Hermann, MO Steamer BIG HATCHEE Explosion, July 1845

DREADFUL EXPLOSION -- SERIOUS LOSS OF LIFE.

The steamer BIG HATCHEE, Captain FRISBEE, which left St. Louis on the 20th inst., for the Missouri River, with some forty passengers on board, in leaving the wharf at Hermann, about 10 o'clock on the evening of the 23d inst., on her way to Memphis, burst her starboard boiler with a loud explosion, which forced it straight forward overboard, the steam discharging itself aloft, carrying away the main cabin as far aft as the ladies' cabin, making a perfect wreck of the boat, and spreading death and desolation among the passengers.
The explosion scalded some twenty or thirty persons, five or six were killed, among the number was MR. LAWRENCE HOYLE, of St. Louis, and the first and second engineers of the boat, the third engineer, a soon of MR. LUDLOW, of St. Louis, were badly scalded.
The St. Louis Reporter of the 26th says there were twenty-five persons instantaneously killed by the explosion on board this boat; thre had subsequently died, and ten others would certainly die of the injuries inflicted.

The Republican Compiler Gettysburg Pennsylvania 1845-08-11
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!