EXPLOSION OF THE KATE KEARNEY.

One of the boilers of this boat exploded at St. Louis, on Thursday, February 14th, 1854. The Kate Kearney was about to start from the wharf and the last bell had just ceased ringing, when in a single, mo­ment the greater part of the boat was changed to a confused heap of ruins. There were fifty or sixty passengers on board, and the names of many, (as usual,) were not registered. It is quite certain that several persons, whose names were never ascertained, were blown overboard and lost. Fifteen persons, badly wounded, were taken to the Sister’s Hospital, St. Louis; of these, several died within a few hours, namely:

the Rev. S. 3. Gassaway, rector of St. George’s church, St. Louis, F. Hardy, second engineer of the Kate Kearney, B. Keefer, a deck hand, and two colored men.

Among the wounded were Brevet Major D. C. Buel, of the United States army, Major R. C. Catlin, of the seventh, U. S. infantry, a son of that gentleman, and several other persons from Illinois and Missouri. Three persons, whose names are not mentioned, were seen to sink in the river.

Major Buel, one of the wounded passengers, gives the following ac­count of his providential escape from a horrible death. He was over­whelmed among falling timbers and rubbish, from which, with great exertion, he extricated himself after the lapse of a few minutes. As soon as he felt himself at liberty be heard the alarm of fire; and although he had received several painful wounds, he united with others in an attempt to extinguish the flames. He continued in this active service until relieved by the arrival of the fire companies. He then went aslmore, took a carriage, and drove to the Planter’s louse. It was only on his arrival there that he began to realize the serious na­ture of the injuries he had sustained, and from the effects of which he did not recover for several weeks.

The Kate Kearney was an old boat, having been engaged for eight or ten years in the packet trade between St. Louis and Keokuk. About three years previous, the same boiler which caused the disaster just related, collapsed at Canton, on the upper Mississippi, killing and scalding a large number of persons. The collapsed flues were taken out and new ones were substituted, but the shell of the old boiler remained. The boat was adjudged to be unfit for service several months before time ex­plosion at St. Louis. She was withdrawn from the Keokuk trade, but as both the Alton packets had sunk, the Kate Kearney was chartered to do their duty; in which service she was engaged at the time of the explosion.

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(source: Lloyd's Steamboat Directory from 1856)