lornajarrettblanchard

–160-170 The Georgian. Savannah. “Postscript. Awful Steamboat Accident!!!” 6-21-1838, p. 4.
–~142 Gentile. Shipwrecks of North Carolina – from Hatteras Inlet South. 1992, p. 151, 158.*
— 141 Berman, Bruce D. Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks. 1972, p. 140.
— 141 Lytle and Holdcamper. Merchant Steam Vessels of the US, 1807-1868. 1952, p. 220.
–~141 Stick. Graveyard of the Atlantic: Shipwrecks of the North Carolina Coast. 1952, p. 40.
— 140 Simonds. The American Date Book. 1902, p. 97.
— 132 Gentile. Shipwrecks of North Carolina–from Hatteras Inlet South. 1992, pp. 151, 158.*
— 129 Ellms, Charles. The Tragedy of the Seas, 1841, p. 188.*
–~110 Morrison, John Harrison. History of American Steam Navigation. 1908, p. 442.
— 110 SC Historical Society. The SC Historical Magazine, Vol. 18, Nos. 2-3, 1916, p. 68.
— 101 Nash, Jay Robert. Darkest Hours. 1977, p. 680.
—<100 Howland. Steamboat Disasters and Railroad Accidents…[U.S.] (Revised). 1843, p. 47.* -- 100 Jones. “The Sinking of the Pulaski: Part I.” BlufftonToday.com. May 1, 2006. -- 100 Springer. Table “Principal marine disasters since 1831.” P. 246 in US Congress, House. -- 100 Wiard, Norman. The Cause of Boiler Explosions, etc. 1868, p. 8. -- 95 Heyl, Erik. Early American Steamers. Buffalo, NY: 1953, p. 353. *Note on Gentile’s approximation of 142 deaths: Writes on page 151: “On the morning of June 13, 1838 she left Savannah with ‘about’ ninety passengers and a crew of thirty-seven. That afternoon she docked in Charleston, staying only long enough to pick up an additional sixty-five passengers. If anyone debarked there it was not recorded. Thus there were approximately 202 people aboard the Pulaski as she headed north…” On page 158 he writes that “the verified total of survivors” was sixty. Sixty from 202 comes to 142. (However, see our next Gentile note on Gentile – his numbers add to 192, not 202.) *Note on Gentile’s estimation of people aboard and thus death-toll: The number of “approximately 202 people onboard” on page 151 is derived by adding the original passenger list of about 90, the 65 picked up in Charleston and “a crew of 37” (four more than Elms notes). This comes to a total of 192, not 202, thus it would appear that a mistake has been made and that his fatality count is 132. *Note of Ellms: This is our number. Ellms does not state the number of fatalities. He states, though, that there were about 90 passengers sailing from Savannah and that 65 more boarded in Charleston, for a total of 155 (though later he states that about 150 passengers were on-board). Ellms also notes that the crew numbered 33. Adding crew of 33 and passengers of 155, the total aboard would be 188 of whom we are told 59 survived, leaving 129 as fatalities. *Howland note: In title of chapter on the Pulaski he noted “nearly one hundred persons perished.” Noted in text that there were 59 survivors. Noted 90 passengers from Savannah and 65 from Charleston. Does not note the number of crew. Narrative Information (Alphabetical) Ellms: “The steam-packet Pulaski, Captain Dubois, sailed from Savannah on Wednesday, the 13th of June, 1838, having on board about ninety passengers. She arrived at Charles¬ton the same afternoon, and sailed the next morning with sixty-five additional passengers. In the afternoon, the wind freshened from the eastward, and produced a heavy sea, which retarded her progress, and required a full pressure of steam. At half past ten, the wind continued fresh, with a clear star-light, and there was every promise of a fine night. “At eleven o'clock, P. M., the starboard boiler exploded with tremendous violence, blowing off the promenade deck above, and shattering the starboard side about midships; at the same time the bulk-head, between the boilers and forward cabin, was stove in, the stairway to it blocked up, and the bar-room swept away. The head of the boiler was blown out, and the top rent fore and aft. In consequence of the larboard boiler and works being comparatively uninjured, the boat heeled to that side, and the starboard side was kept out of the water, except when she rolled, when the sea rushed in at the breach. The boat continued to settle rap¬idly, and in about forty minutes the water had reached the promenade deck, above the ladies' cabin. Previously to this period, the ladies, children, and the gentlemen, who were in the after part of the boat, were placed on the promenade deck. About the time the water reached that point, the boat parted in two, with a tremendous crash, and the bow and the stern rose somewhat out of the water; but the latter again continued to sink, until the water reached the prome¬nade deck, when it separated in three parts, upset, and precipitated all on it into the water. Many then regained the detached portions. The gentlemen, who occupied the forward cabin, took refuge on the extreme point of the bow, when the boat broke in two, and clung to it and the fore¬mast; others had placed themselves on settees, and the fragments of the wreck. “There were four boats belonging to the steamer; two being slung to the sides, and two placed on top of the promenade deck. The side boats were both lowered down, within five minutes of the explosion. In that on the starboard side, the first mate, Mr. Hibbert, Mr. Swift, and one other person, had placed themselves. In that on the larboard side, were Mr. J. H. Cooper, with Mrs. Nightingale and child, and Mrs. Fraser and her son, who were under his charge, Captain R. W. Pooler and son, and Mr. William Robertson, all of Georgia, Barney and Soloman, of the crew, and two colored women. By direction of the mate, two of the crew launched one of the deck boats and got into her; but as, from her long exposure to the sun, her seams were all open, she instantly filled, and Mr. Hibbert removed the men to his boat. “The boats met, when those in the second proposed to Mr. Hibbert to strike out for the land, as it had on board as many as it could with any safety carry. This he de¬clined to do, as he said he was determined to stay by the wreck till daylight, and had yet room for four persons. Both boats then continued to row around the wreck until the mate's boat had picked up as many as she could carry, when Mr. Hibbert yielded to the propriety of consulting the safety of those in the boats, by going to the land, as their further stay would endanger them, without affording any aid to their suffering friends; and they left the wreck at three o'clock, A. M. The boats took a north-west course, being favored by a heavy sea and strong breeze from the south-east. “At twelve o'clock they made the land, and at three, P. M., were near the beach. Mr. Hibbert then waited until the second boat got up, and informed them that those in the boat refused to row any further, and insisted on landing. Mr. Cooper united with him in protesting against the meas¬ure, as, from the heavy breakers which were dashing on the beach, as far as the eye could reach, it was obviously one of great peril. Being overruled, they submitted to make the attempt. The mate, who had previously taken the two col¬ored women from the second boat, then proposed to lead the way, and requested Mr. Cooper to lie off, until he had effected a landing, and was prepared to aid the ladies and children. The first boat then entered the surf, and disap-peared for several minutes, from those in the other boat, having been instantly filled with water. Six of the persons in her, viz., Mr. Hibbert, Mr. Swift, Mr. Tappan, Mr. Leuch¬tenberg, and West and Brown, of the crew, landed in safety. An old gentleman, supposed to be Judge Rochester, formerly of Buffalo, N. Y., Mr. Bird, of Georgia, the two col¬ored women, and a boat hand, were drowned. The other boat continued to keep off until about sunset, when, finding the night approaching, and there being no appearance of aid, or change in the wind, which was blowing freshly in to the land, and the persons in the boat having previously re¬fused to attempt to row any farther, Mr. Cooper reluctantly consented to attempt the landing. “Before the attempt, it was thought necessary, to, prevent the infant of Mrs. Nightingale, which was only seven months old, from being lost, to lash it to her person, which was done. Just as the sun was setting, the bow of the boat was turned to the shore; and, Mr. Cooper sculling, and the two men at the oars, she was pulled into the breakers. She rose with¬out difficulty upon the first breaker, but the second, combing out with great violence, struck the oar from the hand of one of the rowers. The boat was thus thrown into the trough of the sea, and the succeeding breaker struck her broadside, and turned her bottom upwards. Upon regaining the surf, Mr. Cooper laid hold of the boat, and soon discovered that the rest of the party, with the exception of Mrs. Nightin¬gale, were making for the shore: of her, for a few moments, he saw nothing, but presently feeling something like the dress of a female touching his foot, he again dived down, and was fortunate enough to grasp her by the hair. The surf continued to break over them with great violence; but after a struggle, in which their strength spent its last efforts, they reached the shore, utterly worn out with fatigue, hun¬ger, thirst, and the most intense overwhelming excitement…Besides this, the ladies and children were suffering from the cold. The party proceeded a short distance from the shore, where the ladies lay down on the side of a sand hill, and their protectors covered them and their children with sand, to prevent them from perishing. Meantime, some of the party went in quest of aid, and about ten o'clock at night the whole party found a kind and hospitable reception, shelter, food, and clothing, under the roof of Mr. Siglee Redd, of Onslow county…. “The forward part of the boat, after the separation, con¬tinued to float. On it were Major Heath and twenty-one others. It is impossible to convey, in words, anything more than a faint idea of the suffering they underwent, or of the many harrowing and distressing circumstances which oc¬curred during the four days they were on the wreck….[when they were rescued by] the Henry Camerdon bound from Philadelphia to Wilmington, N.C…. “During the morning, Major Heath and his company had seen another portion of the wreck, with several persons on it; and as soon as the captain of the Henry Camerdon was told of it, he sailed in the direction it had been seen, and shortly after came in sight. On this wreck, which was a part of the promenade deck, were Miss Rebecca Lamar, Mrs. Noah Smith, of Augusta, Master Charles Lamar, of Savannah, and Mr. Robert Hutchinson, also of Savannah. The two ladies were much exhausted, and Master Lamar was almost dead…. “Captain Hubbard is of opinion, with most of those who remained upon the wreck, that the boat in which the mate, Hibbert, escaped, might have been so employed as to have saved the lives of nearly all on board…. “The cause of the disaster was obviously the neglect of the second engineer, in permitting the water to boil off, or to blow off, in the starboard boiler, and then letting in a full supply of water on the heated copper. One of the hands saved, had, a few moments before the explosion, examined the steam gauge, and found it fluctuating rapidly, from twenty-six to twenty-nine inches. Another had just left the engine-room, when he heard the shrill whistling sound of high pressure steam, as the engineer tried the water cock; in a few seconds the explosion took place. Captain Dubois was seen asleep in the wheel-house, ten minutes before the explosion. “The number of passengers on board was about one hun¬dred and fifty: and the officers and crew numbered thirty-three. The whole number saved were fifty-nine, viz., on the two large portions of the wreck, thirty; in the two boats, commanded by the mate, Mr. Hibberd, and Mr. Cooper, sixteen; in the boat of Captain Hubbard and Mr. B. Lamar, five; on other small rafts, eight.” (Ellms, Charles. “The Melancholy Account of the Loss of the Steam-Packet Pulaski, off Cape Lookout, on the Coast of North Carolina, Occasioned by the Explosion of the Steam Boiler.” The Tragedy of the Seas, 1841, pp. 161-190.) Heyl: “Pulaski. 1837-1838 “Builder: John A. Robb (?), Baltimore, Md. …. “Hull: Wood 203' x 25'1 x 13'5. 687 Tons. …. “Owners: Savannah & Charleston Steam Packet Co., 1837-38. “The Pulaski was a large steamer for the period of time she was constructed in. The captain’s office was separated from the ladies’ cabin by a twenty-foot lobby or space. On both sides of the office were closets for line, china, glass-ware and the pantry; access to them being thru a five-foot passage. Aft of these closets, but also opening onto the passage, were two state-rooms, and back of these was space for the machinery. Along the outsides of the cabins on both sides of the hull were projections or guards, an extension of the main deck. After having been delivered from Baltimore, the Pulaski left Savannah on May 2, 1838 on her first trip to Baltimore, with a stop at Charleston. The fares were $35. – for the entire passage and $30. – for the Charleston-Baltimore trip. Meals were included in the passage price. “On June 13, 1838 the Pulaski left Savannah with ninety passengers, taking on sixty-five more at Charleston. During the night of June 13/14, when about forty-five miles south from Cape Lookout, the starboard boiler exploded, tore up the promenade deck and wrecked the starboard side amidships, as well as demolishing the bulk-head between the forward cabin and the boiler-room, the pantry and the bar-room. The hull very quickly broke into three parts, which, with the exception of the bow section, sank within forty minutes. The bow remained afloat for several days until sighted by the schooner Henry Cameron of Philadelphia, which picked up the survivors clinging to it. Thirteen were picked up by the schooner, while sixteen more saved themselves in the Pulaski’s two boats and thirty others safely floated to shore on two rafts, which had been hurriedly built as the steamer was sinking. However ninety-five lives were lost.” (Heyl, Erik. “Pulaski. 1837-1838,” p. 353 in Early American Steamers. Buffalo, NY: 1953.) Jones: “The sinking of the passenger steamship Pulaski is the Lowcountry’s 19th century version of the sinking of the Titanic. While the loss of life in the Pulaski disaster was only 1/10th of that of the Titanic, they both possess many parallel themes, such as the opulence of the vessels, the wealth and social status of passengers, eventual inquests and ultimate changes to maritime regulations. “The steamship Pulaski was built by Messrs. Ross in Baltimore, Md., and was a 680-ton side-wheeler, 206 feet long with a 25-foot beam and displacing 687 tons of water. It possessed three cabins with berths holding 116 passengers and four staterooms for family use and held a crew of 37 and 150 to 160 passengers. Constructed to serve as a passenger ship on the Eastern seaboard of the United States, it was hailed as a modern technological marvel in the maritime industry. An 1838 ad in the Georgian read: ‘No expense has been spared to have a vessel to answer the purpose she is intended to accomplish. Her engine, one of the best ever made in this country, (is) of 225 horsepower. Her boilers are of the best copper, and great strength. Her qualities as a sea vessel for ease, safety, and speed are superior to any steamer that ever floated on the American waters.’…. “…the best account of its sinking and the plight of its survivors in the aftermath would come from a survivor named Rebecca Lamar of Savannah. Lamar would provide a detailed account of the events that led up to the explosion of one of the ship’s boilers, literally ripping the vessel in half, and the aftermath that left the initial survivors fighting for their lives for four days until their rescue.” (Jones. “The Sinking of the Pulaski: Part I.” BlufftonToday.com. May 1, 2006.) Lamar: “June 14th, midnight: Simultaneously with the sound we were on our feet…. A man came along, the only one we saw, begging us to go on the upper side to help balance the boat. We asked him what was the matter. ‘There has been a collision, the boat is leaking, and I want someone to help bail her…’ We did not move, still waiting for my brother…. At last my brother came…. All called out ‘What is the matter?’ ‘I don’t know. Stay here. I will run and see.’ He returned pale and trembling, scarcely able to articulate the words, ‘The boiler has burst, the boat is sinking, and we shall be lost in five minutes.’…. soon we were [all] on the upper deck…. They [Mr. Huntington and my brother]… stripped the covering from one of the boats….Instantly I felt a blow on my chest and the sensation of drowning - the blow and the drowning were so simultaneous that it seemed but one moment….The steamer had suddenly parted, the machinery went to the bottom and the two ends stood up out of the water. The boiler in bursting had driven the planks out of the right side of the steamer. The water running in [had] caused her to tremble and careen to our side, and [had] prevented the men in the bow from reaching the ladies cabin…. “The water was so buoyant that as I rose upon a wave I could catch [sight] of struggling people around me….Soon [I] floated against something that resisted the touch and I saw the stern of the steamer from which I had been precipitated. I caught a stanchion, [and] braced my foot against another, my head downward, lying on the extreme edge, with the waves lapping partly over me. I was so exhausted I could not think…. “14th of Jun. The night was nearly spent; many had come on the wreck; all had found places and quiet now reigned around…. “The morning of Saturday - the air was chilly in the early morning, but we were always glad to see the light, yet disappointed to see in the far distance sails - so many sails - going from us. Yet it was more comfortable than if we had seen none, and I comforted myself by hoping that the next would be coming towards us…. “Monday June 18th…. [We saw] sails at a distance bearing away from us…. “June 19th, Tuesday morning….was aroused by Mrs. Smith, shaking me by the arm and calling me to look there, pointing to an object not far off. I saw a vessel, her sails all spread and filled, her hull painted black, and a dazzling sun shining on her canvas, making it look to my eyes as white as snow. I exclaimed, ‘How beautiful, how beautiful!’ and immediately relapsed [into] profound unconsciousness. To me she was only a thing of beauty. It was the schooner Henry Cameron from Philadelphia, Captain Eli Davis, Commander. All the living were rescued from the wreck, the dead were left. I recall not a moment after seeing the ship, yet to this day I often recall the image of the ship, at will, and its beauty…. “So far as I could ascertain there were 131 passengers, 54 saved, 77 lost.” (Lamar, Wreck of the Pulaski.) Lytle and Holdcamper: “Pulaski…687 [tons]…exploded…6-14-1838…New River Inlet, N.C. 141 [lives lost]. (Lytle, William M. and Holdcamper. Merchant Steam Vessels of the United States, 1807-1868. Steamship Historical Society America. 1953, p. 220.) Morrison: “In 1837 a company in Savannah had built in Baltimore the ‘Pulaski’ for service between Savannah and Baltimore, stopping at Charleston, of 687 tons, the largest of the coast-wise vessels at that time. This vessel, when on her third trip from Savannah, on June 14th, 1838, and when about 12 hours out of Charleston, met with a frightful accident from the explosion of one of her boilers, from want of skill by the engineer on duty, the vessel becoming a complete wreck, breaking in two pieces about an hour after the explosion and sinking with the loss of about 110 persons.” (Morrison, John Harrison. History of American Steam Navigation. 1908, p. 442.) South Carolina Historical Society: “….Joseph Edings Seabrook, baptized Jan. 19, 1825; he and his brother Robert were on the ill-fated Pulaskie [sic], which was lost off the coast of North Carolina on the night of June 14, 1838; Robert Seabrook was saved, but Joseph Edings was among the many lost. The Pulaskie was a new steamer, going between Baltimore, Charleston, and Savannah. She left Charleston on the morning of June 14 for Baltimore, with over 170 people, passengers and crew; most of her passengers were from Savannah, Edisto and Charleston. The disaster was caused by thee explosion of one of her boilers, and she sank in an hour after; not more than sixty of her passengers and crew were saved.” (The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine, Vol. XVII, No. 1, January, 1916, Charleston, SC, p. 68.) White: “A gentleman who was on board of this ill-fated steamer, has kindly furnished us with the following interesting narrative, entitled ‘A Memorandum of the Incidents of One Day at Sea.’ It was prepared for the sole use of his family, and it was only after earnest solicitation on the part of the author that he consented to furnish him with a copy for insertion among the ‘Historical Collections of Georgia.’ That it will be read with the most thrilling interest, we cannot entertain a doubt. The steam-packet Pulaski, Captain Dubois, left Savannah at eight o’clock on Wednesday morning, the 13th of June, 1838, with about ninety passengers, and a crew of thirty-seven persons. She arrived at Charleston the same afternoon and departed the next morning at six o’clock for Baltimore, with about sixty-five additional passengers. Of the passengers about forty-five were females, and from fifteen to twenty were children. As it was the period of the year when the usual summer migration from the South to the North was at its height, and as the Pulaski was a favourite boat, particularly in Savannah, the passengers consisted of some of the most respectable persons of the two States of Georgia and South Carolina, embracing, in several instances, every, and in many, most of the members of distinguished families. “Attracted by the reputation of the packet, the shortness of the voyage, and the circumstance that it would embrace ‘only one night at sea,’ many persons had come to Savannah from distant points to embark in the Pulaski. Among them may be particularly mentioned Judge Rochester, of New-York, from Pensacola, and a party of eleven persons from Florida, consisting of the Rev. Mr. Woart, lady and child, the Rev. Mr. _____, Dr. Stewart, lady and child, Mrs. Taylor, Mr. Stewart, and Mr. McCrea. From Savannah were Mr. G. B. Lamar, with his wife and seven children, being every member of his immediate family; Mr. Parkman, with three daughters and a son, Mr. Hutchinson, wife and two children, Dr. Cumming and lady, Mrs. William Mackay and two children, with many others…. (White, Rev. George. Historical Collections of Georgia: Containing the Most Interesting Facts, Traditions, Biographical Sketches, Anecdotes, Etc. “Loss of the Steamer Pulaski,” 1855.) Wiard: “The cause of the accident was determined as ‘low water in the starboard boiler,’ there being but twenty-six inches (13 lbs.) of steam carried at the time of the accident.” [Does not note source.] Newspapers June 18: “Heart-Rending Catastrophe.” “Loss of the Steam Packet ‘Pulaski,’ with a crew of 37, and 150 or 160 Passengers.” “On Thursday the 14th inst. the steamer Pulaski, Capt. Dubois, left Charleston for Baltimore with about 150 passengers, of whom about 50 were ladies. “At about 11 o’clock on the same night, while off the North Carolina coast, say 30 miles from land, weather moderate and night dark – the starboard boiler exploded and the vessel was lost, with all the passengers and crew except those whose names are enumerated among the saved in the list to be found below. “We have gathered the following facts from the 1st mate, Mr. Hibbert, who had charge of the boat at the time. Mr. Hibbert states that at 10 o’clock at night he was called to the command of the boat, and that he was pacing the promenade deck in front of the steerage house – that he found himself shortly after upon the main deck, lying between the mast and side of the boat – that upon the return of consciousness, he had a confused idea of having heard an explosion, something like that of gunpowder, immediately before he discovered himself in his then situation – he was induced, therefore, to rise and walk aft, where he discovered that the boat midships was blown entirely to pieces; that the head of the starboard boiler was blown out, and the top turn open – that the timbers and planks on the starboard side were forced asunder, and that the boat took in water whenever she rolled in that direction. He became immediately aware of the horrors of their situation, and the danger of letting the passengers know that the boat was sinking, before lowering the small boats. He proceeded therefore to do this. Upon dropping the boat, he as asked his object, and he replied that it was to pass around the Steamer to ascertain her condition. Before doing this, however, he took in a couple of men, he ordered the other boats to be lowered and two were shortly put into the water, but they leaked so much in consequence of the long exposure to the sun, that one of them sunk after a fruitless attempt to bail her. “He had in the interim taken several from the water until the number made ten. In the other boat afloat there were eleven. While they were making a fruitless attempt to bail the small boat, the Pulaski went down with a dreadful crash – an about 45 minutes after the explosion. Both boats now insisted upon Mr. Hibbert directing their course to the shore, but he refused their remonstrations replying that he would not abandon the spot until daylight. At about 3 o’clock in the morning, they started in the midst [? unclear] of the wailing of the hopeless beings who were floating around in every direction upon pieces of the wreck to seek land, which was about thirty miles distant. After pulling about 13 hours, the persons in both oats became tired and insisted that Mr. Hibbert should land; this he opposed, thinking it safest to proceed along the coast and to enter some one of its numerous inlets, but he was at length forced to yield to the general desire, and to attempt a landing upon the beach, a little east of Stump Inlet. He advised Mr. Cooper, of Ga. Who had command of the other boat, and a couple of ladies, with the children under his charge, to wait until his boat had first landed, as he apprehended much danger in the attempt, and should they succeed, they might assist him and the ladies and children. There were eleven persons in the mate’s boat (having taken two black women from Mr. Cooper’s). Of these, two passengers, one of the crew, and the two negro women were drowned, and six gained the shore. After waiting for a signal, which he received from the mate, Mr. Cooper and his companions landed in about three hours after the first boat, in safety. They then proceeded a short distance across Stump Sound, to Mr. Redd’s on Onslow county; where they remained from Friday evening until Sunday morning, and then started for Wilmington. The mate and two passengers reached here this morning (the 18th June) about 9 o’clock. “Thus have we hurriedly sketched the most painful catastrophe that has ever occurred upon the American coat. Youth, age, and infancy have here been cut ff in a single night, and found a common death under the same billow….” [Provides a long list of people who departed from Charleston, presumably most of them Charleston or other South Carolina residents.) “Persons drowned in landing. Mr. Bird of Savannah, Georgia. An old gentleman from Buffalo, N.Y. and recently from Pensacola. A young man name unknown. Jenny, a colored woman. Priscilla, a colored woman, stewardess.” (Savannah Republican, GA. “Heart-Rending Catastrophe.” 6-20-1838, p. 2.) June 19: “Office of the Courier, Charleston, June 19 – 8 A.M. “Postscript.” “Awful Steamboat Accident!!! “Loss of the Steam Packet Pulaski, and the Destruction of Between 160 and 170 Lives. “We have only time to give the following extracts of a letter, which we believe contains all the material facts. “Ten miles south of New River Inlet, N.C. June 16th, 1838. “Knowing the interest that will be felt in the fate of the Pulaski, I am induced to assume the painful duty of communicating to you the awful calamity which has befallen her. “At 11 o’clock on the night of the 14th inst. one of her boilers exploded with such violence as to destroy the whole of the midships of the boat, including so much of the hull, that the water rushed in with such violence as to sink her in three quarters of an hour. “Two small yawls with 23 persons, after remaining three quarters of an hour near the wreck to pick up as many of the sufferers as they could safely carry, succeeded in landing near this place yesterday evening after losing five of the number from the swamping of both of the boats in passing through the breakers. “The destruction of the Pulaski took place about forty-five miles south of Cape Look Out, and thirty from land. When we left the wreck we still heard voices of many persons floating on parts of it, and believe that many might have been saved, if any vessel passed that spot next day. Capt. Dubois and Pearson were probably destroyed by the explosion, as they were not seen or heard of when we left. “Mr. Hibbert, the first mate, who escaped in one of the boats, displayed coolness, judgement, and great humanity, and only left the wreck when it became certain that his further stay would endanger the lives of them in the boats, without benefitting the other sufferers. “The boat broke in the centre, soon after commenced filling, the forward part going down instantly, and the after part settling slowly for half an hour, the ladies who had taken refuge in the roof of their cabin were washed off as the stern went down. “Mr. Hibbert proceeds immediately to Wilmington to procure a steam boat of some other vessel to go to the point where the accident occurred, in the hope of picking up some of the sufferers. He requests you to communicate his safety to his family.” (The Georgian. Savannah. “Postscript. Awful Steamboat Accident!!!” 6-21-1838, p. 4, col. 2.) June 21: “We hasten to lay before our Readers all the information received in regard to a calamity which has befallen our city, and one, the parallel to which, we have never before been called on to announce….Our city has sustained a loss which years cannot efface. Many families have been suddenly whelmed in sorrow, and mourn the valued companions and bosom friends of yesterday, while our whole city sympathize, deeply sympathize with the survivors. “Other sections of our State, as well as our sister city – Charleston, are great sufferers on this melancholy occasion. The boat was uncommonly full, near sixty having, probably, embarked at Charleston – besides the large number from this city. “Some of our most respected and valuable citizens, principally engaged in commercial pursuits, and others retired from business, have we fear, met a watery grave, for many of them having most of, if not all the members of their families with them, they were compelled to share their fate….” (Georgian, Savannah. “Awful Calamity.”6-21-1838, p. 4, col. 2.) Sources Berman, Bruce D. Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks. Boston: Mariners Press Inc., 1972. Ellms, Charles. The Tragedy of the Seas or, Sorrow on the Ocean, Lake, and River, from Shipwreck, Plague, Fire, and Famine. Philadelphia: Carey & Hart, 1841. Digitized by Google; accessed 2-14-2021 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=R6xS3DM_qVAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+tragedy+of+the+seas&cd=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false Gentile, Gary. Shipwrecks of North Carolina – from Hatteras Inlet South. Philadelphia: Gary Gentile Productions, 1992. Georgian, Savannah. “Awful Calamity.”6-21-1838, p. 4, col. 2. Accessed 2-15-2021 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/savannah-daily-georgian-jun-21-1838-p-4/ Heyl, Erik. Early American Steamers. Buffalo, NY: 1953. Accessed 12-28-2020 at: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015024193131&view=1up&seq=6&q1=%22admiral%20dupont%22 Howland, Southworth Allen. Steamboat Disasters and Railroad Accidents in the United States (Revised and Improved). Worcester: Warren Lazell. 1843. Jones, Robert. “The Sinking of the Pulaski: Part I.” BlufftonToday.com. May 1, 2006. Accessed at: http://www.blufftontoday.com/node/5563 Lamar, Rebecca. Wreck of the Pulaski. Accessed 11-25-2008 at: http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:WluD5hHBDDAJ:hometown.aol.com/eleanorcol/WreckPulaski.html+Rebecca+Lamar&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=10&gl=us 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=7 Morrison, John Harrison. History of American Steam Navigation. New York: W. F. Sametz & Co., Inc., 1908, 653 pages. Digitized by Google. Accessed at: http://books.google.com/books?id=Q5tDAAAAIAAJ&printsec=toc&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false 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. Savannah Republican, GA. “Heart-Rending Catastrophe.” 6-20-1838, p. 2. Accessed 2-14-2021 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/savannah-republican-jun-20-1838-p-2/ Simonds, W. E. (Editor). The American Date Book. Kama Publishing Co., 1902, 211 pages. Google digital preview accessed 9-8-2017 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=JuiSjvd5owAC South Carolina Historical Society. The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine, Vol. XVII, No. 1, January, 1916, Charleston, SC. Digitized by Google. Accessed 2-14-2021 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=J8Gq3kWDdFAC Stick, David. Graveyard of the Atlantic: Shipwrecks of the North Carolina Coast. 1952. Google preview accessible at: https://books.google.com/books?id=jjZXyzPrhpgC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false The Georgian. Savannah. “Postscript. Awful Steamboat Accident!!!” 6-21-1838, p. 4, col. 2. Accessed 2-15-2021: https://newspaperarchive.com/savannah-daily-georgian-jun-21-1838-p-4/ United States Congress, House of Representatives. Hearings Before the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, United States Congress (74th Congress, 1st Session). “Safety of Life and Property at Sea.” Especially table “Principal marine disasters since 1831, compiled by Adele I. Springer, New York City. Washington: U.S. Gov. Printing Office, 1935. Accessed 8-9-2020 at: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Safety_of_Life_and_Property_at_Sea/l9xH_9sUuVAC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq White, Rev. George. Historical Collections of Georgia: Containing the Most Interesting Facts, Traditions, Biographical Sketches, Anecdotes, Etc. New York: Pudney & Russell, Publishers, 1855. Accessed 2-15-2021 at: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=yale.39002004771672&view=1up&seq=11 Also accessible at: https://books.google.com/books?id=DuZ3XCZ9D-8C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=true Wiard, Norman. The Cause of Boiler Explosions, etc. Philadelphia: Stein & Jones, 1868, p. 12. Digitized by Google; accessed 2-14-2021 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=Xj0OAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false Of Possible Interest Charlotte Observer [NC] via the Spartanburg [SC] Herald-Journal. “1838 shipwreck of ‘Pulaski’ from Savannah was ‘the Titanic of its time.’ Divers just made an eerie discovery.” 6-20-2018. Accessed 2-15-2021 at: https://www.savannahnow.com/news/20180620/1838-shipwreck-of-pulaski-from-savannah-was-the-titanic-of-its-time-divers-just-made-eerie-discovery

