The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1882-07-06
HORRIBLE CATASTROPHE
Drowning of asa Excursion
Party.

SCLOCU, WIN an excursion party OF
500 persons on board, collided with
the John Tomas near MingO juno
ton, Ohio. One hundred persons
are reported drowned.
Mingo Junction, Ohio, 4.-One of
the survivors says the SciOtG was
coming up the river under full head
Of steam, and when about half a
mile from Mingo Junction, the
John LOnlGS was sighted coming
down. The pilot of the Scotia
whiStled for the channel, but owing
to a misunderstanding both boats
took the same side, the Tomas strik-
ing the Sciota, sinking her III fifteen
feet of water in three minutes from
the time of the collision. The scene
on the Sci0tG was heartrending and
the life struggles were frightful to
behold. The Tomas was only
slightly disabled and went to work
at once to save those on board of the
unfortunate SciOtG. This task was
rendered easier by the bright moon
light and no doubt many lives were
saved from this reason. 1t is now
believed that the first reports were
exaggerated, and that the loss of life
will not exceed twenty persons.
Arthur McNully, who lives at
Cross Greek, an eye witness of the
whole matter, was standing In a
door Immediately opposite where
the collision occurred. 1t was about
s o'clock. The Tomas, in passing
the island chute, Whistled for the
preference of sides, and as near as
he can judge it was three minutes
before the SciOtG answered and
neither Of'lthem appeared to sheer
off, and almost Immediately the col
lisiOn occurred. He continues ::
General confusion followed, and l
saw the people jumping from the
hurricane deck and all parts of the
steamer. AS far as / could see
the Tomas struck the SciOtG for
ward, for the fire blew over the bow
of the .SciOtG. The SciOtG sunk al
most instantly. The LOmaS backed
up as soon as possible. The Tomas
ran to the Ohio shore, landed her
passengers and then returned to the
wreck. The crew and officers of
the Tomas exercised every effort to
rescue the unfortunate passengers,
and succeeded in landing over. 400.
making several trips, and continued
the work. AS soon as | saw the
accident / jumped into my skiff and
started for the wreck. When [ got
there l got five persons within
distance of twenty-five feet, and
there were two other skiffs below
me, picking them up, but 1 don't
know how many they got. They
were hallooing all over, and there
appeared to be a great many in the
wreck, but it was too dark for me
to tell the number. then took the
parties | rescued to the Ohio side.
and by this time the Tomas had
landed a party and returned to the
wreck. l had just come home from
work as the boat came past, and
could not tell how many were on
board, but from what the parties
who had landed told me there were
from sixty-five to seventy ON the
boat. From the run of conversation
of those who had been landed, l
gathered that from 500 to $50 were
landed. Three women were carried
ashore and died after they had been
rescued. Two little boys and the
assistant engineer of the SciOto were
rescued and stopped at COX's. The
assistant engineer told me he
thought many lives were lost as the
lower decks we're crowded and the
boat sank instantly. A man and
woman passed within q hundred
yards of my house. He was holding
her up and crying for help, but my
wife saw them sink. The scene was
terrible. I saw at least fifty young
ladies who had been brought to
shore, who were saved by their
escorts, swimming and holding
them up.
Wheeling, w. Va, At is i'm
possible to ascertain Or even guess
the number of persons drowned.
Capt. Thomas son Dan is missing,
and a deck hand, name unknown,
was also drowned from the Sci0tG.
The rest of the crew are safe. The
first man taken out of the water
was Waterman Chas, Mccoy. The
Tomas struck the Sci6tO on the port,
Is feet from the bow, and made a
large hole through which the hull
filled rapidly and she sank at once
and is now lying on the bottom of
the river. The water is two feet
deep in the cabin. Charles Page, Of
Marietta, Ohio, striker or assistant
engineer of the SciOtG, says they
started from East-Liverpool at half
past o'clock in the morning with a
large excursion party who were off
for Fourth Of July frOlic, and
they went far down the river to
Malntsyille, arriving there about
1.30 o. m. and after lying there
about two hours, started for home,
stopping at Wheeling and Martins
Ferry. People hailed as they passed
along the river, but the captain said
we had enough on board, an6 re-
fused to take any more except at
Steubensville, where he took on
several passengers. When we col
lided with the Tomas, as near as l
can Judge from what 1 heard the
people say, we had on board 400
people at least, and probably 500.
/ was on the watch at the time of
the accident, and when the boats
whistled for passing noticed there
was something wrong, but thought
nothing of it, and stepped