Glasgow weekly times. (Glasgow, Mo.) 1848-1861, 1859-05-05

of the explosion and burning Of the steamer st
Nicholas. Below will be found additional par
tculaIs:-
ACCOUNT OF THE DISASTER BY JAS. REED, PILOT
Steamer ST. Nicholas left Memphis Sunday
April "a, at O'Clock, p. M, then proceeded Oh
! her voyage without stopping her engines untI
! she exploded, which was about ten O'Clock, Sun
day night, opposite the foot of St. Francis Island
in the middle of the river. / was al the wheel al
the time, and Capt. Nc Mullen sitting in the pi-
dollhouse conversng with me. | distinctly re-
member of hearing report like cannon, and
felt myself moving through the air. l fell in
among the boilers, covered with ashes; / crawled
up TO the cabin floor; there found Capt. Nc Null
len living amongst the rubbish, with one foot con-
fined under the pilot-house and part of the hurri-
cane roof on him, fast that IT impossible 10
release him before the fire drove us away from
him; he begged US to cut his leg off; we could find
no axe; he burnt up before our eyes and we could
not help him.
| fell in on the boilers when the smoke stoned;
I found those in the ladies cabin in CONSERVATION
all huddled together. The fire was raging back
| toward the ladies cabin; took them down on the
! lower deck; they had 10 jump distance Of about
/ eight feet; caught them as they jumped. When
! got down on the lower deck 10 secure the vawl
for the women, found that the mate had taken it
forward with the intention Of trying 10 put the
. nre out al me DOW. lie yH"l was mus soon NIL
ed with deck hands, fire men, the head clerk and
two female deck passengers. Finding the yawl
was gone, went back upon the roof, and with
the assistance of my partner, Mr.. Ed Stephens,
we threw the life-boat overheard on the larboard
side Mr.. Stephens went below, and / saw him
no more.
When got back on the lower deck could not
find the life-boat The steward had il under the
starboard guard for the purpose, as he said. Of
saving the women as they jumped overboard-
But before any Of the ladies could get in, II was
filled BY men, all Of whom were saved Finding
that could not obtain the llfe-boat climbed up-
on the ladies' cabin guards, and got lot of door
blinds and gave one 10 each of the five ladies; be-
sides this, each one had a life-preserver around
her body. With sears in their eyes they implored
me to stay with them, jump of and lei them hold
On 10 me. They asked me if they should Jump
overboard;I told them no, TO stay until the fire
drove them off, or the yawl came 10 their rescue
By this time the Susquehanna's yawl had started
from that boat to come 10 our help; when il got
pretty hear 10 us was afraid il might stop at the
larboard wheel-house TO rescue some men there
who were hallooing for assistance. ] went 10 the
wheel TO Jump overheard TO swim 10 The vawl TO
have il brought TO the assistance of the ladies' and
by the time had got into the river and swan
few strokes, saw the vawl turn back 10 the Sus-
quehanha, as afterwards understood, 10 bail her
out. Finding myself IN the river, and not being
able to get back 10 the ladias, swan around 10
the bow of the boat, there found a stick of wood
with which | swan back IN the direction of the
stern, and found they had all been forced off the
boat BY tne flames. This is the last that saw of
any of them, except Miss Ella Kennedy, who told
me that she caught hold of an iron ring in the hull
Just back of the wheel, and that the wind was
blowing up stream, and that the current was run
ming faster than the boat, which forced the re-
mainder under the wheel, where they perished.-
Miss Kennedy states that Mrs. Ben Chime floated
up to where she was hanging on. She held her for
time, but the current was too strong, and she
was forced TO let hergo. l saw one woman, with
her babe clasped in her arms, Jump of and drown
before left the boat, but could not assist Them
Finding the women had gone, | then swan ashore
swan three miles down stream before being able
to effect landing, the current forcing me off from
the shore. Saw several men on half burned frag-
ments Of the wreck, floating down and CRYING for
help. ..-.
When jumped off TO go fer the yawl. the wheel
and wheei-house fell over into the water soon af-
ter, and the latter struck me on the top of the
head, knocking the skin of, and set my hair on
fire.
The head clerk Capt. Ben Cline, fell among
the engnes at the explosion, and ten minutes af-
forwards crawed out from under the rubbish and
was taken off by the yawl of the Susquehanna.-
The second clerk, Harry Glum. was blown into
the river with his mattress, on which he flo ted
some distance down stream before he was pick
ed up.
When ] got TO shore, found SIX men the Sus-
quehanna had rescued. We then found deser-
ted log house, and remained in it nearly two hours
without tire, and were only prevented from per-
ishing by walking the floor untilthe Susquehan-
ma returned from the wreck and took US on board.
Two deck female passengers jumped overheard
with four children and were drowned.
The head cook was burned up in the cook
house simultaneously with the Captain.
The head engineer was q steady and experien-
ced man, having been engaged in The business for
some thirty years. He never would allow his as
sstants, the strikers to regulate the water IN the
boilers or "carry water" as it is called. He was
not seen after the explosion. The striker on
watch at the time states that he did not observe
the engineer test the guage-cock for some time
before the disaster. The second engineer was
drowned. NHH.
AT the time of blowing up, the steam was blew
ing off slightly. The boat was making about
twelve knots per hour. The boilers have been
patched three OF four times since last fall.
When we left Memphis we had about twenty
passengers in the main cabin, and seven or eight
ladies; also, five black girls belonging to one of
the passengers. E..r.