— ~4,000  Cherokee Nation Cultural Resource Center. “Brief History of the Trail of Tears.”

— ~4,000  Coggins. Tennessee Tragedies: Natural, Technological, and Societal… 2011, p. xxix.

—   4,000  Foreman, Grant. Indian Removal. Norman: University of OK Press, 1932, p. 312.[2]

— ~4,000  Heslep / Shaw. “Environment: The Trail of Tears and its Effect on Organisms,” p. 37.

— >4,000  Howard & Allen. “Stress and death in the settlement of Indian Territory.” 1975, 354.[3]

— ~4,000  Knight. “Cherokee society under the stress of removal, 1820-1846.” 1954-55, p. 354.[4]

— >4,000  McClary. “Trail of Tears, or Nunna-da-ul-tsun-yi.” TN Encyclopedia of History…

— >4,000  Mooney, James. Myths of the Cherokee. 1900, republished 1982; in Thornton p. 74.

—   4,000  Thornton, Russell. The Cherokees: A Population History. U. of Nebraska, 1990, 74.[5]

—   2,000  England. A Demographic Study of the Cherokee Nation (Ph.D. dis.), U of OK, 1974.[6]

—   2,000  Thomas, William H., attorney for Eastern Cherokee (by end of 1838).[7]

—   1,200  Hayn and Grable (Eds.). Trail of Tears Curriculum Guide. Little Rock: 2010, p. 37.[8]

 

Cherokee Nation: “….White resentment of the Cherokee had been building and reached a pinnacle following the discovery of gold in northern Georgia. This discovery was made just after the creation and passage of the original Cherokee Nation constitution and establishment of a Cherokee Supreme Court. Possessed by “gold fever” and a thirst for expansion, many white communities turned on their Cherokee neighbors. The U.S. government ultimately decided it was time for the Cherokees to be “removed”; leaving behind their farms, their land and their homes.

“President Andrew Jackson’s military command and almost certainly his life were saved thanks to the aid of 500 Cherokee allies at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814. Unbelievably, it was Jackson who authorized the Indian Removal Act of 1830 following the recommendation of President James Monroe in his final address to Congress in 1825. Jackson, as president, sanctioned an attitude that had persisted for many years among many white immigrants. Even Thomas Jefferson, who often cited the Great Law of Peace of the Iroquois Confederacy as the model for the U.S. Constitution, supported Indian Removal as early as 1802.

“The displacement of native people was not wanting for eloquent opposition. Senators Daniel Webster and Henry Clay spoke out against removal. The Reverend Samuel Worcester, missionary to the Cherokees, challenged Georgia’s attempt to extinguish Indian title to land in the state, actually winning his case before the Supreme Court.

“Worcester vs. Georgia, 1832 and Cherokee Nation vs. Georgia, 1831 are considered the two most influential legal decisions in Indian law. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled for Georgia in the 1831 case, but in Worcester vs. Georgia, the court affirmed Cherokee sovereignty. President Andrew Jackson arrogantly defied the decision of the court and ordered the removal, an act that established the U.S. government’s precedent for the future removal of many Native Americans from their ancestral homelands.

“The U.S. government used the Treaty of New Echota in 1835 to justify the removal. The treaty, signed by about 100 Cherokees known as the Treaty Party, relinquished all lands east of the Mississippi River in exchange for land in Indian Territory and the promise of money, livestock, various provisions, tools and other benefits.

“When these pro-removal Cherokee leaders signed the Treaty of New Echota, they also signed their own death warrants, since the Cherokee Nation Council had earlier passed a law calling for the death of anyone agreeing to give up tribal land. The signing and the removal led to bitter factionalism and ultimately to the deaths of most of the Treaty Party leaders once the Cherokee arrived in Indian Territory.

“Opposition to the removal was led by Chief John Ross, a mixed-blood of Scottish and one-eighth Cherokee descent. The Ross party and most Cherokees opposed the New Echota Treaty, but Georgia and the U.S. government prevailed and used it as justification to force almost all of the 17,000 Cherokees from their southeastern homeland.

“Under orders from President Jackson the U.S. Army began enforcement of the Removal Act. The Cherokee were rounded up in the summer of 1838 and loaded onto boats that traveled the Tennessee, Ohio, Mississippi and Arkansas Rivers into Indian Territory. Many were held in prison camps awaiting their fate.

“An estimated 4,000 died from hunger, exposure and disease. The journey became a cultural memory as the “trail where they cried” for the Cherokees and other removed tribes. Today it is widely remembered by the general public as the “Trail of Tears”. The Oklahoma chapter of the Trail of Tears Association has begun the task of marking the graves of Trail survivors with bronze memorials….” (Cherokee Nation Cultural Resource Center. “Brief History of the Trail of Tears.”)

Coggins: “Of 14,000 Cherokees who were forced to march westward during the infamous Trail of Tears of 1838-39, 4,000 are estimated to have died en route.[9] In their hast to drive the Native Americans as rapidly as possible through the cold and snows of that winter, U.S. soldiers gave them little time in which to bury their dead. Deaths occurred almost daily from exposure, exhaustion, disease, and starvation. The dead were interred in shallow and unmarked graves. There was no time for ceremony and little time for mourning. When daylight came, the men, women, and children were expected to begin moving again. Historical markers in Tennessee and other states have been erected along the various routes of the Trail of Tears to commemorate those who died in this tragic episode.” (Coggins, Allen R. Tennessee Tragedies: Natural, Technological, and Societal Disasters in the Volunteer State. 2011, pp. xxviii-xxix.)

Hayne and Grable: “To get around the Court’s ruling,[10] government officials signed a treaty with Cherokee leaders who favored relocation, even though they did not represent most of the Cherokee people. Under this treaty, the Cherokees were herded by the U.S. Army, like other nations before them, on a long and deadly march west. Of the 16,000 Cherokees forced to leave their homes, about 4,000 died on the march to the Indian Territory.”[11] (p. 37)

“…President Jackson ordered the removal of the Indians in 1838. Ordered to move on the Cherokee, General John Wool resigned his command in protest. His replacement, general Winfield Scott led over 7,000 men early that summer to begin the invasion of the Cherokee Nation and escort the Cherokee into stockades in Tennessee. From there, the Cherokee were forced to march to the new Indian Territory in Oklahoma. About 4,000 Cherokee died as a result of this forced march. They had minimal facilities, food, and protection along the way. The route they traversed and the journey itself became known as ‘The Trail of Tears’ or, as a direct translation from Cherokee, ‘The Trail Where They Cried’ (‘Nunna dual Tsuny’).” (p. 45)

“Of the 17,000 Cherokee Indians who were founded up for the westward migration in 1838, some 4,000[12] perished along the way or shortly after arrival in their new land. Most of the deaths were attributed to disease, although many of them died of exposure during the harsh winter.” (p. 66.) (Hayn and Grable (Eds.). Trail of Tears Curriculum Guide. Little Rock: 2010, p. 37.)

McClary: “The Trail of Tears (or Nunna-da-ul-tsun-yi in the Cherokee language: “the place where they cried”), next to the practice of black slavery, is arguably the most tragic story in Tennessee history. Covering the period from May 1838 to March 1839, the Trail of Tears was the federal government’s final, forceful effort to remove the Cherokees from the land on which they lived in upper Georgia and southeastern Tennessee….

“Compounding the problems of the Cherokees was the discovery of gold in Dahlonega, Georgia. Georgia officials immediately began devising a system of lotteries to distribute the Cherokee land and its supposed riches to white settlers. Suddenly denied the right to conduct tribal business under Georgia law, the Cherokees moved their capital to Red Clay, just across the Tennessee border. Not to be outdone, however, the Georgia governor allowed a minority group, led by Major Ridge, to gather at New Echota in December 1835 to sign a treaty ceding all eastern Cherokee holdings to the United States for $5 million and land west of the Mississippi River. Although the lawful Red Clay representatives protested the treaty through every legal channel, the U.S. Senate ratified the Treaty of New Echota on May 23, 1836, by a single vote.

“Accepting what they considered to be inevitable, Major Ridge and some other pragmatic Cherokees salvaged what they could and proceeded at their discretion to their new homeland. But the majority, led by John Ross, refused to believe the federal government would resort to force to remove them from their ancestral land.

“They were wrong. After two years of pleas and threats from various United States agencies, the roundup of the Cherokees began in May 1838 with seven thousand soldiers under the command of General Winfield Scott. The Cherokees were taken–young and old, poor and rich, along with their black slaves–with whatever possessions they could quickly gather before whites rushed in to claim their lottery winnings or to plunder what the unfortunate prisoners had been unable to take. The captives were taken to collection camps where most of them languished all summer while Indian representatives, most notably John Ross, and General Scott struggled with procedures for effecting their deportation.

“Originally the plan called for transporting the Cherokees by keel boats constructed for that purpose by the federal government. The proposed water route followed the Tennessee River to the Mississippi River, then up the Arkansas River to the new Cherokee territory. During the summer, three groups did leave by water from present-day Chattanooga, but they experienced great difficulty because drought had reduced the river levels. As finally organized by Ross, the mass of the Cherokees traveled by land, the first group leaving on August 28, 1838. They were followed at intervals by twelve other groups, each numbering approximately one thousand Cherokees and blacks. The “Trail,” in fact, included three routes. One crossed Tennessee to Memphis, then moved along the Arkansas River to Cherokee land. A second route went from Fort Payne, Alabama, through West Tennessee to Missouri, then down through Arkansas to Oklahoma. The third progressed through Nashville to Kentucky, Illinois, and Missouri before dropping down near the northwestern corner of Arkansas.

