1850 — April 22, Belle of the West, Fire/boiler explosion?, Ohio River, ~Warsaw, KY –34-36
— 34-36 Blanchard range[1] compiled in 2015 for: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com
–60-120 Kotar and Gessler. The Steamboat Era. 2009, p. 124.
— <100 Cincinnati paper dated Apr 23, 1850 in Kotar and Gessler. The Steamboat Era, 124.
— ~100 Friends’ Review, Vol. 3, No. 33, May 4, 1850. “Summary of News,” p. 528.
–50-100 Telegraph, Harrisburg, PA. “Awful Steamboat Disaster…” 5-1-1850, in Parthermore.
— >80 Cincinnati Dispatch, Apr 25, 1850; in Kotar and Gessler. The Steamboat Era, 123.
— 80 Stryker’s American Register & Magazine (V4). “Disasters to Steamers,” July 1850, 148
— 60 Adams Sentinel, Gettysburg, Pa. “Awful Steamboat Accident.” 4-22-1850.
— 35-50 Hunter and Hunter. Steamboats on the Western Rivers. 1994, p. 282.[2]
— 37 Daily Sanduskian. “Belle of the West,” April 29, 1850.
— 36 Collins and Collins. Collins’ Historical Sketches of Kentucky (Vol. I). 1882, p. 60.[3]
— 35 Lloyd’s Steamboat Directory and Disasters on the Western Waters. 1856, p. 246.[4]
— 35 U.S. Congress, House Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee Hearings. 1935, 246.
— 35 Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994: Passenger Steamboats…MS River Sys. 1994, 45.
— 34 Berman, Bruce D. Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks. 1972, p. 273.
— 34 Mitchell (Ed.). Merchant Steam Vessels of the United States 1790-1868. 1975, p. 245.
— 34 Nash, Jay Robert. Darkest Hours. 1977, p. 681.
— 33 Twaintimes. “1846-1856.”[5]
Narrative Information
Lloyd: “Burning of the Belle of the West.
“The Belle of the West was burned to the water’s edge, near Florence island, on the Ohio river, April 22d, 1850. Only an imperfect report of this disaster has been preserved.
List Of The Killed.—Jeremiah Bamberger; John Anders and wife; Frederick Bretz, wife and three children; (two children belonging to this family were saved 😉 Mr. Keller, wife and three children; a lady, name unknown; a man, wife and six children, names unknown; three children of Mr. Waggoner ; two German deck passengers; and a family, consisting of two men, two women, and four children. Wounded — John Bamberger; Levi Yerdz; Miss Yerdz; and three or four others, names unknown.
“A brave little boy, twelve years old, leaped into the river, and while swimming to the shore, saw his mother on board, overburdened with two small children, and trying to make her escape. He made her understand by gestures, that he wished her to throw one of the children into the water. She did so, and he swam with it to the shore. The mother escaped with the other child, and thus the whole family was saved. Several other families were less fortunate. A Mr. Waggoner, one of the passengers, was accompanied by his wife and eight children. Three of the children were drowned. Mr. Waggoner was emigrating to Iowa, having with him money, with which he intended to purchase land; but every dollar of it was lost. About fifty German Moravians, some of them with families, were on board. Many of these people perished in the flames, or in the water.” (Lloyd’s Steamboat Directory and Disasters on the Western Waters. 1856, p. 246.)
Mitchell: “Belle of the West…exploded…4 23 1850…Warsaw, Ky. … 34 [killed].” (Mitchell, C. Bradford (Editor). Merchant Steam Vessels of the United States 1790-1868, “The Lytle-Holdcamper List. 1975, p. 245.)
Nash: “1850, Apr, 23. Belle of the West. 34 [deaths]. The 249-ton Mississippi steamboat, built in 1841, exploded at Warsaw, Ky., on the Ohio River.” (Nash, Jay R. Darkest Hours. 1977, p. 681.)
- S. Congress: “Apr. 22, 1850…Belle of the West…35 [deaths]…Burned…Ohio River…” (U.S. Congress, House Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee. Safety of Life and Property at Sea Hearings, 1935, p. 246.)
Way: “Belle of the West. SW p wh b [Sidewheel packet, wood hull, built] Cincinnati, Oh., 1841. 249 tons. Ran Cincinnati-New Orleans, Capt. David Whitten. Burned on the Ohio River near Florence, Ind., Capt. D.S. James, Apr. 22, 1850, with loss of 35 lives.” (Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994: Passenger Steamboats…MS River Sys. 1994, 45.)
