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A fond wife, herself sinking in the arms of death, looking at the last struggles of an affectionate and long-tried husband, surrounded by the dead bodies of their four innocent offspring, but a few hours before buoyant with life, health, happiness, and hope. In another spot was the dying mother, endeavoring with her raw and scalded arms to embrace the only child of her bosom, a cold, stiff corpse, untimely hurried to eternity by a violent and dreadful death. There laid a strong man, convulsively wrestling with Death, whilst the hoarse rattle in his throat and the galvanic quivering of his eyes gave token of rapid dissolution. In another spot were the torn and mangled remains of a once beautiful woman, wearing even in her horrible death a sweet smile of peace and tranquility. Ranged side by side were dead, dying, and the sufferers of excruciating agony.
In this episode of Ricky's Historical Tidbits, I will tell you all about the Jenny Lind Steamboat disaster.
You may have never heard of it before, it was a port that was used for shipping to San Francisco from the San Jose area. Sending in things like hay, lumber, and produce to the city in addition to passengers who would rather not take a long carriage ride to the city. The San Francisco and San Jose railroads were not built yet.
On April 11th, 1853 about 125 men, women, and children boarded a small steamboat named Jenny Lind. At this time Jenny Lind was extremely popular in Europe and P.T. Barnum, the circus guy made her famous in the United States. Many places and things were named after her, the nightingale Jenny Lind. Well, This steamboat was named after her. That's where her connection begins and ends.
This steamboat set sail and was making it's way toward San Francisco. This journey takes about 8 hours and soon around noon and a bell rang. Time for lunch. The passengers began their way down to the dining room, the women and children took their seats while the men took their time still talking amongst each other. Soon a strange noise was heard. Most didn't hear it, only a seasoned steamboat traveler would have understood what this noise potentially meant. James Torbin, this man quickly lifted his coat over his face and dropped to the ground. A split second before what his gut knew to be true happened.
Directly under the dining room is where the boiler for the steamboat was located. The pressure built up and up until it exploded
Shooting out hot steam up into the dining room to the unsuspecting travelers, skin hair and clothes melted off their bodies. Shrapnel from the floorboards and the boiler pierced some in the face check and back. Mangled all in all with their insides burned from inhaling the steam. 18 passengers died within minutes. Many others were in dire conditions and likely to die soon after a long and painful death. Torbin, the man who had covered himself had his coat disintegrate right off of him.
Plenty of others were perfectly fine since they weren't in the dining room yet. Two men in particular Mr. Smith and Mr. Clark grabbed the emergency boat and rowed to shore to get help. Within minutes a ship called The Union set out and rescued the passengers and rushed them to San Francisco which was still a few hours away
Some died on the way to San Francisco some survived a little longer and some lived about 6 days until passing on. A few prominent members died, the founder of the Daily Alta California newspaper, and a past mayor of San Jose. In the end, 32 people died, and up to 20 depending on which source you read were injured. One man, in particular, went blind.
The boat was brought to land where it was investigated they figured somehow the pressure built up and shot out one of the covers on the boiler. They fixed it up and it set sail again but people were pretty scared the whole time, on the 3rd run after the explosion a woman jumped overboard. The ship owner decided to get rid of it and sold it. It was renamed the San Jose and was put on a Napa route.
ep. 17 The Jenny Lind Steamboat Disaster