“Escorted by soldiers on horseback, the Cherokees were not prepared for the weather or the trauma of their trek. Lacking adequate clothing and food, often moving in deplorable weather conditions, more and more fell along the way. Each campsite served as a new burial ground, while the survivors moved on. Of the original estimated fourteen thousand marchers, it is believed that over four thousand died before reaching their destination….

“In 1987 the U.S. Congress established the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail, which is administered by the National Park Service with the cooperation of a wide range of interested parties, including the Cherokee Nation. The Trial of Tears Association, a nonprofit organization with headquarters in Little Rock, Arkansas, was founded in 1993 to work closely with the National Park Service in identifying and marking all of the land routes used in the forced march westward.”[13] (McClary, Ben Harris. “Trail of Tears, or Nunna-da-ul-tsun-yi.” Published 12-25-2009 and updated 2-28-2011 in Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, Version 2.0. Nashville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, online Edition © 2002 ~2015.)

Mooney (1900 and 1982): “It is difficult to arrive at any accurate statement of the number of Cherokee who died as a result of the Removal. According to the official figures those who removed under the direction of Ross lost over 1,600 on the journey. The proportionate mortality among these previously removed under military supervision was probably greater, as it was their suffering that led to the proposition of the Cherokee national officers to take charge of the emigration. Hundreds died in the stockades and the waiting camps, chiefly by reason of the rations furnished, which were of flour and other provisions to which they were unaccustomed and which they did not know how to prepare properly. Hundreds of others died soon after their arrival in Indian Territory, from sickness and exposure on the journey. Altogether it is asserted, probably with reason, that over 4,000 Cherokee died as the direct result of the removal.” (Mooney, James. Myths of the Cherokee. Nashville, TN: Charles and Randy Elder, 1900, republished 1982; Quoted in Thornton, pp. 73-74.)

Thornton: “Deaths were frequent during the journeys, from starvation, cold, hardship, deliberate killings, and accidents. According to Grant Foreman, many Cherokees also died from measles, cholera, dysentery, and whooping cough; other diseases included colds, influenza, diarrhea, fevers, and gonorrhea. Young children and the aged suffered particularly (Foreman 1932:262-63, 283)[14]: ‘A very small percentage of the old and infirm, and the very young survived the hardships of that ghastly undertaking.’ (Foreman 1934:282).[15]

“Deaths did not cease when the Cherokees arrived at new lands in Indian Territory; to the contrary, they likely intensified. Apparently most migrants did reach their new homelands, but a series of epidemic diseases struck and a great number died, since they had no doctors or medicine (Doran 1975-76:497;[16] see also Young 1979:135-37, no. 13).[17] Seemingly one of the diseases was smallpox: on December 14, 1838, T. Hartley Crawford, head of the Office of Indian Affairs, wrote to J. R. Poinsett, the secretary of war, about an epidemic of smallpox among the Cherokees and other Indians in Indian Territory:

A recently received letter states that the small-pox still prevails among the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Cherokees, Creeks, and Seminoles, and that its ravages, at the latest dates, were not arrested on the upper Missouri. The measures taken heretofore have, no doubt, saved many lives, and been useful in limiting the spread of this dreadful disease…. (New American State Papers [1789-1860] 1972, 3:126-27).”

Sources

Cherokee Nation Cultural Resource Center. “Brief History of the Trail of Tears.” Accessed 8-13-2015 at: http://www.cherokee.org/AboutTheNation/History/TrailofTears/ABriefHistoryoftheTrailofTears.aspx

Coggins, Allen R. Tennessee Tragedies: Natural, Technological, and Societal Disasters in the Volunteer State. Knoxville, University of Tennessee Press, 2011. Google preview accessed 8-13-2015 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=SfK6aBuqohQC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=true

Hayn, Judith A. and Cheryl R. Grable (Eds.), Jean M. Kiekel, Ast. Ed., M. Merritt, Tech. Ed. Trail of Tears Curriculum Guide. Little Rock, AR: Sequoya National Research Center, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, 5-18-2010 modification, 160 pages. Accessed 8-23-2015 at: http://ualr.edu/sequoyah/uploads/2010/05/Trail_of_Tears.pdf

Heslep, Jodie (LISA Academy, Little Rock), and Sherrie Shaw (Graduate Student, University of Arkansas at Little Rock). “Environment: The Trail of Tears and its Effect on Organisms,” p. 37 in Hayn and Grable (Eds.). Trail of Tears Curriculum Guide. Little Rock: 2010.

McClary, Ben Harris. “Trail of Tears, or Nunna-da-ul-tsun-yi.” Published 12-25-2009 and updated 2-28-2011 in Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, Version 2.0. Nashville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, online Edition © 2002 ~2015. Accessed 8-13-2015 at: http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=1394

Thornton, Russell. The Cherokees: A Population History. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990. Google preview accessed 8-23-2015 at: https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=1GX1A5Gx_IcC&oi=fnd&pg=PR11&dq=cherokee+removal+fatalities&ots=nSXNbinSr-&sig=oj77XavEvGmAgcGMa-1nNrykzXk#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

[1] Also referred to as Cherokee Trail of Tears as well as a “forced-march” relocation. Geographic area of coverage comes from sources in Narrative document and map in Thornton (1990) from Morris, Goins and McReynolds ([1965] 1986:20), entitled “The Trail of Tears.” Shows two Cherokee relocation routes from  area encompassing north/northwest GA, southwest NC, southeast TN and northeast AL. One route is northwest through TN into KY, westward to southern IL, then down into southeastern MO, into northern Ark. and then westward into OK. Second route was westward through TN and AR to OK.

[2] Cited in Thornton (1990, p. 74), quoting Foreman to effect that “all told, 4,000 died during the course of capture and detention in temporary stockades and the removal itself…”

[3] R. Palmer Howard and Virginia E. Allen article published in Chronicles of Oklahoma 53, 1975, pp. 65-77. Cited by Thornton (1990, p. 74).

[4] Article by Oliver Knight in Chronicles of Oklahoma, 1954-55, 32:414-418. Cited by Thornton (1990, 74) quoting Knight: “By the time the transplantation was completed in 1839, approximately four thousand Cherokees had died.”

[5] “The figure of 4,000 deaths directly related to removal is generally accepted by more recent scholars.” Thornton, after several pages of examination of sources and their sources and his own analytical attempt to derive losses based on population estimates, concludes “…mortality from the Trail of Tears, including the first year in Indian Territory particularly, seems even more severe than heretofore realized.” (page 76)

[6] Cited in Thornton, p. 74.

[7] Cited in Thornton, p. 73. Thornton writes that in the words of Thomas “At the time the emigration closed, in 1838, it was ascertained that at the places the Cherokee were collected for emigration, and when on their journey to the west, about 2,000 died, and thereby diminishing the number, embraced in the census, from 16,737 to 14,737” (New American State Papers [1789-1860] 1972, 11:778). Thornton writes: “This, of course, takes no account of those who died after the removal, say, during the initial year of their relocation in Indian Territory.

[8] This figure is given in a footnote after Heslep and Shaw write of 4,000 deaths. The editors write, without citing sources, that “Recent research indicates that 1,200 people died on the Trail of Tears.”

[9] Cites: Ben Harris McClary. “Trail of Tears, or nunna-da-ul-tsun-yi,” in Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture (Carroll Van West, ed.). Nashville: Tennessee Historical Society and Rutledge Hill Press, 1998.

[10] Worcester v. Georgia, U.S. Supreme Court, John Marshall Chief Justice.

[11] Cites Holt, pp. 246-248. (The bibliography, however, does not have a listing under the name Holt.)

[12] “Editor’s note: Recent research indicates that 1,200 people died on the Trail of Tears, a lower number than older sources suggest. Unfortunately, most sources of information have not been updated.”

[13] Under Suggested Reading: John Ehle, Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation (1988); Louis Filler and Allen Guttmann, eds., The Removal of the Cherokee Nation (1977).

[14] Grant Foreman. Indian Removal. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1932.

[15] Grant Foreman. The Five Civilized Tribes. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1934.

[16]  Michael F. Doran. “Population statistics of nineteenth century Indian Territory.” Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. 53, 1975-76, pp. 492-515.

[17] The only Young in References section is: Mary Young. “Indian removal and the attack on tribal autonomy: The Cherokee case.” In Indians of the lower South: Past and Present, John K. Mahon (ed.), 125-142. Pensacola, FL: Gulf Coast History and Humanities Conference, 1975.

–376  Keating. A History of the Yellow Fever Epidemic… 1879, p. 86.

–376  U.S. Marine-Hospital Service. Annual Report…for the Fiscal Year 1885. 1896, p. 436.

 

Louisiana                   (>17)

—>17  New Orleans.                           Carrigan. The Saffron Scourge. 1961, p. 92.[1]

—  17  New Orleans     Aug 25 start    Keating 1879, p. 86; U.S. Marine-Hosp. Ser. 1896, p. 436.

 

NY Marine Hospital  (    8)               Keating 1879, p. 86; U.S. Marine-Hosp. Ser. 1896, p. 436.

 

South Carolina          (351)

–351  Charleston        Aug-Nov         Keating 1879, 86; Sternberg 1908, 719; USMHS 1896, 436

 

Sources

 

Carrigan, Jo Ann. The Saffron Scourge: A History of Yellow Fever in Louisiana, 1796-1905 (Doctoral Dissertation). Louisiana State University, LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses, 1961. Accessed 3-11-2018 at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1665&context=gradschool_disstheses

 

Keating, J. M. A History of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878 in Memphis, Tenn. Memphis, TN: Howard Association, 1879. Google preview accessed 3-16-2018 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=WEIJAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Sternberg, George M. (US Public Health Service, US Marine Hospital Service). “Yellow Fever:  History and Geographic Distribution.” Pages 715-722 in Stedman, Thomas L., M.D. (Ed.) Appendix to the Reference Handbook of the Medical Sciences. NY: William Wood & Co., 1908.  Google preview accessed 3-18-2018 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=3ezqX415M5wC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

United States Marine-Hospital Service, Treasury Department. Annual Report of the Supervising Surgeon-General of the Marine-Hospital Service of the United States for the Fiscal Year 1895 (Document No. 1811). Washington, DC: GPO, 1896. Google preview accessed 3-16-2018 at:  http://books.google.com/books?id=aTnxAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

 

 

 

[1] Carrigan writes in a footnote: “For many years, the only figures available for yellow fever mortality in the city are the figures for yellow fever deaths in Charity Hospital, indicated by a plus after the number [as is the case in 1835]. Presumably there were other deaths in New Orleans in private practice…”

-105 Rappaport and Fernandez-Partagas. The Deadliest Atlantic Tropical Cyclones, 1492-1994. 1995. –
–100 Cornell, James. The Great International Disaster Book (Third Edition). 1982, p. 395.
–100 Hause. Shipwrecks: Graveyard of the Atlantic, NC Coast. (Webpage)
–100 Putnam, G. P. (Ed.). The World’s Progress: A Dictionary of Dates. 1851, p. 602.
–100 Simonds. The American Date Book. 1902, p. 97.
— 96 Berman, Bruce D. Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks. 1972, p. 124.
— 96 Nash, Jay Robert. Darkest Hours. 1977, p. 679.
— 95 Gentile. Shipwrecks of North Carolina – from Hatteras Inlet South. 1992, p. 95.
— 95 Howland. Steamboat Disasters and Railroad Accidents in the United States. 1843, p. 13.
— 90 Barnes, Jay. Florida’s Hurricane History. Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 1998, p. 90.
— 90 Douglas, Hurricane, 1958, p. 203.
— 90 Dunn and Miller. Atlantic Hurricanes (Revised Edition). 1964, p. 311.
— 90 Ellms. The Tragedy of the Seas…, 1841, p. 59.
— 90 Hudgins. Tropical Cyclones Affecting North Carolina Since 1586. 2000.
— 90 Hughes. “Hurricanes Haunt Our History.” Weatherwise, Vol. 40, No. 3, 1987, 134-140.
— 90 Stick. Graveyard of the Atlantic: Shipwrecks of the North Carolina Coast. 1952, p. 23.

Narrative Information

Douglas on the Hurricane: Named for the British ship HMS Racer which encountered the storm in the Northwest Caribbean on September 28th. “It is remembered as one of the most destructive storms of the 19th century due to its extreme duration and 2000 mile long path of destruction.” (Roth, NWS Lake Charles, LA)

Douglas on the Home: Douglas on fate of the Home, October 9: “…Home was coming south on her third trip from New York to Charleston, crowded with more than ninety passengers. Water was already sloshing from the roughening sea in her hold. She was bucking tremendous waves off Hatteras the morning of the ninth, rolling and pitching so desperately the paddle wheels thrashed out of water. All the crew worked the pump, all the passengers bailed. Sea water put out the fires. She groped under sail. The captain thought he had passed Cape Hatteras and headed her west. At 10 P.M. she struck on the beach six miles from Ocracoke. There were only two life preservers. Almost all the women and children, herded together on the forecastle, drowned when the vessel began to break up. Only forth people from the ship survived.” (Douglas, Hurricane, 1958, p. 203)

Ellms: “On Saturday, the 7th October, 1837, at four o’clock, P. M., the steam-packet Home, commanded by Captain White, left New York for Charleston, S. C. Her company con¬sisted of between eighty and ninety passengers, and forty- three of the boat’s crew, including the officers; making in all about one hundred and thirty persons. The weather was fine, with a light breeze from the south-west. To shorten the distance, a skillful pilot took her through the Buttermilk Channel, and left her after passing Governor’s Island. “Captain White says….

…were abreast of Barnegat light on Sunday, between four and five o’clock, A. M. We con¬tinued with fine weather until towards noon, when the wind hauled north-east, with indications of a storm. In the after part of the day, the wind increased, occasioning a heavy sea. Between seven and eight o’clock, P. M., Mr. Hunt, the chief engineer, informed me that the feeder-pipe of the forward boiler had opened at the joint, so that it forced more of the water into the hold than into the boiler; con¬sequently there was not a supply for that boiler: we then run with one boiler, and set the square-sail. I inquired if he could repair the pipe at sea; to which he answered that it was possible, if we kept the vessel off before the wind and sea. I accordingly put her before the wind, which both eased the vessel and enabled me to near the mouth of Ches¬apeake Bay, in case it should become necessary to make a harbor.

About midnight, the chief engineer reported to me that he had succeeded in repairing the feeder-pipe; and then we again put both boilers in operation, and resumed our course for Charleston, continuing, occasionally, to heave the lead, shoaling the water gradually, from twenty to eleven fathoms. When we got into eleven fathoms, at four o’clock, A. M., the mate and his watch were called; we took in the square-sail, and hauled her course to south-south-east, this being the course along the land; we continued this course until seven o’clock, at which time it lighted up a little, and we saw the land about fifty miles to the northward of Hat¬teras. The gale continuing to increase, I ordered the second mate, Mr. White, to reef the jib and foresail, to have them ready for use if we should want them. At about nine o’clock, A. M., on Monday, the second engineer, Mr. Conro, came to me at the wheel-house, and reported that the boilers had given out and said, We can do nothing more for you with steam.

The land being then in sight, I ordered the jib and fore¬sail set, and headed the vessel in for shore, with the inten¬tion of beaching her. I ordered the reef turned out of the foresail, and then went down to the chief engineer, Mr. Hunt, in the engine-room, and asked him whether the boilers had indeed given out; he replied, No, it is the feeder-pipe, which had again started; and that the report of the second engineer arose from a mistake of the fireman. Mr. Hunt having ‘welded’ the joint again, I asked him whether it would stand to work the boat off shore; he answered, yes, that he thought it would. I then ordered him to fire up, and to get more steam on, to force her off shore; I then returned to the wheel-house, and ordered the foresail taken in, and again hauled the vessel off shore to resume our former course. Before we got to the Wimble Shoals, when I was at the wheel-house, I observed Mr. Lovegreen very busy about the small boat on the after upper deck. I went aft to see what he was doing; he told me he ‘was getting the boats ready for launching, in case we should want them, and was fixing life-lines and lashing the oars in the boat.’ I said, ‘Very well, sir, but cast off none of the lashings.’

In consequence of running in, for the purpose of beach¬ing her, as above stated, we were brought within the Wim¬ble Shoals. In passing these shoals, we received the shock of three heavy rollers on our larboard beam, which stove in our after gangway, several of the larboard state-room windows, and one of the dining-room windows. Mr. Matthews, about this time, remarked, ‘We are through this.’ I answered, Yes, we are over that part of it,’ meaning the passing of the shoals. Captain Hill, a pas¬senger, came to the forward deck and hailed me, to know whether we had not better knock away the forward bul-warks, that the sea might have a fair breach over her, as he was afraid that we might ship some of those seas and fill the deck and cabin. I told him there was no necessity for it, as some of the boards had already been burst off; however, I had no objection to his knocking off some more, if he chose to do it; he did knock off some of the boards, and with the assistance of the steward, Mr. Milne, un¬shipped the starboard gangway.

During this time our course was south-south-east to south¬east; and finding the vessel pressed too much to leeward, I ordered the jib to be taken in. About this period Captain Salter, of Portsmouth, N. H., a passenger, came on the for¬ward deck and hailed me, I being at the wheel-house on the upper deck, and said, ‘Captain White, had not some of us better look out for some place to beach her?’ I answered, ‘No, Captain Salter, I do not intend to beach her yet, nor as long as I can keep off shore.’ He expressed his sur¬prise, and replied, No! Do you think you can work her off?’ I answered, ‘Yes.’

Between two and three o’clock, P. M., Mr. Hunt, the engineer, sent to the wheel-house for me; I went to the engine-room ; he told me that the boat ‘had commenced leaking badly.’ I asked if it were not possible to keep her free with the engine-pumps. He said, ‘You had better send men to the hand-pumps, and perhaps we may then keep her free.’ I ordered the mate to send men to the pumps, which was immediately done. I then returned to the wheel-house.

About this time Captains Salter and Hill came on the forward deck, and asked me if I would not get a light, and go down with them and try to find the leak. I ordered a lantern and marlinspike, which were brought. I then went down into the forward cabin with them, took up the floor scuttles, went down into the hold, found no water over the platform, broke some holes in the platform with the marlin-spike, and then found no water. Whilst in the fore-hold, Captain Salter remarked that the boat ‘was ceiled with nothing but thin, common pine plank, whereas she should have been ceiled throughout with seven inch oak timber…

We then returned to the deck, and went to the after cabin, where they proceeded to open the scuttle, and I returned to the wheel-house. I now ordered the mates to set the crew to bailing from the engine-room. The passengers now scuttled the after cabin floor, and commenced taking out the coal for the purpose of bail¬ing, as they had previously found water aft. At this time the water was gaining on the pumps; some of the pas¬sengers and waiters went on to bailing from the after cabin. The water, in front of the furnaces, having risen several inches in depth, washed the coals about, by the rolling of the vessel, rendering it impracticable to feed the fires with coal. I therefore directed the mate to have wood passed along, as we would keep steam up altogether with wood, which we continued to burn until the water quenched the fires in the furnaces. About three o’clock, P. M., Captain Salter again came to the forward deck, and said, ‘Captain White, we had better go around Hatteras Shoals, and not attempt to go through inside.’

Whilst the passengers and crew were at work with the pumps and buckets, I frequently went down to see that they continued at work. In passing the engine-room I remarked to Mr. Hunt, ‘If we can keep the water down, so as not to reach the furnaces, I think we will go round the shoals; as the risk would be greater in going inside.’ My reason for this conclusion was, that if, in an attempt to pass inside, with such a heavy sea and thick weather, the vessel should strike, probably every life would be lost. I again went up to the wheel-house, and Mr. Matthews asked me, ‘if I was going round the shoals.’ I answered in the affirmative. Captain Salter now came forward and said, it was the best way to track the shoals around by the lead.’ We had all along been occasionally heaving the lead, and had from nine to eleven fathoms water. I continued to run so as to pass the outer shoal, until I deepened the water from eleven to twenty fathoms, and hauling up her course gradually to the south-west, until we judged ourselves round the shoals; then hauled up by degrees until we brought her up to a north-north-west course, for the purpose of getting under the lee of the shoals, believing that, as we got into smooth water, the leak would decrease, and that we should be enabled to run up under the lee of Cape Hatteras.

