1854 — May 10, Steamer Pike snags/sinks, MS Riv., Big Eddy, Wilkinson’s Landing MO-10

— 10 Blanchard estimate. The newspaper accounts are based on survivor estimates. We see
No reason not to adopt U.S. Steamboat Inspection Service report of ten lives lost.

–11-50 Weekly Wisconsin. Milwaukee. “Steamer Pike Sunk,” May 24, 1854, p. 5, col. 8.
— ~40 Ohio Repository, Canton. “Steamboat Accident,” May 24, 1854. p. 1., col. 7.
— 15 NY Daily-Times. “The Steamer Pike Sunk…,” May 18, 1854, p. 3, col. 5.
— 10 Berman, Bruce D. Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks. 1972, p. 288.
— 10 Lytle and Holdcamper. Merchant Steam Vessels of the [U.S.] 1807-1868. 1952, p. 242.
— 10 U.S. Steamboat Inspection Service. Report… Oct 10, 1854, p. 394.
— 10 Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994: Passenger Steamboats…MS Riv. Sys.. 1994, 371.
— 6-10 Alton Daily Telegraph, IL. “Steamer Pike Sunk…,” May 15, 1854, p. 2.
— > 7 Janesville Gazette. “The Steamer Pike Sunk-Great Number…Lives Lost,” 27 May 1854.

Narrative Information

Berman: Pike. Steam propeller; built 1852; snagged May 10, 1854; Big Eddy, Ste. Genevieve, Mo., 10 lives lost. (Berman 1972, p. 288)

U.S. Steamboat Inspection Service: “The steamer ‘Pike’ was…sunk on the 10th may last, by which accident ten lives were lost; boat a total loss.” (U.S. Steamboat Inspection Service. Report… Oct 10, 1854, p. 394.)

Way: “Pike…[built in] Cincinnati, Oh., 1852. 245 tons. Owned by the U.S. Mail Line Co…Pike was lost by snagging at Wilkinson’s Landing Big Eddy, near Cape Girardeau, Mo., May 10, 1854, with loss of ten lives.” (Way 1994, p. 371)

Newspapers

May 15: “The St. Louis papers of Saturday [13th] have accounts by the Fashion, that the steamer Pike, bound from St. Louis for Louisville, struck a log in Big Eddy, one hundred miles below St. Louis at one o’clock on Friday [12th] morning, and sunk to within three feet of her hurricane deck. From six to ten deckers, including two of the crew, were drowned. One of the victims was a woman, and two of them children. None of the officers or cabin passengers were lost. The Pike had a considerable freight of flour, hemp and merchandise, which is, of course, a loss. She was a new boat, and worth $20,000 to $22,000. She was one of the St. Louis and Louisville mail line.” (Alton Daily Telegraph, IL. “Steamer Pike Sunk; Loss of Several Lives,” 5-15-1854, p. 2.)

May 24: “….one passenger who escaped thinks there were fifteen – another forty or fifty. The latter says that he saw eleven drowned in the vicinity of the boat in which he escaped….” (Weekly Wisconsin, Milwaukee. “Steamer Pike Sunk,” May 24, 1854, p. 5, col. 8.)

May 27: “The Pike left our wharf at 4 P.M. of Thursday, the 11th inst., having on board about one hundred and eighty passengers, crew, &c. The boat had a delightful run until near Wilkinson’s Landing, one hundred miles from St. Louis. About one o’clock at night, when all the passengers were asleep, and the boat was making some fifteen miles an hour, she struck a snag of rock, which her bottom out and caused her to sink with great rapidity. Not more than three minutes elapsed before the water was up to the ladies’ cabin. So sudden was the accident, that women and children became frantic with apprehension. Mothers were screaming for their children, husbands seeking for their wives, ministers seeking on their knees the aid and protection of God.

“A very aged gentleman and his wife, of Missouri, were going on a visit to their daughter, residing in the neighborhood of Madison, some fifteen miles back. They were drowned. When the boat struck, she careened so suddenly that the water filled her berths before the occupants could get out. Two other persons, who jumped overboard in front of the wheel house, were lost. Three others sprang out at the stern of the vessel, and sank to rise no more…

“The boat careened from the shore, and numbers went overboard at this moment. No list of passengers was made out after they had reached the shore and the excitement was over, and it is not probable that the exact number of the lost will ever be ascertained. This ought to have been done, and we are surprised that it was neglected.

“The accident occurred when the boat was within some thirty or forty feet of the shore. The life preservers which were on board are condemned as utterly useless and unavailing for the purpose of saving life.—St. Louis Repub.” (Janesville Gazette, WI. “The Steamer Pike Sunk – Great Number of Lives Lost,” May 27, 1854, p. 4, col. 1.)

Sources

Alton Daily Telegraph, IL. “Steamer Pike Sunk; Loss of Several Lives,” 5-15-1854, p. 2. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=116100754

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

Janesville Gazette, WI. “The Steamer Pike Sunk – Great Number of Lives Lost,” May 27, 1854, p. 4, col. 1. At: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=53139533

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

New York Daily-Times. “The Steamer Pike Sunk…,” May 18, 1854, p. 3, col. 5. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=2834312

Ohio Repository, Canton, OH. “Steamboat Accident,” May 24, 1854. p. 1., col. 7. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=4011778

United States Steamboat Inspection Service. “Report of Board of Supervising Inspectors of Steamboats,” Oct 10, 1854, pp. 392-394. In: Index to Executive Documents Printed by Order of The Senate of the United States, Second Session, Thirty-Third Congress, 1854-’55 (in Twelve Volumes). Washington: Beverley Tucker, Senate Printer, 1855. Digitized by Google at: http://books.google.com/books?id=sIcFAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

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.

Weekly Wisconsin, Milwaukee. “Steamer Pike Sunk,” May 24, 1854, p. 5, col. 8. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=120025149