The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-05-08 00:00:00

TERRIBLE SHIPPING DISASTER.

The American mail has brought particulars of the terrible
disaster which occurred at New Orleans on the 23rd April,
when three passenger steamers caught fire, resulting in the
sacrifice of at least fifty lives. The following is a special
telegraphic dispatch to the New York Herald:—

NEW ORLEANS, April 23, 1875.

"This afternoon, at a quarter-past four o'clock, a
time when the hSvee is usually crowded, a fire broke
out in the blacksmith's shop of the steam-boat John
Kyle, then lying at the foot of the Gravier-street,
along with the steamers Charles Bodmin and Exporter
in close juxtaposition. Almost before an alarm could
be given the whole boat was in flames. Time was,
however, afforded to rescue a few lady passengers and
others before she was pulled out into the stream.
The fire almost immediately caught the Bodmin whose
passengers and people on board nearly all escaped
to the Exporter. As soon as the fire was discovered
the lines of the boats were cast loose from the shore,
and a steam tug pulled them out into the stream. The
day was unusually clear, with a strong north wind
blowing. As soon as the boats cleared the eddy about
200 yards from the shore they were struck by
the full force of the wind, and were almost instanta-
neously wrapped in flames, driving the helpless pas-
sengers into the river. The scene from the crowded
lev4e was heartrending in the extreme. From the
Bodman, men, women, and children, shrieking and
crying for help, seemed to jump into the river and
drown, while the spectators on the shore were power-
less to help them. The Exporter did not catch fire
until out in the river, and her forecastle was at the
time crowded with people, the number being estimated
by witnesses of the catastrophe at from 100 to 150. As
a huge sheet of flame swept down upon them they
were seen to jump overboard, when a number were
rescued by skiffs and tugs which had put out
to their assistance, but the great majority were
drowned. Albert Mynck, the watchman of the Bod•
man, who was saved along with the captain, reports
about twenty-five or thirty women and children as lost
upon that boat, and the same proportion were esti-
mated by spectators to have been among the frantic
crowd upon the Exporter's forecastle. Fortunately
most ef the passengers were up in town when the fire
occurred. It will be very difficult to ascertain the
names of all the lost. Among them were many persons
from the shore who went aboard the burning boats to
assist in putting out the fire, and before they could re-
turn they found themselves out in the stream enveloped
in flame. The latest estimates reduce the loss to
about fifty souls. One of the boats had on board a
quantity of oil, which floated in flames upon the
surface of the water around the struggling victims, and
thus added tenfold to the horrors of the scene. Many
of the rescued are severely burned about the head.
The hulls of the Exporter and Charles Bodman were
towed across the river to Croyle's coal yard, while that
of the John Kyle floated down a couple of miles and
sunk."