The leak con¬tinued to gain upon us, and I soon after altered our course to north-west, and ordered the jib to be set. After heading her for the land, at the solicitation of Mr. Matthews, I left him in charge, and went to my room to get some rest. I examined one of my charts, threw off my wet coat, sat down on my trunk, and leaned my head against the berth; but after remaining some time, found it impossible to get any rest. I went on deck and proceeded aft, where I found the water was fast gaining on us. I then went to the wheel¬house and took my trumpet; the crew and passengers being still occupied in bailing and pumping, and the engine-pumps working, although these often had to be cleared of the shavings, &c., which the suction drew in; but we had to depend mostly upon the hand-pumps and bailing. About eight o’clock, P. M., Mr. Hunt came to me at the wheel¬house, and told me that the furnace fires were out.

All hope was now abandoned of making a harbor under the lee of Hatteras; and our only alternative was to run her on shore, for the purpose of saving our lives. I then directed the mate to have the square-sail set, to press her in to the land. In a few minutes the lee leach of the square-sail split from foot to head, and it was lowered down. The vessel being water-logged, we consequently made but slow progress towards the shore. The weather became more moderate. Shortly after, I went below to my room and put on my pea jacket; went aft, and saw them bailing and pumping. Whilst passing among the passen¬gers, some of them asked me if there was a probability of their being saved. I replied that I feared the chance was but small; as the boats would be of no service, and that there must be a heavy surf running on the beach which we were approaching. I then walked to the after starboard quarter-deck, and hove the lead, and found nine fathoms water; I laid the lead in, and remained by the rail, thinking of our condition, and calculating our chances for our lives. I now went forward, and in passing the dining-room (which was on deck and over the after cabin) door, saw the ladies and many of the gentlemen sitting in there, and in great distress and anxiety. This was the last time I went aft on the lower deck. I then passed on by the entrance to the after cabin; I found the stairway completely occupied with men in passing up water. I then passed forward, and went up to the wheel-house: by this time we were not far from the shore.

“About ten o’clock Mr. Matthews, then standing on the lower deck, asked me if I meant to put her head on; I answered, Yes, certainly.’ Someone now ran forward, and called out that the water was over the cabin floor. Captain Salter cried out, ‘Bail away, bail away, boys.’ Captain Salter also asked Mr. Matthews if the boats were all clear, that they might be all lowered away without con¬fusion, after she struck. Mr. Matthews said, ‘The boats are all ready.’ We now made the breakers on the star¬board bow and ahead. Mr. Matthews was standing for¬ward, and said, ‘Off the starboard bow it looks like a good place to beach her.’ I ordered Trost, the man at the helm, to port his helm; and said to him, ‘Mind yourself; stand clear of that wheel when she strikes, or she will be breaking your bones; ‘ he answered, Yes, sir, I’ll keep clear.’

The boat immediately struck on the outer reef, shied her head to the northward; the square-sail caught aback; she heeled off shore, exposing the deck and upper houses to the full force of the sea. The square-sail halyards were let go, but the sail would not come down, as it was hard aback against the mast and rigging; it had previously been split, and was now blown to ribbons. The passengers, ladies and gentlemen, placed themselves along the in-shore side of the boat, seeking protection from the breaking of the sea. At this time Mr. Matthews came up to me, on the upper deck, and asked me if I was going in the boats; I replied, ‘No; I think there is no possibility of any person being saved in them, but you had better go aft and see to the launching them.’ He went aft on the upper deck, and I saw them launching the large boat off of it. The larboard quarter boat having been lowered before and upset, they succeeded in getting the large boat alongside; many of the passengers, and both mates, got into her, several others clinging to her gunwales; she upset before she had gone ten yards from the vessel. The starboard quarter-boat had been previously stove, as well as the houses and bulwarks on that side. I went forward, pulled off my pea jacket, vest, and boots, and threw them into the door of the wheel-house; then went a few feet aft, unshipped a small ladder, found a strand of rope lying on the deck, made one end of it fast around the middle step, took the other end around my hand, then placed myself on the forward part of the upper deck, took hold of a chimney-brace with the other hand, awaiting the event of the breaking up of the vessel.

About the time I went aft, as above stated, the mast had gone about twenty feet from the head. The boat was now fast breaking to pieces—the dining-cabin gone — the star¬board state-rooms all stove in — upper deck breaking up. Whilst standing with the ladder in my hand, Mr. Hunt came up to me. I said, ‘Mr. Hunt, we little thought this would be our fate when we left New York.’ I shook hands with him, and added, I hope we may all be saved.’ He turned and went to the gallows frame, where there were many others collected with him. The forward smoke chim¬ney fell in shore, across the side houses on the upper deck, close by where I was standing. Mr. Holmes, a passenger saved, was standing by me with a piece of board and rope, prepared to jump. The most of the passengers, who had placed themselves along the guards, had, by this time, been washed off; their shrieks and cries, during this time, were appalling and heart-rending beyond description. The deck, on which Mr. Holmes and myself were standing, was breaking up; we threw away our ladder and board simul¬taneously, and jumped off the deck, and made for the top¬gallant forecastle, which appeared to be our best place for safety. In running forward I stepped into the fore-hatch, which was open, and fell in, but caught by the remnants of the sail which were hanging down the hatch, and which saved me from falling quite down. I got up, by the aid of the sail, on to the deck, and made for the forecastle, which I gained, where I found a number of persons had already placed themselves….

I lashed myself to the next stanchion: this deck now began to work loose from the main part of the boat; the deck settling, the starboard bow heaving up. I remarked, ‘I don’t like this being tied fast to stanchions; for if the bow falls over on to us, we have no means to clear us from being crushed by it.’ I pro¬posed casting ourselves loose from the stanchions; we did so; and then I took a piece of small rope, passed it round a small cleat, and held one end in my hand. At this time Captain Salter was washed off from the forecastle, but suc¬ceeded in regaining it, and was a second time washed off, when one of the men, named Jackson, caught him and assisted him to get on the forecastle. I then handed the other end of the rope, which I had fastened to the cleat, to Salter. he sea which had washed Salter off broke off the stanchions to which we had first been lashed. All this time a Mr. Lovegreen was on the gallows frame, tolling the bell.

The forecastle deck now broke loose and floated towards the shore, with the six persons besides myself. Very soon one man jumped off and gained the beach; we all followed. washed ashore with only shirt, pantaloons, stockings, and hat. We proceeded along the beach towards the light. We soon found another survivor; afterwards we met Mr. Lovegreen. We continued our steps towards the lighthouse; next found Captain Hill, apparently very much exhausted; asked for assistance to help him along, as he could not pro¬ceed without. Finding the lighthouse at a greater distance than was at first believed, I persuaded one of the crew to remain with me to go along the surf, in order to give assist¬ance to those who might be washed ashore; whilst the other above-mentioned persons continued their course to the light¬house.

”We have now given Captain White’s minute detail of his proceedings on board of this ill-fated bark, from his first leaving the Wharf, at New York, until he reached the shore of Ocracoke Island in safety….

“The cause of this terrible disaster was the unseaworthi¬ness of the vessel. However well she might have performed her accustomed trips on a calm river, she never should have ventured outside of Sandy Hook; being totally unfit for ocean navigation, so unfaithfully was she built. A gentle¬man who was on board of the Home in September, during a conversation with Mr. Hunt, the chief engineer, no¬ticing the peculiar form of the deck, which was serpentine, drooping very much at the bows and stern, asked what was her original shape. Hunt said she was originally straight, but said that in her first trip they had put a large quantity of ballast too far forward, and under her forward cabin floor, and that in consequence two of her fore and aft stay-rods had broken before she arrived in Charleston, and that in con¬sequence the boat had strained and dropped at the bows. He also said that after they had taken the ballast out, and repaired the stay-rods, the boat had come back considerably to her place.

“As the gale increased, the awful and portentous insuffi¬ciency of the frail bark began to be developed. The hull bent and twisted, when struck by a sea, as if the next would rend it asunder; the panels of the ceiling were dropping from their places; and the hull, as if united by hinges, was bending against the feet of the braces. After she struck, her destruction was as rapid as that of the unfortunate crew. She went to pieces in less than an hour; and all agree that the speed of her dissolution indicated a weakness and rot¬tenness of constitution entirely unfit for the service on which she had been sent.

“In this case we see and feel how many human beings were led to destruction, by the criminal neglect of those who had assumed the responsibility, and therefore lay under the most imperative obligations to protect their lives by all the means which human prudence could provide. On the contrary, it appears that a reckless indifference to these responsibilities, and a total disregard of the solemn trusts they had assumed, did characterize the conduct of the own-ers of this ill-fated vessel. It matters little whether they did or did not know that they were inviting their fellow- creatures to their destruction. It is plain that the owners ought to have known it, and that their ignorance, if it did exist, was owing to a gross and palpable neglect of duty, amounting to a high crime against morality and humanity.” (Ellms. The Tragedy of the Seas, 1843, pp. 58-83.)

South Carolina was the home of at least 20 of the fatalities. (Ellms 1843, pp. 38-59 and 84.)

Gentile: “Built: 1837
Sunk: October 9, 1837….
Gross tonnage: 550
Type of vessel: Wooden-hulled side-wheel steamer…
Builder: Brown & Bell, New York, NY
Owner: Southern Steam Packet Company…
Port of registry: New York
Cause of sinking: Disabled engine, then run ashore
Location” Six and a half miles northeast of Ocracoke lighthouse.

“The Home was built at a time when confidence in steamboats was on shaky ground at best. In the early days of industrialization people maintained an unreasoned distrust for all things mechanical. Where ships and trains were concerned, however, sometimes such fears were well founded. Locomotive and ship boilers had a nasty habit of exploding if the pressure got too high; steam vessel expansion and metal stress engineering was in its infancy.

“Yet the Home was a staunchly built paddle-wheeler that received praise from contemporary mariners. Her machinery was designed by the respected James Allaire, and constructed at his Iron Works in New York City. Brown & Bell added their expertise to hull configuration….

“A contemporary account stated that “she was calculated to accommodate one hundred and twenty persons with berths or state rooms. In her appointments and finish, she ranked with the `floating palaces’ for which our American waters are famed, and in speed, another characteristic of American ship building, she was unsurpassed.”

“That summer found the Home on passenger service between New York and Charleston. (Remember that this was a time when the only other mode of commercial transportation was stagecoach.)….

“She left her wharf at the foot of Market Street at 4:00 p.m., October 7, 1837. On board were approximately ninety passengers and some forty-five crew; last minute arrivals add uncertainty to the exact numbers. Between thirty and forty of these people were women, and several were children.

“After noon the next day the wind picked up and the seas grew heavy— nothing that the Home could not handle. The roll of the ship was little more than a mild discomfort for the passengers.

“Around 7:30 that evening Chief Engineer Hunt reported that “the feeder-pipe of the forward boiler had opened at the joint, so that it forced more of the water into the hold than into the boiler, consequently, there was not a supply for that boiler.” Captain White steered the Home before the wind on one boiler and the squaresail, and angled toward the Chesapeake Bay as a possible refuge, while Hunt effected repairs. This was accomplished by midnight. With a full head of steam under both boilers the Home continued south-southeast, “this being the course along the land.” By heaving the lead, Captain White kept well informed of the depth of water under his keel.

“The sails were reefed as the weather worsened. The morning of the ninth found the Home steaming into a gale off Hatteras Island. At 9:00 a.m. a leak was found in the machinery spaces. Some later said that the ship’s hull was strained when she ran aground on Romer Shoal, and that the sea squeezed in between warped timbers, but Captain White stated that the feeder-pipe had broken again.

“With only one boiler providing steam for the engine, the Home began to wallow at the whim of the waves. A goodly spread of canvas soon got her under control. Captain White spotted Wimble Shoals in the distance and, fearing that the ship would founder, steered for the beach. Again the engineer “woulded” the pipe, as the captain put it. With full steam restored the Home was turned for deeper water.

“Because of the proximity of Wimble Shoals, waves of monstrous proportions assailed the ship. “In passing these shoals we received the shock of three heavy rollers on our larboard beam, which stove in our after gangway, several of the larboard state-room windows, and one of the

dining-room windows.” Yet the Home survived the onslaught of the sea, and continued away from shore.

“By now some of the passengers were offering advice and helping in any way they could. Captain John Salter and Captain Alfred Hill knocked away the forward bulwarks “that the sea might have a fair breach over her” because they were afraid that the Home “might ship some of those seas and fill the deck and cabin.” Mr. Lovegreen prepared the lifeboats for launching.

“By two o’clock in the afternoon the ship was in serious trouble. Whether the hull had sprung was not explicitly stated. The engineer was quoted as saying only that “the boat had commenced leaking badly.” When Captain White asked him if the engine pumps could expel the water, Hunt said, “You had better send men to the hand pumps, and perhaps we may then keep her free.”

“Captain White complied. All hands were called out to save not just the ship, but their very lives. Under urging from Captains Salter and Hill, Captain White went looking for leaks in the hull. “I then went down into the forward cabin with the said captains, took up the floor scuttles, went down into the hold, found no water over the platform, broke some holes in the platform with the marlinspike, and then found no water.”

“But water was coming into the after hold. Because the crew was busy bailing the engine room, it was a work party of passengers and waiters who pulled up the scuttles in the after hold and begin passing out the coal that was stored inside, so they could commence bailing.

“The Home passed around the Diamond Shoals and took a more westerly tack. Now there was several inches of water sloshing across the deck in front of the furnaces, soaking the coal and washing it back and forth as the ship rolled with the seas. The firemen stoked the furnaces with wood. The engine pumps became clogged with coal dust and shavings; only the hand pumps remained free and unobstructed. The men worked in rotation.

“At first the pumps were adequate for the task, but all too quickly the leak increased to the point that, according to Captain White, “it gained very fast on us.” Men and women worked side by side with buckets, pails, pans, and kettles: anything that held water. To no avail. At 8:00 p.m. the furnace fires were doused by the incoming flood, and “we were obliged to run under sails only.”

“The wind whistled through the rigging with thunderous fury. With land in sight Captain White steered the ship for shore. The sailors who clambered up the ratlines must have had ice for blood and steel for nerves. The masts swayed sickeningly in the face of the gale. No sooner had the men set the squaresail than it split “from head to foot,” and they were forced to take it back down….

“Captain White was then accosted by Captain Salter, who accused him of being drunk and who tried to relieve him of command of the ship. An argument ensued. At the end of it Captain Salter stalked off the bridge muttering under his breath. Captain White then checked on the passengers bailing the after hold and prepared them for what was to come. He was truthful, and told them that there was little chance that the ship would survive. “I soon returned to go forward, and in passing the dining room door, saw the ladies and many of the gentlemen sitting in there, apparently in great distress and anxiety.”

“The sea moderated somewhat in the lee of the Hatteras Shoals. The Home moved sluggishly because of the weight of water in her holds. Even though the sails were torn and tattered, Captain White had them raised once again in order to keep the ship’s head toward the beach. There was a heavy surf running. It was going to be a difficult landing.

“Captain Salter, still trying to take command of the situation, said to the mate, “Mr. Mathews, you had better look out for a smooth place for beaching.” Mathews made no comment. Then, someone dashed up on the bridge and said that the water was over the cabin floors. “Bail away,” yelled Captain Salter. “Bail away, boys.”

“The boats are all ready,” said Mr. Mathews to Captain White. “Off the starboard bow it looks like a good place.”

“Captain Salter paced the wheelhouse with Captain White. “That’s as good a place as any.”

“Captain White ordered the helm put to port.

“In his anxiety Captain Salter kept shouting, “Port! Port!” Said Captain White calmly to the helmsman, “Mind yourself, stand clear of that wheel when she strikes, or she will be breaking your bones.”

“According to Captain White, because the Home sat so low in the water she “immediately struck on the outer reef, slewed her head to the northward, the square sail caught aback, she heeled off shore, exposing the deck and upper houses to the full force of the sea. The squaresail halyards were let go, but the sail would not come down, as it was hard aback against the mast and rigging; it had previously been split, and was now blown to ribbons.”

“The Home grounded to a halt a hundred yards from shore. The beach was only dimly lit by the nighttime sky; it must have seemed a million miles away.

“Captain Salter was still trying to take command. He shouted, “The ladies had all better come forward.” He went to join them along the inshore side of the ship, where the upper deck offered some protection from the crashing waves….

“Captain White gave no order to abandon ship because he thought there was no possibility of anyone making land alive in the lifeboat. One boat was already stove in, and another filled with water. But he told Mr. Mathews to muster the crew and get the remaining boat launched, and to help aboard all those who wanted to take their chances in it. The captain elected to remain with his ship.

“The crew managed to pull the boat alongside in the lee provided by the hull. In moments it was loaded with frightened passengers and crew men. It got no farther than thirty feet from the Home when it capsized, plunging the people into the surf.

Already, the Home was coming apart. Each mountainous wave tore off pieces of the wooden superstructure, and parted planks and timbers. The mainmast snapped like a toothpick; down came the spars, tattered canvas, and a massive web of rigging. The noise was deafening.

“A giant comber brought down one of the smokestacks, which crushed a mother with an infant in her arms; another stove in the starboard staterooms, yet another dashed the dining cabin to pieces. The upper deck separated from the hull. People were swept off the ship into the sea like bugs being washed down a drain. The screams of the women were pitiful.

“Captain White jumped down from the bridge deck and worked his way forward over the collapsed rigging. He misstepped and fell into the hatch, but was saved by a shred of canvas. He used the remnants of the sails for handholds and managed to gain the relative protection of the forecastle, where he found several people hanging onto ropes. One of them was Captain Salter.

“Captain White, my dear fellow, I am glad to see you here,” said Captain Salter. “Come forward here, take the other end of this rope, it is long enough for both of us. I picked out this place for myself, long before the boat went ashore.” The Home’s captain gratefully took the proffered rope and lashed himself to a stanchion. Then, thinking better of it, said, “I don’t like this being tied fast to stanchions, for if the bow falls over on to us we have no means to clear us from being crushed by it.” Captain Salter agreed. Subsequently, he was twice knocked off his perch by nearly solid walls of water; both times, by superhuman effort, he made it back to the ship.

“Meanwhile, people were drowning one by one.

“A scant twenty-five minutes after stranding, the Home went to pieces. The forecastle deck broke loose and floated towards shore along with an odd-lot collection of timbers and scantling. Through the raging surf went the makeshift raft. One man jumped off when it grounded, and gained the beach. The rest followed. Captain White crawled up onto the sand wearing only a shirt, pantaloons, stockings, and hat. The other six people with him on the forecastle all survived the last few feet, including the sometimes irascible Captain Salter.

“This ragtag lot saw no one else around, so they headed towards the only sign of human habitation in sight: the glow of Ocracoke light. It was six or seven miles away. They had not gone far when they came upon several passengers who had miraculously survived the swim through the surf….Captain Hill “was very much exhausted and asked for assistance to help him along, as he could not proceed without.” He and his wife had clung to a spar, but when they reached the last wave hitting the beach it tumbled them over and tore loose his wife’s grip, so that she drowned.

“The party split up, some continuing on toward the lighthouse for relief, others, including Captain White, searching the shore for survivors in need of help. Those who remained pulled bodies out of the surf, and dragged up onto high ground any flotsam that might prove of value….

“Mr. B.B. Hussey floated in on a spar. Mrs. Lacoste was practically insensate, and not certain how she made it to shore, but believes she was lashed to a settee that rode the waves to the beach. She was nearly seventy years of age, and described as “very fleshy, and almost helpless,” and as “quite large. … When on shore she walks about with considerable difficulty.”

“Due to the crosswise current some people came ashore as far as a mile and a half from the wreck. The survivors were “nearly naked, and famished and exhausted.” The only child to live through the ordeal was a twelve year old lad. The body of one infant was recovered….

“Throughout the night those who were able catered to those who needed sustenance. Apples and pears that had washed up from the wreck were the only source of food and drink. When the relief party reached Ocracoke the town’s folk were called into action. Soon a group of rescuers took off on horseback for the wreck site to care for the survivors. They took cloaks and blankets and what foodstuff was available.

