Southern sentinel. [volume] (Plaquemine, Parish of Iberville [La.]) 1848-1858, 1849-11-21
Terrible Steamboat Explosion.
DREADFUL LOSS OF LIFE.
Ore Hundred and Fifty Persons Killed!
from the Picayune of Friday.

Ore Hundred and Fifty Persons Killed!
from the Picayune of Friday.
One of the most deplorable catastrophes that
ever occurred in the history of steamboat ex.
plosions took place at our levee yesterday even.
ING, a few minutes after 5 o'clock.
The steamboat Louisiana, Capt. Cannon,
bound for st. Louis, loaded with a valuable
cargo, and having on board a large number OF
passengers, had rung her last bell, and was
just backing out from the wharf at the foot OF
Grayier street, when the whole of her boilers
burst with a tremendous explosion, which re-
sounded throughout the city. The conclusion
was so great that it shook the houses to their
foundation for many squares distant. The Lou
isiana was lying alongside the steamer ostona,
Capt. Dustin, at the. time of the disaster. and
the steamer Storm, Capt. Hopkins, had just ar
rived from Louisville, coming in on her star
board side. The upper works of these two
boats are a complete wreck, their chimneys
having been carried away, and their cabins stove
in and shattered in some places to atoms. The
violence of the shock operating on the boilers
was tremendous. A part OF one OF them, a
mass of considerable size, was hurled with in
conceivable force on the levee. 1t cut a mule
in two, killed a horse and the driver OF a dray
to which they were attached instantaneously.-
Another massive portion ofthe same, twelve feet
long, and Of immense weight, was blown to the
corner of Canal and Front streets, a distance
of 200 yards at least, prostrating three large
iron pillars which supported a wooden shed or
awning which stood before the coffee-house
there. Before coming in contact with the iron
pillars, the fragment of the boilers cut through
several bales ofcotton, which lay in its passage,
making the staple scatter through the air as if
it had been run through a cotton gin.
The news spread like wildfre, and our citi-
zens rushed from all directions to the scene of
the disaster. Already on our arrival, a number
of bodies, in every conceivable state of sad mu-
~tilation, had been dragged from the wreck,
which were surrounded by the dense crowd that
had assembled. Hacks and furniture carts were
sent for, and the wounded were conveyed away
to the hospitals. The sight of the mangled
bodies which strewed the leyee on all sides, and
the shrieks of the dying, were appalling, making
the blood curdle with horror. We saw one
man with his head off, his ~entrails out, and one
leg off. A woman, whose long dark hair lay
wet and matted by her side, had one leg off
above her knee, whilst her body was shockingly
mangled. A large man, having the skullcrushed
in, lay a corpse, his face looking as if it had been
ittlIilCSt ISls NutSiSs " Cohll oSASSs oioo hIui
legs and r of, mere trunks, lay about in
different places. Two bodies we found locked
together, brought by death into a sudden and
close embrace. But it is utterly imnessssiipiie to
describe all the revolving slgnts which met our
view. ss;aiince it to say that death was revealed
there under almost ever variety of appalling
horror. The Louisiana sunk about ten minutes
after the explosion, and it is supposed many
/ x,1,o ,r-opf m hoo.1 n orcscf tho yucrp1aH 1x-ora
carried down with her. This, we judge, from
the fact of several persons, who had escaped
the first effects of the explosion, having jumped
overheard at the time of her sinking, and who
were proyidentially saved.
A gentleman who was a passenger on the
Louisiana, was standing on the hurricane deck
abaft the wheel-house when the explosion took
place, and escaped. He distinctly saw the faces
and arms Of several ladies and gentlemen yainly
struggling to free themselves from the falling
planks and timbers. They were carried down
with the boat when she sank. He succeeded
in saving a little negro boy. About twenty per-
sons were standing on the bow of the boat when
she went down, most of whom were saved
The river was covered Immediately after the
accident with fragments of the wreck. A por-
ton of the stern of the ladies' cabin of the
steameri is still out of water. Numerous small
boats were employed picking up the wounded.
At half pase 5 o'clock, P. M, an alarm of fire was
given from the Bostona, which called our fire.
men promptly to the spot, but it happily was
unfounded. a3
On board the Storm the destruction of life
was also terrible. Mrs. Moody, the wife of
the first clerk, was standing on the guard .oppo-
site the ladies' cabin, and was instantly killed.
The captain received a severe confusion in the
head, but was not dangerously wounded. About
twelve or fifteen persons were killed, and a
large number wounded, some Of whom will pro-
badly not recover.
The confusion was so great that it was ut
terly impossible to ascertain the names of one
quarter'of those killed and wounded, and most
probably, from the promiscuous crowd of
strangers, emigrants, &C., a large portion Of
them will never be known.
The fragments of iron and blocks Of wood,
which were sent with the rapidity of lightning
from the Inflated Louisiana, carried death
and destruction in all directions. Men were
killed at the distance of two hundred yards
Legs, rms and trunks were scattered over the
leyee.
Among those injured on the levee was Mr..
! Wray, a clerk in the house of Moses Greenwood
& Co, who had been on board the steamer
| Knoxville, lying below the ferry landing and
passing up at the time of the occurrence. He
was struck on the thigh by a piece Of wood,
and SO badly injured that it was feared last night
that amputation fthe limb would be necessary.
We understood that some news-boys, who
had been selling papers on the Louisiana, and
had just got on shore, were killed. We saw
the dead bodies of several lads, butthe names
as yet are. unknown. Those who were near
the spot at the time of the explosion state thet
bodies were blown as high as two hundred feet
in the air, and fell in the river. One man, it is
sid, was blown throug the pilot-house of the
Bostona, making a hole through the panels
which might be mistaken for the work ofa can
non ball.
The steamer Storm was very close to the