Old Times on the Upper Mississippi
and "War Eagles" were worked overtime, to the great confusion of any
one attempting to localize a disaster that had happened to one of
that name in times past. It was possible to read to-day of the total
loss of the "War Eagle", for instance; yet a month or more hence
you might hear of the arrival of the "War Eagle" at St. Paul with
a full cargo and passenger list. The boats might go to the bottom,
but the names went on forever. "Post Boy" was another favorite name
handed down from boat to boat, until seven or eight "Post Boys" had
been launched, run their appointed courses, and met their fate, all
within the span of less than forty years--an average of about five
years to the boat--which was a good average for old-time steamers.
On the upper river there were, among others, three "Burlingtons",
two "Chippewas", two "Danubes", two "Denmarks", two "Dr. Franklins",
three "Dubuques", two "Galenas", three "St. Pauls", three "War
Eagles", and many others, doublets and triplets. All of which tends
much to confuse one who is attempting to run down and locate the
history and final disposition of boats bearing those names.
So far as I can learn, there is no reliable record of all the losses
on the upper river, giving the name of the boat, where, when, and
how lost. It is possible that the final disposition of boats lost
above St. Louis, is as fully covered in the list appended to the end
of this book, as anywhere else extant. Such a record has been made
for the Missouri River by Captain M. H. Chittenden, of the United
States Engineers--a very complete and historically valuable statement
of the losses on that stream. Other records are too comprehensive,
attempting to give all the losses through the entire length of the
river, from New Orleans to St. Paul. While covering so much more,
territorially, they lack in the detail that makes the compilation of
real worth.
Most writers attach particular stress to boiler explosions, probably
from the fact that they are more spectacular, and the consequent loss
of life usually greater. When a boat is snagged, it is generally
possible to run her ashore in time to save the passengers and crew,
although the vessel itself may prove a total loss. When a boiler
explodes, the boat becomes immediately helpless, so that it cannot be
run ashore, which occasions the considerable loss of life. In cases
of explosion, also, the boat almost invariably burns in the middle of
the river, and there is little chance for escape; for it is next to
impossible to reach the lifeboats carried on the roof, and if reached
it is seldom found possible to launch them.
Before considering the reported losses on all the Western waters it
will be interesting to locate, as far as possible, the casualties
on the Mississippi between St. Louis and St. Paul, the division or
section of the river usually denominated as "upper". In my list of
upper-river boats,[J] there are noted all losses of which I have
found any record. The list comprises about three hundred and sixty
steamers that have made one or more trips above Rock Island. The
boats plying above St. Louis, but not going above the upper rapids,
have not been included in this list, thus excluding all the Alton
Line vessels, and the Illinois River craft. Of the three hundred and
sixty boats so listed, there are to be found records of seventy-three
losses between St. Louis and St. Paul, including the port of St.
Louis, which has been a veritable graveyard for steamboats. About
a dozen other boats were lost after going into the Missouri River
trade, but these are not included in the number stated. The record
extends over the period between 1823 and 1863, inclusive. An analysis
of the causes of such losses shows that thirty-two boats were snagged
and sunk (total losses only are included; those raised, are not
counted as losses); sixteen were burned; ten were sunk by ice; five
were stove in by hitting rocks, and sank; three sank by striking
bridges; three were sunk by Confederate batteries during the war;
two were lost from boiler explosions; one was torn to pieces by a
tornado, and one struck a wreck of another boat and sank on top of
the first wreck.
[J] See Appendix: "Upper Mississippi River Steamboats,
1823-1863."
What became of the other boats included in the list, I am unable to
learn. The United States government appears never to have printed a
report (or reports) showing the fate of the hundreds of steamboats
over which it maintained an official watch-care while they were in
active service. It would seem to have paid more attention to boiler
explosions than to any other cause of disaster; for the reason,
possibly, that it is supposed to have held itself, through its
inspectors, more or less responsible for the condition of steam
boilers. Still, as it also, through another set of inspectors, looks
after the hulls of all steamboats, there would seem to be no reason
why the loss of boats by snagging, or other similar causes affecting
the hulls, should not also have been reported.
It will be observed that nearly one-half the known losses on the
upper river between 1823 and 1863 were the result of snagging.
Captain Chittenden, in his report on steamboat losses on the Missouri
from 1842 to 1897, gives the snags credit for catching 193 boats out
of a total loss of 295, or two-thirds of all known losses. Owing to
its alluvial banks, and the consequent eating away of wooded points
and islands by the ever changing current of that most erratic of
rivers, the bed of the stream was literally sown with snags. The
wonder of it is, that a pilot was able ever to take a boat up and
back a thousand miles, without hitting a snag and losing his boat.
They did it, however, although the record of losses from that cause
serves to show how imminent the danger was at all times, and how
many came to grief, however sharp the eyes of the pilot, or however
skilled in reading the surface of the water and locating the danger.