“The sun rose that day above a scene of horrible tragedy, for everywhere along the beach were littered the remains of the Home and the bodies of the dead. The living were cared for at once, and were carried back to town where the few residents put them up in their houses. There were no hotels on Ocracoke in 1837. Boats eventually came to take the survivors back to civilization. Captain White stayed on in order to oversee “burying the dead and taking care of the property of the passengers, crew, owners, and underwriters.” He was there until November 22.

“Meanwhile, Captain Salter published “calumnious charges” against Captain White, accusing him of intoxication and otherwise impugning his character and stating that he—Salter—was forced to take command of the Home prior to her loss. Several other passengers added their opinions against the captain of the Home, as did the ship’s barber, Hiram Force. This is unfortunately a common response to situations of stress in which people have lost friends, relatives, loved ones, and physical possessions. It is the desire to lash out, to blame someone—anyone—for circumstances beyond an individual’s control; to sooth the traumatic sting resulting from a person’s perceived sense of helplessness and victimization. Today, this overreactive emotional response forms the basis for many lawsuits involving injury and the death of family members that can best be described as “an act of God.” But God does not pay big awards or punitive damages, so it is the bystanders who are made to suffer for the grief of the survivors.

“In order to defend himself, Captain White solicited affidavits from those surviving crew members in agreement with his cause, as well as residents of Ocracoke with whom he worked during the aftermath of the wreck, including two Justices of the Peace. These people refuted the allegations of Captain Salter and his followers. Investigation revealed that some of Captain Salter’s allies merely signed petitions written by Salter. Others made their allegations upon hearsay—that is, they heard from someone else that the captain was drunk—and upon more intelligent reflection retracted their derogatory statements.

“One of the men who laid charges against Captain White was the ship’s barber. In his story to the newspapers he concocted the deceit that he was a passenger who had boarded the Home at the last moment, going to Charleston “on a kind of an excursion.” During the interview he forgot to mention that he had been arrested by Captain White and Captain Pike, the Commissioner of Wrecks, “for robbing the dead body of a lady of a gold watch, and for rifling a trunk of its contents, a suit of clothes having been found upon and taken from him.” He subsequently denied the statements he had made against the good captain.

“Captain White’s reputation was eventually saved, but at great cost to his peace of mind. If he felt in his heart the calamity of the Home’s final moments, he must have known intellectually that those who died were in reality victims of the sea.

“The Home holds the dubious distinction of being the first major steamship to wreck off the coast of North Carolina….” (Gentile, Gary. Shipwrecks of North Carolina – from Hatteras Inlet South. 1992, pp. 88.96.)

Hause: Steamship Home shipwrecks at Ocracoke Island NC, during storm. “The lack of life preservers on board led to the loss of 100 people–many of them recognized figures of the day. As a result, Congress passed the Steamboat Act, which required coastal vessels to carry life preservers for every passenger.” (Hause, Shipwrecks: Graveyard of the Atlantic, NC Coast)

Howland: “….That she was not the kind of vessel to withstand the tempestuous gales of the Atlantic, has proved fearfully true. We have no evidence that in her model or timbers any reference was had to a capacity for encountering the perils of the ocean; but candor compels us to say that her model, the time of her lying unemployed, and other circumstances, induce the conviction that she never was intended for a sea boat. If she was so intended, then those who had charge of her construction should never again attempt to plan a vessel. In the minor points of elegance and convenience – minor compared with the great consideration of safety – the Home was all that could have been wished, and would have made an elegant and safe steamer for the river, or the summer navigation of the Sound. She was calculated to accommodate one hundred and twenty persons with berths or state rooms. In her appointments and finish, she ranked with the ‘floating palaces’ for which our American waters are famed, and in speed, another characteristic of American ship building, she was unsurpassed.” [pp. 14-15.]

“Owing to the speed of the Home, her very excellent accommodations, and the high character of Capt. White as a commander, the number of passengers who started in her on this, her last and ill-fated voyage, was very great. In addition to those whose names we have been able to collect, there were we understand a number who went on board, only a very short time before she started, — also several deck, or forward passengers, whose names, we have been unable to obtain.

“On the seventh of October the Home left New York, upon her third trip. She had on board, as near as can be gathered from her berth book , and judged from the numbers who took passage at the last moment without previously securing berths, ninety passengers. Her crew, including officers and servants, male and female, numbered forty-five; in all, about one hundred and thirty-five souls. Among them were between thirty and forty females….” [p. 16.]

“On the night on the ninth instant she went to pieces, about six miles north of Oglethorpe Light and as presenting the principal circumstances of the disaster, we publish the following letter, written on the 10th instant, by Capt. White, to Hon. James P. Allaire, the owner of the vessel:

Ocracoke, N.C., Oct. 10, 1837.
Mr. James P. Allaire, New York,

Dear Sir: I have the painful duty of informing you of the total loss of the steam packet Home, and the lives of most of the passengers and crew:

The following passengers are saved: [we omit listing of 20 named individuals]

Twenty passengers saved, is all we can find.

The following persons of the crew [names or provides the position of 20 crew including himself]

20 passengers, 19 hands, 1 captain, — 40 souls saved….” [pp. 18-19.]

(Howland, Southworth Allen. Steamboat Disasters and Railroad Accidents in the United States (Revised and Improved). Worcester: Warren Lazell. 1843.)

Hughes writes that this storm first hit Galveston Texas in early October [5th] and cites an eye witness: “…every house, camp, sod house, and inhabited structure was swept away, except the Old Mexican custom-house…” Hughes states that “Only one of thirty vessels in Galveston Harbor held to its mooring; the rest were driven aground or blown out to sea. ‘Men, women, and children were seen floating upon boards, logs, and small boats, for days and nights, in every part of the island. Miraculously, only one life was lost.’ Unfortunately, the hurricane was far from finished.

“Eight days later, the brand new paddle-wheel steamer, Home, was beached and demolished just south of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, by the same storm: There were only two life preservers on the ship. Forty of her 130 passengers struggled ashore to safety; the rest, mostly women and children, were drowned. Because of this disaster, Congress passed a law requiring all American vessels to carry a life preserver for each passenger – a law that has since saved many Americans from a watery grave.” (Hughes, “Hurricanes Haunt Our History.” Weatherwise, V.40, N3, 1987.)

Sources

Barnes, Jay. Florida’s Hurricane History. Chapel Hill and London: UNC Press, 1998.

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

Cohn, Scotti. Disasters and Heroic Rescues of North Carolina. Globe Pequot Press, 2005.

Cornell, James. The Great International Disaster Book (Third Edition). New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1982.

Douglas, Marjory Stoneman. Hurricane. New York: Rinehart & Company, Inc., 1958, 393 pp.

Dunn, Gordon E. and Banner I. Miller. Atlantic Hurricanes (Revised Edition). Baton Rouge LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1964, 377 pages.

Ellms, Charles. The Tragedy of the Seas or, Sorrow on the Ocean, Lake, and River, from Shipwreck, Plague, Fire, and Famine. Philadelphia: Carey & Hart, 1841. Digitized by Google at: http://books.google.com/books?id=R6xS3DM_qVAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+tragedy+of+the+seas&cd=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Gentile, Gary. Shipwrecks of North Carolina – from Hatteras Inlet South. Philadelphia: Gary Gentile Productions, 1992.

Hause, Eric. Shipwrecks: Graveyard of the Atlantic, North Carolina Coast. Accessed 11-16-2008 at: http://www.coastalguide.com/packet/nc-shipwrecks.shtml

Howland, Southworth Allen. Steamboat Disasters and Railroad Accidents in the United States (Revised and Improved). Worcester: Warren Lazell. 1843.

Hudgins, James E. Tropical Cyclones Affecting North Carolina Since 1586: An Historical Perspective (National Weather Service Technical Memos, NOAA Technical Memorandum NWS ER-92). NWS, Eastern Regional HQ, Scientific Services Div., Bohemia NY. April 2000. At: http://web.archive.org/web/20070311045226/http://repository.wrclib.noaa.gov/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002&context=nws_tech_memos

Hughes, Patrick. “Hurricanes Haunt Our History.” Weatherwise, Vol. 40, No. 3, 1987, 134-140.

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.

Putnam, G. P. (Ed.). The World’s Progress: A Dictionary of Dates. NY: G. P. Putnam, 1851. Digitized by Google at: http://books.google.com/books?id=qz9HAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Rappaport, Edward N. and Jose Fernandez-Partagas. The Deadliest Atlantic Tropical Cyclones, 1492-1994 (NOAA Technical Memorandum NWS NHC-47). Coral Gables, FL: National Hurricane Center, National Weather Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, January 1995, 42 pages. Accessed 8-20-2017 at: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pdf/NWS-NHC-1995-47.pdf

Simonds, W. E. (Editor). The American Date Book. Kama Publishing Co., 1902, 211 pages. Google digital preview accessed 9-8-2017 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=JuiSjvd5owAC

Stick, David. Graveyard of the Atlantic: Shipwrecks of the North Carolina Coast. 1952. Partially digitized by Google at: http://books.google.com/books?id=jjZXyzPrhpgC&pg=PA242&dq=Stick,+David.++Graveyard+of+the+Atlantic:+Shipwrecks+of+the+North+Carolina+Coast.+1952,&cd=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false

–all 15 Jordan, Dukes, and Rosengarten. A History of Storms on the South Carolina Coast. P.23.
— 14 Georgia Messenger, Macon. “St. Simons Aug. 9, 1837.” 8-17-1837, p. 2.
— 14 Ludlum, David M. Early American Hurricanes 1492-1870. 1963, p. 126.

Narrative Information

Jordan, Dukes, and Rosengarten: “1837 Aug. 16-Sept 1 (1) …Charleston-to-St. Augustine packet SS Miller sank with 15 aboard off Jekyl [sic.] Island, Georgia; Georgetown lashed by gale-force winds, 9-foot storm surge.” (Jordan, Dukes, and Rosengarten. A History of Storms on the South Carolina Coast. Undated, p.23.)

Ludlum: “1837 – No. 3 – Antigua-Florida

“The Leeward Islands were ravaged by a second, even more intense hurricane on 2 August…It struck Antigua about 0230 in the morning…The Virgin Islands were reached late in the afternoon. The tempest struck savagely at Puerto Rico where it has since been known as ‘Los Angeles’ and has been rated as one of the seven most destructive to hit that island in the period 1825 to 1928….

“The disturbance reached the Bahama Islands on the 4th and 5th where it caused more damage than the first Barbados storm had….

“St. Augustine, already buffeted by Hurricane No. 2, lay close to the projected path of the next….

“At Jacksonville press reports told of a severe gale on the 6th with winds varying from northeast to southeast as the storm approached. Two government warehouses were blown down there, and the cotton crop destroyed at coastal points.

“The eye of this great disturbance appeared to have come ashore south of Caper Fernandina, the most northeastern point of Florida, where the St. Marys River empties into the Atlantic Ocean. At the town of Old St. Marys, on the northern or Georgian shore of the tidal estuary of that name, a severe inundation took place such as can occur only with an easterly wind flow. The streets of the village were knee-deep with water and the areas along the bay were waist-deep….Out on the coast at Cape Fernandina, nineteen houses were blown down. A letter from St. Marys summarized: ‘the gale of the 6th was as severe as that in 1813, and had done as much injury to the place.’

“A dispatch from coastal Georgia described the local effects of the storm there:

Darien, August 10. – During the last week we have been visited by a storm which has not been equaled since that of the year 1824. The wind on Sunday last, in the morning, blew fresh from the northeast; in the after part of the day, it shifted around to southeast, when the rain began to fall in heavy torrents. The wind then rose very high, and began to blow with fearful violence, tearing up the oldest oaks and mulberry trees in the place by the roots, while limbs and branches of the different trees were flying in all directions. The water of the river then rose, and covered the rice plantations so completely, that they appeared to the eye to form part of the river. The rice, there is no doubt, will be greatly injured by the salt with which the water is impregnated.

“Northward at St. Simon Island the wind commenced blowing at noon of the 6th from the northeast, but between 1500 and 1700 shifted into the southeast ‘and became one of the most furious hurricanes we have had since 1824.’ The blasts continued until very early on the morning of the 7th when the storm suddenly ceased.

“Savannah, too, lay within the circle of maximum destruction from wind and tide. ‘Our city has suffered in the prostration of trees and fences. The tide yesterday was over our wharves, and no doubt those who had planted on low lands on the river have suffered materially.’ Another account took a doleful vies: ‘All the goods in front of the stores are damaged, and many of the vessels in the harbor, after having dragged miles up the river, are left high and dry on the marsh…I suppose that destruction by the hurricane in this part of the country was never before so universal…it is my opinion that we shall scarcely recover in five years.’

“A tragedy occurred off Jekyl Island during the gale when the Charleston-to-St. Augustine Packet S. S. Mills upset with the loss of 14 of the 15 persons aboard. Amongst them were some of the leading citizens of the Florida city. Lack of ballast in the high winds was given as the cause of the disaster. ”

Newspaper

Aug 9: “St. Simons Aug. 9, 1837.
“A sailor by the name of Abraham Cote, who says that he is, as he believes, the only survivor of the St. Augustine packet schooner S. S. Mills of 30 tons burden, bound to Charleston, and upset off Jekyl Island, in 7 fathom water, and all perished but himself. This melancholy disaster occurred during the gale on Sunday the 6th instant, about 11 o’clock in the morning. There were on board, 15 in all, among them were one white woman and two blacks all drowned, in the cabin. – Mr. Cote reached the middle of Jekyl Island about an hour after sunset, on a spar. The last he saw of the wreck, it was bottom up, and the Captain, Mate, and two black seamen were on her bottom, and two other men in the boat which was full of water. Soon after the boat passed by him with nobody in it. There was a schooner in sight when she upset, and run down upon her, but as he believes saved none of the crew. They were, like himself, floating about, that is those not already drowned. It was too rough to keep a boat on top of the waves. He remained on Jeklyl Island all night not knowing that the Island was inhabited, and seeing the Light House, he came to the north end of it, and finding a plank, launched himself up on the sound, and with a paddle he found on the bank paddled himself across, taking the last of the flood tide, and landed near Mr. King’s.

“Several fragments of the wreck has come ashore along the beach, together with the fore-mast broke below the cap. The schooner was in ballast two days from St. Augustine, and commanded by Capt. Pellman.

“The poor fellow came ashore naked, having torn his clothes off whilst afloat, that the surges might not have so much hold of him. T. H. King Esq. and his overseer, Mr. Redding, clothed him and treated him with great kindness.

“We learn that one of the passengers was a Clergyman from Charleston.

“The crops have suffered much by the late gale; that with the severe drought, will make our crops short.” (Georgia Messenger, Macon. “St. Simons Aug. 9, 1837.” 8-17-1837, p. 2.)

Sources

Georgia Messenger, Macon “St. Simons Aug. 9, 1837.” 8-17-1837, p. 2. Accessed 8-18-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/macon-georgia-messenger-aug-17-1837-p-2/

Jordan, Laylon Wayne, with Robert Dukes, Jr. and Ted Rosengarten. A History of Storms on the South Carolina Coast. Charleston, SC: The South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium. Undated. Accessed 8-16-2022 at: https://www.scseagrant.org/wp-content/uploads/South-Carolina-Hurricane-History-1980.pdf

Ludlum, David M. Early American Hurricanes 1492-1870. Boston, MA: American Meteorological Society, 1963. Accessed 8-18-2022 at: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015002912718&view=1up&seq=6&q1=1822

–1,550-1,930  Blanchard tally from State and local breakouts below.

—          1,072  Keating 1879, p. 86.

 

Alabama         (>230-350)      (Sep 20-Nov 30)

—  350  Mobile, Sep 20-Nov.  Keating 1879, 86; Sternberg 1908, 719; Toner 1873, 16.[1]

—  350      “                  AL Genealogy Trails. AL Epidemic Hist. (citing Time Mag., 7-6-1925)[2]

—  150      “        Sep 20-Nov 30                     Augustin.  History of Yellow Fever, 1909, 443.[3]

—  130      “                                                      US Marine Hospital Service 1896, 436.

–>100  Mobile Point and Pass Christian, Creek Indians.  Meares 1998.

 

Louisiana       (   1,300)          (Aug-early Nov)

—>1,300  New Orleans.  Aug-early Nov        Carrigan. The Saffron Scourge. 1961, p. 72.[4]

—  1,300          “                                              Jones. “Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878.” 699.[5]

—     442          “                                              U.S. Marine-Hospital Service. 1896, p. 436.

—     350          “              July 24, 1^st case       Keating 1879, 86; Sternberg 1908, 719.

 

Mississippi      (      280)          (Sep 8-Nov 25, esp. Oct)

—  280  Natchez, Sep 8, 1^st case.         Keating 1879, 86; Monette 1842, 70; Sternberg 1908, 719.

 

Natchez, Mississippi:

 

Monette:  “The epidemic of 1837. — This began with a few cases called sporadic, about the 8^th and 10^th of September; and by the 15th it was considered epidemic. Many of the physicians denied the existence of yellow fever in the city until several cases terminated fatally with the genuine black-vomit, which none could dispute. The disease continued to spread gradually and with occasional abatements, until checked by frost about the 25th of November. The number of deaths from this epidemic was about 280, including hospital cases, many of which had been landed in a moribund state from steamboats direct from New Orleans. The epidemic this year was more mild and slow in its advances than usual, until the middle of October, when it began to rage with great malignity. This season the first cases in September frequently assumed some of the symptoms so mild that it was declared by some to be bilious fever.

 

“The city of Natchez was as healthy as usual until the cases began to multiply; and it must be remembered that there were many cases of yellow fever landed from steamboats direct from New Orleans for ten days before any cases appeared among the residents of the city. The Natchez Hospital had been opened for the reception of indigent boatmen and others; and scarcely a boat passed up from New Orleans at this season of the year, that did not leave some yellow-fever patient at the hospital. It is a well-known fact on the lower Mississippi, that from the time yellow fever begins to occur in New Orleans, almost every boat that passes up leaves one or more yellow-fever patients at Natchez to be removed to the hospital, in passing to which they are carried through the most populous part of the city.

 

“For several years previous to 1837 the Natchez Hospital had been closed against the reception of sick from the boats; and during this time there was no epidemic. But, a year before, the legislature had made provision for throwing open the hospital to the indigent sick; and it was in full operation when the yellow fever broke out in New Orleans, and scarcely a day passed without the reception of one or more patients from ascending boats, after the first of June; and after the first of August nearly all these were yellow-fever cases.

 

“It may be worthy of notice here, that in the summer of 1841, when the quarantine was adopted, the hospital was closed, and no patients permitted to land from the boats, unless at private houses. As a general remark, there has never been yellow fever in Natchez unless when the hospital was open for the reception of indigent boatmen and others from the river. When the hospital is open, it is an inducement for all the steamboats passing up to land at Natchez, if for no

other purpose than to relieve themselves of the sick, whom they might have to bury on their way above.”  (Monette 1842, pp. 69-71.)

 

Sources:

 

Alabama Genealogy Trails. Alabama Epidemic History  (citing Time Magazine, 7-6-1925 as source). Submitted by K. Torp. 2013. Accessed 8-25-2013: http://genealogytrails.com/ala/epidemics.html

 

Augustin, George.  History of Yellow Fever.  New Orleans:  1909; General Books reprint, Memphis, TN, 2010.

