, 1872-11-01
THE MISSOURI DISASTER.
Further Details Of tie Horrid}
Catastrophe
Criminal mismanagement on The Part @2
the Officers.
Fourteen Persons on the Steamer
When She Went Down.

KEY WEST, Fla, Oct. 31.-The following par.
tlcu1ars OF the burning Of the stearnahip Mis-
Rour1 have been obtained from the survivors. who
arrived hare:
When the boat which was saved left the burn
ing ship, one boat was seen with its keel upward
which had two men on it. The rescued bost
lay for two hours BY 4 swamped boat, containing
nine men, including the engineers and f1eman
and the ships barber. bucket WAS given to the
inmates OF the swamped boat to bail with, there
being two in the rescued boat. As there were no
seanen in the swamped boat, those clinging
thereto we're unable to properly manage it, and
in this condition they we're left. Tt is not likely
that any Of them we're saved. No sails had been
seen for two days previous to the fire. On that
day the Missouri WAS in company with 4
snip from 9:15 q. NJ until 8 p. n.. when
she Was lost sight Of for forty minutes. After
the rescued left the Missouri they saw the pas-
sengers and crew, who remained on board,
crowded Oh the afterpart OF the vessel. It il
said the fire was first discovered on the floor Of
the locker in the pantry, and the CITY Of fire was
immediately given. Wet carpets we're put Oh
the tire by the pantrymen and others, and the
steward reported to the passengers that the fire
WAS out. The alarm was given Wills the paa-
sengers we're at breakfast, but On, receiving the
stewards report that the fire had been e1tiu-
gulshed, breakfast Was resumed and the fears Of
the passengers quieted. Within two minutes.
however, several voices screamed &c Fire !" from
the stoke-hole. AL Was then confusion. With
IN twenty minutes three boats were launched.
In the rescued boat, with the exception OF
few pieces Of sugar cane, there waa
neither food nor water, and only
two small oars and a large one. Neither were
there any sails or anything to make them OF.
1t was from o'clock in the morning Of the 22d
until 3 o'clock in the afternoon Of the 23d,
before assistance WIS obtained. 1t that time the
schooner Spy WAS sighted, and the rescued party
pulled vigorously to her. The Spy took the sur
Vlvors to Hopetown, on Elbow Key, where theY
arrived about P. M, On the 23d. On the 24th.
schooner was sent towards the burning ship
with charts and full directions where to find her,
and with instructions tolook for the ships boats.
and skirt the coast. The schooner returned
about midnight On the 24th, and reported having
seen nothing Of the boats or passengers. The
sea was then breaking heavily on the reefs. Tha
party left Hopetown On the 25th, and arrived at
Nassau on the the 28th.
It tis said that the donkey pumps of the steamer
were never started; one Of the passengers as
serting that he had hold Of the hose some time,
and that 10 water Was forced through it On the
flames from the donkey. Two deck-pumps we1a
worked few minutes only. Within fifteen min
utes after the alarm Of fire Tas given. the twelve
survivors were in 3 boat, and the flames were
coming from the stoke-hole in a volume Tha
ships course WAS never altered, and consequent-
1y the flames we're carried athwart the ship,
burning up one ifeboat On the lee-side, and
making it too hot to get the others or. Only
three boats we're launched, two OF which we're
swamped- It ia said that Eeven females and
seven children were aboard the Missouri, mono
Of whom got into the boats. The scene presented
was heartrendlng.
The Missouri's engines were stopped, but her
sails we're left spread, and the speed OF four
knots vas maintained. When last seen, Captain
Greene was working with Purser Hampstead and
some Of the crew, trying to get of the lee boat,
surrounded by smoke and flames. Eleven OF the
survivors say that the boat Was never launched,
but the twelfth, Captain Culmer, says it waa
launched, full Of people, but was immediately
swamped.
The only expense incurred in this port by the
little English steamer, Anna, belonging to the
Atlantic Mail Steamship Company, which
brought the survivors Of the i1l-fated steamship
Missouri from Nassau, was forced upon her by
the United States customs officers, who even
charged her for tonnage dues twelve months in
advance. Everyone else with whom the Anna
had business worked willingly and gratuitously.