Milford chronicle., 1883-06-01
STEAMER BLOWN UP.
TERRIBLE DISASTER on THE Pa
CIFIC COAST.
Eighteen Lives Lost-A Narrowing story
with Remarkable Features.

A San Francisco dispatch says: Th
steamer Pilot, a stern wheeler, was blow
up Friday morning, May 25th, nea
Lakeville, and several lives lost. TIL
explosion occurred a mile above Dona
hue Landing, on an arm of the ba.
known as Petaluma Creek. The frs
news of the disaster was conveyed in
dispatch from Donahue saying:
"a heavy report was heard this morn
ing from the steamer Pilot, and large
escape of steam was seen. 1 think she is
blown up. It looks as though she sunk. ,
A second dispatch came, stating that
there were twenty passengers aboard,
and as it was believed that several San
Franciscans were among them the excite
ment throughout the city rapidly grew in
intensity.
All tae forward part of the boat was
blown away, and the afterpart hoated 300
yards and then grounded on the west
side of the creek. Two persons were
killed, seven were wounded and eleven
are missing and are supposed to be
drowned Mrs. McNear is missing,
but her baby was saved. The wreck is
almost inaccessible.
Officers Of the steamer Donahue re-
ported that when passing DoDahue
Landing they noticed the Pilot coming
down the creek in mid-channel A few
minutes afterward they saw no sign of
the incoming steamer. A rumor spread
that a terrible disaster had occurred.
The chief engineer Of the Donahue is re-
ported as having said that he saw the ex-
plosion, or the cloud of steam and smoke,
Immediately following. The Donahue
drew too much water for navigation
above her landing level, and therefore
could not go to the wreck.
A message was sent to Petaluma, di-
recting that a relief train with physicians
and nurses be Immediately dispatched to
Lakeville When the train arrived the
surgeons on board found little to do. as
of all those known and believed to be on
board, none but the captain and two
others, one the pilot, could be found.
They were discovered in the fields, seri-
ously injured, the captain the least of the
three. Search was then made in every
direction in the long tule grass, near the
bank, and one after another, four more
we're found, all more or less seriously IN
iured, some with leg or arm broken by |
their fall After the explosion one of
these managed to scramble to higher and
lryer ground. Had he been more Sc
yerely injured he would have been
drowned by the high tide.
The last reports show that eight are
Silled, seven wounded and ten missing.
Most Of the missing are probably dead,
9ut their bodies have not yet been found.
The names Of the passengers cannot be
definitely ascertained, as none were re-
corded at the points of departure. It is
znown, however, that one family of twelve
PERSONS was on board bound for Arizona.
t is thought that many of the passen-
.ers who escaped scalding and mangling
we're drowned, as the boat sank imme-
lately after the explosion.
The Pilot was owned by Captain
fould, formerly master of the ship Con
Iueror. He purchased the vessel
ear ago, together with her trade and
ertain other property, for SO, 900. The
xplosion is attributed to defective boil
is. Those who witnessed the explosi n
rom the steamer Donahue say that it
7as almost funny to see the way the c
mokestack went up. 1t seemed, they !
ay, to leave the vessel in advance Of tie /
xplosion and to shoot up in the air over
hree hundred yards, coming down gain I
'ithin few feet Of the vessel. Later
ispatches state that Mr.. Mathews, late q
Sonoma Mountain, who was on his
ay Arizona, lost four children and
mother ne will die. His wife is crazy.
[r. Hegeer, who had just purchased n
roperty here, was killed. S
A most extraordinary incident in con- a
action with the disaster was the find i
g Of Mrs. George P. McNear, passen-
er, about a mile and a half from the
ene of the explosion. She was stand :
g in the mud, still alive, but uncon-
ious. 1t is presumed that she strug- i.
ed through the mud and weeds that
stance in search Of relief. She was
lmediately removed to Lakeville, but J.,
ed few minutes after her arrival. =
lie was a niece of G.. W. McNear, :
ain merchant of San Francisco.
Y