie’s Landing on nearby Lake Talquin when the heavily-loaded vessel started filling with water in the stern Bouie raced the motor in hopes of raising the craft in the water, witnesses said, but instead it caused the water to rush forward and the boat went under. “It was panic that got them,” said highway patrolman Joe Ross of Liberty County. “The boat was floating right beside where they went down. All they would have had to do was reach out and grab it.” he said. Ross said he personally had raised Bouie’s body. ‘He had a death grip on one little girl he apparently was trying to save,’ Ross said. The trooper added that Bouie apparently ‘was mobbed’ by all the children. ‘Several were still clinging to him when I found him.’ Ross said.

 

“The boat went down about 100 yards off shore, just beyond a patch of water lilies. Ross said the water was only about seven feet deep at that point, ‘just over my head.’

 

“Officials said all the victims were members of the Blessed Hope Missionary Baptist Church at St. John’s settlement, a Negro community a few miles southwest of Quincy. The outing was the church’s annual picnic and a total of about 45 persons had turned out for the affair. One officer said the others on the shore apparently were preparing lunch while the children were out joy-riding. The accident happened so fast and was so far from shore that apparently none of the adults could get to the overturned boat.

 

“One family – that of Mattie Mae Watson – lost seven children, ranging in age from 5 to 14 in the tragedy. Another family lost four children and still another family lost two.

 

“The landing where the picnic was being held is seven miles from Quincy. It consists of a one-room, battered and unpainted shack with about a dozen boats tied up under the shed on shore. It has an old, rickety dock where a few other boats are secured. The lake itself is located about 15 miles west of Tallahassee in North Florida’s pineland country. It is formed by the Ochlocknee River which flows north and south through the area.

 

“Word of the tragedy came when a hysterical Negro woman rushed into the county jail at Quincy and told of the mishap. Gadsden County Police Officer Remus Gardner said every available piece of equipment was dispatched, but it apparently arrived too late to be of any help. The Coast Guard rushed in a boat by trailer and a highway patrol skin diver sped to the scene to help raise the bodies….

 

Officials identified the victims as:     [18 names]

 

Essie D. Watson, 14,                          Queen Green, 10,

Delores Watson, 12,                           Emanuel Green, 9,

Ester Watson, 11,                                Matilda Green, 10,

Terry Watson, 5,                                 Rubie Green, 11;

Bernard Watson, 8,                             Rose Mary Hunter, 8.

Leonard Watson, 9,                            Louis Jordan, 12.

Jennifer Watson, 6;                             Annie J. Young, 8.

Gloria Battle, 6,                                  Dorothy Baker, 8 and

Rosa Battle, 10;                                  Bouie.” [Joseph Bouie, 25]

 

(Panama City News-Herald, FL. “Eighteen Drown at Lake Talquin.” 8-18-1962, p. 1.)

 

Oct 11:  “Daytona Beach – (AP) — Every automobile licensed in Florida should have an annual checkup, the Legislative Council’s Traffic Safety Committee was told recently….The legislative committee will take under consideration these proposals and others made at the public hearing when it makes up its recommendations for action at the 1963 session.

 

“Water safety as well as highway safety proposals were made. Harold Parr of the state Conservation Department urged that boats be registered in the same manner as automobiles. He also suggested a broader water safety education program. Only about half of the 225,000 boats in Florida are registered under Florida law, Parr said. He suggested that better boating safety education can help prevent tragedies such as the recent drowning of 17 persons when an overloaded boat sank in Lake Talquin near Tallahassee. Parr was told by legislators to prepare such legislation for a workshop session of the committee before the legislature meets next year.”

(Panama City Herald, FL. “Solon Urges Auto Checkup for Florida.” 10-11-1962, p. 17.)

 

Sources

 

Associated Press. “Picnic Boat Sinks; 17 Children Drown [plus teacher].” New York Times. 8-19-1962, p. 1. Accessed 2-14-2020 at: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1962/08/19/90572932.html?pageNumber=1

 

Panama City Herald, FL. “Solon Urges Auto Checkup for Florida.” 10-11-1962, p. 17. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=35293720&sterm

 

Panama City News-Herald, FL. “Eighteen Drown at Lake Talquin.” 8-18-1962, p. 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=35293221&sterm=lake+talquin

 

Sunday Star-Banner, Ocala, FL. “Seventeen Children, Teacher Drown While on Church Picnic.” 8-19-1962, p. 1. Accessed at: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=XwcTAAAAIBAJ&sjid=EgUEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4941,3013327&dq=quincy+florida&hl=en