Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1872-11-16
Destruction of the Steamer Missouri,

The news columns of the Evening P1st
| sructon of the steamer Missouri, RAINING be-
tween this port ana Havana, by the way o
Nassau, VIII. ca was burnt ~ sea ON the 22nd
uliimo, wh.n twenty-five miles distant from
AOaco the largest VI the Bahama Islands
The story of her destruction, as told in the
Drlet dispatches, and is in outline rs follows:
On the 18Th OF October the Mss0uri left this
city with crew OI fiiIy-eIght persons and
twenty Y-nine registered Passengers. At nine
o'clock in the morning OF the 22nd OcIObrr
tire was discovered jn the pantry of the shin,
ana almost at the same moment II volume oi
| lame burst lOrlh and swept over the deck.
The DOais were AT once launched, all but one
being swampcd as they touched the water
M 'aDtime the hre RACED, and To save them
selves from death 10y fire the persons on board
were lorccd Ia jump ior lite into The a. But
The boats were disabled, there were no Rats
spars, or even chicken coOps, and the Jump
iOr Lille proved la Ue u Jump into the laws of
death. One man. Janrs Cumer, u passenger
and an inhaOliant OF Elrulliera, an island ol
the Bahama group, whIlc in this city had
DJuSht new boat, whlca was on board. This
he launched, and hoding il near the snip by IL
rope, finally Jumped overheard aud swan 10
1t. Eleven others followed him ali managed
came safely 10 shore. o. the ciyhty-eighl
persons ON board stycntl-,iX are supposcdt to
have be, IL lost, among wnum were the officers.
The Missouri MAS only ten years old. Sne
was furnlsh, with Two donkey pumps and
Two hand pump, and is Reported 10 have been
fully equipped with buckets, hose and all the
ncedul appliances lur putting cut fire She
carried SIX boats, each rated under The old law
10 Garry thirty persons, anu under the new law
To carry twenty five. According To all human
calculations, therciOrc, she was provided with
the means oI carrying away from her. in Case
OF necessity, slxiy-tw0 more than the
total number ol Persons on board The inter
encc is that there was dreadful mismanase-
ment somewhere and, although the captain
paid for his inc .pabiity with his Ii c, II ap.
pears to have been on board the ship.
In the tirs: place, the fire was not discover
ed until the ii lines were al the point ut burst
ing forth with iIr, sisiIble force Al any rate,
no effort seems 10 have been made to put them
out. Either horn OF the dilemma is fatal 10
the kind of discipline which prevailed on the
ship. In the next place, all the ships bDals
were disabled in launching. The Il, spalch
says that the sea wus high, 10 be sure, but II
passenger who did what he did on the spur
OF the moment launched his boat and brought
ii safely To Shore. Ibis shows that the de-
slruclion of all The boats was due 10 the lack
OF discipline among the crew. In the third
place, the possibility of the destruction of the
boats does not appear 10 have been provided
against by throwing overheard spars, benchUs,
barrels und everything that would keep
drowning man from DEATH Ii may br srid
that the fury of The fire was loo great 10 per
nit even these common and available means
OF assistance to 6e used, but every one knows
that all this might have been done. in two or
three minutts by carefully trained crew, and
brave men would ccrIHinly endure the tcrcesl
flame for this length of time in such an tmtr-