The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-06-16
BETHEL'S HULK HURT
-FOUR HOLES STOVE IN THE STERN
BY THE PACKET d.
BUQUE.
WATER BUSHES INTO The HOLD
AND THE REAR OF THE BOAT NOW
RESTS ON THE RIVER BOT
TEN.
EXCITEMENT DURING THE DINNER
Pumps PINT to Work without Sue
cess-Dubuque Officers Deny
Any Collision.

Pumps Put to Work Without Sue
cess-Dubuque Officers Deny
Amy Collision.
The Bethel boat was punched full Of
holes yesterday, and while the musical
ripples of the river played abe ut the
keel last night as usual, there was no
responsive motion Of the hulk. SEX l
with a rigor the boat lay like par
TALLY submerged Gibraltar. Wind nd
wave failed to impart TO 1t the Sooth-
ing motion, and the big haWse:s which
moored it to the bank Were imp and
slack. The boat, too, possessed a pc
culiar appearance. One end roLect!ng
above the bank with the stern falling
away several inches to the yar:i, the
deck doomed up in the darkness like
a tcboggan slide, while back OF the
Bethel the bath house rose like three
story building. The appearance If he
boat however, was the key to the stu
alton and mutely told that life On the
bounding wave is not always what it
is cracked up to te, for in a marine
NAA~
Bethers hulk, and last night the stern
Of the boat rested p.acidly on the mud
dy bottom Of the Mississippi.
The catastrophe occurred shortly af-
ter II o'clock yesterday morning while
the river packet Dubuque, freight
laden from st. Louis, was endeavoring
j to make a landing at the Diamond 10
/ dock. 1t was the dinner hour at the
Bethel, and fifty people were hungrily
engaged in reading the menu cards
tackled around the walls OF the dining
room. The Dubuque had been sighted
s lie minutes before, but 2s nc VAN
ing pennant floated from her pinn lcle
the crew Of the Bethel apprehended 10
danger. The Dubuque bore down to-
ward the dock, and between the throb-
bing of her engines could be heard the
hoarse shouts of Officers and crew as
no favorable place to tie 20 could be
found.
Still the crew of the Bethel contea)-
plated the menu. Capt Morgan was
not aboard his craft, or il might have
been otherwise. Howe yar, there vas a
sudden grating against the starboaI d
side Of the Bethel, grinding IF m
bers and crushing of the hulk asains t
the piers of the Milwaukee tracks
which caused the half-sa tisfied Cccu-
pants of the dining loom to rush for
the gangway. In a moment, however,
the Dubuque had reversed her .ngines
and stood out into the stream, taus
calming their fears, only to again STAN
pede the Bethels crew by secold eff
fort to effect a landing, after dropping
down the river for new start.
Crash! Bang, This time the. Du.
buque's propellers swung into the
Rethel'S starboard stern, raising the
bow out Of water, tearing away a sec
ton of the upper deck promenade and
crushing holes in the hulk in different
places. Those on the Bethel were bad
ly frightened, and, as the Dubuque
again steamed out in the channel, re-
leasing the pressure against the rail
road piers, the boat settled and began
TIC fill with water. AS all of the holes
were in the rear part Of the hulk, this
portion of the Bethel soon began sink
ing, slowly raising the bow above the
river bank. Capt Morgan's lieuten-
ants, cabin boy and cook rushed fran
tically about, while the transient
company sought the shore by skurrying
across the gang plank.
All hands aft to man the pumps
cried the cook, and the cabin boy hur-
ried to obey the order.
An old suction pump was found and
rammed through a hole in the kitchen
floor, and, while the lieutenants ran off
in search of Capt Morgan. the cook
and cabin boy took turns at pumping
out the hold. It was working against
fate, however, for there was a good
deal Of water in the river beside what
they drew out of the hold, and the boat
steadily lowered until the keel sank
into the mud, on the shore side. The
water is about five feet deep at this
point and on the other side of the boat
Zine feet deep, thus leaving the Bethel
at a sort of oblique angle with the
outer rail almost at the waters edge.
Capt" Morgan was finally found
and apprised of the accident which
had befallen his craft. He hurried to
the boat and also stood his turn at the
pump with three others during the
afternoon, but the hold remained full
Of water. Then a carpenter was found
and sent into the lower part of the
boat to repair the. leak. He managed
to partly stop the holes, and though
the boat was not sinking further last
evening, the water seaped through the
a depth of about six feet in the stern
part of the hold. The damage done
the Bethel is estimated at about $3.50
The officers of the Dubuque last night
denied that the boat had struck the
Bethel, claiming not to have neared
Mr.. Morgan's boat in making a landing,
but John Morgan stated that it was
the Dubuque which did the damage