Newspapers and Periodicals of the Time
April 22: “Cincinnati, April 23. A terrible steamboat accident, attended by fearful loss of life, occurred this morning at about 1 o’clock. The splendid steamer, Belle of the West, which cleared from this port, loaded with California bound emigrants for St. Louis, had gone but a mile below Warsaw, Ky., when her boiler bursted. It is confidently asserted that not less than one hundred persons were burnt to death and drowned. The scene that followed the explosion is represented as having been the most awful ever witnessed on the western rivers. The officers saved their lives by immediately jumping overboard, and swimming ashore. The Belle of the West was owned in this city…She is said to be totally lost.
“Second Dispatch. Madison, April 23. Another Account of the Steamboat Disaster. An eye witness to the horrible scent attending the destruction of the Belle of the West, (which it appears was burnt, instead of having collapsed her boiler,) gives facts in connection with the calamity. He says that the fire was discovered at about 12 o’clock, in the hold, when she was immediately run ashore, where she was made fast, and stage planks run out. Up to this moment the flames had not burst forth. The after-hatch was then raised for the purpose of getting water into the hold, but such was the pressure of the flames, that all efforts to quell them were of no avail. The total number of passengers is estimated at 400, among whom were two companies of California emigrants, and about thirty families removing westward.
“It is ascertained from the register that over sixty souls perished, and probably as many more have been lost whose names were not enrolled. Such was the progress of the fire that, before the passengers could get out of the state rooms, all communication between the after cabin and forward part of the boat was cut off, and all either were compelled to jump overboard or perish in the flames.” (Adams Sentinel, Gettysburg, PA. 4/22/1850.)
April 23 and 28 papers in Kotar and Gessler: “Two other articles on the disaster bear inspection. The first, dated ‘Cincinnati, April 23, 1850,’ states:
It is confidently asserted that not less than one hundred persons were burnt to death and drowned….The officers saved their lives by immediately jumping overboard, and swimming ashore. The Belle of the West was owned in this city, and was insured for $8,000. She is said to be totally lost.
“And the second, dated ‘Madison, April 28, 1850,’ gives the report of an eyewitness, who states the boat appears to have been burned rather than being destroyed from the collapse of her boiler. In addition:
The fire was discovered at about 12 o’clock, in the hold, when she was immediately run ashore, where she was made fast, and stage planks run out. Up to this moment the flames had not burst forth. The after-hatch was then raised for the purpose of getting water into the hold, but such was the pressure of the flames, that all efforts to quell them were of no avail. The total number of passengers is estimated at 400, among whom were two companies of California emigrants, and about thirty families removing westward.
It is ascertained from the register that over 60 souls perished, and probably as many more have been lost whose names were not enrolled. Such was the progress of the fire that, before the passengers could get out of the state rooms, all communication between the after cabin and forward part of the boat were cut off, and all either were compelled to jump overboard or perish in the flames. At the time the deck fell in, a lady and gentleman, with a child in his arms, were standing between the chimneys.
A large number of horses and cattle were nearly all burnt to death.”
(Kotar and Gessler. The Steamboat Era, 2009, p. 124.)
April 25: “….As near as we can discern, the lives lost will number over eighty. None of the crew were lost. A portion of the goods were brought to this city in a damaged state. Over thirty of the dead and dying are at Florence. The boat was fully insured in this city, and we learn from good authority that a protest was issued yesterday.
“The watchman is of the opinion that the fire originated in the hold from a large box of matches taken on board here….The captain, after he discovered the fire, immediately gave the alarm, and hastened to a forward hatch where a keg of powder had been stored, and threw (it) overboard, saving in all probability, a dreadful explosion.” (Cincinnati Dispatch, Apr 25, 1850; in Kotar and Gessler. The Steamboat Era, 123.)
April 29: “We are favored by Mr. Parks of the Express for the Cincinnati Daily Times of Saturday evening [April 27] which contains what purports to be full particulars of the disaster to the boat, as given by D. James, the captain. From this we make the following extracts:
When opposite Florence, Ia., I discovered smoke issuing through the joints of the forward hatch, which gave me some uneasiness, when I called one of the deck hands, who was standing near, to raise the hatch to see if the cause was below. The appearance of more smoke proved my suspicion to be correct, and I immediately ran to the hurricane deck and ordered the pilot to land the boat, that there was a fire in the hold. Next returned to said hatch and found two men had gone down with the hose. I ordered them up to get aft and get all the passengers on deck forward, while I went through the cabin, assisted by the second clerk and steward, to wake up the passengers….
There were a large number of passengers on deck, and some in the cabin, whose names were not registered. It will therefore be impossible to give a full list. The number known to be lost or missing is thirty-seven…”
(Daily Sanduskian. “Belle of the West,” April 29, 1850.)
