The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-12-27
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAR THURSDAY, DECEMBER o. 1898

time after the alarm was given she had
burned to the waters edge. The hall
sank and nothing was left of the Hanna
but floating timber and burning cotton.
THE CREW OF THE BOAT WERE,
J. s. Holmes, captain, George Powel
and James Gordon, clerks; Lew Raw
Inns and Henry Jolles, pilots; J. II.
Handley and j. G. Merriman, engi-
neers; Daniel Carroll, steward; Samuel
Bryant, first mate; Mike Cussett, sec
ond mate; John Gibbon, sailor; Ben
Duclos and Willie Higgins, barkeepers;
two chambermaids, Mrs. Demerery
and Mrs. Hunt; Jimmie Handley and
Charley Thompson, fremen; John
Rucker and Tom Cullin, stoKers.
Among those that were lost ara Captain
J. s. Holues, master of the boat; Sam
uel Powell, chief clerk: Bob Smith,
pilot, from Smithland, La; Mile
O'Neill, nightwatchman Joe Crane,
cabin Wstchmau; Monroe Deck, frst
cook; Jack Duff, second cook; Joe
Harvey, cabin boy; Jim Watson, SEP
ond baker; John Grafton, baker. Among
THOSE WHO WERE BADLY BURNED
are: Dan Carroll, steward; Jim O Neil,
deck hand; John Gibbons, sailorman;
Louis Welch, roUstabout, and num-
Der of others. Coming down on the
boat as passengers were a number OF
the crew OF the steamer White, all of
whom were saved. The survivors are
warm in their praise of the humane
people of Plaquemine, vine spared no
pains and no money to furnish them
with clothes and shelter after their ter
ribIe experience. w. l.. Brule, mayor
of the city, was especially kind to the
survivors. None of the men could say
what was the origin of the fire. The
general impression, however, Is that
some careless smoker threw cigarette
among the cotton bales and thereby
caused the disaster.
SAD DEATH.
The death of John Grafton. the car
penter, was a sad one. He was in the
upper portion of the boat struggling to
get near the front end, while the flames
were twisting and sweeping all about
him. He tried to reach the bow, but
dropped and bErned to death before the
scores of people, who were unable to
render him any help. The second
baker of the boat sad Mr.. Powell was
standing near him, when they jumped
into the water Powell, who could not
s vim, climbed on floating cotton bale,
but two deck hands jumped on the bale.
turning it over and throwing Powell
into the water and he disappeared. The
boat was about fifteen yards from the
shore, when great many people
PLUNGED INTO THE RIVER,
and several who reached the bank in
safety, became begged in the soft mud,
and so intense was the heat from the
boat that they wera burned to death
before they could climb up the steep
bank to the levees. The fire was so
rapid that before the pilot had finished
sounding three alarms of the whistles
the entire boat, from stem to stern, was
q roaring mass of flames, and the scene
that ensued was terrible IN the ey-
treme. Men yelled and ran about the
decks of the burning steamer like mani
acs, and others, screaming at the top of
their voices, threw themselves into the
dark waters aud were lost to sight in
the twinkling of an eye. The second
barkeeper said several persons near him
were struggling in the water
AND BEGGED FOR HELP,
but he could not render them any az
sistance, because the water chilled him
to the marrow, and his clothing clogged
his every movement. The cabin boy,
who was the assistant of the steward,
said the crew, who were aroused from
their slumbers by the flames which
roared over than, were compelled to
dive headlong from the roof of the boat
into The river, and many of them were
THE NUMBER OF LOST.
This evening the impression prevails
that the number of lives lost may not
exceed thirty, although owing to the
fact that the steamers papers were all
burned, il is difficult to get at the exact
number of people on board the fated
boat.
On the arrival of the train in this
city ambulances were at the depot and
all survivors of the disaster, who were
euffering from severe burns, were at
once conveyed to the Charity Hospital.
Steward Carroll says that the last of
the lady passengers on the boat coming
down got off at Baton Rouge. be
claims that the passengers that were
aboard at the tins of the fire were
Captain P. G. Montgomery, Mr.. Har.
min. of the board of underwriters, and
A. DroYes and his son. They were all
saved.
THE TAMES
of the additional persons saved
are Mary Ramsey, Priscilla Wright
and Mile G. Enley, a colored
passengers; Will Marshall, cabin boy;
John Jackson aud Thomas Carr old,
both seriously burned. There were on
the Hanna thirty-three roustabeuts.
and eleven belonging to the JOSH, which
had been laid up at Monroe. OF these
thirty-three are known to be saved,
leaving eleven unaccounted tor.
The following are additional names
of the lost: john Esrlown and Jim
Blank, colored rousters; Dick Blank,
colored messroom tender; Steptoe.
J ohm and Munroe Diggs, cooks; child
of Priscilla Wright (colored).
A Times-Democrat special from Plaque