Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1882-07-06
APPALLING RESULTS OF THE
STEAMBOAT DISASTER.

1 The loss oflife resulting from the col
lision of the two steamers on the 4th
inst. makes it one of the most horrible
disasters we have ever been called to
record as occurring in this neighbor-
hood.
Nor is the end of the deathly details
yet reached. The full list of the lost
will never be made up except from the
bereaved ones who will miss their rela-
tives and friends. The dark waves,
aided 10y the gloom ofnight which over
spread the scene of the wreck, have COW
cred up many a fatal incident of the
disaster. With five orsix hundreds souls
on board, and no record list of names;
composed as they were of all ages and
sexes, it is impossible to trace the miss
ing except through news from their re-
spective homes where.a vacancyiis found
here and there in the many families
represented on that Inflated steamer.
1t is not surprising, therefore, that the
Alsl vi dCSlu OlltS w o"SAA VIVA
each latest bulletin from the spot. 1t is
already sufficiently large to send shock
of grief to every community
of the neighborhood and country were
the news is read. Nothing like it, we
say, has happened upon the waters of
the Ohio, or in this section of the cOun-
try, for many years, if ever before
nothing so disastrous to life, nothing so
sudden and horrible in its results.
1t seems that even upon so quiet and
placid a stream as the Ohio river, we
must have calamity such as this
every now and then, in order to induce
those men who have such grave re-
spOnsibility as that which devolves upon
the officers of passenger steamer, and
the legal authorities who supervise and
license them and their crews, sufficient
ly impressed with the supreme gravity
of their trust, especially when the lives
of five or six hundred people are placed
within their keeping and made DEEPEN
dent for their security upon the fidelity
and skill with which they discharge
their duties.
1t is too soon yet to attempt to fix the
responsibility for this disaster. 1t is too
serious charge to impute to any man,
to say that through his fault so many
lives have met a watery grave, unless
the evidence of that fact is clear and
conclusive.
But there must be full and search
ing investigation that will clear up all
doubt as to whether it was an unavOida-
bic accident, or whether through the
neglect, ineOmpetency, carelessneSs or
other fault of any one or more OF the
officers of these vessels this catastrophe
has occurred. 1t will not do to allow
the authors of such calamities to go I'M
discovered or unwhipped of justice, I'M
less we wish to invite a frequent reeur-
renee of them and continue men in po-
sitions which place the lives of the trav-
cling public in continual jeopardy.
1t is not often that sueh accluenS
have occurred upon our river, and that
much is to the credit of our river men,
but there is scarcely any excuse for an
accident happening under the circum-
stances which occasioned this one.
Somebody is TO blame. Somebody has
Numbered. These lives have been sacri-
feed, not wilfully, but nevertheless, it
would seem, by some inexcusable in
competency or stupidity on the part of
those in charge of one or the other OF
these steamers. We can't hringthed dead
back. We can't offer compensation to
the bereaved. But We can prevent
other lives from being placed in similar
peril, and that much must be done.