The Ohio Steamboat Disaster.
The Ohio Steamboat Disaster.

The Ohio Steamboat Disaster.

    A touching appeal was made by Miss Jones to a gentleman on board. As the wood work was becoming too heated to bear, and the flames were forcing their way gradually into the cabin, she went to him, saying: "Oh! Mr.------, you have talked to me this evening, you have danced with me, you know who I am and where I came from: save me! Oh, save me! Oh, save me!" He told her he had a wife to save, and could not help her. Poor girl, she is beyond earthly help now.

A FRANTIC HUSBAND.

    One of the gentlemen on board had the presence of mind to unhinge a door, which he threw into the river; and after his wife and he had jumped in, he placed her in a position to reach the shore. "Now, stay here, dear," was his request, "until I can fix myself some way, and we can both be saved." Imagine the husband's agony, just as he had procured something that would float, to see a man swim toward the frail support of his wife and knock her away from it. She was drowned.

A DOUBLE ESCAPE.

    One gentleman and wife escaped in rather a romantic manner. Fastening life preservers to both of their persons, he tied her right arm to his left, then took a shutter, over which they placed both arms. "Now! one--two--three--jump!" he cried, when both jumped, and after a little man�uvring they arrived safely on shore, minus, however, several articles of apparel needed to make them presentable.

AN AWFUL SCENE.

    A lady on board the States relates that as she and her husband were moving toward the shore, in the water, she saw one of the life boats filled with people who had escaped. But all at once the America begins backing toward shore, and mercilessly the rude rudder strikes the boat, crushing and upsetting it. None of those passengers were saved, escaping danger only to meet death in another form.

APPALLING.

    From the shore could be seen women, with nothing but their robes de nuit to protect them, rushing about in the flames, screaming for help; mothers with their children in their arms, most of them babies, rushing about frantically.
    One mother, holding her baby in her arms, ran to the guards, but the water seemed to her only a chilly grave. Then she jumped into the cabin again; then to the guards. The last that was seen of her she was standing up with her baby hugged closer to her, in her awful death, burning up.

A DEATH STRUGGLE.

    A gentleman with his sister, a lovely and accomplished young lady, were passengers on the United States. At the first shock the gentleman was thrown from his bed clear on the floor. Hastily pulling on his pantaloons, he rushed to the stateroom of his sister, burst open the door, and seizing her in his arms, carried her down on the main deck, where, procuring a door shutter, he threw it overboard and leaped after with his sister in his arms. He placed her securely on the shutter, and was swimming behind, pushing it, with its precious load towards the shore, when, to his horror, a big, burly and able bodied man swam up, pushed his sister off the board, and climbed upon it himself.
    The young girl sank with a scream, and if she came to the surface it was so dark and the confusion so great that he could not find her. Maddened at the dastardly act, he made after the author, and seized him by the throat, a struggle to the death ensued. They rose and sunk together, still struggling, and when last seen were grappling with each other. Whether either was saved or both went down together, is not known. The sister sunk beneath the wave and was lost, but she was terribly avenged by her brother.
    At the place, near Florence, where the boats collided the river takes a bend, though there is over twenty feet of water, which allowed them plenty of room.--From the Louisville Journal of Dec. 7.


Source:

Unknown, "The Ohio Steamboat Disaster," Village Record, Waynesboro, Franklin County, Pennsylvania, Friday, 25 December, 1868, Page 2.

Created March 1, 2006; Revised March 1, 2006
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