The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1868-12-09
THE SLAUGHTER ON THE
OHIO.
HOW 1T OCCURRED.

from the Cincinnati Commercial of Monday.
The theory that there was nobody tc
blame will not answer. Under the con
ditisns that are manifest it is absurd
The night, Captain Wade testifes-and
his testimony is abundantly corrobora'
ted-was clark, but not foggy." TheE
the lights of the steamers must have
been distinctly visible. 1t was not a
bad night to run the river. The law, il
we are not mistaken, requires boats that
are meeting to exchange signals when
six hundred yards apart. Mr.. Charles
Nichols, a pilot who was in the Ameri'
cas- pilot ouse when the collision took
place, says the America was steering
bard all the evening, and
"The whistles of the two boats were
blown at about the same time, and IL
was so dark he could not see the signal
lights of the United States, and did not
think she was near. The boats trere
about tlco hundred yards apart 'rhen the
,chistles tGere blOUn.
We do not understand exactly what is
meant by the night being so dark that a
light could not be seen. The important
statement is that the boats "were about
two hundred yards apart when the
whistles were blown" That was an un-
safe distance at which to be in uncer-
tainty as. to which side each of the
boats was to take in passing. But there
is even more important and pertinent
testimony than this. Mr.. Milt. Wood,
pilot of the tow-boat Lake Erie No. 3,
was passenger on the America, the
ascending boat. He heard the Ameri-
cas- signal, t'co whistles, and the answer
of the United States, one W histle. That
was a plain contention between the pi-
lots of the America and the United
States! The ascending boat, the Amer
lea, gave two whistles, which was as
much as to say, ~ am going to the righ"
that is, as they were running near the
Indiana shore-"I ,rill take the middle Of
ihe riuerw Now, if the United States
had answered with two whistles, she
would have meant, That's right, will
go to the right also-that is, to-
ward the Indiana shore. The boats
then, certainly, would have passed
safely. But the United States answer
ed with one whistle, which was to say:
"No, / an going to the left; IwiH take The
middle of the rirer; you must take the Indi-
ana shore" The contention went on.
The America repeated her double whis-
tie claiming the middle Of the river,
and the United States repeated her sim
gle whistle, also claiming it. When
Mr.. Weod, himself pilot, heard this,
he knew there was danger, and when he
heard the signal bell in the engineers
room, first to stop and then to back, he
knew the peril was imminent, and
jumping up, the crash occurred, when
the America's stoam had oOoaPod throc
times on the backward movement; and
he had Just time to save his life. Now,
it is we'll known that the boats running
against the current can be more easily
handled than those running with it; so
it is the common law of the river that,
other things being equal, the ascending
boat shall give the river, or the choice OF
sides in passing, to the descending boat
The descending boat has added to her
momentum that of the current, and IS
not so well in hand. But we find the
America, the ascending boat, insisting
upon her claim to the river, that Is, to
the right, while the descending boat
was claiming that she herself should go
to the left. This, of course, would
bring the boats in collision if both were
obstinate, and it did cause the disaster,
unless there have been extraordinary
inaccuracies in the testimony.