Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-12-28

bare now. Brown & Jones publish ;
card in another place in reference to thi
thing. The coal-baTges were the frs
that suffered and the worst that SUI
fered, inasmuch as they were a tOta
loss. The barges and flats went int
shreds. They got tangled into tht
boats that lay below them, were tWistes
round, snapped in tive, run over by field
of ice, raised literally upon the decks 0
big steamboats,, OR jammed into thei
hulls like an iron wedg
in a log. The coal O
/ course suffered through all this vicissi
tude-suffered to such an extent tina
none of it was saved. George Mellersl
said he might have four or five hundre,
barrels left after supplying his customer
and fulfilling his obligations. The Ga
Company had one barge at the levee
which was injured to such an exten
that it commenced sinking. A dozen 0
so men were set to work on her at nOol
yesterday, getting out all the coal tina
could be reached. They got out a few
tons. Another barge that was severely
injured was beached down near Beal
street, and large force of hands set t.
work taking out her load. They sue
ceeded in getting out all the coal, thu
saving what is of great value to Mem
phis.
LIVELY TIMES FOR WORKERS.
There was more than enough worl
about the wrecks yesterday for al
hands. One dollar per bale was Offered
for saving cotton from the Belle of Pike
Two good men could easily take out ter
bales per hour, thus making most ex.
cellent wages. Up and down the river
there was work for all sorts of men, but
more particularly for men able and
willing to work. At unloading coal
from the sinking barges good wages
could be made. The work, of course,
was cold and disagreeable, as work on
tie leyee is any winters day; but a
stout man could very soon warm him
self at it. In fact, there was brisk
demand for workers, and but very few
appeared.
sIGHT-SEEKERs.
Instead of workers, the levee and the
bluffs above were full of sight-seekers,
who went to learn about the ice wave
that ground up the boats the night be-
fore. They could see the boats lying in
all shapes up the levee above Madison,
| their majestic smOke-stacks bent this
way and that, and their graceful stacks
of cabins torn out of all symmetry, and
the outlines of the hulls waving up and
down, after the shape of nothing in the
world. The full heart of an old river
man could find expression only in this
way: "There is no way of saying it,
/ hut that it is a general smash-that's
ALL"
1t is the first event of the sort recorded
as having happened in this city. The
memory of the oldest inhabitant goeth
not back to the time when ice ran 50
thickly in the river, and there is no rec
ord of a smash-up at the levee having
| occurred since DeSotO crossed here, near
ly four hundred years ago.
PARTICULARS.
Starting at the mouth of Wolf river,
the first indication of the great destruc-
ton caused by the huge ice wave was
eight coal flats sunk with their bows
partly sticking up out of the water, and
| lying in every conceivable shape and
| form, Just below the mouth of Wolf river,
from where they had been torn. A num-
| Der of them were fully laden with coal.
and two or three were empty. Next be-
low them were two model baTges belong
| ing to Captain Schenck, of Vevay, Indi-
ana, and fortunately were empty Their
names are the Schenck Number Six and
| Vevay, and were injured to the extent
| perhaps of thousand dollars: they now
| lie hemmed in and crowded to the shore
| by the ice, which there extends fully
| two hundred yards out into the river,
but which early in the day was open so
that the floating ice nearly touched them.
Just below them lay log raft, contain
ing perhaps a hundred thousand feet Of
lumber, and was owned by John Gent,
of this city; the logs were made fast to
the bank by as many lines as
could be procured, and had al
so been carried down from the
mouth of Wolf river. Immediately
above them laid Gn empty cOal-flat that
had been driven clear of the ice upon an
almost perpendicular bank, high and
dry. The transfer-boat II. &. Mutt had
fortunately been placed in a safe harbOr,
just above the mouth of Wolf river, and
escaped serious injury. The log raft
mentioned was directly above
THE DRY DOCKS,
belonging to Captain W. P. Walker, and
in a measure protected the docks from
lit uOGhS were EdIIltu
down stream nearly a hundred yards,
parting several large hawsers and one
huge chain. The docks were worth,
perhaps, one hundred and twenty-five
thousand dollars, and are in great dan
ger of being lost, should the ice again
give way above.
COAL BARGES.
Between them and the bank lay a
coal-boat belonging to Brown & Jones,
and containing three thousand bushels
of coal, in which there was large force
of men at work trying to save what they
could by taking it out and up the bank
in boxes, and another force of men was
kept busy at the pumps, but the water
was gaining on them rapidly,
and there was but little hope of saving
more than a few hundred bushels, as,
when it sunk, it would go down in fifty
feet of water Another barge containing
two or three thousand bushels of coal,
owned by the Memphis Gaslight Com
pany, lay just below and partly sub
merged, in which, also, were a number
Of men at work carrying out upon the
bank what they could save. The next
boat crowded in by the ice was the ferry
boat Excelsior, owned by Captain Pat
terson. She was damned against a flat, |
and part of her after-guards torn away,
but her injuries will not amount to over
one thousand dollars, upon which, we
learn, there was little or no insurance.
Below her lay flat that had been bro
ken square in two by the ice. Next in
order was the steamer
PAT CLEBURNE,
undergoing repairs, made necessary by a
collision below here some time since, but
fortunately for her owner, Captain
James Lee, she was injured but little,
beyond the breaking of few planks
and the jam she got against the bank.
Her guard aft of the wheelhOuSe, how
ever, Tapped over and upon the little
propeller, Nellie Thomas, lying Just at
her stern, broke in her cabin, crushed |
the lower works into splinters, carried !
her smoke stack away, and, in fact, left |
but little of her for her unfortunate |
owners to look at. A large hole was
also broken in her hull, which partly |
filled her with water, and she will sink as /
soon as the support of the ice gives |
way. All there was left in her cabin |
was taken out upon the bank. She was !
worth perhaps three thousand dollars, |
and will be total loss. Two or three /
barges lay next, some in and some out /
of the water, that cannot be saved. |
Next below lies the
BELLE OF PIKE,
a large sidewheel steamer, built for |
the upper river trade, and but recently /
oh artarad hv the Memnhis and ST /