 

Carrigan, Jo Ann. The Saffron Scourge: A History of Yellow Fever in Louisiana, 1796-1905 (Doctoral Dissertation). Louisiana State University, LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses, 1961. Accessed 3-11-2018 at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1665&context=gradschool_disstheses

 

Drake, Daniel, M.D., S. Hanbury Smith, M.D. and Francis G. Smith, M.D. (eds.). A Systematic Treatise, Historical, Etiological, and Practical, on the Principal Diseases of the Interior Valley of North America…(Second Series). Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo & Co., Publishers, 1854. Google digitized: http://books.google.com/books?id=AW0_AAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Keating, J. M.  A History of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878 in Memphis, Tenn. Memphis, TN:  Howard Association, 1879. Google digitized at: http://books.google.com/books?id=WEIJAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Jones, Joseph, MD. “Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878 in New Orleans,” p. 683-715 in New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal (S. M. Bemis, W. H. Watkins and S. S. Herrick eds.). Vol. VI, New Series, 1878-ʹ9), March, 1879. Accessed 3-20-2018 at: https://ia800108.us.archive.org/30/items/19030340RX28.nlm.nih.gov/19030340RX28.pdf

 

Meares, Cecil.  “Wild West.”  October 1998.  Accessed at:  http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~texlance/emigrants/monmouth.htm

 

Monette, John W. Observations on the Epidemic Yellow Fever of Natchez and of the South-West. Louisville, KY: Prentice and Weissinger, 1842. Digitized by U.S. National Library of Medicine. Accessed 8-15-2013 at: http://archive.org/details/65030290R.nlm.nih.gov

 

Sternberg, George M. (US Public Health Service, US Marine Hospital Service).  “Yellow Fever:  History and Geographic Distribution.”  Pages 715-722 in Stedman, Thomas L., M.D. (Ed.) Appendix to the Reference Handbook of the Medical Sciences.  NY: William Wood & Co., 1908.  Google digitized:  http://books.google.com/books?id=3ezqX415M5wC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

United States Marine Hospital Service, Treasury Department.  Annual Report of the Supervising Surgeon-General of the Marine-Hospital Service of the United States for the Fiscal Year 1895 (Document No. 1811).  Washington:  GPO, 1896.  Digitized by Google at:  http://books.google.com/books?id=aTnxAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[1] Toner shows dates of Sep 20 to Nov. and cites: Drake, Dis. Interior Valley of North America, p. 220.

[2] “1837. Four cases appeared September 20 at Mobile, but no more at that time. On October 2 a frost fell and those who had left the city returned. On October 10, cases broke out in every section of the city, and the disease was soon epidemic, running to the end of November, 350 deaths reported.”

[3] “1837.  For eight years, Mobile was free from epidemic disease.  On September 20, 1837, four cases of yellow fever suddenly made their appearance.  After this outbreak the disease disappeared, and the public mind was reassured.  There was a light frost on October 2, and those who had fled returned to the city, feeling certain that all danger was over.  On October 10, cases erupted in nearly every section of the town, and the disease was soon epidemic, running its course until the end of November.  Deaths: 150.”

[4] Carrigan, after citing the N.O. Med. & Surg. Journal, which we cite as well, after noting 1,300 deaths, writes “But with the newspapers reporting a daily average of seventy-five to a hundred deaths early in the epidemic and thirty to forty when the malady had abated considerably, it seems that the total should be much higher.” (Carrigan cites the Picayune of Aug 31 and Sep 13, and the Price Current of Oct 2, 1837.)

[5] Jones, Joseph, MD. “Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878 in New Orleans.” New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal. March, 1879, beginning at p. 683. From table “Deaths from Yellow Fever” by Year.

—      30  Blanchard tally of reported drownings in summary found above “Sources.”

–24-30  Blanchard range. (June 29 Alton Observer report is low end and our tally is high end).[1]

—      25  No date. Quinan, John R. Medical Annals of Baltimore from 1608-1880… 1884, p. 36.

—      24  Adams Sentinel, Gettysburg, PA. “The Victims of the Flood.” 6-26-1837, 5.

—      24  Alton Observer, IL. “Great Flood in Baltimore, and Loss of Lives.” 6-29-1837, p. 7.[2]

–19-20  Lycoming Gazette and Chronicle, Williamsport, PA. “Great Flood…” 6-28-1837, p.3.[3]

—     20  Scharf. History of Maryland (Vol. III), 1879, p. 707.[4]

—     19  Jones Falls Watershed Association “The History of the Jones Falls Watershed.”[5]

—     17  Gelles, A. Public Opinion of the Jones Falls after the Flood of 1868.[6]

 

Narrative Information

 

Attridge: “….the most disastrous floods occurred in 1837 and 1868. Both of these floods saw water from the Jones Falls rise to the second story of nearby buildings, claim a large number of lives, and cause millions of dollars in property damage.”[7] (Attridge, Kevin, and James Risk. Garitee v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore: A Gilded Age Debate on the Role and Limits of Local Government. University of Maryland. No date.)

 

Gelles: “Baltimore began experiencing trouble with flooding in the early 19^th century. On August 9, 1817, the Jones Falls first exhibited its destructive power ‘so serious and extensive as to create well-founded alarm for the future.[8] Well-known civil engineer and architect Benjamin H. Latrobe was commissioned to create a strategy for preventing future flood damage. He suggested diverting the Jones Falls into Herring Run, several miles east, thus removing it from the city entirely. The expense was simply too great to be carried out and the plan was never implemented. Yet another ‘great and disastrous’ inundation hit the city on June 17, 1837, with the Jones Falls rising 20 feet at Centre Street.[9] Stone bridges at Baltimore and Pratt Street were destroyed, and 17 individuals perished. In light of this calamity, Isaac Ridgeway Trimble and Ross Winans, both prominent engineers with ties to the B & O Railroad, suggested straightening the falls at Centre Street. Again, no action was taken to put this plan into motion….”[10] (Gelles. “Early Flooding Concerns.” Public Opinion of the Jones Falls after the Flood of 1868.)

 

Scharf: “The flood which happened on the 8^th of August, 1837, was without a parallel in the history of Baltimore, until that of 1868.  That began, like the one of 1868, with dark and heavy clouds, accompanied by vivid flashes of lightning and continuous peals of heavy thunder.  The period, however, at which the flood of 1837 came on was night; between nine and ten o’clock, the rain began to fall from the heavens in torrents, and continued till past one in the morning.  At that time, Jones’ Falls overran its banks, the force of the waters carrying away the several bridges which crossed it, reinforced by huge quantities of driftwood and fragments of dislodged buildings brought up against the bridge on Gay street – so penning up the flood above it, that the water burst from its banks and immediately inundated all that section of the city then known as the ‘Meadow.’

 

“The lateness of the hour and the darkness of the night combined to render the calamity more destructive of life than the disaster of 1868; some twenty people were drowned in the city and vicinity; in one case, a man, his wife and three children, living at the corner of Holliday and Saratoga streets, were drowned in their beds;  the loss of property was estimated at not less than $2,000,000.” (Scharf. History of Maryland (Vol. III), 1879, p. 707.)

 

Newspapers

 

Baltimore Sun: “From the Baltimore Sun of June 15. Dreadful Inundation! Loss of Life – Loss of Houses, and vast destruction of Merchandise & other Property.

 

“On Wednesday evening [June 14] about 6 o’clock, our city was suddenly enveloped in a dark and heavy cloud which portended an angry storm and rendered ‘darkness visible’ long before the sun set. Rain soon commenced falling, and continued in plentiful showers till about 7 o’clock, when the storm abated and every thing indicated a calm and pleasant night. About 9 o’clock another cloud made its appearance in the North West, accompanied by vivid flashes of lightning, and peal after peal of thunder that almost shook the earth to its centre. At a little past 9 o’clock a terrific blaze of lightning lighted up the adjacent country, and in a few seconds was followed by a crash of thunder which shook the firmest fabrics of the city. Such a peal, such a crash, we do not believe ever burst upon the ears of an astonished people. Though from the time that elapsed between the flash of lightning and the bursting of the thunderbolt, we were led to suppose that it was distant, the concussion of the elements was dreadfully terrific, and was of itself quite sufficient to remind one of the utter feebleness and frailty of man.

 

“With this shock of thunder, the rain, which had previously fallen in copious showers, burst from the heavens in torrents, and continued to fall as if in one interminable cascade, till past one o’clock in the morning, when the stream called Jones’ Falls, which runs through the city in a northern and southern direction, became swollen to its banks, and was soon rendered incapable of retaining its boundaries. The several bridges that crossed it, in the neighborhood of the city, were soon carried away by the force of the waters, aided by huge quantities of drift-wood, the fragments of dislodged buildings, &c. – all of which, being forced down the stream, brought up against the bridge that crosses the Falls in Gay street; thus penning up the flood above it. The water burst from its banks, and, seeking vent in the low-lands, immediately inundated all that section of the city known by the appellation of the ‘Meadows.’ Such was the darkness of the night, the lateness of the hour, and so little was a calamity so dreadful dreamed of, and so sudden the inundation, that many lives were sacrificed, a complete list of which may never be obtained. At this moment we are not enable to go into a full detail of the dreadful consequences of this inundation; and, for a full account, must wait for further developments. At present, we can only give the following particulars:

 

“Mr. Christopher Weist, sexton to the Rev. Haisperd’s church, together with his wife and three children, were drowned.[11] His family resided at the corner of Holliday and Saratoga streets, next door to the church to which the unfortunate Weist was sexton. – After the water had subsided, Mr. Weist was found drowned in his bed, with two of his children in his arms; the wife was in another bed, clasping her infant to her bosom. From these facts, it is evident that the dwelling of poor Weist was inundated by an instantaneous rush of the water, thus carrying the whole family to the tomb.

 

“Mrs. Catharine Donnelly, an Irish woman residing at the corner of Holliday and Centre streets, was drowned, and her body has been recovered; her husband is missing and is supposed to have been carried down th stream and drowned.[12]

 

“A man named Dougherty was drowned at the corner of Concord and Water streets.[13]

 

“A family of colored people residing in Harrison street was also drowned.[14]

 

“James Doyle, on the Long Dock; Jacob Ockle, a German boy, aged 18 years; James Kelly, an Irish boy;[15] a girl in a shantee near the Belvidere bridge,[16] and seven persons, about two miles out of the city, were all drowned.[17]

 

“In addition to the loss of lives already enumerated, we are sorry to add that an infant was found dead in the street near the Marsh Market; its parents unknown, but supposed to have shared the same fate of the child.

 

“Mr. Joseph McCann, grocer, corner of Holliday and Bath streets, escaped by getting out of his house and taking refuge in a tree. He at first attempted to cross over Finn’s bridge, but finding it impossible to do so, fled to a tree, where he found a retreat till the water receded.

 

“The basement stories of all the buildings in Harrison street, from Gay to Market, were filled with water; and at the lower end of Harrison st. some of the second stories were inundated. The buildings in Market street for some hundred yards east and west of Harrison street were deluged, and as most of them were occupied as stories, the loss of property in that direction must have been very great.

 

“Mr. J. Curlett’s Soap and Candle Manufactory, corner of Pleasant and Holliday sts., had eight feet of water in its first story; damage very considerable.

 

“The corner of Bath and Holliday streets was completely blocked up with drift wood, timber, wrecks of buildings, &c.

 

“The greatest destruction was caused at the extensive distillery of the Messrs. Whites, besides the loss of a large quantity of materials and implements, it is stated that a number of horses and mules, nearly on hundred cows, and several hundred hogs have been drowned.

 

“Mr. Lee’s Carriage Repository in Holliday st., near to Saratoga, was inundated; 15 carriages were destroyed – loss estimated at $7 or $8000.

 

“The Marsh Market was very much injured and a portion of its North wing will have to be rebuilt. Several of its pillars were carried away, and many of the stalls and blocks were swept into the Basin at the foot of the slip, completely filling it up. The water on both sides of the market was from 4 to 6 feet high.

 

“Gay street, Market street, and Pratt street bridges were all partially carried away.

 

“It is next to impossible to form anything like a correct estimate in relation to the loss that the city has sustained by this unprecedented disaster. Ruin stalks through an imposing and an important part of the city, and all is excitement.

 

“The more we wander around the scene of desolation, the more fully is the ruin developed. The heart sickens at the contemplation of a scene so dreadful. We cannot go into all the particulars at this moment, for the calamity has been so extensive, that it cannot be fathomed for a day or two. An intelligent gentleman, an old resident of the city – who would not be likely to exaggerate – informs us that the loss cannot be less than TWO MILLIONS of dollars.

 

“In addition to the heavy rain which fell here, it is said that the dam of the Pimlico factory, about five or six miles above the city, covering several acres, gave way on Wednesday evening, thus adding a great body of water to the already overflowing stream.

 

“We have just returned from another visit to the flooded and desolated district, and again have dwelt on a spectacle well calculated to call all the better sympathies of our nature into action. The distress that has fallen on a portion of our citizens who were of all others the least calculated to meet it, loudly calls for the aid and assistance of the more fortunate.

 

“In addition to the losses already enumerated, we are sorry to say that the extensive Tannery of Mr. Appold, situated near the jail, was completely deluged, inflicting on its respectable proprietor a loss estimated from $4 to $5000.

 

“The Gas House was partially inundated, and it is feared that in consequence of the injury the works have received that they may not be able to generate any gas for two or three days to come.

 

“The Bazaar Bridge was carried off, and the buildings in its neighborhood were more or less injured.

 

“The Fountain at the head of the market is completely covered over with lumber, and the environs are filled with alluvial said; and the Iron Foundry of Mr. William Miller on the banks of the Falls is very extensively injured.

 

[At this point in the article the type-face becomes smaller and it appears that the following section was added to the preceding section from the Baltimore Sun of the 16^th.]

 

“Five dead bodies have been found since morning, lodged against the draw bridge, and several others have been found in different parts of the city.[18]

 

“A German, who was alarmed by the flood coming into his dwelling, rose, and going to the lower apartment of the house, soon found himself up to his waist in water. He returned to his room, and taking with him his sister in his arms, swam with her for some distance, when the current took him down the stream, and both were finally saved by  clinging to the branches of a tree.

 

“A boy, as we learn from the Patriot, between the age of twelve and fourteen, had fallen from the drift which clogged Baltimore street bridge, into the swollen and whirling current of the river, and being unable to swim, was passing rapidly and helplessly down the stream, only the top of his head above water, and had once entirely disappeared, when a young man bravely dashed into the stream, and just as the youth was about to be drawn under the drift of lumber, &c., which clogged in like manner the bridge below on Pratt street, he was snatched exhausted and almost lifeless from death, and restored to his family. The name of the humane and heroic person who thus nobly at the hazard of his own life, saved that of a fellow creature, probably unknown to him, is LEWIS SPIESIE, a young man of this city, a mechanic.

 

“We are sorry to add that intelligence has been received in town, which states that twelve or fourteen persons were drowned near the Susquehanna Rail-road, and that the destruction of property in that neighborhood has been immense. Mr. Noonen, contractor on the Susquehanna Rail-road, was in town yesterday, and reports that at his section, about three miles above the city, eleven horses out of twenty-one employed by him were drowned, and all his carts, harnesses, and tools were lost. Ten of the laborers were drowned, the bodies of four have been recovered and sent to the city for inquest.

 

“It is not probable, that we shall get the whole details of the disaster for some days to come – the whole number of loves lost may never be ascertained. We shall take unwearied pains to collect all the facts of the disaster as rapidly as they can be obtained.” (Star and Republican Banner, Gettysburg, PA. “The Baltimore Flood.” 6-23-1837, p. 2., col. 3.)

 

“From the Sun of the 16^th.

Affects of the Flood.

 

“We find but little information in relation to the effects of the flood of Wednesday [14^th], that was not stated in our paper of yesterday. The Gazette of last evening states – ‘A cradle was seen floating in the river near Ramsay’s wharf, at Fell’s Point, and was found to contain a living infant, which was safely landed;’ and adds, ‘this will of course soon be made known to its mother, if haply she has survived….

 

“The African Protestant Episcopal church at the corner of North and Saratoga streets, had about five feet water above the floor. Holliday street was inundated from Centre st. to near Orange alley. The dwellings and houses on both sides of the streets, from that of Joon McKim, jr., inclusive, out to Centre street, had more or less water in their basements and parlors. The City Hall was visited with water in the offices on the first floor. The Presbyterian church at the corner of Holliday and Saratoga streets was materially damaged in the interior. The water rose to the cashion on the pulpit desk, and a part of the pews were removed from their places.” (Star & Republican Banner, Gettysburg, PA. “The Baltimore Flood” [reprint of Baltimore Sun article of 6-15-1837.] and “Affects of the Flood” [Reprint from the Baltimore Sun of June 16] 6-23-1837, p. 2., col. 3.)

 

Adams Sentinel, June 26: “These consist, as nearly as has yet been ascertained of

 

Christ. Wiest, his wife & three children.

Donnelly and Catherine his wife.

James Doyle.

Jacob Ockle, boy.

James Kelly, boy.

Henry Lenehan, boy.

Three boys drowned in a stable loft.

Nine laborers on the Susquehanna railroad, and

a man found dead in the water near Fort McHenry,

making in all twenty four persons – there are doubtless others.” (Adams Sentinel and General Advertiser, Gettysburg, PA. “The Victims of the Flood.” 6-26-1837, 5.)

 

Recap of Reported fatalities

 

1. Donnelly, Mrs. Catharine.      Gettysburg Star. “The Baltimore Flood.” 6-23-1837, p.2.[19]
2. Donnelly, Mr.                         Adams Sentinel, G-burg. “…Victims…” 6-26-1837, 5.[20]
3. Dougherty, Mr.           `           Gettysburg Star. “The Baltimore Flood.” 6-23-1837, p. 2.
4. Doyle, James, boy.                 Gettysburg Star. “The Baltimore Flood.” 6-23-1837, p.2.[21]
5. Kelly, James, boy.                  Gettysburg Star. “The Baltimore Flood.” 6-23-1837, p.2.[22]
6. Lenehan, Henry, boy.             Adams Sentinel, Gettysburg. “…Victims…” 6-26-1837, 5.
7. Ockle, Jacob, 18.                    Gettysburg Star. “The Baltimore Flood.” 6-23-1837, p.2.[23]
8. Weist, Mr. Christopher, sexton. Gettysburg Star. “The Baltimore Flood.” 6-23-1837, 2.[24]
9. Weist, Mrs.                             Gettysburg Star. “The Baltimore Flood.” 6-23-1837, p.2.[25]
10. Weist child (first)                   Gettysburg Star. “The Baltimore Flood.” 6-23-1837, p.2.[26]
11. Weist child (second)               Gettysburg Star. “The Baltimore Flood.” 6-23-1837, p.2.[27]
12. Weist child (third)                  Gettysburg Star. “The Baltimore Flood.” 6-23-1837, p.2.[28]
13. “A family of colored people” Gettysburg Star. “The Baltimore Flood.” 6-23-1837, p.2.[29]
14. “A family of colored people” Gettysburg Star. “The Baltimore Flood.” 6-23-1837, p.2.[30]
15. “A family of colored people” Gettysburg Star. “The Baltimore Flood.” 6-23-1837, p.2.[31]
16. Girl in shantee ~Belvidere bridge. Gettysburg Star. “The Baltimore Flood.” 6-23-1837, 2.
17. Infant found near Marsh Market. Gettysburg Star. “The Baltimore Flood.” 6-23-1837, p2.
18. Unidentified person No. 1 two miles outside of city.[32]
19. Unidentified person No. 2 two miles outside of city.
20. Unidentified person No. 3 two miles outside of city.
21. Unidentified person No. 4 two miles outside of city.
22. Unidentified person No. 5 two miles outside of city.
23. Unidentified person No. 6 two miles outside of city.
24. Unidentified person No. 7 two miles outside of city.
25. Unidentified person No. 8, laborer on the Susquehanna railroad.[33]
26. Unidentified person No. 9, laborer on the Susquehanna railroad.
27. Unidentified boy No. 1 drowned in a stable loft.[34]
28. Unidentified boy No. 2 drowned in a stable loft.[35]
29. Unidentified boy No. 3 drowned in a stable loft.[36]
30. Unidentified may found dead in the water near Fort McHenry.[37]

 

Sources

 

Adams Sentinel and General Advertiser, Gettysburg, PA. “The Victims of the Flood.” 6-26-1837, 5. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/us/pennsylvania/gettysburg/gettysburg-adams-sentinel/1837/06-26/page-5?tag=flood+baltimore&rtserp=tags/flood-baltimore?psb=dateasc&page=2&pci=7&ndt=bd&pd=16&pe=30&pem=6&py=1837&pm=6&pey=1837

 

Alton Observer, IL. “Great Flood in Baltimore, and Loss of Lives.” 6-29-1837, p. 7. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/ThumbImage.ashx?i=115956048

 

Attridge, Kevin, and James Risk. Garitee v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore: A Gilded Age Debate on the Role and Limits of Local Government. University of Maryland. No date, but uploaded to internet on May 1, 2014. Dates of May 2010 and 2011 appear under authors names on title page. Accessed 1-15-2015 at:  http://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1017&context=mlh_pubs

 

Gelles, Aunaleah. Public Opinion of the Jones Falls after the Flood of 1868. Appears to be a Masters Thesis or Paper at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Undated. Accessed 1-16-2015 at: http://scalar.usc.edu/works/jonesfallsflood/early-flooding-concerns

 

Jones Falls Watershed Association. “The History of the Jones Falls Watershed.” 2008. Accessed at: http://jonesfalls.org/index.php/our_watershed/jones_falls_history/

 

Lycoming Gazette and Chronicle, Williamsport, PA. “Great Flood at Baltimore.” 6-28-1837, p. 3. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/ThumbImage.ashx?i=7403988

 

Quinan, John R., M.D. Medical Annals of Baltimore From 1608-1880, Including Events, Men and Literature, to Which is Added A Subject Index and Record of Public Services. Baltimore: Press of Isaac Friedenwald, 1884. Google digitized. Accessed 1-14-2015 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=xNcRAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Scharf, John Thomas. History of Baltimore City and County. Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1881. Google digitized: http://books.google.com/books?id=6tF4AAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Star & Republican Banner, Gettysburg, PA. “The Baltimore Flood.” 6-23-1837, p. 2., col. 3. [Reprint of Baltimore Sun article of 6-15-1837.] Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/ThumbImage.ashx?i=199383804

 

Additional Reading

 

Adams Sentinel, Gettysburg, PA. “Extensive Inundation – Great and Fatal Calamity” [from Baltimore American, June 16]. 7-3-1937, p. 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/ThumbImage.ashx?i=200286665

 

Republican Compiler, Gettysburg, PA. “From the Baltimore Patriot of June 15. Most Disastrous Flood – Great Loss of Life and Property.” 6-27-1837, p. 1. Accessed at:

http://newspaperarchive.com/tags/flood-baltimore?pci=7&ndt=bd&pd=27&pm=6&py=1837&pe=30&pem=7&pey=1837&psb=dateasc

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[1] The Alton Observer reports appears fairly authoritative on a minimum of 24 deaths. Our own tally from a variety of sources which we provide at the end of this report, puts an enumerated list at 30. We have difficulty using lower figures from sources which do not have the date correct (Gelles, Jones Falls Watershed Association and Scharf.)

