Scott County IA Archives News.....Sinking of the Steamer Jennie Gilchrist November 2,
1881
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Kenneth Stacy klstacyfamily(a)aol.com November 11, 2006, 3:25 am
The Huntsville Weekly Democrat (AL) November 2, 1881
Terrible Calamity
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NEW YORK. Oct. 21. A special to the Herald from Davenport, Iowa, furnishes
the following:
The steamer Gilchrist left this point last night, apparently in good trim
and condition, bound for all points up the river, and loaded with a large and
valuable cargo of miscellaneous freight, and carrying in her cabin a full list
of passengers. When the steamer had passed under the Government bridge,
spanning the Mississippi and connecting the cities of Davenport and Rock
Island, the connecting rods of the engine suddenly gave way, causing the
engine machinery to become unmanageable and useless. The river was very high,
owing to recent floods, and the current unusually rapid. So, when the
Gilchrist had no longer her machinery to keep her bow up, the stream of the
swiftly running river carried the helpless vessel down the stream at a rapid
and appalling rate. Being so near the bridge, the steamer was thrown with
tremendous and resistless force against one of the abutments. As the
Gilchrist came in collision with the enormous mass of stone, she careened,
causing the weights on the safety-valves of the steam chests to break from the
fastenings and slide off, the valves no longer holding a check on the steam in
the boilers. It poured out in huge volumes, and enveloped the hopeless crew
and passengers, who were wholly endeavoring to secure life preservers in the
main saloon, and scalded many of them in an awful manner. No sooner had the
steamer rebounded from the shock of the collision, that she began sinking, in
which condition she was carried past the city the shrieks and cries for help
uttered by the frenzied victims being distinctly audible to a large crowd of
citizens, who soon thronged the banks, but they could send no assistance, as
the steamer hurled past their eyes by the turbulent river. All of the small
boats and skiffs, usually numerous on the river, had been drawn ashore and
laid away for the Winter, to escape the floods which have prevailed all along
the course of the Mississippi river for nearly a fortnight. So there was no
means of speedily reaching the sinking steamer. Other steamers, lying at the
bank, immediately went to her assistance, and are actively at work searching
for the survivors. I learn that there were on board twenty-three passengers,
four of whom were female, and a crew of 15. Only eight persons have been
saved so far, and one of these is very badly scalded. Three lady passengers
are known to have been killed or scalded to death. The city is in great
excitement and everything possible is being done to relieve the unfortunates.
There is very little hope of any more being saved.
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ROCKLAND, ILL., Oct. 28. Further intelligence, from the scene of the
steamer Jennie Gilchrist, is to the effect that seventeen persons in all were
lost and seventeen saved. Other passengers might have been saved, if they had
yielded to the entreaties of the more cool headed who went among them before
the steamer struck the pier and urged them to get on board a barge. The
latter even tried to drag them from the cabin, but they were so terror
stricken and powerless that they could make no effort to save themselves. The
steamer had in tow a barge and one flat boat. The latter was being pushed at
the bow of the steamer, while the barge was fastened to the port side. There
seems to be no doubt that the steamer was totally unfit for the work expected
from her. She was heavily laden and most of the crew were drunk.
Furthermore, she was not licensed to carry passengers. The accident was
entirely due to carelessness and liquor. There was a good deal of whiskey in
the cargo and some of it was tapped before the steamer left the wharf.
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