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Mate Breen told a thrilling story of
the burning of the steamer St. Louis a week ago that Friday at
St. Louis in which he nearly lost his life.
“I was mate of the St. Louis” said Breen,” and we had come up
the river from New Orleans with a big load and had landed at St.
Louis. The boat needed some slight repairs and we took her down
to the ways about five miles below St. Louis and tied up.
“How the fire started we were not able to discover, but it must
have broken out somewhere in the stern on the boat. There were
five men on the boat besides myself and we all escaped except
the bartender, who was burned to death in his stateroom. The
fire was well started before we found it out and the captain and
myself got everyone off except the bartender. When we saw that
he was missing we went back on the burning steamer to look for
him. We found his stateroom and as the door was locked we broke
in the door but he was not inside and by this time the fire had
become so hot that we were compelled to get off the boat or be
burned to death.”
“The bartender must have been sleeping in one of the staterooms
and have been burned to death where he lay. The St. Louis was
one of the biggest boats on the river. She was 305 feet long and
had a 99 foot beam so that you can see when she was all ablaze
she made a terrible fire. After we left the boat the heat became
so intense that we could not get within a hundred feet of the
shore. The stacks fell over shortly after we left her and it was
only a matter of a few minutes till she was burned to the waters
edge.”
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Collected and Transcribed by
Georgeann
McClure |
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