File:Steamboat disasters and railroad accidents in the United States - to which is appended accounts of recent shipwrecks, fires at sea, thrilling incidents, etc. (1840) (14781170883).jpg

Identifier: steamboatdisaste00howl (find matches)
Title: Steamboat disasters and railroad accidents in the United States : to which is appended accounts of recent shipwrecks, fires at sea, thrilling incidents, etc.
Year: 1840 (1840s)
Authors: Howland, S. A. (Southworth Allen), 1800-1882
Subjects: Steamboat disasters Railroad accidents Shipwrecks
Publisher: Worcester, Mass. : Dorr, Howland
Contributing Library: University of Pittsburgh Library System
Digitizing Sponsor: Lyrasis Members and Sloan Foundation

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in the flames. In the confusion andalarm, many, who 0!^uld not swim, sprang overboard,without taking the precaution to provide themselveswith a plank or box, and were drowned ; but manymore, it is feared, were burned to death. So rapid was the spread of the fire, and^o destitutewere those on board of all means of escape^ that noth-ing could be saved, not even the register of the b(?at ;thus rendering it impossible to state with certaintyhow many were lost, or what were their names. The fire is believed to have originated from thefuel being piled up near the boiler. The story of thedisaster was related to us by a young man who was acabin passenger, and it is awfully interesting, and hisown escape almost miraculous. When .he awoke, heput on his clothes, and leaped into the yawl which washanging at the stern, and was followed by about fortyother men, one of whom cut the rope connecting thestern of the steamer to the bow of the yawl, whenthe latter canted over, and hung in a perpendicular
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THE BEN SHEROD. 97 position, the bow towards the water. All on boardwere precipitated into the water, and are believed tohave been drowned, with the exception of the narra-tor,—and he saved himself by clinging to the thwarts.In a few minutes, about twenty of the crew madetheir way to the stern of the steamer, and placedthemselves in the boat, suspended as she was. Oneof them imprudently took out his knife, and cut therope which attached the steamer to the stern of theyawl, and she plunged, as might have been expected,full twenty feet under water. All that had beenhanging to her were missing, except four, and the in-dividual who relates the story ; he says, when horose to the surface he found himself under the yawl,and she was lying bottom up. Being strong, active,and expert at swimming, he worked his way from un-derneath and mounted on her bottom, where he wassoon joined by the four other men who had savedthemselves; and in this situation they floated twelvemiles down the river, bef

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