The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-08-28
EIGHT MINUTES OF PERIL.
The Story of the Maid of the Mist's Trip as
Told by Man Who Participated in 1t.

Told by a Man Who Participated in 1t.
Buffalo Correspondence Cleveland Leader.
Now that a new Maid of the Mist" is be
ing built to be sent through the whirlpool
rapids at Niagara chat which Leader cor
respondent had to-day with the only survivor
of the famous trip through the rapids of the
Maid of the Mist In 1859, is very entertain
ing. The voyage, though of less than eight
minutes duration, was as perilouS as any
steamer has ever made. How it came to be
undertaken, and all about it, can best be told
in the words of the survivor, Dewitt c. Nc
Murtry, who is now clerk in the City Hotel
here:
The trip was made June 30, 1859, and 1
shall never forget the day. But L suppose
you want to know how we came to make it.
First | will have to tell you that there were
two Maid of the Mists. The first had been
running several years and in 1850 was pro
nounced unsafe. She was accordingly dis
mantled and scuttled in the river. James
w. Buchanan, a Toronto man of some
wealth, just then took up his place of resi-
dence at Suspension Bridge. He thought it
would be a good idea to build a new Maid of
the Mist, larger and more powerful than the
one which had just been destroyed. Accord
ingly boat 150x16 feet over all. was put on
the stocks. Buchanan's money gave out
when she was ready to receive her machinery.
Her owner wanted to use the old boats en-
CINE and boiler, but Joel Robinson, who had
been selected for her captain, refused to run
her without new and adequate propelling
power. Judge Addington, of Buffalo, loaned
the money, and took 81, 900 mortgage on
the steamer as security. This he thought
was entirely safe, for the boat was located
permanently, everybody supposed, between
the cataract and the impossible whirlpool
rapids. Buchanan kept up his payments of
interest regularly until 1859. Then he
found himself on the verge of ruin. The
mortgage would soon be foreclosed. Some
Toronto parties, who wanted pleasure boat
to run between Prescott and Kingston, Of
fered S25, 900 for the Maid of the Mist if she
was delivered at Queenstown, Canada, near
the mouth of the Niagara. 1t was their de-
termination to send the boat through the
rapids. Captain RObiDson-came to me and
said: IF we succeed it is worth $500 to me,
and 800 apiece to you and Jones' Jones
was the engineer and | was the fireman.
We concluded to run the risk. OF course
the scheme had to be kept very quiet, but
on June 80 there was quite a good-szed
crowd on the river bank.
"At 2:30 in the afternoon steam was blow
ing off at 228 pounds-our usual pressure
was 130 Robinson was dashed in the wheel
house and Jones and | were in the hold, and
the matches were all securely fastened. The
hawser was cast off and away we went.
After we struck the rapids 1 would have
given anything to get ashore. We went
along with frightful speed. The distance
from our own landing to Queenstown, five
miles, was made in seven and three-quarter
minutes, and it only took us two minutes to
go through the mile of rapids When we
struck the rapids the boat made a down
ward plunge-it seemed to be thirty feet
when the waves seized her and hurled her
clear out of the water First she would 60
down, it seemed never to stop, and then,
with a sudden lurch up she would 20 again,
the shocks following quick and fast. The cur
rent was forty-6ve miles an hour. the waves
were twenty feet high and you can imagine
how we were tossed about. From the time
we left the landing until we reached Queens
town we lived our lives over again times in
Vulnerable. We were tossed ABOUT in the
hold, Jones and |, until it seemed as if the
| quick succession of shocks would kill us.
There was barely time to catch breath be.
| tween them. Every moment l thought we
| should go onto a rock, the boat be dashed ia
| pieces, and the three of us lett at the mercy
of the SURF to be beaten to death by the huge
waves | felt that we were standing on the
very verge of death, and cannot find words
to give you a complete idea of the over
powering sense of dread we felt Suddenly
| the keel grounded lightly on a rock, the
| Maid swung around and shot down the river
1t was at the entrance to the whirlpool, anu
| we had escaped it. / was satisfied that any
man who braved the torrent after our expert
ence was simply trying to do battle with the
| Almighty himself. There is more there
than man can conquer. 1t is something GOO
has reserved for His own, and | believe He
means to keep it. 1t is miracle that We
| lived through that trip"