The Caroline was a Memphis packet, employed on the White river. She had ascended that river about twenty miles on Sunday, March 5, 1854, when, at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, the wood pile near the boilers, was discovered to be on fire. The pilot at the wheel, Mr. John R. Price, steered for the shore, which was overflown by high water. Before the shore was reached, some persons attempted to escape in the yawl, which, being overcrowded, speedily sunk, and all who had embarked in it were drowned. The flames, in the meanwhile, rapidly overspread the steamer, which was soon consumed, down to the level of the water. There were many deck passengers on board, nearly all of whom were lost. The principal sufferers were women and children, who were not able to make the exertions required for their preservation.
The names of those of the crew and passengers who are known to have perished, will be found below:
LIST OF KILLED.-John R. Price and James Creighton, pilots; Lewis Polloek, assistant bar-keeper; eight deck hands and firemen, whose names the captain, in his report of the disaster, omitted to mention; wife and child of J. ilaskins, Marshall county, Tenn.; four children of S. McMullen, of Madison county, Tenn.; Mrs. Haley and three children, Tippah county, Miss.; John Horton, wife, and two children, Mr. Karrell, Mr. Martin, Miss Susanna E. Pool, a son of Mr. Henshaw, Mr. Shelby, of Madison county, Tenn.; a son-in-law, a widowed sister, with her thirteen children, and another sister of Mr. Wortham; Mr. ilarshaw, of Clarendon, Ark.; George Jones, clerk of the house of Poole & Co., Jacksonport, Tenn., and a number of deck passengers, names unknown.
It is a remarkable circumstance that scarcely any of the crew or passengers who escaped with life, were injured in the slightest degree. There was considerable amount of money on board. The safe, containing $5,000, sunk in the river, and never was recovered. Mr. Penn, one of the passengers, lost $3,500. The remaks of Mr. Wilbank, who died a few days before at the Commercial Hotel, Memphis, were on board on their way to his former place of residence, where the funeral was to take place. The body, however, was doomed to find a grave beneath the waters of White river. A package of money which had belonged to the deceased, and which in his dying moments, he had directed to be sent to his widow, was lost with the other money in the safe.
The hull of the Caroline, having burned to the water’s edge, broke in two, and sunk out of sight. The whole loss of boat, cargo, money, and other property belonging to the passengers, is estimated at $150,000. There was an insurance on the boat for $5,000. She was finished in the preceding summer, and cost $12,000.