A Brave Captain Is Remembered
TRIAL BY FIRE By Frank 0. Braynard On the hot Monday afternoon of June 28, 1880, the 225-foot walking-beam steamboat Seawanhaka left Manhattan from her East River pier at 33rd Street. Nearly 300 passengers were aboard, including New York's Mayor William R. Grace and Charles A. Dana, editor of The Sun. They headed up the river for Hell Gate and Long Island Sound, bound for Sea Cliff, with stops along the way at Port Washington, Glen Cove and Roslyn. Captain Charles P. Smith was in the pilot house. Engineer Edward Weeks was below . The Seawanhaka, built in Keyport, NJ, in 1866, was a fast vessel, making up to 20 miles an hour. Her single huge iron boiler, built by Hubbard and Whitaker, had a diameter of 7 feet and a length of 21 feet. She was an express commuter boat and left morning and night right on schedule with her load of distinguished and ordinary citizens who preferred the breezy hour's boat ride to the much longer and more difficult route by rail or horse. Just abaft the pilot house on the upper deck was a gentlemen's parlor, and there waiters served food and beverages while passengers whiled away the time at cards. It was a comfortable and happy group of people enjoying the best of things as they sped toward their Long Island homes. But they did not have too much time to relax. Barely 20 minutes after setting out, while the steamer was roughly between Randall's Island and Ward's Island, there was a heavy thud and shock from below. Captain Smith recalled the moment: " I looked up towards the smokestack and saw a dense volume of smoke rolling from it. It was not steam, but black, thick smoke, such as would come from tar or powder." He turned to his nephew Stephen Vernon, who was with him in the pilot house, and ordered him to get the fire buckets ready. "I knew there was danger and that we were in a bad place," he said later. The next ten minutes were filled with horror. The steamer listed to starboard and her entire midship section seemed to explode into flames at the same moment. Mate James W. Ray, of Roslyn, saw fire burst from the entrance to the fireroom. He tried to maintain calm, but the passengers were wild with fright and began jumping overboard. The screams of those caught in the churning paddle wheels terrified the surging crowd. Mate Ray and others passed out lifejackets. There were 565 of them aboard, but nothing could control the passengers. Mothers threw their helpless children overboard and then jumped after them. Two recent maritime fire disasters were SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1980
fresh in everyone's minds, adding, no doubt, to the feeling of terror. Captain Smith clung to the wheel, despite the flames already licking at the pilot house. There were two lifeboats aboard, but the fire quickly consumed them. They could not have been launched anyway for the craft was making full speed, heading for land. Captain Smith had decided that the only safe place to beach the Seawanhaka was on Ward's Island, in the marshes. Had he turned back to run her aground off Randall's Island; he would have struck the rocks offshore, with the steamer' s stern in deep water. It was a coolly calculated and wise decision. Freddy Harriot, one of the passengers, remembered hearing Captain Smith's shouts of encouragement. As he jumped he heard the master tell all who could hear or would listen that he was running the ship ashore and that she would soon be out of danger. When he surfaced in the choppy late afternoon waters and he turned and saw Captain Smith still in the wheelhouse, the flames burning his clothing and even his hair and whiskers. "Nevertheless the brave fellow stuck to his wheel," he said. A Manhattan businessman noted: ''Captain Smith stood at the wheel with flames bursting out all around him and it seemed almost as though he was turning a wheel of fire." The ship grounded and at that very moment flames enveloped the pilot house. Staggering from the wheel, Captain Smith fell overboard. He was picked out of the water, unconscious and badly burned. Forty-one passengers who had jumped overboard died. All those who remained aboard survived. But in patent disregard of his skilled seamanship and heroic behavior, Captain Smith was indicted for manslaughter and brought to trial. After two weeks of testimony reported with banner headlines by the New York press, the jury was discharged without reaching an agreement. The accounts say ten jurors were for a verdict of innocent. Two, however, insisted on finding Captain Smith guilty. A grand jury handed down a ruling that charged the ship's owners with being reckless and stating that there had been imperfect boiler inspections before the disaster. Captain Smith died before a year passed. The public pillorying of Captain Smith led to the creation of a defense committee of masters and pilots. This was to become the International Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots, whose goal has been better safety at sea, and the common good of ships officers and pilots. Today
Capt. Smith at the Seawanhaka's helm.
the MM&P represents 10,000 professional officers on American-flag vessels. This June 28, on the hundredth anniversary of the Seawanhaka disaster, a memorial service will be held in the Sea Cliff Museum. Captain Robert J. Lowen, President of the MM&P, will attend with other members and participate in lighting a lamp saved from the Seawanhaka-in honor of a brave American master whose trial by fire has never been forgotten . ,i,
Frank Braynard, Advisor of the NMHS, is Director of the New York Harbor Festival and Curator of the US Merchant Marine Academy Museum. SAVE YOUR GAS! BEAT INFLATION! Roam the world by freighter at savings of at least 50% ... Deluxe accommodations
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