May 1: “The Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Telegraph, of Wednesday morning, May 1, 1850, contains the following account from, the Cincinnati, O., Daily Dispatch, of the burning of the above boat.
“Our city was thrown into gloom on yesterday afternoon, by the arrival of the heart-rendering intelligence that the steamer “Belle of the West,” on her way to St. Louis, from this port, was burned to the water’s edge, on Monday night about 12 o’clock, two miles below Warsaw, Ky., and in all probability from fifty to one hundred persons had perished in the flames.
The Belle had on board one hundred registered cabin passengers, not including a number of children attached to families, whose names were not registered, and on deck there were about one hundred emigrants and others, whose names had not been taken down. The boat was fully freighted, and had on the luggage and moveables of numbers of emigrants, and some forty or fifty persons on their way to California.
The fire was discovered in the hold by the smoke issuing from aft the hatchway, and is supposed to have been occasioned by carelessness in leaving a candle burning. Prompt efforts were made to suppress the flames without giving the alarm, but the fire gained so fast that the officers and crew were compelled to yield to it. The engineer called to the pilot, through the trumpet, to run the boat ashore, which was immediately done and the alarm given. The greater portion of the passengers being asleep in their rooms, the officers of the boat rushed into the cabin, into which fire and smoke had already commenced pouring, and those who could not be awakened by the alarm were dragged from their beds. The doors were burst open; numbers who were insensible from fright were carried out by the crew, and, in fact, as we have it from an eye witness, all connected with the boat periled their lives to save those on board.
The boat was totally enveloped in flames, fore and aft, in less than four minutes, and amidst the crackling roar of consuming fire, the shrieks of the helpless, the doomed to certain death, were distinctly heard—the voices of men, women, and children; mothers, fathers, and offspring—mingling in the roar of death and horror. The steamers Hermann and Useter brought up a number of the survivors, and a portion of the freight that was saved. The houses in Florence were filled with the sufferers, and every attention to their comfort was bestowed by the citizens.
The register of the boat was saved, but the contents of the iron safe, including the money, etc., were destroyed. The Belle of the West was commanded by Capt. James. Mr. Salsbury, of Hanging Rock, who was on board—a deck passenger—says he knows of two families, one consisting of four and the other of seven persons, who perished; they were from Pennsylvania. Numbers leaped over board and were drowned, while others were awakened too late to escape the horrid death which surrounded them.
The scene, as described by Mr. Thomas Rutherford, of this city, who, in company with Thomas Lawsen, had retired to his berth but a short time before the alarm was given, was awful and heart-rending. The officers of the boat repairing to the cabin, upon the first alarm aroused the passengers by knocking at each state-room door. In a moment all was confusion and disorder beyond description. Shriek upon shriek broke upon the midnight air. Mothers in their night dresses, with babes pressed for safety to their breasts, rushed to and fro in frantic agony in search of other loved ones of their flock, whom they sought to save. Every part of the boat was filled with the dense and suffocating smoke which had been so long pent up in the hold, where the destroying element was preying on the vitals of the ill-starred steamer. The lurid flames shot up through the thick smoke in tortuous windings like fiery serpents enveloping their victims, amid whose agonizing cries the demoniac crackled and laughed in mad mockery and direful derision.
Many in the insane fright of the moment leapt into the water from the hurricane deck, their egress being cut off below, preferring to stem the current of water to the current of flame; others jumped overboard from the guards and the afterpart of the boat; some saved themselves by swimming ashore, while others only escaped the fire to perish in the water. The bow of the boat only struck the shore, the stern swung round, the boat struck, and the only chance was in reaching the shore by the bow. So great was the rush of deck and cabin passengers that many were prevented from saving themselves through that channel. Many were jostled and trampled upon, and so rapid was the progress of the fire that, notwithstanding the communication with the shore, it is estimated that not less than from fifty to one hundred passengers perished by fire and water. (Telegraph, Harrisburg, PA. “Awful Steamboat Disaster…” 5-1-1850.)
May 4, Friends’ Review: “A disastrous fire occurred on the morning; of 23d ult., on board the Steamboat Belle of the West, on the passage from Cincinnati to St. Louis. The number of passengers is said to have been nearly four hundred; of whom about one hundred are supposed to have been lost. Many of the passengers were emigrants on their way to California. The fire was discovered about half an hour after midnight, when the boat was immediately run ashore, but the progress of the flames was so rapid, that access to the land was soon cut off from the hinder part of the boat. Many of the passengers were therefore compelled to jump into the water, or perish in the fire. Thirty-one bodies are reported to have been recovered from the wreck. The number drowned appears uncertain.” (Friends’ Review, Vol. 3, N33, May 4, 1850. “Summary of News,” p. 528.)
