Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1825-06-25
From the Ne,c- York american, June %.
STEAMBOAT ACCIDENT.

STEAMBOAT ACCIDENT.
Again it is our duty to announce
another disaster of an iron boiler, On
board the steamboat c Constitution, cap
tain Ricketson, navigating the north
river, by which three persons OF color,
1.-TWO women and one man, employed
as cooks on board :he boat were killed,
and one of the firemen was slightly
scalded.
The accident happened yesterday
morning about O'Clock A. NJ. on the
trip up the river, and when landing
passengers at Poughkeepsie The boil
ers fortunately are on deck, and it be-
ing night, the passengers were all be-
low in their births, and thus escaped
the danger, though in the alarm oc-
casioned by the explosion, and by the
water which flowed into the cabin, one
passenger gentleman Jumped from
the window, but was soon picked up
uninjured. II is not known that any
one was drowned.
The Richmond, Of the North River
line, then going up, took off the pas
sengers and carried them on their way.
The boat itself is, we learn, very lit
tie injured, and has come down 10 the
fort, at the foot of Beech-street, to be
repaired and re-equipped.
Two of the persons killed, Caroline
Chew and John Joseph) were buried
Yesterday afternoon at Poughkeepsie !;
the third, Rebecca Henry, died on
board the boat on the way down.
1t was testified before the Coroner's
inquest both at Poughkeepsie and
here, that at the time of the accident,
the steam was letting off, and that the
boat had not carried during the trip
over Z inches of steam.
The accident is thus accounted for,
to us, by one Of the proprietors. Ow-
ing TO some unexplained cause, a "a
cum was produced in the main flue,
over and around which is the boiling
water; in consequence whereof the ex-
ternal pressure caused collapse, or
bending in Of the flue, and thus occa-
stoned crack in it, through which the
boiling water poured out into the fur
mace, and from it ran overupon the UNI
fortunate suferers-who, instead OF be-
ing in the births provided for them,
were lying asleep upon table just be-
low the furnace-they were therefore
scalded to death by water and not with
steam! The steam that was disengaged
mostly rushed up the chimney-and
there was so little of an explosion
and so little damage done to the boat,
that but for the unhappy deaths on
board, she might have continued her
route by means Of her other boiler,
which enabled her to return without
assistance to the city.
The construction of these fues we
understand to be semi-circular, with a
fat bottom, or side-this flat surface it
was that gave way TO the external pres
sure. Can there be much doubt, that
if the flues had been circular, like the
shell of the boiler, their power OF resis-
lance would have been much greater?
and if not, is not this fault of construc-
ton censurable? Competition is very
good thing; but where competition
leads to unsafe economies in the build
ing of machines so full of danger as
steam engines improperly made or ma
naped, it becomes an evil.
y So great was the force, as we are in
formed, of the column of water expell-
ed from the boiler, as to carry along
with it the bricks ofthe interior of the
furnace, and to drive fragments Of them
nearly an inch deep into the woodwork
around.