The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1882-04-01
Deaths Domain.
The Steamer Golden City
Burned and Thirty
Lives Lost.
SIssIPPI RIVER s'EARLY IN
M THE MORNING.,
mil Particulars of the Horrible Affair.

day from Memphis, of the burning of
4 HE Cincinnati and Ohio river packet
Golden City, en- route from New Orleans
to Cincinnati, which occurred at her
wharf at 4:3O o'clock Thursday morn
u ing. Between twenty and thirty lives
are lost, principally women and chill
dren.
The fire was discovered by second En-
gineer Albert Kelly, who Immediately
Notified Capt Brice Pursell, the senior,
the pilot on watch. The boats bow was
81 once headed for shore and in few
minutes afterwards she touched the
wharf at the foot of Beal street where a
coal fleet was moored. A line was hasti-
Y IN thrown and made fast to one of the
coal barges but the current being swift,
II soon parted and the burning steamer
hoated on down the river, mass of
hames, with many of her passengers and
Drew on board, who were unable to reach
The shore and were lost.
The Golden City left New Orleans last
Y Saturday, en- route to Cincinnati. She
carried crew of about sixty and had on
board forty cabin passengers, fifteen of
x whom were ladies, and nine children.
Her cargo consisted of 300 tons, among
which was lot of jute. The fire is said
10 have originated in this combustible
material.
Among those known to have been lost
are DR.. Monhan and wife, of Jackson,
Ohio; Mrs. Crary, of Canton, Ohio; Miss
Lulu Crary of Cincinnati; W. H. Howe,
wife and two children and Ollie Wood
and wife, of Henderson, Ky; Mrs. Anna
Smith, of Massachusetts; Miss Campbell,
Mrs. Helen Perival Mrs. L. E. Young
and three children.
# The books of the steamer are lost, so
II is impossible to get a complete list of
the lost and saved. All the officers Of
the Steamer, except Second Engineer
Robt. Kelly, escaped. After he gave the
alarm to the officers, he remained at his
post of duty until cut off by the flames,
the fire having spread with Tightening
Rapidly, and thus he sacrificed his life to
4 Save others.
AZ Nearly all the cabin and deck crew of
The steamer saved themselves. Stowe's
circus was taken aboard at Vidalia, La,
and six cages of animals and birds, to-
gether with the eticket and band wagons,
tents and horses, were lost. Marion
Purcell, one of the pilots, was in the
clerk's Office when the alarm was first
sounded, and he rushed through the
\ cabin bursting the state-room doors and
awakening the passengers. So rapidly
ssdid the flames spread, that within five
n minutes after the discovery of the fire,
"A which broke out amidship in the aft part
II Of the steamer, she was all ablaze. Those
VI who were saved had to flee in their night
clothes. When the burning steamer
u touched the wharf the fire communicat-
ed to the coal barges and the tug Oriole,
WHICH was also burned.
Il AS near as can be ascertained there
were % ladies on board the ill-fated
steamer. but two of whom, 80 far as
known were saved. J. H. Crank, con-
nected with Stoves circus, is missing,
supposed to be lost. John Devousey,
his wife and three children, were saved,
and are at the city hospital; also Simon
Block. Mr. Devousey is slightly burned
on his hands,
The Golden City was five years old,
cost $54, 900 and was owned by Capt. j.
d. Hegler, w. F. Mcintyre. She lies
sunk about three miles below here in a
chute hear the Tennessee shore.
When she floated off from the wharf
about 20 of her passengers jumped
aboard a barge, which foated down the
stream; they were rescued by harbor
boat which towed the barge to the shore,
one mile below the city. It is estimated
that thirty-fve lives were lost by the dis
can be learned.
Pilot Kelly, second engineer, and
three roustabouts, are the only members
of the boats crew that are known to be
lost.
The fire was caused by the watchman
accidentally setting fire to lot of jute
which was stored amidship. The steam
er had just. whistled to land and the
watchman went among the deck passen-
gers to notify them that they were ap-
preaching Memphis and that those dest-
ined for that city must get ashore, when
the bottom of his lamp dropped in some
iute, and before the flames could be ex-
tinguished they had spread all over the
deck of the vessel. Brice Purcell, the
pilot, made his escape by climbing over
the front part Of the pilot house, the fire
then being in the rear, when the steam
er touched the wharf.
The tug Oriole did not burn, as at
first reported, but was sunk by the
burning steamer in making the landing.
Several coal barges and ice boats be-
longing to Bohle, Huse & Co., caught
fire and were burned.