Steamer Sidney- Maiden Voyage - 1884

SIDNEY, JOSEPH HENRY, BRONSON, PITTSBURG, CHANCY LAMB

Posted By: Cheryl Locher Moonen (email)
Date: 4/23/2017 at 22:08:55

The Clinton Age, Clinton, Iowa, May 2, 1884

Tuesday morning during the high wind the steamer Sidney, bound south on her first trip, struck the shoulder of the draw, tearing away part of the guards and causing the hull to spring a leak. She began to fill with water, and the pilot well knowing she must go down, sought a shoal below the Island, where she could rest more comfortably. She was run onto the bar just below the Island where she lay with about two feet of water in her hold. The signal of distress was sounded and quickly responded by the government boat Joseph Henry which was working just above the bridge. The steamer Chancy Lamb and Bronson also came to her assistance and the work of relief commenced. Siphons were set to work. A barge was sent down from Fulton, and the boat was raised sufficiently to make temporary repairs so the boat could return to Dubuque to be placed on the way for repairs. The pumps of the streamer Pittsburg which came up later in the day, and those of the Sidney were set to work to clear the hull. The boat was drawn ashore by means of the nigger engine. The damage to the boat is about $3,000.