The upper Mississippi has more miles of rock bluffs--in fact, is
lined with such bluffs from Keokuk to St. Paul; thus the wear and
tear of its banks is not so great as on the Missouri. Still, the
great number of islands, heavily wooded, furnish many sunken trees,
and one-half of the steamboat loss on this river is also directly
traceable to snags.
Next to the snags, which are forever reaching out their gnarled
arms to impale the unfortunate, fire is the greatest enemy of
steamboat property on Western waters. Built of the lightest and most
combustible pine, soaked with oil paint, the upper works are like
tinder when once alight, and danger of this is ever present in a
hundred different forms. A little explosion in the furnaces, throwing
live coals over the deck; over-heated smokestacks, communicating a
blaze to the roof; careless passengers or crew, throwing half-burned
matches on deck or into inflammable merchandise in the freight; or
the mass of sparks, cinders, and live coals continuously falling from
the stacks, especially when burning wood in the furnaces: all these
are a constant menace, and with a blaze once started the chances are
a hundred to one that the boat is lost. A lighted match thrown into
a haymow can scarcely bring quicker results than a little blaze in
the upper works of a steamboat. It flashes up in an instant, and the
draft generated by the progress of the boat instantly carries it the
length of the cabin. In fifteen minutes the upper works are gone.
Sixteen Mississippi boats out of seventy were burned; twenty-five of
295, on the Missouri. As in losses from ice, so also by fire, St.
Louis has been the storm centre, and for the same reason namely,
the great number of boats there, both summer and winter. Several
visitations from this most dreaded and dreadful enemy of steamboats
are recorded in the history of river navigation, in which two or more
boats were lost while at the St. Louis landing. But the one which is
known far and wide on Western waters was of such magnitude, and the
property loss so great, as to earn for it the title of the "Great
Fire".
This, the most disastrous of all calamities which ever occurred in
the history of navigation in the West, commenced at about 10 o'clock
in the evening of May 17, 1849, and continued until 7 o'clock the
next morning. Captain Chittenden, the historian of the Missouri
River, says, in describing this catastrophe:
"Fire alarms had been heard several times early in the
evening, but nothing had come of them, until about the hour
above-mentioned, when it was found that fire had broken out in
earnest on the steamer "White Cloud", which lay at the wharf
between Wash and Cherry Streets. The "Endors" lay just above
her and the "Edward Bates" below. Both caught fire. At this
time a well-intended but ill-considered, effort to stop the
progress of the fire was made by some parties, who cut the
"Edward Bates's" moorings and turned her into the stream. The
boat was soon caught by the current and carried down the river;
but a strong northeast wind bore it constantly in shore, and
every time it touched it ignited another boat. An effort was
now made to turn other boats loose before the "Edward Bates"
could reach them, but a fatality seemed to attend every effort.
The burning boat outsped them all, and by frequent contacts set
fire to many more. These in turn ignited the rest, until in a
short time the river presented the spectacle of a vast fleet
of burning vessels, drifting slowly along the shore. The fire
next spread to the buildings, and before it could be arrested
had destroyed the main business portion of the city. It was
the most appalling calamity that had ever visited St. Louis;
and followed as it was by the great cholera scourge of 1849,
it was a terrible disaster. At the levee there were destroyed
twenty-three steamboats, three barges, and one small boat. The
total valuation of boats and cargoes was estimated at about
$440,000, and the insurance was but $225,000; but this was
not all paid, for the fire broke up several of the insurance
companies."
Ice also plays an important part in the game of steamboat killing.
The season on the upper river is short at best. An early start in
the spring, before the railroads had yet reached St. Paul, brought
the greatest financial returns to the daring and successful captains
who, bringing their boats through all the dangers, arrived safely in
harbor at the head of navigation. Great chances were taken in the
fifties, in trying to get through Lake Pepin before it was clear of
ice. The river above and below was usually clear two weeks before
the ice was out of the lake sufficiently to enable a boat to force
its way through. During the last week of such embargo, boats were
constantly butting the ice at either end of the lake, trying to get
up or down, or were perilously coasting along the shore, where, from
the shallowness of the water and the inflow from the banks, the ice
had rotted more than in the centre of the lake. A change of wind, or
a sudden freshening, catching a boat thus coasting along the shore,
would shove her on to the rocks or sand, and crush her hull as though
it were an eggshell. The "Falls City" was thus caught and smashed. I
myself saw the "Fire Canoe" crushed flat, in the middle of the lake,
a little below Wacouta, Minn., she having run down a mile or more
in the channel which we had broken with the "Fanny Harris". We had
just backed out, for Captain Anderson had seen signs of a rising wind
out of the west, that would shut the ice into our track. This result
did follow after the other boat had gone in, despite the well-meant
warnings of Anderson, who hailed the other boat and warned them of