History | |
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United States | |
Name | Lioness |
Operator | William L. Cockerell |
The Lioness was a steamboat that exploded on the Red River of the South on the morning of May 19, 1833.
Departing from New Orleans, the ship made its way up the Mississippi River before reaching the Red River, destined for Natchitoches, Louisiana. As it neared the mouth of a tributary called Rigolet de Bon Dieu (near modern-day Colfax), three explosions rocked the ship, tearing apart the fore deck and boiler deck and scattering debris across the surrounding waters and coast. The hull almost immediately sunk; however, the hurricane deck and a portion of the lady's cabin became detached from the rest of the ship, staying afloat and saving everyone in those quarters. All of those who survived saved themselves by swimming or floating to shore on fragments of the wreck.
The explosions were believed to be caused by a spark from a candle igniting several kegs of gunpowder while several crew members were arranging cargo in the hold of the ship. This would explain why there were three explosions, each occurring when another keg detonated. Crates of dry straw and casks of oil stowed dangerously close to the gunpowder kegs also accelerated the fire. There is not, however, an official explanation on how the powder was ignited, as everyone in the hold was killed.
At least 16 people were killed in the disaster, including United States Senator Josiah S. Johnston. Among the survivors were Congressman and future Louisiana Governor Edward Douglass White, Sr., who suffered some burns and bruises, and District Judge Henry Boyce.
Natchitoches, officially the City of Natchitoches, is a small city and the parish seat of Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, United States. At the 2020 United States Census, the city's population was 18,039. Established in 1714 by Louis Juchereau de St. Denis as part of French Louisiana, the community was named after the indigenous Natchitoches people.
The 1947 Texas City disaster was an industrial accident that occurred on April 16, 1947, in the port of Texas City, Texas, United States, located in Galveston Bay. It was the deadliest industrial accident in U.S. history and one of history's largest non-nuclear explosions.
Sultana was a commercial side-wheel steamboat which exploded and sank on the Mississippi River on April 27, 1865, killing 1,164 people in what remains the worst maritime disaster in United States history.
The Lexington was a paddlewheel steamboat operating along the Northeastern coast of the United States from 1835 to 1840. Commissioned by Cornelius Vanderbilt, it was one of the fastest and most luxurious steamers in operation.
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Edward Douglass White was a 19th century American lawyer and politician who served as the tenth Governor of Louisiana and a member of the United States House of Representatives. He served five terms in Congress between 1829 and 1843 as an adherent of Henry Clay of Kentucky and the Whig Party.
The Saluda was a paddle steamer that operated on the Missouri River in the early 1850s. The ship exploded near Lexington, Missouri in 1852, killing over 100 people, making it one of the worst disasters in Missouri River history.
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A powder mill was a mill where gunpowder is made from sulfur, saltpeter and charcoal.
Henry Boyce was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.
The Lucy Walker steamboat disaster was an 1844 steamboat accident caused by the explosion of the boilers of the steamboat Lucy Walker near New Albany, Indiana, on the Ohio River. The explosion occurred on the afternoon of Wednesday, October 23, 1844, when the steamer's three boilers exploded, set the vessel on fire, and sank it. It was one of a number of similar accidents of early 19th-century riverine transportation that led to important federal legislation and safety regulations. The vessel's owner was a Native American; her crew were African-American slaves, and her passengers represented a cross-section of frontier travelers.
Oriental Powder Company was a gunpowder manufacturer with mills located on the Presumpscot River in Gorham and Windham, Maine. The company was one of the four largest suppliers to Union forces through the American Civil War.
The Battle of Turtle Gut Inlet was an important, early naval victory for the Continental Navy and the future "Father of the American Navy", Captain John Barry. It was the first privateer battle of the American Revolutionary War. The battle resulted in the first American casualty of the war in New Jersey, Lieutenant Richard Wickes, brother of Captain Lambert Wickes. It was the only Revolutionary War battle fought in Cape May County.
The Leiden gunpowder disaster was an event in which a ship carrying hundreds of barrels of black powder exploded in the town of Leiden in the Netherlands on 12 January 1807. The disaster killed 151 people and destroyed over 200 buildings in the town.
SS Sardinia was a passenger-cargo ship which caught fire off Malta's Grand Harbour on 25 November 1908, resulting in at least 118 deaths. The ship was carrying Moroccan pilgrims on the way to Mecca. It is believed that a cooking fire on deck accidentally ignited nitrate in one of the ship's cargo holds, resulting in a number of explosions and causing the ship to run aground.
The steamboat Monmouth disaster of October 31, 1837, killed approximately 311 Muscogee people who were being forcibly removed from their ancestral homeland in the southern United States to the Indian Territory, in present-day Oklahoma. The deaths were the result of a nighttime boat collision on the Mississippi River just north of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.