PARTICULARS OF THE BURNING OE THE STONEWALL.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 624, 18 January 1870, Page 4

PARTICULARS OF THE BURNING OE THE STONEWALL.

1,093 of 2,30 L.1V8.3. We take the following from the San ; If'rancisco Bulletin of recera/>er 5, 1869 : r— " In the St. Louis Democrat of October 2.9 we fjn.d the following particiUara of the burning of the steamer Stonewall, of which the telegraph gave u,s a brief account ; When the fire first hroke out, the hoa,t was 3.0Q ya.rds from shore, but by wheeling she landed on Teatable'bar, just opposite Nealey's landing, about SJO yards from the shore. The scene beggars description. It was about half-past six in the evening. \v\ the cabin, the supper? table was thronged Some had left and : were smoking their evening Qigar— others chatting near th.c stove, Few weye on deck, for the night was dark a,nd the air pliilly and piercing, Down on the deck a motley crowd pf 150 iai migrants and working people were gathered. JM[any Jiad eaten their supper j others were taking their last mouthful, when a sma'l blaze, not larger fian you* 1 hand, byoke out on a pile of hay, and a deck-hand ran forward crying, * Fire \ fire !' From mouth to mqnth the, soul-stirring gry ran, iind in a moment the deck passengers were palsied with fright and desperate with excitement, Hardly heard in the cabin, the first ciy was regarded only as a ruse— perhaps a row among the deck pasppngers. Some were a little full of liquor

—then in a second twinkling, came the second cry— a yell — a njadening deafening yell of ' Fire ! fire ! fire J 1 that pierced the deck and rang through the ears of the supper-eatprs like a death Knell. Now there could he no mistake. Jt was no foulisUnesa n»w, Thq,t gry meant life or death, and every one felt it, To the upper deck, to the cabins fore and aft, people ran, Panic, fear, and frenzy ruled the hour. There were 75 life-preservers in the st^te- rooms, but only one man secured one, There was a yawl, but some of the deck passengers seiz.ecf it, and, without oars, indiscriminately piled in. From the small blaze qii thy hay near the boiler deck the fire spr-ead to the Qoal oil, and the ship was in a, blaze, The boat was loaded with bacon and other solidities, and the flames spreading with fearful rapidity soon found the solid combustibles, and an intense heat was generated. Qn deck the sqene was. most fearful, One hundred and fifty passengers, mostly foreigners — Irish, Italians, Dagos, Germans, and Americans^some with their wives and families, all in grand confusion, trying to save their live.s,. The boat grounded 2QQ yards from shore ; the ponderous engine thumped and worked in vain. The passengers were jjajnpant and wild. Efforts were made to adjust the hose to the donkey engine, bqt the crowd would not ftllow it, Some tried to throw out planks and stagings, but the crowd rushed to the edge of the dock, and in their eagerness to secure positions, prevented the stagings from being put out. AH shouted, ' Get off the staging,' and the man who cried the loudest was the very man who was in the midst of the staging. Some clung to spars and bits of wood, but more found nothing to hold, swam or floated for a short time, and then, benumbed by the icy chilliness of the waves, and blinded by the smoke, they sank to watery graves. Many mules and horses were on board, a,nd with the deck passengers—ah, poor dumb creatures, who could exptsct them to display more reason than human beings? — they rushed with the people, and jumped into the water, with them and on them and over them. Some fevv started and swam ashore, but most of them swajn around the boat in circles, drowning men, womep, and helpless children. One mule jwnped into a crowd oi people struggling in the water, and by its frantic movements drowned six people. There \\ ere only three lady passengers in the cabin, one helpless old lady, a mother with two, young children (one a baby still in 3waddling clothes), and the third lady a wife going to meet her husband, from whom s,he had long been separated, in Louisiana. Just under, the frantic deck passengers, the maddened animals running to and fro, uncontrolled, uncontrollable — a^l shrieking, shouting, praying, and imploring for life and safety. To lump the dista.uce was fearful, and the leap was Qertaiu to be to leap to the grave — to remain was death by burning. Everyone was frantic; officers tried in vain to k.eep the crowd quiet, but the danger was too imminent — the death too certain. The little children clung in vain to. the a.nns of their mothers ; the ladies shrieked and fajute,d too late— the men rushed to and fro, and selfish instinct prevailed, and every one shifted for himself a,s best he or she could. The blind infatuation of a mob to follow leaders ruled* and the example of the deck passengers was followed by the cabin passengers above. The flames were approaching them, and when many were jumping into the water, why should not all? AUSj the water was chilly and cold, and the bar was only a slight one and a strong Current ran on either side. Many jumped, struck bottom, and had their feet carried from under them by the swift and treache'Qis uncUr currents ; others, blind with frenzy and excitement, rushed to where the crowd was thickest, ,and lumped among the mules struggling and kicking, and among the stout and hearty labouring meu, whose presence of mind had left tnem, and whose only thought seemed to be that safety was only to be secured by all jumping together in one vast, grand heap, on top^ in between, and amongst each other. Thus a sure death was secured. Many were burned and scalded, and not a few never reached the deck to make even fruitless efforts for safety. Over the side of the b >at the lambent flame ran, down near the engine, Over the wheel, over the texas, and away up round the blackened smokestack. The intense heat burst the pipe, and the explosion only added to the consternation. Very few who jumped into the water reached the shore. Why, it is strange for they were only two lengths of the boat from the shore. The tire originated in the engine-room or on the engine-room dack. Bales of hay were stored there. It is supposed that a deck passenger dropped something between them, and lit a match to find it, and thus set fire to the hay, the natural result of which was rapid conflagration. The pilot ran the boat 00 a gravel lump or bar at Tea-table. He lowered himself to the water, got on a plank, and swam into a creek, and got ashore. He saw on shore after all was quiet, only ab ut 30 persons, and fears that nearly all the rest are lost. Probably the water was twelve feet between the lump and the shore. All who reached the shore did so by swimming or on planks. In the language of a river man it was a ' mean place' icr a steamb.mt to be in rouble, and more (specially a disaster of the magnitude of this one. There were on the Stonewall approximating 270 souls, namely, 150 deck, pas-sengers,-40 :cabih. passengers,' 11- officers, 2J cabin crew, 50 deck crew. T.;e deck passengers, were nearly all men — laborers bound to the South to engage on' public works,"