page_title: Shipwrecks of the inland Columbia River
section_title: Boiler Explosion
hierarchical_section_title: Shipwrecks of the inland Columbia River / Boiler Explosion
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo showing wreckage of steamboat Annie Faxon following boiler explosion in 1893. (Note, there is a higher resolution scan available here.)
context_page_description: Steamboats on the Columbia River system were wrecked for many reasons, including striking rocks or logs, fire, boiler explosion, or puncture or crushing by ice. Sometimes boats could be salvaged, and sometimes not.
context_section_description: These did not happen often, but they were very dangerous when they did, and generally resulted in severe casualties among the crew and passengers and the complete loss of the boat.  Steamboat boiler explosions had been a common problem on the Mississippi River system well before the steamboats began serious operations in the Pacific Northwest in the 1850s.  By 1852, the problem had gotten so bad that Congress enacted a law setting out detailed standards for inspection of steamboats and licensing of officers.  Considerable work was done in the 1840s and 1850s to understand what caused boiler explosions, and these came down to many causes, including general wear and tear, inadequate or poorly designed equipment, overworked boilers that were too small for the engines, general lack of engineering skill among boiler operators, and excessive demands for performance from the vessel's captain or management.  People noticed early on that most of boiler explosions occurred just as steamboats were leaving (or sometimes arriving at) a landing.  This was true in two-thirds of the boiler explosions up to 1852.  Steam pressure was supposed to be reduced during a landing, but this would make it more difficult to get off to a fast start, so too  often pressure was kept up even though the engines weren't running to relieve the pressure by use of the steam generated by the boiler.  Under these circumstances, boiler explosions were much more likely.
  The explosion came, we read again and again in the accounts of these accidents, while "the boat was backing out from the landing," or as "the boat was straightening out after leaving the wharf," or when "the signal to go ahead had just been given," or when "the engine had made but two or three revolutions." ... Careful steam practice required that the during a landing the fires be well checked, the supply pump be kept working, and steam be released through safety or blow-off valve in order to prevent undue accumulation of pressure.  Circumstances, however, worked against sound practice, and very often in the flush decades of steamboating these precautions were not observed.  To overcome the inertia of the vessel and get it safely away from the shore, perhaps against opposing winds and currents, a good head of steam was needed, and it was better to have too much than not enough.
  Early steamboat experience in the Oregon Country was unfortunately consistent with the Mississippi river boiler explosion pattern.  Canemah was the first steamboat in Oregon to suffer a boiler explosion, on August 8, 1853, at or shortly below Champoeg landing on the Willamette River. One passenger was killed, but the boat survived.  Shoalwater's boiler exploded in May, 1853, at Rock Island, also on the Willamette River.  No one was killed however and enough remained of the boat to allow it to be rebuilt as Fenix. Details of these early explosions are lacking, but it is significant that at least one of them, Canemah, occurred at a landing.
  Gazelle exploded at Canemah on April 8, 1854 while moored next to Wallamet and many people were killed. (see Lone Fir Cemetery.)  This was right by Oregon City, the most populous town in the Oregon Territory at the time.  The details as described by Mills fit the pattern of landing explosions closely.
  [S]he was at the portage road above the Falls, loading for her first regular trip upriver to Corvallis.  At six in the morning her passengers came up the portage path, scrambled down the bank to the landing stage, and got aboard.  Then the Gazelle proudly moved up to Canemah where she pulled in next to the Wallamet to load more freight.  Smoke spiraled  high from her stack while the work went on.  Suddenly her engineer rushed onto the deck, scrambled ashore, and headed toward town.  About a minute later the Gazelle's boiler blew up and she scattered herself all over the neighborhood.
  A coroner's jury fixed the blame on the negligence of the engineer, which was probably easy since he hadn't remained around to defend himself.  This may not have been entirely fair, as failure to maintain good 
caption: wreck of Annie Faxon after boiler explosion on August 13, 1893
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