RIVERMAN WAS CLOSE TO DEATH

OROURKE

Posted By: cheryl moonen (email)
Date: 5/5/2015 at 22:38:44

RIVERMAN WAS
CLOSE TO DEATH
~
CAPT. PETER O’ROURKE SWEPT
AWAY BY THE FLOOD IN SKIFF
~
LaCrosse, June 3 – If it had not been for the timely arrival of two duck hunters in a skiff, Captain Peter O’Rourke, of this city, one of the best known steamboat pilots on the upper river, would undoubtedly have perished of exposure and hunger in a lonely hay stack a couple of miles south of the city, where he had been swept by the floods after capsizing in a rowboat in which he was attempting to reach his raft boat early Sunday morning.

Considering Captain O’Rourke’s age and the unusual circumstances connected with the affair which made the trip fraught with danger, his several narrow escapes from death by drowning in the flood or subsequent death from exposure and starvation are indeed miraculous.

Capt. O’Rourke’s raft boat was towing a raft down river and reached a point a half mile below the wagon bridge late in the afternoon of Memorial Day. Not caring to run down that night, owing to high water, Capt. O’Rourke decided to tie up the raft at the foot of Pettibone Park and spend the night at his home on upper State Street. Before he left the boat the crew was advised to be in readiness to start again at daybreak Sunday morning.

The captain spent the night at home, arose around 3 o’clock Sunday morning and proceeded to the boat ferry just south of the wagon bridge with the idea of renting a skiff with which to get to his raft boat, which was just across the channel and a couple of hundred yards south.

The captain made repeated attempts to arouse the boat liveryman, but was unable to do so and finally, seeing by the light and noise across the channel that the boat was being put in readiness to proceed on the down trip, launched one of the skiffs which was lying on the wharf and looked around the place for an oar or some kind of paddle with which to propel the craft. Unable to find a thing the captain, in a fit of desperation, tore one of the seats out of the skiff and crouching down at the stern in Indian fashion began his perilous journey towards the steamer, using the improvised paddle first on one side of the boat and then on the other.

When only a shirt distance from the dock the current of the river, which is sweeping through the wagon bridge draw during the flood with terrific speed, struck him, and the boat was carried down stream toward Isle la Plume with the speed of a mill race, in spite of all efforts Captain O’Rourke made to reach the opposite shore.

In a few minutes the boat had been swept down below the island and then the captain began to think only of getting to shore or a place of safety. In the darkness he could discern no object with distinction and suddenly the boat was swept in among a lot of brush at a point about a mile below Gund’s Brewery. The captain made an effort to get clear of the obstruction and while doing so the boat capsized. Still retaining his presence of mind he grasped the end of the overturned boat and clinging with a fierce grip to the keel and bow was sped on by the flood.

A short time thereafter the boat bumped against one of Clark’s haystacks, a couple of miles south of the city and in some manner the captain climbed up the edge of the doorway and into the loft.

Chilled to the bone and nearly fagged out the captain laid there for several hours until by the merest chance, a couple of young men residing in the southern part of the city cane directly by the stack in a hunting skiff, and the captain advised them of his presence and was rescued.

When finally landed at his home he was scratched and bruised by his contact with the brush, but after a few hours rest insisted on taking the train for Galena, where he rejoined his boat.

Dubuque Evening Globe Journal, June 4, 1903