Daily Kennebec journal., 1913-12-20

they once did, therefore rev PEI sono
were concerned in the disaster, whlcn
exacted a toll of nine lives
However, the incident served to re-
mind some of US of the halcyon days
OF steamboating on the Ohio and the
Mississippi and their tributaries. Ana
it renewed interest lin an old volume
by James Hall published in Cincin-
natl in 1S4S, entitled: The West: Its
Commerce and Navigation" One
would scarcely look for so much infor-
nation that is of enduring interest on
that subject in book, but Halls vol
ume is a remarkable one in many re-
spects.
The American flag was first raised
on Lake Erie in 1896 over a schooner of
20 tons, and the Government launched
its first vessel there in 1902. The first
steamboat on the lake was built in
1913. The first steamboat at Chicago
was built in 1882, and so rapid was this
development, that the tonnage at Chi
cago in II years was III, 900 tons.
Hall gives a list of about $50 steam
boats known to have engaged in the
river trade, beginning with the Or
leans. built by Fulton at Pittsburg in
1S11 vessel of 400 tons which was de-
stroyed by snag at Baton Rouge in
1913, down to the year 1885. Though
steamboat travel had it's perils, it was
preferred to the slow and tiresome
stage coach or horseback, during the
first quarter of the nineteenth century,
when the tide of emigration set in to-
ward the valleys of the Ohio, the Mis-
sissippi and the Wabash This peril
the rivers which were changed in To-
cation by every flood, and new ones
added. He recounts the fact that be-
tween the 18th of September and Oc-
tober J5, 1S4l, the losses on the Missis-
sippi between st. Louis and Cairo, a
distance of $50 miles, amounted to
1924, ,000, Within the succeeding sew
enteen months 70 steamboats, were lost,
worth $1,200,000, with their cargoes. fof
great value. In five years, between
1887 and 1912, the insurance offices in
Cincinnati alone paid for steamboats,
lost because of distractions in the riv-
er the sum of SAP, ,930.S9.
Because of the numerous accidents
on the rivers, with their large loss of
life, the travelling public welcomed the
in his book list of explosions alone
between 1917 and 1881. The number is
50, in which 256 persons were killed
and 10 injured. The largest loss of
life was the explosion of the boilers
of the Helen McGregor on the Missis-
sippi in 1880. In this disaster 80 lives
were lost, and 10 persons We're injured.
However, some of the explosions re-
corded occurred in New York Bay and
On Long Island Sound.
Hall has a few brief pages on the
invention of the steamboat. or a boat
that PEELED by steam. The first one
was that of John Fitch, an illiterate
matchmaker of Philadelphia, who sue
cecded in interesting moneyed men in
his scheme, which he launched on the
Delaware in 1888. The boat made its
way to Burlington and exploded her
boiler when rounding the wharf at that
place. But Fitch procured another
boiler and tried it again, this time
making a round trip in his vessel.
However he was unable to finance his
further adventures, whereupon he
wrote book of three volumes, the
manuscript of which ne sealed and de-
>
injunctions to open it 80 years after
his death. When the manuscript was
opened it was found that his predic-
tiens concerning steamboat navigation
had long since been verified.
1t is recounted that while a steam
boat was being built at Pittsburg, un-
der Robert Fultons direction, in 1872,
the enthusiastic builder was on his
way from New York across the noun
tains in a stage coach, having as COM
panions on the journey a number of
gentlemen from Kentucky. The trav-
elers joked with Fulton over his pro-
ject and whenever he insisted that it
would be a success it is recorded that
they laughed uproariously. And when
Fulton ventured further with the pre-
diction that before many years people
/ would be riding over these mountains
/ in carriages drawn by steam engine,
the hilarity of the party knew no
| bounds. Hall was told of this incident
by one of the men who was Fulton's
companion on that memorable ride,
and during the telling the pair were
actually riding over the same noun
tains in a railroad car, And only &c
years had elapsed.
But, as we have said, steamboat ex-
plosions now have very little interest
for the public. so few are the passen-
gers. compared with those on the rail-
ways, and so many improvements have
been made in engine and boiler con-
struction. However. the explosion at
Pittsburg the other day was remind
er of the time when travel by this
method filled the public with dread.
No one knew whether or not jour
ney meant the separation of families
for all time, for in those days the
steamboat losses were about II per
cent. per annum. If the modern rail-
road equalled that record, what ter
rible commotion there would pe!-Ro-
chester Herald.