Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1902-04-29
OHIO RIVER HORROR
SCORES LOSE Lire IN FIRE or
WATER.
Between Fifty and Seventy five Per.
sons Are Killed in.stean boat Disas-
ter-Panic Inereases the Horror-De-
strIction of the City of Pittsburg,


Suffocated as they slept. entrappe3 ID
their berths and burned or forced panic-
stricken into the river and drowned. over
three score persons lest their lives San
day morning in the destruction by fire OF
the steamer City of I'ittsburg. near FUR
ner's Landing, not fair from Cairo, III.
Those on board the steamer numbered
about 80 and the death list may re.icll
seventy-hve. Captain Phillips estimates
he loss of life at between fifty and six
- Accurate information probably new
Ell can be secured. foi! the steamers PAS
senger list, the only record of the hunlail
lives she carried, was destroyed.
Large Crew and Many Passengers.
The steamer a bis 1side-wheeler plying
between Cincinnati and Memphis, 3et-
the former city Wednesday night witls
thirty-one passengers and took on many
Others on the voyage down the river. she
carried crew of seventy. So far Only
few bodies have been recovered.
The work of death IN this disaster one
of the most shocking in the history OF
river navigation, was matter OF but q
few minutes. The fire was discovered
few minutes after O'clock in the for
ward hold of the steamer. All the PAS
sengers were sleeping. as were all yhc
members of the crew except few
watchmen and the men at the engines
As quickly as possible runners were
sent through the narrow passages in lhe
cabin shouting an alarm TO the endan-
gered sleepers. Within n few seconds
the whole steamer was alive with fright
ened passengers in tie midst of a rush
for life which began in panic and ended
IN horror.
None took time 70 put on more than
night clothes or to save any valuahles
from their staterooms The supply of
iife-preseryers was soon exhausted after
scenes of awful struggling. and there
was rush for windows and ratings in
the hope that a leap into the water
might avert death in the flames.
Meanwhile the members of the crew
had launched one boat and into this
were put the women and children who
had been able to reach the deck before
the burning of the stGirways cut off that
means of escape. Force was necessary
to check the rush for the yawl, and in
spite of heroism shown by the officers
their work might have gone for naught
il the ropes that bouad the yawl to the
steamer had not been severed by The
flames just as the small craft was filed
to the danger point About twenty or
thirty persons were taken off in this
way.
Struggle ia Water.
Those who were left on the boat and
We're still alive theG jumped into The
water, joining their struggling fellows,
who at the first alarm had sought there
refuge from the flames.
Screams and pitiflsl appeals for help
were heard on every hand as those Of The
unfortunates who could not swim felt in
their lessening strength a warning of
their fate.
Many passengers clung by finger tips
to the burning boat with bodies submergs
ed until, overcome by fire or water, they
sank to death Wesley Medley, fisher.
man, rescued two fr,lm the wheelhousc
One was q man and The other woman.
The latter chung to ithe boat until her
hands were burned.
The boat was insured for $4,000, most
of the policies being held by Pittsburg
agents.