Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-03-16
Burning of the Steamboat City of
Chester.

On Thursday, March 18th, the
steamboat City of Chester reached
Memphis on her down trip from St.
Louis laden with live stock and
other freight, the former including
four horses, nineteen mules and
large number of live hogs. About
> O'Clock in the morning a fire broke
out in her just above the boilers,
and soon enveloped the whole boat.
She was mOored at the time at the
Anchor Lines Elevator, at the foot
of Beal street. She was cut loose
from her moorings and towed by
the tug boat OriOle, which pulled
her, blazing as she was, to the Ar
kansas side of the river. She was
soon compelled to relinquish her
hold. Soon after this Captain w.
Maingault, of the transfer steamer
General Pearson, landed his boat
astern of the Chester. With his
pumps and hose he managed to hold
the flames in check for some time !;
indeed till both her wheels fell over
board, by which time he had forced
her on the Arkansas bar. Captain
McNeily, of the Orioie, aided Main
gault in his work. Some of the pas
sengers and crew had managed to
land before she was cut loose, which
was done for the purpose of prevent
ing the elevator and its freight from
being burnt. Twelve male passen-
gers and one female fiOated off with
her; how many of these escaped
does not seem to be yet certain, but
it is ascertained that at least three
persisted, two in the flames and one
in the water. These were John
Kirman, L. S. Postal Agent, G. A.
Teller, resident of Memphis, and
colOred barber named Brown.
The wreck is now on the Arkansas
bar, two miles below Memphis, OPP
pOsite Fort Pickering. The entire
loss, vessel and cargo, is estimated
at $4,000. Her officers were, Capt.
Alex. Tiegles master; Capt. Diet
rich, clerk I; A. w. Simpson and
Robert Fisher, second clerks; Sneed
Strong and Joe Wilburn, pilots :;
Jesse Stay and Mcnamara, engi-
neers. The vessel was 900 tons bur-
den and was valued at $4,000.
Oneof the clerks above mentioned,
Mr.. Robert E. Fisher, is brother
of Mrs. Rhodes, of our city, at whose
house he has been guest since the
accident. Mr.. Fisher has favored us
with an interview, in which he gave
us some of his personal experience
on the occasion. He was among
those who escaped from the boat
before she was cut loose from the
elevator. Hesays he was awakened
by the porter with the news that
the boat was on fire; dressed very
hastily and got off with the clothes
he is now wearing, minus the shirt.
On his way from his staterOOm he
saw Capt. Dietrich i'm the clerks of
fee collecting and counting up the
money and valuables of the boat !;
these amounted to about $4,000,
chiefly in silver. The delay occa-
stoned by this made it impossible
for him to escape the same way
with Mr.. Fisher, the flames by that
time intervening between him and
the elevator. He made his way
therefore to the lower deck and
escaped by throwing himself into
the water, where he was picked up
by skiff. The money, etc., had
been tied up in one bundle, and, as
much of it was in silver, was too
heavy to carry with him and was
left on deck. He was in his under
clothes and before he escaped was
badly burned in the face and ears.
The last Mr.. Fisher saw of him ne
had added to his scanty toilet the
suit of an old fisherman, several
sizes too large for him.
Among the saved was Mr.. Sneed
Strong, once a ship-mate of our fell
low-citizen Captain Gracey. He
escaped in a picturesque costume
consisting of pair of boots and an
overcOat.
Mr.. Fisher left yesterday for st.
Louis, where he will soon be APP
pointed to a post on one of the boats
belonging to the company which
owned the City of Chester.