Lucy Walker steamboat disaster
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.
[1] She was built at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1843 and her home port was Webbers Falls on the Arkansas River in the Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma).
About 5:00 on the afternoon of Wednesday, October 23, 1844, the vessel's engines stopped and she drifted mid-river about 4 to 5 miles (6.4 to 8.0 km) below New Albany while some repairs were made.
Dunham and the crew of the nearby snagboat Gopher, which had been removing underwater obstacles under contract to the U.S. Army Topographical Engineers.
[7] Loss of steamboats by collision, fire, or river obstacles (snags) was well understood, but boiler explosions seemed arbitrary and mysterious.
The high death toll of steamboat disasters like the Lucy Walker sparked public concern, litigation, and Congressional debates about insurance issues, compensation of victims, responsibilities of vessel owners and masters, and need for state or federal legislation.
Subsequent legislation led to the establishment of the Steamboat Inspection Service and eventually a real reduction in fatal episodes.
Among the first government sponsorship for pure scientific research was a grant to the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia for the study of causes of boiler explosions.
The pilot, Captain Thompson, estimated that there were at least 130 travellers, including deck passengers, and a thirty-man crew when the Lucy Walker left Louisville.
The official government certificate issued for the Lucy Walker contains a statement under oath in which Joseph Vann swore that he was a U.S. citizen from Arkansas [Vessel Docs., Bu MI&N].
Five years earlier, other commercial steamboats had been used by the Army to transport Vann's fellow Cherokees to the West as part of their own Trail of Tears.
By 1842, "Rich Joe" Vann owned several hundred slaves at Webber's Falls, who worked on his plantation, took care of his horses, operated his steam ferryboat, or served as crew for his steamboat Lucy Walker.
Vann took his black rebels to crew the Lucy Walker to separate their bad influence from the other slaves at Webber's Falls.
Vann had been drinking, and was engaged in a race to New Orleans with a steamboat that had left Louisville with the Lucy Walker [Baker, WPA].
It is known from sailing notices in a Louisville newspaper that the steamboat Minerva was scheduled to depart for New Orleans at the same time as Lucy Walker.
[21] Lucinda Vann recounted that an arm of Preston Mackey was recovered (recognized by the design of his shirt sleeve) and placed in an alcohol-filled container and sent to Webber's Falls.
He reported that searchers had found shattered body parts of victims on both Indiana and Kentucky banks of the Ohio, including a severed head identified as that of Captain Vann, but the fate of this portion of "Rich Joe" is now unknown.
The owner of the ship was identified in most newspapers as Captain David Vann, possibly confusing him with a cousin of that name who had served as the Treasurer of the Cherokee Nation.
Only the Cherokee sources note the role that "Rich Joe" Vann played in the sudden end of the Lucy Walker and his own demise.