[2] “The number of lives lost unknown. Twenty-four bodies have already been found, and there are doubtless more.”

[3] “…an elderly Irishman and his wife…, ” the church sexton, his wife and three children, and “twelve or thirteen…on the Susquehanna Rail Road…” Cites the Mercantile Journal.

[4] Incorrectly has the date as August 8. There was a previous Jones Falls deadly flood on Aug 8, 1817. It appears this date has been confused with 1837.

[5] Incorrectly has the date as July 14.

[6] Incorrectly has the date as June 17. The June 17, 1837 edition of the Washington National Intelligencer (DC) has a story on “The Flood at Baltimore.” However, this is a story on the flood that took place on the 15^th (heavy rain beginning evening of the 14^th).

[7] Original footnote cites: George A. Gripe, “Baltimore’s Vesuvius,” Sun Magazine, April 29, 1973, as archived in Vertical File in the Maryland Department of the Enoch Pratt Free Library under “Jones Falls”, envelope #1; Swope. David F. Woods, “Jones Falls Floods Caused Deaths, Terrible Destruction Four Times,” The Evening Sun [Baltimore], June 26, 1972, as archived in Vertical File in the Maryland Department of the Enoch Pratt Free Library under “Jones Falls”, envelope #1.

[8] Gelles cites: Report of the Board of engineers upon changing the course of Jones’ Falls, with a view to prevent inundations, to the mayor and City council of Baltimore (Baltimore: City Council Joint Committee on Jones’ Falls, 1868), 4.

[9] Gelles cites the Report of the Board of engineers… at page 5.

[10] Gelles cites: Sherry Olson. Baltimore: The Building of an American City. (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997), 133.

[11] All five are listed as drowned in the Gettysburg Adams Sentinel and General Advertiser of June 26, 1837, p. 5

[12] Both are listed as drowned in the Gettysburg Adams Sentinel and General Advertiser of June 26, 1837, p. 5.

[13] Not listed as a fatality in the Gettysburg Adams Sentinel and General Advertiser of June 26, 1837, p. 5.

[14] Not noted as fatalities in the Gettysburg Adams Sentinel and General Advertiser of June 26, 1837, p. 5.

[15] All three are listed as drowned in the Gettysburg Adams Sentinel and General Advertiser of June 26, 1837, p. 5.

[16] Not listed as drowned in the Gettysburg Adams Sentinel and General Advertiser of June 26, 1837, p. 5.

[17] This appears to be a reference to the Susquehanna Railroad laborer drownings noted later in the article – as ten at one point and as 12 or 14 at another.

[18] It is not at all clear if these five are amongst the twenty-two enumerated deaths noted earlier in the article. We have not added these to that earlier calculation.

[19] One of the 24 deaths noted in the Adams Sentinel and General Advertiser, Gettysburg, of 6-26-1837, p. 5.

[20] Noted as missing and presumed drowned in the Star & Republican Banner, Gettysburg, PA. “The Baltimore Flood.” 6-23-1837, p. 2., col. 3.

[21] One of the 24 deaths noted in the Adams Sentinel and General Advertiser, Gettysburg, of 6-26-1837, p. 5.

[22] One of the 24 deaths noted in the Adams Sentinel and General Advertiser, Gettysburg, of 6-26-1837, p. 5.

[23] One of the 24 deaths noted in the Adams Sentinel and General Advertiser, Gettysburg, of 6-26-1837, p. 5.

[24] One of the 24 deaths noted in the Adams Sentinel and General Advertiser, Gettysburg, of 6-26-1837, p. 5.

[25] One of the 24 deaths noted in the Adams Sentinel and General Advertiser, Gettysburg, of 6-26-1837, p. 5.

[26] One of the 24 deaths noted in the Adams Sentinel and General Advertiser, Gettysburg, of 6-26-1837, p. 5.

[27] One of the 24 deaths noted in the Adams Sentinel and General Advertiser, Gettysburg, of 6-26-1837, p. 5.

[28] One of the 24 deaths noted in the Adams Sentinel and General Advertiser, Gettysburg, of 6-26-1837, p. 5.

[29] We do not know how many people in the family supposedly drowned, but use “3” as an approximation.

[30] We do not know how many people in the family supposedly drowned, but use “3” as an approximation.

[31] We do not know how many people in the family supposedly drowned, but use “3” as an approximation.

[32] Star & Republican Banner, Gettysburg, PA. “The Baltimore Flood.” 6-23-1837, p. 2., col. 3 [reprint of Baltimore Sun article of June 15, 1837]. Notes seven drownings.

[33] The article writes here that “twelve or fourteen persons were drowned near the Susquehanna Rail-road.” The next line writes “Mr. Noonen, contractor on the Susquehanna Rail-road…reports…ten of the laborers were drowned, the bodies of four have been recovered…” In that we think it probable that the seven drownings noted earlier two miles outside the city are the same as being reported here for drownings on the Susquehanna railroad, three miles outside the city, we are adding two more (for a total of nine), thus not using the “twelve or fourteen” figures. We just add two, given the report of nine Susquehanna railroad laborers having drowned in the Adams Sentinel and General Advertiser, Gettysburg, 6-26-1837, p. 5.

[34] Adams Sentinel and General Advertiser, Gettysburg, 6-26-1837, p. 5.

[35] Adams Sentinel and General Advertiser, Gettysburg, 6-26-1837, p. 5.

[36] Adams Sentinel and General Advertiser, Gettysburg, 6-26-1837, p. 5.

[37] Adams Sentinel and General Advertiser, Gettysburg, PA. “The Victims of the Flood.” 6-26-1837, 5.

 

–120-175 Blanchard estimated range.*

— 230 May 9. Bragg. Historic Names…Lower Mississippi River. “Fort Adams, MS,” 1977, 196.
— 200 May 9. Berman, Bruce D. Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks. 1972, p. 190.
— >200 Childs. A History of the U.S. In Chronological Order…1492…to…1885. 1886, p. 108.
— 200 May 9. Ellms, Charles. The Tragedy of the Seas. 1841, p. 353.
— >200 Gould. Fifty Years on the Miss.; or, Gould’s History of River Navigation 1889, p.454.
— >200 Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine 1888. “Every Day’s Record,” May, p. 789.
— >200 May 9. Lloyd’s Steamboat Directory and Disasters on the Western Waters. 1856, 99.
— 200 Nash, Jay Robert. Darkest Hours. 1977, p. 679.
— 200 Wiard, Norman. The Cause of Boiler Explosions, etc. 1868, p. 10.
— 175 Cornell, James. The Great International Disaster Book (Third Edition). 1982, p. 395.
— 175 Howland. Steamboat Disasters and Railroad Accidents in the United States. 1843, 91
— >150 Hunter. Steamboats on the Western Rivers.1994, p. 281.
— 150 Nelson. “Terror aboard the Ben Sherrod.” Concordia Sentinel, LA. 12-9-2015.
— <150 Sandukas. Gently Down the Stream: How Exploding Steamboat Boilers. 2002, p. 23. --120-150 Republican Compiler, Gettysburg, PA. “Dreadful Occurrence!” May 23, 1837, p. 3. -- 140 Twaintimes. A Time Line of Events in the Life of Samuel Langhorne Clemens… -- 137 Vogel. ‘It Wasn’t the Money Boat’…Western River Steamboats in the [US]. 2017, 10. -- 130 Marryat, Capt. Second Series of a Diary in America. 1840, p. 15 -- 130 Sparks. American Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowledge…1840, Vol. 11, 119. -- 130 Preble. A Chronological History…of Steam Navigation 1543-1882. 1883, p. 153. -- 120 Morrison, John Harrison. History of American Steam Navigation. 1908, p. 221. -- >120 True American, New Orleans, in The Recorder, Milledgeville, GA. 5-16-1837, p. 6.
— ~100 The Recorder, Milledgeville, GA. “Horrid Accident,” 5-16-1837, p. 6.
— 72 May 8. Berman, Bruce D. Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks. 1972, p. 158.

* One can read the excerpts from narratives we have included below and decide for oneself what the death toll might have been. We choose to follow Howland, writing just several years after the disaster, that there were something like 235 people onboard. As we note in our footnote to Bragg, if this is close to correct and if the survivors numbered in the dozens, then 235 could not have died. The same would be true of the notations of 200 deaths, which has the added disability of being a “nice round number” which we generally treat with skepticism. We choose to use the number of 120 deaths as the low end of the death toll range in that the Republican Compiler did so at the time, as does Morrison in 1908. We could use 72-230 as the death toll range since this is the range reflected in the variety of sources noted, but this would be like throwing up one’s hands and giving up any attempt to determine a more realistic range.

Narrative Information

Berman: “Ben Sherrod; Steamer; 393 tons; built 1836; lost May 8, 1837 to fire at Black Hawk, La., 72 lives lost.” (Berman, Bruce D. Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks. 1972, p. 158)

Berman: “Sherrod…May 9, 1837. Burned. Mississippi River. 200 lives lost.” (Berman, Bruce D. Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks. 1972, p. 190.)

Bragg: “Fort Adams, Mississippi. Mile 311.9 AHP….The river in front of the town of Fort Adams was the scene of a spectacular steamboat explosion on May 9, 1837. The steamer Ben Sherrod was the boat involved, and the explosion that sank her shook the country for miles around. It was a long, long blast. First the boiler blew up; then some kegs of whiskey and brandy; and then a cargo of gunpowder that the boat was carrying.

“P. R. Bohlen was one of the passengers on board the Ben Sherrod. He had been down to Baton Rouge with a flatboat load of coal and ice. The sale of his cargo had brought him $2,000 in gold coins, which he carried with him when he embarked on the steamboat for the trip back up the river. Awakened by the first explosion, he had hurried out on deck. Carrying the box that contained his gold coins, he leaped overboard and clung to the burning hull of the boat until hot coals began to fall on his head. Then he dropped his box, and swam for the shore. He was luckier than most of the passengers, for he made it to safety. Of the 300 people on board, it was later estimated that only 70 had escaped with their lives.

“In addition to Bohlen’s box of coins, a shipment of money destined for a Tennessee bank and $18,000 belonging to another passenger, went to the bottom with the Ben Sherrod.

“The usual horror stories were told about the accident. It was said that the boat had been engaged in a race, that the crew were all drunk, and that the engineer had deserted his post without stopping the engines. It was also reported that a southbound boat had passed and had run over some of the people who were struggling to stay afloat and had then gone on its way, refusing to stop and assist in rescue work.

“The explosion of the Ben Sherrod was one of the major tragedies that led to the passage of the Steamboat Act of 1838, a well-intentioned but ineffectual effort to protect the lives of steamboat passengers.” (Bragg. Historic Names…Places…Lower MS River. “Fort Adams, MS,” 1977, 196.)

Cornell: “Ben Sherrod, Mississippi River, May 9, 1837: The steam packet Ben Sherrod burned in the river below Natchez, Mississippi with the loss of 175 lives.” (Cornell, James. The Great International Disaster Book (Third Edition). New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1982, p. 395.)

Ellms: “On Sunday morning, the 6th of May, 1837, the steam¬boat Ben Sherrod, under the command of Captain Castle¬man, was preparing to leave the levee at New Orleans….she was what is technically called a Tennessee cotton boat….

“The Ben’s finish and accommodation of the cabin were by no means such as would begin to compare with the regu¬lar passenger boats. It being late in the season, and but few large steamers being in port, in consequence of the severity of the times, the Ben Sherrod got an undue number of passengers; otherwise she would have been avoided, for her accommodations were not enticing. She had a heavy freight on board, and several horses and carriages on the forecastle. The build of the Ben Sherrod was heavy, her timbers being of the largest size.

About 10 o’clock, A. M., the ill-fated steamer pushed off upon the turbid current of the Mississippi, as a swan upon the waters. In a few minutes, she was under way, tossing high in air bright and snowy clouds of steam at every half revolution of her en¬gine….

“On Tuesday evening, the 9th of May, 1837, the steam¬boat Prairie, on her way to St. Louis, bore hard upon the Sherrod. It was necessary for the latter to stop at Fort Adams, during which the Prairie passed her. Great vexa¬tion was manifested by some of the passengers, that the Prairie should get to Natchez first. This subject formed the theme of conversation for two or three hours, the cap¬tain assuring them that he would beat her anyhow. The Prairie is a very fast boat, and under equal chances could have beaten the Sherrod. So soon as the business was transacted at Fort Adams, for which she stopped, orders were given to the men to keep up their fires to the extent. It was now a little after 11, P. M. The captain retired to his berth, with his clothes on, and left the deck in charge of an officer. During the evening, a barrel of whisky had been turned out, and permission given to the hands to do as they pleased. As may be supposed, they drew upon the barrel quite liberally. It is the custom on all boats to furnish the firemen with liquor, though a difference exists as to the mode….

“As the Sherrod passed on above Fort Adams, towards the mouth of the Homochitta, the wood piled up in the front of the furnaces several times caught fire, and was once or twice imperfectly extinguished by the drunken hands. It must be understood by those of my readers who have never seen a western steamboat, that the boilers are entirely above the first deck, and that, when the fires are well kept up for any length of time, the heat is almost insupportable. Were it not for the draft occasioned by the speed of the boat, it would be very difficult to attend the fires. As the boat was booming along through the water close in shore, — for, in ascending the river, boats go as close as they can to avoid the current, — a negro on the beach called out to the fireman that the wood was on fire. The reply was, ‘Go to h—l, and mind your own business,’ from some half-intoxicated hand. ‘0 truism,’ answered the negro, ‘if you don’t take care, you will be in h-l before I will.’

“On, on, on went the boat, at a tremendous rate, quivering and trembling in all her length at every revolution of the wheels. The steam was created so fast, that it continued to escape through the safety-valve, and, by its sharp singing, told a tale that every prudent captain would have understood. As the vessel rounded the bar that makes off from the Homochitta, being compelled to stand out into the middle of the river in consequence, the fire was discovered. It was about one o’clock in the morn¬ing. A passenger had got up previously, and was standing on the boiler deck, when, to his astonishment the fire broke out from the pile of wood. A little presence of mind, and a set of men unintoxicated, could have saved the boat. The passenger seized a bucket, and was about to plunge it over¬board for water, when he found it locked. An instant more, and the fire increased in volumes. The captain was now awaked. He saw that the fire had seized the deck. He ran aft, and announced the ill tidings. No sooner were the words out of his mouth, than the shrieks of mothers, sisters, and babes, resounded through the hitherto silent cabin in the wildest confusion. Men were aroused from their dreaming cots to experience the hot air of the approaching fire. The pilot, being elevated on the hurricane deck, at the instant of perceiving the flames, put the head of the boat shoreward. She had scarcely got under good way in that direction, than the tiller-ropes were burnt asunder. Two miles, at least, from the land, the vessel took a sheer, and, borne upon by the current, made several revolutions, until she struck off across the river. A bar brought her up for the moment.

“The flames had now extended fore and aft. At the first alarm, several deck passengers had got into the yawl that hung suspended by the davits. A cabin passenger, endowed with some degree of courage and presence of mind, expostulated with them, and did all he could to save the boats for the ladies. Twas useless. One took out his knife and cut away the forward tackle. The next instant and they were all, to the number of twenty or more, launched into the angry waters. They were seen no more.

“The boat, being lowered from the other end, filled, and was useless. Now came the trying moment. Hundreds leaped from the burning wreck into the waters. Mothers were seen standing on the guards with hair disheveled, praying for help. The dear little innocents clung to the side of their mothers, and with their tiny hands beat away the burning flames. Sisters calling out to their brothers in unearthly voices—’Save me, 0, save me, brother!’ — wives crying to their husbands to save their children, in total forgetfulness of themselves, — every second or two a desperate plunge of some poor victim falling on the appalled ear, — the dashing to and fro of the horses on the forecastle, groaning audibly from pain of the devouring element, — the continued puffing of the engine, for it still continued to go, — the screaming mother who had leaped overboard in the desperation of the moment with her only child, — the flames mounting to the sky with the rapidity of lightning, — shall I ever forget that scene — that hour of horror and alarm? Never, were I to live till the memory should forget all else that ever came to the senses. The short half hour that separated and plunged into eternity two hundred human beings has been so burnt into the memory, that even now I think of it more than half the day.

“I was swimming to the shore with all my might; endeav¬oring to sustain a mother and her child. She sank twice, and yet I bore her on. My strength failed me. The babe was nothing — a mere cork. ‘Go, go,’ said the brave mother;’ save my child, save my — ‘ and she sank to rise no more. Nerved by the resolution of that woman, I reached the shore in safety. The babe I saved. Ere I had reached the beach, the Sherrod had swung off’ the bar, and was floating down, the engine having ceased running. In every direction heads dotted the surface of the river. The burning wreck now wore a new and still more awful appear¬ance. Mothers were seen clinging, with the last hope, to the blazing timbers, and dropping off one by one. The screams had ceased. A sullen silence rested over the devoted vessel. The flames became tired of their destructive work.

“While I sat dripping and overcome upon the beach, a steamboat, the Columbus, came in sight, and bore for the wreck. It seemed like one last ray of hope gleaming across the dead gloom of that night. Several wretches were saved. And still another, the Statesman, came in sight. More, more were saved.

“A moment to me had only elapsed, when high in the heavens the cinders flew, and the country was lighted all round. Still another boat came booming on. I was happy that more help had come. After an exchange of words with the Columbus, the captain continued on his way under full steam. 0, how my heart sank within me! The waves created by his boat sent many a poor mortal to his long, long home. A being by the name of Dougherty was the captain of that merciless boat. Long may he be remem¬bered!

“My hands were burnt, and now I began to experience severe pain. The scene before me — the loss of my two sisters and brother, whom I had missed in the confusion, — all had steeled my heart. I could not weep — I could not sigh. The cries of the babe at my side were nothing to me.

“Again — another explosion! and the waters closed slowly and sullenly over the scene of disaster and death. Darkness resumed her sway, and the stillness was only interrupted by the distant efforts of the Columbus and Statesman in their laudable exertions to save human life.

