Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 July 1880 — LOSS OF THE SEAWANAHAKA. [ARTICLE]

LOSS OF THE SEAWANAHAKA.

T|ie NarrajainicU IQ error Repeated oil Long Island Sound—fifty People Drowned and Burned. The steamer Seawanahaka, plying on Long Island sound, between New York city and Glen Cove, took fire on the afternoon of the 28th ult., when off Randall's island, and burned to the water’s edge. There wore about 600 passengers on hoard ; 450 were saved by passing steamers, but the remainder cither jumped over board and were drowned, or remained on the boat and perished by fire. Charles A. Dana, of the New York iSun, and two of the Harper Brothers were among the resensd passengers. From the telegraphic accounts of the disaster printed in the metropolitan press, we glean the following particulars : The Scawanahaka, one of tlio fastest and trimmest steamers running out of New York, left her dock at 4:15 o’clock p. in., her dock well crowded. Many were returning to their country residences, and others were leaving town to escape the heat of the city, and spend the night in the cool villages along the sound. When off College point, in the sound, a few miles from the city, a cloud of thick dark smoke suddenly rose through the grating near the pilot-house. It was first thougl it that the smoko carne from the engineroom, and no danger was for the moment apprehended ; but, before the passengers had recovered from their first surprise, flames shot up through the grating, crept around the pilothouse, attacked the dry, inflammable deck, and spread with wonderful speed ill all directions. The Captain was in the pilot-house, and was first to see the danger to which his human freight was so unexpectedly exposed. The cry “The boat’s on tire” was raised, and in an instant the steamer was the scene of appalling confusion. A rush was made for the lockers in which the life-preservers were kept.' Many of the men retained their presence of mind, and aided the officers of the steamer in equipping the women and children with preservers. The voice of the Captain was heard above the din and confusion counseling the people to maintain order, but order was out of the question, and, although the Captain and his crew were, said to have acted with firmness and celerity it was beyond their power to control the panic-stricken crowd. The tire-extinguishing apparatus was set at work, but in vain. The names swept the steamer amidships, and spread both ways. Most of the passengers huddled together toward the forward end of the boat. The port side was all ablaze, but on the starboard there was still a narrow space along which the passengers thronged toward the bow. When it became certain that the steamer was doomed a heartrending scene of terror ensued. Mothers clasped their children to their breasts and sprung overboard with them. Capt. Smith ordered his boats lowered, and headed the vessel, under a full head of steam, for the low land at the north end of Ward’s island. The steamer Granite State was behind the S. Hwanahaka when she caught fire, and her boats were at once lowered, and many persons on the water were picked up. The tug Refuge and a seore of row-boats were soon around the blazing steamer, which kept moving toward the island. It was discovered that the water was too shallow to permit a landing at Ward’s island, and the vessel’s head was turned toward the Sunken Meadows, a strip of marshy ground on the south side of Randall’s island. There the Seawanahaka was run aground. A hundred people in the tug and row-boats were picking up the passengers in the water. The persons who appeared to lie dead were at first passed by, in order that speedier succor might be given to the others. It is feared that many were lost of whom no record has yet been obtained, and that their bodies drifted out into the sound with the tide. Dr. A. E. McDonald, of the Ward Island Insane Asylum, says that when he saw people jumping from the steamer he ordered a force of 500 partially insane men, who were working on the farm near the shore, to save what lives they could. Many of them jumped into the water and drew to land a number who had struggled almost to the shore, and others rescued the bodies which had drifted landward. Quite a number remained on the Seawanahaka until they were driven off by the flames. One man and a child held on the guard rail until it was burned away. Fireman Edward Abeel, of the Seawanahaka, says : “All of a sudden I heard a noise resembling an explosion, and, looking around, saw flames coming up from between the tireroom and engine-room. In less than ten minutes the steamer was one mass of flames from stem to stern. It seemed as if the fire spread instantly, for no sooner had it appeared between the engine-room and the fire-roomjjthan it broke out also both fore and aft. I can in no way account for the fire. The engineer and firemen were always very particular to see that no inflammable stuff lay about. Engines and boilers were considered in excellent condition. The only way I account for it is the possibility that a flue blew out, opening the furnace door and scattering the fire a considerable distance around, yhe slight noise I heard may have been a flue bursting. I am certain the boiler did not burst. I think two-thuds of the passengers must have jumped over before she beached. The whole thing was almost instantaneous, affording no possibility of ascertaining with certainty the cause of the fire, or even of doing anything to check it. As to the loss of life, it was principally from drowning in the rapid current. I saw' several badly burned—one man with both legs almost burned off. The officers and crew, I believe, are all saved except Josiah Hasbrouck, the cook, and Charles Hasbrouck, a waiter.”