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Steamboat tragedy will be recalled at Caledon

December 1, 2009 12:35 am

THE hot, sultry day in 1873 started with excitement and promise for the passengers who crowded onto the steamboat Wawaset for a ferry excursion down the Potomac River from Washington.

With a new saloon operating on the top deck, the 129-foot wooden paddle-wheeler was licensed for only 50 passengers, but that didn't stop the crew from loading 150 or so for the day's trip.

Black passengers were segregated, seated on back decks with livestock and produce, while most white passengers were in the front of the boat.

Heading upriver briefly after a Maryland stop, the steamboat was nearing Chatterton's Landing in King George County, about five miles south of Aquia Creek, when tragedy struck.

A fireman onboard discovered flames in the engine room, in the middle of the boat.

The blaze spread quickly before the untrained crew could get the two lifeboats loaded and in the water.

The captain ordered the steamboat forward at normal speed, to be grounded in shallow water.

But passengers aft, unaware of the strategy and unable to see the shore, jumped overboard into deep water. Most drowned there, in a section of the Potomac River that today still has some of the swiftest flow.

In all, 76 passengers died, most of them women and children.

People on the wharf and shore could only watch as the massive ship was engulfed in flames.

One report said the scene on board was horrific, with passengers' clothing catching fire and some people crushed as advancing flames produced a stampede.

Another witness reported three children hanging on to the ship's rudder chain, too terrified to let go, killed one by one by the searing heat.

For days, bodies washed ashore, many of them never to be identified.

I hadn't heard about this local steamboat tragedy. The King George Historical Society put out details of a new book on the topic and an event connected to it Sunday 1:30-4 p.m. at Caledon Natural Area in King George County.

The book, "Disaster on the Potomac: The Last Run of the Steamboat Wawaset," was written and researched by Alvin Oickle.

Oickle, a lifelong journalist, teacher and author who lives in Florida, intended to attend Sunday's event and sign copies of the $20 book.

But Oickle, who provided most of the above details on the Wawaset disaster, is coping with congestive heart failure and is now unable to travel.

The author said that in his place, he's sending John Villforth.

"John's the ideal substitute," said Oickle. "He prepared all the images used in the Wawaset book."

Oickle, who spent time in King George researching the tragedy, is sad to miss the event.

The former newspaper editor and feature writer for the Associated Press--who published his first story at age 11 during a newspaper strike in Springfield, Mass.--said he was fascinated by the details of the Wawaset incident, which he came across while researching another book.

"I was attracted also by the era involved," he said. "Racial politics soon after the Civil War and the place [where the trip originated], the nation's capital, made the story deeper than its surface elements, as grim as the deaths of 70 people is."

The author noted that the steamer, which ran a regular schedule between Washington and the Chesapeake Bay, had a crew of 16.

Two of them drowned in the incident, and most were injured.

"A local inquest that same day exonerated the officers, but a federal hearing later that summer found the captain and other officers in neglect of duty--failure to train the crew in firefighting," said Oickle. "Court action was recommended, but the Washington district attorney quashed the cases, claiming insufficient evidence."

The remains of the wrecked steamer have been spotted over the years downriver from Chatterton's Landing.

Rob Hedelt: 540/374-5415
Email: rhedelt@freelancestar.com