“Captain Castleman lost, I believe, a father and child. Some argue, this is punishment enough. No, it is not. He had the lives of hundreds under his charge. He was care¬less of his trust; he was guilty of a crime that nothing will ever wipe out. The bodies of two hundred victims are cry¬ing out from the depth of the father of waters for vengeance. Neither society nor law will give it. His punishment is yet to come. May I never meet him!

“I could tell of scenes of horror that would rouse the indignation of a Stoic; but I have done. As to myself, I could tell you much to excite your interest. It was more than three weeks after the occurrence before I ever shed a tear. All the fountains of sympathy had been dried up, and my heart was as stone. As I lay on my bed the twenty-fourth day after, tears, salt tears, came to my relief. and I felt the loss of my sisters and brother more deeply than ever. Peace be to their spirits! they found a watery grave.

“In the course of all human events, scenes of misery will occur. But where they rise from sheer carelessness, it requires more than Christian fortitude to forgive the being who is in fault. I repeat, may I never meet Captain Castle¬man or Captain Dougherty!” (Ellms 1841, The Tragedy, “The Burning of the Ben Sherrod [Told] By A Passenger,” 348-353.)

Howland: “Destruction of the Ben Sherod by fire and explosion, on the Mississippi River, May 8, 1837, — with the loss of nearly 200 lives.

“The steamer Ben Sherod, Capt. Castleman, left New Orleans on Sunday morning, May 7, bound to Louisville, and on the night of the 8th, when about thirty miles below Natchez, she was discovered to be on fire, and in a few minutes after, the whole boat was enveloped in flames.

“Being in the stream, and her wheel-ropes burnt off, it was impossible to run her ashore; and no alternative was left to the persons on board, but to jump into the water and attempt to save themselves by swimming, or floating on such articles as they could find, or to perish in the flames….

“So rapid was the spread of the fire, and so destitute were those on board of all means of escape, that nothing could be saved, not even the register of the boat; thus rendering it impossible to state with certainty how many were lost, or what were their names.

“The fire is believed to have originated from the fuel being piled up near the boiler…. [p. 94]

“There was some powder on board, — in what quantities was not known, — but the knowledge that it was there, seemed to have paralyzed the efforts of the crew, and its explosion added to the deep horrors of he scene. There were nine ladies on board, only two of whom were rescued…. [p. 97]

“There were 235 persons on board, of whom not more than 60 escaped – leaving 175 drowned and burned…. [p. 98]

(Howland, Southworth Allen. “Destruction of the Ben Sherod.” Pp. 94-111 in Steamboat Disasters and Railroad Accidents in the United States (Revised and Improved). Worcester: Warren Lazell. 1843.

Lloyd: “On the 8th of May, 1837, the large Louisville and New Orleans packet, the Ben Sherrod, caught fire on her upward trip, while she was engaged in an exciting race with the steamer Prairie. It was one o’clock at night, and the boat was about fourteen miles above Fort Adams, ploughing her way up the Mississippi with great velocity. The Prairie was just ahead of her, in sight, and the crew of the Ben Sherrod were determined, if possible, to go by her. The firemen were shoving in the pine knots, and sprinkling rosin over the coal, and doing their best to raise more steam. They had a barrel of whisky before them, from which they drank often and freely until they were beastly drunk. The boilers became so hot that they set fire to sixty cords of wood on board. and the Ben Sherrod was soon completely enveloped in flames.

“The passengers, three hundred in number, were sound asleep, not thinking of the awful doom that awaited them. When the deck hands discovered the fire, they basely left their posts and ran for the yawl, without giving the alarm to the passengers. Capt. Castleman attempted for a time to allay the excitement and confusion, by telling them the fire was extinguished. Twice he forbade the lowering of the yawl, which was attempted. The shrieks of nearly three hundred and fifty persons now on board, rose wild and dreadful, which might have been heard at a distance of several miles. The cry was, ” To the shore ! to the shore !” and the boat made for the starboard shore, but did not gain it, as the wheel ropes soon burnt. The steam was not let off, and the boat kept on up the river. The scene of horror now beggared all de¬scription. The yawl, which had been filled with the crew, had sunk, drowning nearly all who were in it; and the passengers had no other alternative than to jump overboard, without even taking time to dress. There were ten ladies who all went overboard without uttering a single scream; some drowned instantly, and others clung to planks; two of the number were all that were saved. Several passengers were burnt alive. One man by the name of Ray, from Louisville, Kentucky, jumped overboard, and hung to a rope at the bow of the boat, until rescued by the yawl of the steamer Columbus, which arrived at the scene half an hour after the boat took fire….

“The steamboat Alton arrived half an hour after the Columbus, but from the carelessness or indiscretion of those on her, was the means of drowning many persons who were floating in the water. She came down under full headway among the exhausted sufferers, who were too weak to make any further exertion, and by the commotion occasioned by her wheels drowned a large number….

“It was said by some of the passengers, that the captain of the Alton did not hear the cries of those who implored him for assistance as he passed, it being midnight; but there can be no excuse for the monster who commanded the Prairie, for leaving a boat in flames without turn-ing around and affording the sufferers relief. He reported her on fire at Natchez and Vicksburg.

“A man in a canoe near the scene of the disaster refused to save any who were floating in the water, unless they promised to pay him hand¬somely for his services.

“So rapid were the flames that not even the register of the boat was saved; hence it was impossible to get a full list of the lost. One of the officers of the boat informed us that out of seventy-eight deck passengers not more than six were saved. This was one of the most serious calamities that ever occurred on the Mississippi river, there being at least one hundred and seventy families deprived by it of some dear and beloved member, and over two hundred souls being harried by it out of time into eternity, with scarce a moment’s warning.

“During the burning of the Ben Sherrod eight different explosions oc¬curred; first, barrels of whiskey, brandy, Sm.; then the boilers blew up with a fearful explosion, and lastly, forty barrels of gunpowder ex¬ploded, which made a noise that was heard many miles distant, scattering fragments of the wreck in all directions, and producing the grandest sight ever seen. Immediately after, the wreck sunk out of sight just above Fort Adams. A large quantity of specie, which was on its way to the Tennessee Banks, was lost….” (Lloyd’s Steamboat Directory and Disasters. 1856, pp. 95.99.)

Sandukas: “Seven months later, in the face of mounting tragedies, President Martin Van Buren took a page from his predecessor and called for action in his State of the Union address:

The distressing casualties in steamboats, which have so frequently happened during the year, seem to evince the necessity of attempting to prevent them, by means of severe provisions connected with their custom-house papers. This subject… will doubtless receive that early and careful consideration which its pressing importance appears to require.

“Van Buren became the latest politician, in the face of the Court’s confusing signals regarding the commerce clause, to rally behind the licensing power of Congress as a constitutional proxy for steamboat regulation. Despite his belief that “the less government interferes with private pursuits the better for the general prosperity,” the safety of the public and, more significantly, his electorate, were under siege. It is no coincidence, then, that his political ally, Senator Felix Grundy (Tennessee), opened the new session of Congress the very next day by proposing a piece of legislation entitled, “A bill to provide for the better security of the lives of passengers on board of vessels propelled in whole or in part by steam.” The bill contained thirteen provisions, six of which were identical to those in the 1833 bill advocated by Webster. 101 It called for mandatory licensing and the appointment of inspectors of hulls and machinery by district court judges. Boilers were to be hydrostatically tested at three times their working pressure. The engine was to be kept running and safety valves kept open at stops, and each boat was to have lifeboats, a fire hose, and lights. Monetary penalties supporting these provisions were to be recovered in federal court with half going to the informer, and misconduct, negligence, or inattention by the crew resulting in death was grounds for guilt of manslaughter.

“When the select committee reported the bill out for consideration by the full Senate, it had removed several provisions, most notably those for hydrostatic testing and keeping the engine running when stopped. The first of these was arguably the most important provision that could have been passed, having been recommended by the Franklin Institute as the most effective means of ensuring boiler quality and strength. The latter was also crucial as it seemingly would have prevented a majority of the explosions that had occurred up to that time. Yet the committee saw fit to delete them, in large part due to the concerted protestations of steamboat owners that hydrostatic testing at three times working pressure would ruin low-pressure boilers and weaken those of high-pressure, and that it would be extremely difficult and impractical to stop at landings with the engine kept running….”

“[An]…amended bill was passed on January 24, 1838, and proceeded to the House of Representatives for its consideration in June.” (Sandukas 2002, pp. 23-25)

Wiard: “By the burning of the Ben Sherrod, on the Mississippi River, May 8, 1837, 200 lives were lost. ‘The fire originated near the boiler.’ She was racing with the Prairie, and one account states, ‘She took fire from the great heat of the boilers.’ ‘During the conflagration the boilers burst, adding to the horrors of the occasion.’ The fire began about one o’clock in the morning. A passenger who had left his state-room, and was standing on deck over the boilers, ‘was astonished to see the fire burst forth under his feet’.” (Wiard. The Cause of Boiler Explosions, etc. 1868, 10.)

Newspapers

May 11: “New-Orleans, May 11. HORRID ACCIDENT.

“On the night of the 8th instant, about 1 o’clock, A.M. a fire broke out on board the steamer ‘Ben Sherrod,’ about 30 miles below Natchez, bound to Louisville, with about 160 passengers, and crew on board. The fire originated from the wood, which was of a very combustible nature, and spread with such alarming rapidity as to place it out of the power of those on board to quench it, and the entire boat was enveloped in a few minutes in one mass of flame.

“Just as the passengers were making every effort to escape from on board, throwing over cotton bales and other materials, to keep themselves from sinking, the steamer Columbus, Capt. Jones, came to their assistance, and by his timely aid, succeeded in rescuing from a watery grave about 60 of the number. – Bulletin.” (The Recorder, Milledgeville, GA. “Horrid Accident,” 5-16-1837, p. 6.)

May 23, The Recorder: “A slip from the office of the True American [New Orleans] thus alludes to the calamitous occurrence:

The destruction of the steamboat Ben. Sherrod by fire, while ascending the river on her way to Louisville, is truly heart-rending. Seldom have we been called on to record a disaster in which the sacrifice of human life has been so great. While she was wending her way just above Fort Adams about 1 o’clock on the morning of the 8th May, a small pile of wood in front of the furnaces, caught fire. In a few moments the flames spread in every direction. The Columbus, at that moment descending the river, rounded to and saved several of the passengers. But with all the assistance that she could render, more than 120 persons perished. There were two distinct explosions – one supposed to be the boilers, and the other to be from a quantity of powder on board. A passenger on board the Columbus describes the scene as the most awful he ever witnessed. The screams of men, women, and children, pierced the air for miles round, while in the bright light that went up from the waters, the hanging forms of the poor wretches as they clung convulsively to the burning sides of the boat, struck the deepest anguish into the heart of the spectator. Among those saved, are Capt. Castleman and lady, six officers, 23 of the crew, 9 deck, and the following cabin passengers: James Smith, lady and son, Thomas Cook, Wm. H. M’Cloud, Wm. Beattie, Thomas Larmer, Samuel Ray, Lister Sexton, Mr. Gambel and son, Amos Brundle, and four others, names not known.”

(The Recorder, Milledgeville, GA. “Horrid Accident,” 5-16-1837, p. 6.)

May 23, Republican Compiler: “About one o’clock on the morning of the 8th inst. The steam-boat Ben Sherrod took fire and was destroyed while ascending the Mississippi river, just above Fort Adams.—From 120 to 150 persons perished. Between 50 and 60 were saved by the boats Columbus and Alton, which passed the place soon after. There were two explosions—one by the boilers and the other by a quantity of gunpowder.” (Republican Compiler, Gettysburg, PA. “Dreadful Occurrence!” May 23, 1837, p. 3.)

Sources

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

Bragg, Marion. Historic Names and Places on the Lower Mississippi River. Vicksburg, MS: Mississippi River Commission, 1977. Accessed at: http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/pao/history/MRnames/MissRiverNames.htm > Also at:
http://www.mvd.usace.army.mil/Portals/52/docs/MRC/MRnames%28Intro-end_final2%29.pdf

Childs, Emery E. A History of the United States In Chronological Order From the Discovery of America in 1492 to the Year 1885. NY: Baker & Taylor, 1886. Google digitized. Accessed 9-4-2017: http://books.google.com/books?id=XLYbAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Cornell, James. The Great International Disaster Book (Third Edition). New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1982.

Ellms, Charles. The Tragedy of the Seas or, Sorrow on the Ocean, Lake, and River, from Shipwreck, Plague, Fire, and Famine. Philadelphia: Carey & Hart, 1841. Digitized by Google: http://books.google.com/books?id=R6xS3DM_qVAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+tragedy+of+the+seas&cd=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Gould, E. W. Fifty Years on the Mississippi; or, Gould’s History of River Navigation. St. Louis: Nixon-Jones Printing Co., 1889, 750 pages. Digitized by Google. Accessed 2008 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=udyywXOVBvsC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Howland, Southworth Allen. Steamboat Disasters and Railroad Accidents in the United States (Revised and Improved). Worcester: Warren Lazell, 1843.

Hunter, Louis C. and Beatrice J. Steamboats on the Western Rivers: An Economic and Technological History. NY: Dover Publications, Inc., 1994, 684 pages.

Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine 1888. “Every Day’s Record,” Vol. XLIII, January to June 1888, 1889. Accessed at: http://books.google.com/books?id=nLURAAAAYAAJ

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

Marryat, Capt. Second Series of a Diary in America. Philadelphia: T. K. & P. G. Collins, 1840. Accessed 7-7-2020 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=HzhWAAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Morrison, John Harrison. History of American Steam Navigation. New York: W. F. Sametz & Co., Inc., 1908, 653 pages. Digitized by Google. Accessed at: http://books.google.com/books?id=Q5tDAAAAIAAJ&printsec=toc&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false

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.

Nelson, Stanley. “Terror aboard the Ben Sherrod.” Concordia Sentinel, LA. 12-9-2015. Accessed 7-7-2020 at: https://www.hannapub.com/concordiasentinel/stanley-nelson-terror-aboard-the-ben-sherrod/article_290d5214-9ea6-11e5-99ef-23447ababa88.html

Preble, Geo. Henry (Rear-Admiral (USN). A Chronological History of the Origin and Development of Steam Navigation 1543-1882. Philadelphia: L.R. Hamersly & Co., 1883. At: http://www.archive.org/stream/chronologicalhis00prebrich/chronologicalhis00prebrich_djvu.txt

Republican Compiler, Gettysburg, PA. “Dreadful Occurrence!” [Ben Sherrod Explosion], 5-23-1837, p. 3. At: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=2881086

Sandukas, Gregory P. Gently Down the Stream: How Exploding Steamboat Boilers in the 19th Century Ignited Federal Public Welfare Regulation (Redacted Version). Harvard Law School, Class of 2002, Third Year Paper, 4-30-2002, 47 pages. Accessed at: http://leda.law.harvard.edu/leda/data/530/Sandukas_redacted.pdf

Sparks, Jared and George Partridge Sanger, Compilers. American Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowledge for the Year 1831. Boston: Gray and Bowen, Nov 11, 1830. Accessed at: http://books.google.com/books?id=OKs0AAAAMAAJ&dq=editions:LCCN05001604&lr=&source=gbs_navlinks_s

The Recorder, Milledgeville, GA. “Horrid Accident,” 5-16-1837, p. 6. Accessed 7-8-2020 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/milledgeville-southern-recorder-may-16-1837-p-6/

Twaintimes – A Time Line of Events in the Life of Samuel Langhorne Clemens – Mark Twain. Accessed 11-16-2008 at: http://twaintimes.net/page2.html

Vogel, Kristen Marie. ‘It Wasn’t the Money Boat’: The Myth and Reality of Treasure Hunting for Western River Steamboats in the United States. Doctoral dissertation, Texas A&M university, August 2017. Accessed 7-7-2020 at: https://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/bitstream/handle/1969.1/165751/VOGEL-DISSERTATION-2017.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Wiard, Norman. The Cause of Boiler Explosions, etc. Philadelphia: Stein & Jones, 1868, p. 12. Digitized by Google at: http://books.google.com/books?id=Xj0OAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

–2,000-10,000  Blanchard estimate based on narratives below.[1]

–2,000-300,000.  Cook. The Conflict Between the California Indian and White…, 1976, 213-14.

Narrative Information

“The second serious epidemic [which Cook puts as 1833 and others at 1829-34] was one of smallpox which occurred in 1837, the so-called ‘Miramontes epidemic.’  Since the details of this visitation have been given elsewhere,[2] it will be necessary here to consider only the extent and losses involved. Coming from Fort Ross, the smallpox first attacked Sonoma and then spread north and east so as to include, according to Cerruti, the valleys of Sonoma, Petaluma, Santa Rosa, Russian River, Clear Lake, Suisun, and the Sacramento ‘as far as the slopes of Mount Shasta.’[3] In this region the Indians were ‘almost exterminated.’  He puts the dead at 100,000.  Alvarado says 200,000 to 300,000 and Fernandez 100,000. All these are obviously wild guesses.  A more conservative statement was made by Vallejo, who said that ‘hundreds’ were dying in his district.[4]

“Other evidence is derived from certain survivors. The pioneer John Walker of Sebastopol, Sonoma County, told the county historian, Samuel Cassiday, that George C. Yount pointed out to him in 1846 an Indian girl who was the ‘sole survivor’ of her tribe during the epidemic.[5] Another Indian stated that in his tribe, also on the Russian River, the death rate was 10 to 20 per day during the peak of the sickness, and that in some tribes ‘nearly all’ died. In Sonoma, General Vallejo’s private company of Indian auxiliaries was so decimated as to be utterly useless from the military standpoint.

“The focus of this epidemic seems to have been in the territory of the Pomo and Wappo, with an extension among the Sacramento Valley Wintun. (Cerruti’s reference to Mount Shasta may be dismissed as rhetoric.) If several villages (‘tribes’) were actually annihilated and if Vallejo was somewhere near the truth in his reference to the death of ‘hundreds,’ we may suppose the casualties to have been in the vicinity of 1,000 among the Indians close to the Sonoma Valley and the Russian River Valley. It is probably safe to add another thousand to account for the Clear Lake region and the western side of the Sacramento Valley. The total of 2,000, although vastly less than the contemporary guesses, would still constitute a serious blow to the Indian population.” (Cook, Sherburne Friend. The Conflict Between the California Indian and White Civilization, Part 4, 1976, pp. 213-214.)

Boyd: “In 1974 Sherburne Cook stated ‘the mortality may have reached 10,000’ (1978: 92[6]).” (Boyd, Robert Thomas. The Coming of the Spirit of Pestilence: Introduced Infectious Diseases and Population Decline among Northwest Coast Indians, 1774-1874. University of Washington Press, 1999, p. 131.)

Sources

Boyd, Robert Thomas. The Coming of the Spirit of Pestilence: Introduced Infectious Diseases and Population Decline among Northwest Coast Indians, 1774-1874. University of Washington Press, 1999, 403 pages. Google digitized; accessed 1-5-2015 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=P_FdUPbmwCgC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Cook, Sherburne Friend. The Conflict Between the California Indian and White Civilization, Part 4, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1976. Partially Google digitized at: http://books.google.com/books?id=AXgmN-PIrywC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

[1] Two thousand deaths is at the low end of the range of estimates cited by Cook. The high end is 200,000-300,000,  which he considers “wild guesses.” Boyd points out, though, that in a 1978 book, Cook writes that “the morality may have reached 10,000.” Thus we choose the range 2,000-10,000.

[2] References himself:  “S.F. Cook, ‘Smallpox in Spanish and Mexican California, 1770-1845,” Bulletin of the History of  Medicine, Vol. 7, pp. 183-187.

[3] Cites:  E. Cerruti, “Establecimientos Rusos en California,’ MS, 1877, p. 8.

[4] Cites: M. G. Vallejo to comandante of San Diego, May 23, 1838, Dept. St. Pap., 4:205.

[5] Writes:  “Set forth in Cassiday’s book, History of Sonoma County (1888). The same material is also quoted by E. L. Finley, History of Sonoma County (1937), pp. 61 and 244.

[6] Probably a reference to Sherburne F. Cook. “Historical demography.” In Robert F. Heizer (ed.) Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 8: California. Smithsonian Institution and Government Printer, Washington, DC, 1978.