The morning times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1897, 1895-11-17

and then stranded a little distance off
shore. Not five minutes had elapsed from
the time of the discovery OF the IRE, and
yet the whole craft was In flames and pass
sengers, in order to escape from the blaze,
were throwing themselves into the river.
Nobody seem to think of the lne-preservers
with which the boat was stocked. The hor-
ror of the picture could never be pictured
even by those who survived.
In less than ten minutes after the fire
broke out the Wawaset was burned and
settled, and half hundred or her people
we're dead. Capt. Wood was the last man
10 leave ship. He stood to the wheel till
the flames drove him from 1t, his clothing
being singed, and he climbed over the bows
and dropped into the river. He stated
afterward that the little clock 10 the pilot
house pointed to five minutes past noon
when the cry of fire reached him.
The terrible tidings did not reach Wash
ington and Alexandria till late In the even
ing, and the first known OF 1t was from
an Associated Press dispatch from Freder-
icksburg, which announced that seventy
five people had persisted and that up to
o'clock that afternoon six bodies had
been recovered. The news spread like Wild
fire, though the press facilities OF this
city then were not equal to such an
emergency, and the Intelligence was passed
from lip to lip.
Soon a great crowd Of distressed and
wailing people thronged around the Seventh
street wharf, but no news came till late
that night, when the steamer Express, com
mauded by Capt Barker, now of the Harry
Randall, was seen coming up the river.
The tension was so great at tue wharf that
strong men wept and women tainted. The
Express, which was returning from Point
Lookout with the Painters Union, OF Wash
ington, saw the smoke of the Wawaset and
steered for her, but it was too late.
BRINGING THE SURVIVORS,.
When she reached Washington she had
aboutfifty of the survivors, aud tears OF Joy
flowed with those of grief. Behind the EX-
press shoue tue lights of the old long lost
steamer National, Capt. Gregg. and she land
ed a number of survivors. Tine National was
the first steamer alongside OF tue Wa
waset, but She could render no aid. Capt.
Frank Hollingshead, who was then running
the Arrow, got up steam on tue Charlotte
Vanderbilt and left for the scene OF disaster
that night. So, too, did the National and
next day the latter boat brought up ten
charred bodies, aud the Belle Reed, close
behind, landed six more. These were laid
on bare planks in the warehouse on the
wharf aud thousands of people passed by
them. were Identified and some were
not
Then came tales from the scene of the
dead. There were hideous stories in Cir
culation of robbery and indignities. Ghouls
were dragging the river, riiling bodies Of
their clothes, and then dumping the corpses
back, or opening the new made graves on
the river shore and plundering the dead.
These stories were denied, but they were
credited at the time. Washington was a
small city then, and funeral could be
seen on every street. The Reed funeral, six
h,arses in a string, took place from Mount
Vernon NJ. Z. Church.
Washington was city OF mourning.
Slowly the tears trickled by, smiles came
again and the Wawaset horror became a
memory, though some hearts still wear
scars.
In the official investigation which fol-
lowed Captain Woods was e7onerated. but
because OF his ill-,uck his usefulness in the
Potomac was at an end. and he left these
parts. All that is now known of him at
the river front is that he is "some where
up North"