Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 3, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 May 1859 — Narrow Escape at Niagara Falls. [ARTICLE]

Narrow Escape at Niagara Falls.

About noon, on Saturday, a canal-boat, with one hundred tuns of stone, was towed from Tonawanda to Schlosser by the <Jenny Bell>, in safety. At that place a pilot was taken on board the tug to conduct the boats to the Hydraulic Canal. The buoys marking the channel of the Canal landing were torn away this spring, and had not been replaced: but the pilot stated that he knew the route perfectly well. However, before reaching the landing, the tug ran upon a reef of rocks, and raised her bow out of water several feet. The canal-boat swung around, and the strain parted the hawsers connecting the boats together. The stream is said to run at the rate of sixteen miles per hour at that point, and the peril of those on the canal-boat was imminent. The rapids was only twenty rods distant, and the cataract less than a mile below. Not an instant was to be lost. All that could be done was to improvise anchors of large stones and towlines; once, twice these trail anchors proved ineffectual, but the third held on, though the fearful strain on the rope rendered the safety of these on board very precarious. There was no boat to get on shore with, and had there been one, it was a dangerous undertaking when unaccustomed to such navigation. The canal-boat was midway in the river. The tug was in about as bad a situation. The position of all was extremely dangerous. Fortunately, a gentleman from Chippewa discovered their perilous predicament and went to their relief. He went first to the canal-boat, removing her crew, then the crew of the tug, and safely landed them. The people of Niagara Falls acted very hospitable to the shipwrecked people, and finally both boats were recovered and brought to the landing. Had there been an ordinary breeze, the destruction of tug and canal-boat must inevitably have followed. ———<>———