Parthermore: “The Louisville Journal says: “We have heard some thrilling incidents attending the great calamity. Of a family of a man named Amon Waggoner, of Virginia, consisting of himself, his wife, and eight children, three children were lost,—a daughter of 17, another of 13, and a little son of 4. They were on their way to Iowa and lost all they had. About 50 German Moravians from near Lancaster, Pa., were on board, and many of these lost children and other relatives.”
“A young lady in her endeavor to escape, had gained the hurricane deck, and was observed clinging on to the casing of one of the chimes, but unable to retain her clasp, she sank down amid the flames, and was seen no more.” (Parthermore, E.W.S. Genealogy of the Ludwig Bretz Family, 1750-1890 (Vol. 1). 1890, 67-68.)
July, Stryker’s: “23d, Disasters to steamers. – The steamboat ‘Belle of the West’ took fire near Warsaw, Ind., having on board 400 passengers, and burnt with such rapidity that many lives were lost. It is believed that 80 persons perished, and a large number of horses on board were mostly all burned to death.” (Stryker’s American Register & Magazine (V4). “Disasters to Steamers,” July 1850, 148.)
Sources
Adams Sentinel, Gettysburg, PA. “Awful Steamboat Accident, One Hundred Lives Lost.” 4-4-1850. At: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/PdfViewerTags.aspx?img=3107972&firstvisit=true&src=search¤tResult=0
Berman, Bruce D. Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks. Boston: Mariners Press Inc., 1972.
Collins, Lewis and Richard H. Collins. Collins’ Historical Sketches of Kentucky. History of Kentucky By the late Lewis Collins, Judge of the Mason County Court. Revised, Enlarged Four-Fold, and Brought Down to the Year 1874, by his son Richard H. Collins (Vol. I). Covington, KY: Collins & Co., 1882. Accessed 2-16-2015 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=xMM6AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Daily Sanduskian, OH. “Belle of the West.” 4-29-1850. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/cache2/9847870.pdf
Friends’ Review, Vol. 3, No. 33, 5-4-1850. “Summary of News” [Belle of the West], p. 528. Google digitized at: http://books.google.com/books?id=fjErAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=true
Hunter, Louis C. and Beatrice J. Steamboats on the Western Rivers: An Economic and Technological History. NY: Dover Publications, Inc., 994, 684 pages.
Kotar, S. L. and J. E. Gessler. The Steamboat Era: A History of Fulton’s Folly on American Rivers, 1807-1860. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., Inc., 2009. Partially digitized by Google: http://books.google.com/books?id=JVNZSTgHhdgC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Lloyd, James T. Lloyd’s Steamboat Directory and Disasters on the Western Waters. Cincinnati, Ohio: James T. Lloyd & Co., 1856. Digitized by Google. Accessed at: http://books.google.com/books?id=JlYqAAAAYAAJ
Mitchell, C. Bradford (Editor). Merchant Steam Vessels of the United States 1790-1868, “The Lytle-Holdcamper List. The Steamship Historical Society of America, 1975. Google Snippet accessed 3-23-2015 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=fcFQAQAAIAAJ&q=%22belle+of+the+west%22+1850&dq=%22belle+of+the+west%22+1850&hl=en&sa=X&ei=BogQVfCdM4WkgwS7u4DQAg&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAw
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.
Parthermore, Winfield Scott. Genealogy of the Ludwig Bretz Family, 1750-1890 (Vol. 1). Harrisburg, PA: Harrisburg Publishing Co., 1890. Digitized by Google at: http://books.google.com/books?id=y3ItAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Stryker’s American Register & Magazine (Vol. 4). “Disasters to Steamers,” July 1850, p. 148. Google digitized at: http://books.google.com/books?id=ympBAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Twaintimes. 1846-1856. Accessed at: http://twaintimes.net/page3.html
United States Congress, House of Representatives, Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee. Safety of Life and Property at Sea Hearings. Washington, DC: GPO, 1935. Google Snippet accessed 3-23-2015 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=l9xH_9sUuVAC&q=%22belle+of+the+west%22+1850&dq=%22belle+of+the+west%22+1850&hl=en&sa=X&ei=BogQVfCdM4WkgwS7u4DQAg&ved=0CD0Q6AEwBg
Way, Frederick Jr. (Compiler). Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994: Passenger Steamboats of the Mississippi River System Since the Advent of Photography in Mid-Continent America (Revised Edition). Athens OH: Ohio University Press, 1994-1999.
[1] There were newspaper stories of 50-120 deaths. We use lower estimates found in government and later writings.
[2] Has the loss due to a fire.
[3] Has the date as April 22.
[4] Dates the explosion April 22.
[5] Dates the explosion April 22.