The Louisiana Democrat., 1883-01-24
THE LAST COLLISION,
Who Shall Decide When Steamboat
men Disagree?
IN THE GREENvILLE LEE
INVESTIGATION.

TESTIMONY IN TIE GREENvILLE LEE
| INVESTIGATION.
Messrs. Moffat and Butler, the To-
cal inspectors, have been taking tes-
timony the past week of the collision
between the New Orleans and St..
Louis Anchor Line steamboat City
of Greenville and the Grand Ecore
packet Laura Lee, which happened
on the night of January IL, between
3 and $50 o'clock a. M, just below
Bayou Goula.
Dennis NJ. Connors, first mate Of
the City of Greenville, made the fol
lowing statement: II was on watch
at the time Of the accident. Was on
the boiler deck when I saw the Lau-
ra Lee, distance about 400 or 500
yards, on our port bow. We were
rather on the bar side. About 8 min.
ute after sighting the Laura Lee,
heard our boat blow one whistle, to
which the Laura Lee replied by two
blasts of her whistle, at which time
the boats we're apart about 200 or
800 yards. Heard the Laura Lee
blow three or four short whistles,
and heard our boat blow the same
signal, at which time our boat was
straight up and down the river, and
The Laura Lee appeared to be quar-.
tering across the river toward u.s.
About Two minutes after noticing
the courses of the two boats the col
Iision occurred. The Laura Lee
came straight in on to US, striking
our por: just aft Of the derrick, and
our boat sunk. The Laura Lee rem
'iered the necessary assistance. N"
lives were known to he lost. Heard
our engines bells ring twice, which
| suppose vas to be to stop ap ! back.
These were the whistles bells
that heard. Do not know tnat our
boat backed. Our signal lights were
burning, also those on the Laura
Lee. Saw both lights of the Laura
Lee when first sighted her. / mean
it was two minutes from the time l
sighted the Laura Lee until the COL
lision. The Laura Lee struck Us
head on. After the boats struck l
ran ran into the captains room to
wake him. just as I opened the
door he was standing in the middle
of the floor. He asked me, what is
this-a collision?' 1 replied, Yes,
sir; get up" I ran to wake the 9th
er officers, that we're asleep, then
went out forward on the roof. The
captain was then ho'lering to the
other boat to stay alongside of u.s.
He told me to remain on the roof
and shave that boat stay alongside"
while he went down to see about the
passengers. He then hallooed to the
pilot to run her. on the bar. When
she got on the bar, ! went down on
deck and lowered the stage down to
let the passengers get OF. The cap
tain, second mate, and myself then
tried to get tarpaulin under her,
but seeing that she was going down
too fast, and being unable to get it
under, we left. We then came out
to where the stage was; saw that she
was sliding of from the bank, and
before we could get on the bar she
had slid of so far that we had to re-
main on the stage, IN the water, IN,
til taken of in the yawl."
A. c. Resdman, steersman on the
Laura Lee testifiies that the steamer
was in the middle of the river, abont
tbree-quarters of a mile below Bayou
Goula light. He first saw the City
Of Greenville apparently coming up
the Bayou Gouia shore. Both boats
blew about the came time, the Laura
Lee two whistles, and one only was
heard by Mr.. Readman, from the
City of Greenville, when he immedi
ately stopped the engines, reversed
them, and set them to backing, then
blew two whistles again, and gonged
to back strong, then afterward blew
the danger signal. The boats were
about 500 yards apart when the first
signal was blown. The engines of
the Laura Lee made ebout twenty
Eve revolutions back. She would
make about eighteen revolutions
back per minute, which would check
her headway; continued to back up
TO the collision, which occurred in
about three minutes from the first
whistle; saw the red signal light Of
the City of Greenvi'le on her lar.
board chimney. Saw no other lig hts
on her, saw the Cedar Grove light
distinctly. Saw no light that would
indicate the approach of steamboat
at any time before sighting the red
signal light of the City of Green
vile. Never saw the red light on
the Greenville's bows. When the
FIRST whistle was blown on the Laura