Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1873-08-22
Burning of the Steamer Wawaset.

THE Wawaset is total wreck. She lies
in about twelve feet of water. at high tide,
with her bow stuck fast on the gravel bot
tom, at about foor or five feet low tide.
The steamer was 100 feet long, 90 feet
wide, 8 feet depth of hold, and was 1898 80
tons, custom-house measurement. She
was fitted up to suit both freight and pas
sengers. She was built in 1868 at Will
mington, Delaware, for the purpose OF
running fruit from Duck Creek and
Smyrna to Philadelphia, but was chartered
by the Government and brought to this
river to be used as transport for troops.
The Ferry Company purchased her
from the Government, and she had been
used on the line between this city and
Cone River for freight and passengers.
Last spring she was completely over
hauled on the ways at Baltimore, a saloon
cabin put on her upper deck aft, new
furnished and newly upholstered and
painted throughout, making her one of
the most convenient as well as staunch
boats on the river. Captain Wood is an
experienced seaman, and the full corps of
officers and men are old and careful hands
at steamboating.
No one can give any information as to
how the fire originated, but all agree that
it started in the boiler-room below about
the machinery, and that in two or three
minutes all about mid-ships was on fire,
the flames bursting up through the decks
and gangway, thus cutting off all COM
munication between the bow and aft
parts of the boat In less than twenty
| five minutes from the time the fire broke
out the steamer was destroyed. AS the
windows and doors were all open, the
draft was intense, and the doomed boat
was soon a sheet of flames.
| Mr.. Robert Nash, the ChiefEngineer,
states that the scene of terror among the
women and children exceeds anything he
ever witnessed in his experience of thirty
years steamboat engineering; that the
situation was such that it was utterly i'm
possible to do anything to save them more
than was done; that the fear of the women
of the fire caused them to jump pell-mell
into the water. He thinks. several of the
children were burned to death.
| The crushing blow that wiped nearly a
whole family out of existence in the case
of Officer Reed, of the Metropolitan Police,
appears to have been even more sweeping
in its effects than firsJreported. Mr.. Reed
not only loses his wife, three children,
and niece Bette Reed, bat also an aunt,
Miss Julia Kelley, whose name appears
elsewhere among the victims. The Mrs.
Reed who perished on the Wawaset was
his second wife, to whom he had been
married only about year.
Among the victims was Mr. George
| Cook, grocer, Seventh street southwest,
between ID and e. He had two little
children with him, and while he was
struggling in the water making fight for
| life, he was seen holding his youngest
child to the surface, crying, "Oh, my God,
save my babyW Itwas supposed thatthe
older child had already perished There
was report that Mr. Cook was subse-
quently seen alive on shore, but there has
been nothing received to confirm the
rumor, and it is probable that he and his
two children all perished.
1t may seem strange that so many
women and children were upon the Waw-
aset as she was not running as an eXcur-
sion boat, and was making only her regu-
lar trip to Cone River and intermediate
| landings; but it seems that quite a num-
Der of families were seeking country re-
sorts for the heated and sickly term dur
| ing the present month There were,
therefore, comparatively few male passen.
gers on board, and the females, without
experience to guide them, and not know
ing what to do in the emergency, were
capable of little more than frantic but
useless efforts to save the lives of their
children.
The life.boat, which was in the stern OF
the Wawaset, as soon as the fire gained
headway, was crowded by excited men,
women and children. 1t was impossible
for the officers of the vessel to reach it and
lower the same to the waters edge. II
finally broke under the weight of those in
it, and bulged in the stern and was
sWamped. Nearly all who had taken
ond boat almost as large as the life-boat
which was thrown overheard by the pas
sengers while the steamer was under head
way, and only few were able to reach 1t