Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1880-07-09
Steambca. Disasters.

The remarkable succession of disasters TO
steamers in and abcat New York barbor
during the last three weeks, is startling In
the night of Friday, the 18th Of Junc. tine
Narragansett tragedy occurred in Long
Island Sound Two days later, couple of
hundred miles out at sea, two great ocean
steamers, the Anchoria and the Queen, came
into collision with force which might easily
have proved the destruction OF both. On
Saturday the 18th, the steamer Adelaide
was sunk in New FORK harbor by the steam
er Grand Republic, and if it had not been
that the Adelaide had Just landed her pas
sengers, there must have been great loss Of
life. On the 23rd, the steamer City of New
York Of the Alexandra line. Just arrived
from Charleston, was burned to the waters
edge while lying at her dock in Brooklyn
On Monday. the 9th, the steamer Seawan-
haka, having on board several hundred per-
sons, took fire from some uneA planned cause
in East river and in broad daylight, with
other steamers close at hand and Randalrs
island but few rods away, sixty of her
passengers were burned to death OF drowned.
On Wednesday the 30th the steamboat ].
I. Wilson, running to Coney Island, collided
with the steamboat Plymouth Rock The vii
son was badly damaged, and great excite
ment prevailed among the passengers
DISABLED sTEANgEs
On Wedne sday no less than ninc steam
vessels. recently either burned or temporarily
disabled by fire or collision. were Wing in
the port of New York
\ CANADIAN sNAsI.
MONTREAL, June 29-This morning. one
Of the most curious and serious accidents
occurred tina, has been recorded in Montrcars
history for some years. The steamer Bohe-
milan left her berth in the I.acliine canal basin
with abou; 30 passengers principally women
and children, and entered lock 10. J, bound
Tor the upper st. Lawrence ports
She proceeded at half steam into the lock,
and owing to failure of the engineer to re
ceive the captains signal, went straight al
the opposite gate with terrific force. This
gate was the barrier between her and wall
of about thirteen feet of wafer extending for
more than mile in length and several hun
dred feet in width. In one instant the gates
were smashed like an egg shell, and III the
next the water was rushing through, carry
ins all before it. Women screamed and
tainted, with children holding on to them,
while the Bohemian was swept back into the
basin she had Just left and the waters went
rushing like a tidal wave over the wharves,
engultng score or more of laborers and
carrying destruction with it.
In the first lock, rext the river, were three
lumber barges which were sunk, jammed
into mass, breaking open the lower gate #
the lock, while the barge Kathleen was lift
cd bodily about four feet AMI landed high
and dry upon the levee Meantime the en-
gineer of the Bohemian had turned on Il full
flood Of steam and saved the steamer from a
leap of twelve feet down upon the three
barges in lock No. l. This would have
caused loss of life terrible To contemplate
The deluge of waters set the large ocean
steamers in the harbor dancing like cookie
shells in the water, but the broad 81. Law
renee broke its force.
THE SAVANNAH DISASTER
The bodies of 32 Of the Seawanhaka's vic
tins have been recovered, and all but four
have been identified Besides these 30 per-
sons are missing.
INCIDENTS.
A passenger says an old lady mother of
the freight clerk, ran up to a gentleman and
exclaimed For Gods sake sir, help me-
| am old and cannot help myself. The
gentleman pushed her back, saying; This
is not the moment to save 1t is every one
for himself" and he lcaped overheard. l
called out to the old lady, If you will
jump overheard | will save you Her
dress was afire- She jumped and we landed
her safely. swan back 10 the boat and
saw young lady standing with her father
on the burning steamer, shrieking, Save my
father She had her arm around his neck.
The old man chung to the post. while his
daughter tried all she could 10 drag him
away. She seemed surrounded hy fire. The
old mans clothing was burning, and he SEEM
ed to be paralyzed | and others called on
the girl to jump into the water and We would
save both. She did not seem 10 know what
to do until her dress caught fire. She then
sprang at her father, kissed him, and mo-
ment after struck the side of the boat and
tel limp INTO the "ateI. I =OI The Young
lady ashore.
John Henry Bush rowei ont in a small
boat and saved nine persons. y woman on
the stern, her clothing blazing up fiercely,
was holding a girl six years old by the arm
over the guard-rail ready to drop it into the
water. Its clothing had ignited. The child
screaming loudly, Bush caught it by the leg,
dashing it into the water, quenched the
flames and dragged ii IN the boat lie then
looked for the mother, but she had sunk
down on the deck roasted alive. lie picked
up two women, about thirty years of age
dressed in black, wearing gold watches, and
tried to resuscitate them, but they died be-
fore he reached the shore
Mary Reed was found in the water by
some boatmen who, with the best intentions,
tied a rope around her neck and lowed her
ashore, her head under water, and if not en-
tirely dead when found she certainly was
when she reached the shore Another boat
man saw a mother at the guard rails with two
children, one about four years and the other an
infant. The mother stood shreking for help,
seeming entirely crazed, holding the young
est child to her breast and the elder sus-
pended over the water. \ bOatman rowcd
up and caught hold of the older child and
saved her. She was burned some. lie
called to the mother to jump over with the
other child, but she only left the boat when
she fell dead into the water. Another
mother and child were seen almost exactly
in the same position on another part of the
boat who met exactly the same fate