New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-08-01
STEAMBOAT BOILER EXPLOSION
Shocking Loss of Life
DISASTER ON A FERRY

The Associated Press dispatches, pub
lished here yesterday morning, report the
following:
NEW YORK, July 3O.-The Staten Island
ferryboat Westfeld, crowded with passen
| gers, exploded her boiler at one twenty to
day. in the slip at Whitehall street. The
concussion was terrific, shattering the for
| ward part of the boat, and killing great
number of people. The hurricane deck was
| carried overheard. A large number of per
| sons fell in the water and were drowned
| The entire number lost is supposed 10 be
| one hundred and fifty.
The Westfield was leaving the slip at the
| foot of Whitehall street when she exploded.
| There were about three hundred usual Sun
day excursionists aboard. A yawning abyss
| extended from abaft the engine room to the
stern. The deck seemed to have opened,
and the dead and dying lay in every direc-
tion among the timbers, splinters and heavy
machinery.
The whole upper works were shivered into
a thousand pieces. Many were blown into
the water and hauled out by the boatmen
with hooks. A large party are dragging the
bottom of the river and constantly bringing
up bodies. Men, women and children are
brought in scOrched, bruised and mutilated.
Colonel Waurchie, formerly partner of Carl
baldi, was badly sealded.
One man, John Mager, the pilot, was
thrown from the forward pilot house twenty
feet into the air, falling on the boat and
escaping without scratch. John Freeland
was captain of the boat and Henry Robin
son engineer. The boiler was inspected by
John K. Mathews, United States Boiler In
spector, on the fifteenth of June, and pro-
nounced safe.
Henry Robinson, engineer of the West
field, stated that he tried the cocks in the
boiler few moments before the explosion,
and found water at the upper cock. He
states further that at that time he looked at
the steam gauge and noticed that there were
twenty-seven pounds of steam on her boiler;
also, that the steam was blowing off at the
carrying the full extent allowed by the GER
tifcate. He further states that the boiler
was repaired last winter.
The cause of the explosion was probably
the breaking of the joints of the plate wires
with which the boiler had been patched.
Ambulances have been passing up Broad
way all the afternoon, conveying wounded
to Centre street and the Park Hospitals.
Bodies OF the dead are taken to the Morgue
as fast as they are brought ashore.
The following is a later account of the
ferryboa disaster.
The first bell had just rang when the ex-
plosion was heard. The scene of confusion
and horror which resulted battles descrip-
ton. The boiler burst carrying away the
whole part of the boat in front of the steam
pipe, and scattering the debris on all sides.
Men, women, children, horses, wagons,
boards, and chairs were hurled in the air.
Nothing escaped that was on the forward
portion of the boat
The passengers in the rear rushed for the
entrance en- nadSSe, but very few escaped
without some injuries. The scene was
frightful, and many tainted away from
fear. Bodies, debris and portions of the
wreck fell among the passengers, and in
creased the confusion. Many people fell in
the river, and being unable to nelp them
selves, were drowned.
Boiling water was scattered in all direc-
tions, scOlding those who were unable to
get out of its reach. The wind was blow
ing inward at the time, and forced water
on the part of the boat near the dock, where
the greater portion of the passengers had
fed.
Thirty-one dead bodies have been brought
out so far-only seven Identified.
Professor Mark Chenevure is among the
killed
WASHINGTON, July 31-The latest from
the New York feIryboat disaster states fifty
persons were killed and one hundred and
twenty wounded.
HI. Wilson, a merchant of Louisville, Ken
lucky, is severely scaIded. Colonel Waurchie
will die.
Thousands of people congregated around
the Bellevue Hospital this morning, eager
to hear something of friends supposed to be
killed or injured by yesterdays explosion.
A large force of police is engaged in pre-
serving order amid the general rush and ex-
citement occasiOned. Of the forty dead
bodies brought to the Bellevue Hospital
yesterday twenty have been already re-
moved by friends for interment. Nine of the
bodies which are still at the hospital have
been recognized and will be removed to-day.
In the Morgue are eleven victims of the
explosion yet unrecogniZed. On one slab
are the bodies of a woman and two child
ren; on another slab are those of a woman
and child, and on another that of a woman
and five men. Most OF the bodies present
frightful appearance, for, in addition to
the fact that they are swollOn, and features
distorted by water, they have in most cases
been terribly scalded.
Since early this morning a steady stream
of people have been passing in solemn file
in and out of the MOrgue, either from Gu
riosity to witness the awful spectacle of the
unrecOgnized dead lying there, or with
painful interest trying, and yet fearful of
among the yet unknown vic
tins the features of a relative and friend.
There are about sixty victims of the ex-
plOsiOn at Bellevue Hospital The surgeons
state that at least half of them are beyond
recovery.
About nine o'clock this morning the
body of Matilda Nelson, aged seven years,
killed by the explosion, was found in the
water at the slip of Staten Island ferry.