Carrolton, KY Steamboat REDSTONE Accident, Apr 1852

TERRIBLE STEAMBOAT ACCIDENT.

Carrolton, Ky., April 3 -- 5 P. M.
About half-past two o'clok[sic], the Madison and CIncinnati packet, REDSTONE, passed this place. When about three miles above, it seems that she landed at the Kentucky side, and, as she was backing out, her boilers exploded with a tremendous noise, tearing the boat to atoms, and causing her to sink in less than three minutes in twenty feet water. Several gentlemen here whose attention had been attracted to the boat's racing, and the great quantity of steam she was working, saw the explosion. Her chimneys were blown half way across the river. It is said that all on board have perished. The flames are still visible from our office.

Later -- We have just returned from the scene which is entirely indescribable. Comparatively but few if any of her passengers were saved.
The only officers saved are the captain and the first clerk. The former will, in all probability, die. There were from 80 to 100 passengers, 60 to 70 of whom must be lost. The force of the explosion may be judged from the fact that two bodies and a part of the boiler were blown more than 1,000 yards from the wreck.
The boat was just backing out from Scott's landing.
MR. R. C. SEANLAND, who got on at that place, was on the forecastle, and seeing the danger, went to the stern of the hurricane deck, and was by this timely forcast, saved.
Rev. PERRY A. SCOTT, who was on a visit to his parents, had just gone on board and his parents and sisters standing on shore only to see him blown into eternity.
All the ladies on board are thought to be saved. None of the eight persons who got on at this place were lost, although several of them are badly hurt.
The explosion was seen and heard by the citizens of Carrollton, who with all possible haste proceeded to the scene of the disaster and rendered every assistance. The steamers Hoosier State and Ben Franklin came to the wreck about two hours after the accident, and their officers and crews gave every aid in their power to the unfortunate sufferers. They took the uninjured and wounded on board.
The REDSTONE was a new boat. She had been running heretofore as a packet between Aurora and Cincinnati, and had only lately entered the Madison trade, in opposition to the Hoosier State.
The officers of the steamer Tiber, which arrived last evening, state that they were informed by the wharf-boat master at Carrollton that on a previous trip, the REDSTONE had gone out of sight of Carrollton only one minute and a half behind the time of the Pittsburg, and that he was timing her on Saturday, making allowance for the time of stopping. From this it is evident that the REDSTONE was racing.
None of the ladies on board were killed or wounded.
The second clerk was not on board. The captain it was thought could not survive.
In addition, we learn from one of the officers of the Telegraph, the the engineer had stopped the "doctor," the engine which supplies the boilers with water, so as to be enabled to raise a high head of steam.
MR. SOPER, the first clerk, was standing in the door of his office, and he says the first sensation he felt was being lifted up into the air about one hundred feet, descending feet foremost into the river, and he then swam ashore.
When he reached the bank he heard a cry within a foot of shore, and saw a person floating along; he swam out and bro't him to the shore when he found that it was Capt. TATE, having one leg broken. The second clerk was accidentally left at Madison.
The editor of the Lawrenceburg Register was blown ashore, and when found, his body was horribly mangled.

The Dixon Telegraph Illinois 1852-04-24
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!