Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1895-01-24
New Orleans Packet State Of
Missouri Goes Down.
BOAT STRIKES A ROCK
Thirty of the Passengers and
Crew Are Drowned.
Panic-Stricken People Tramplc Each
Other to Death I'm Their Frantic
Efforts to Escape-One of the Yawls
Overcrowdcd and Sunk.



The great Cincinnati and New Orleans
steamer State of Missouri went to the bot
tom of the Ohio River ut Wolf Greek, sew
enty miles below Louisville, KY, at 6
o'clock Saturday night and it is reported
that thirty people met death. The steam
boat was one Of the largest steamers be-
longing 10 the Cincinnati and Memphis
Packet Company, and was new boat
worth 100000. She left Louisville, Ky,
at 10 o'clock Saturday morning, bound for
New Orleans. with twenty-three passen-
gers and crew. making seventy-eight
people. She had about half cargo Of
furniture, nails, acids, etc, and (, ran
smoothly until her dreadful accident that
sent many souls to eternity. 49,
The trip was uneventful until the dread
cd point known as the horseshoe bend,
near Alton, Ind, was reached. Here the
pilot slowed down, as the current was
very swift and turned his wheel so as to
avoid an obstruction known as Bullock
rock. The rudders failed to respond 70
the wheel and there was grinding,
crashing sound. The boat soon filed and
sunk.
The shock was terrific and the boat
trembled from bow to stern. Consterna-
ton seized upon the passengers and in a
moment they were frantic. Without re-
gard to consequences they rushed to the
upper decks in the hope of delaying the in
evitable, as the boat was rapidly sinking.
Women and children were trampled upon,
but it is believed all got out of the cabin.
Then the scramble for seats in the ynwls
began. 1t was fight for life, in which
many combatants are believed to have
gone TO their death. The first yawl
launched was sunk within twenty feet of
where it struck the water. 1t is believed
everyone in it was drowned in sight of the
affrighted people huddled together on the
sinking steamer. A second yawl was then
pushed Off Ii contained four women.
This is believed to have reached shore.
Just when there seemed some hope that
by means of this yawl the passengers
could be saved, the steamer gave another
terrific lurch and literally broke into
pieces. and in ten minutes from the mo-
ment the rock was struck nothing but the
hull remained. The cabin, texas and
pilot-house tioated away, dragging down
into the water everyone upon it. The
lighter freight was washed from the main
deck, and on this men, women and chill
dren chung as best they could, many, how
ever, only to fall back into deaths icy en-
brace. Several succeeded by this means
in getting into the willows and trees and
We're rescued by farmers and passing
steamers.
In less than ten minutes from the time
the boat struck she had gone down. At
Rockport and Greensboro. as well rs ~
all intermediate points, the bank is lined
with skiffs picking up pieces of furniture
and watching for dead bodies, but the cur
rent is too swift for small craft to ger
out far. -Four passengers were saved 10y
clinging To mule which swan ashore.
The passengers were all ticketed through
to New Orleans.
The State Of Missouri was built at Mad
ison, Ind, in 1890, by the Kansas City
syndicate, for the Missouri River trade,
at cost of $4,000. She was one of a
trio of fine steamers built by the same
company--the State of Kansas and the
A. l.. Mason being the others. She was
2J0 feet long with forty-four foot beam
and six foot hold. She was never launch
ed on the Missouri, but placed on the
Ohio and Mississippi, plying between
Cincinnati and New Orleans, with occa-
sional trips to st. Louis.