Particulars of the Rock Island Bridge Catastrophe
HOLMES
Posted By: Ken Wright (email)
Date: 5/20/2009 at 23:25:51
Maquoketa Sentinel, May 15, 1856.
Particulars of the Rock Island Bridge Catastrophe
We clip from the Iowa State Democrat the following particulars concerning the Burning of the Bridge and the Steamboat Effie Afton:
Yesterday about 5 ½ o’clock the splendid steamboat, Effie Afton in attempting to pass the R. R. Drawbridge ran against the pier, and staved in her bows, and in her efforts to move away from the drawbridge pier she swung around under the bridge, on the island side, knocking down her chimneys and instantly setting the boat and bridge on fire. This span of the bridge soon burnt through and fell into the river, when the steamboat and the bridge floated down the current together, while the flames continued to rage with the greatest fury on the boat. There were a large number of cattle on board and they were with the exception of a cow, an ox and a calf burned up with the wreck.
At the time the boat took fire there were about a dozen steamboats lying at the wharf here and on the Rock Island side, and they opened their whistles in a concert of music, which was so frightful that all the babies in Davenport went into fits of crying. It sounded like a vast menagerie of elephants and hippopotamuses howling with rage. The steamboat Effie Afton was worth $50,000 dollars and was owned by the Captain and crew, and had no insurance. She is lying sunk at the head of Pelican Island, in the river opposite Cannon’s Saw Mill. We are informed that the Minnesota Packet Company offered $45,000 for the boat last week. She was as fleet as a deer, and one of the finest, if not the best boat floating the Mississippi River. Below we give the account of the accident which the Clerk of the boat handed in to our office.
“Left Rock Island about 5 o’clock this morning (May 6) entered the entrance through the bridge and had gone fully two hundred feet through, when the wind and current striking her head, she began to swing. It was impossible to turn her on account of the rapidity of the current; she swung around against the timbers of the bridge, tearing all her forward works above to atoms, sweeping her chimneys and smashing everything above the cabin as far back as the passage through the centre of the boat. She lodged against the pier, and when found that she was still, every person above and below went to work to save themselves and baggage, which was done, and not one person was lost or the least injured. She took fire twice which was extinguished both times, but finally took fire again and was wrapped in a sheet of flames in two minutes-burning one span of the bridge entirely away.
Many persons had saved themselves and baggage on board the J. B. Carson, that was made fast to the stern of the Effie Afton, and the balance had gone ashore over the bridge. After the span of the bridge went down with a crash, the burning wreck got afloat and floated down the river as far as the head of the Island, when it grounded and continued to burn to the water’s edge."
B. P. Holmes, Clerk(Note: In a subsequent lawsuit by the owners of the Effie Afton against the Bridge Company for obstruction of navigation, the Bridge Company was defended in court by Abraham Lincoln.)
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