Posted inMaritime & Naval History Shipwrecks & Nautical Disasters

Awful Steam-Boat Explosion

It is our melancholy duty to record the most fearful and fatal steam-boat explosion which has ever taken place on the waters of the Chesapeake. The Medora was just completed, and, preparatory to being turned out of the hands of the machinist, a number of persons were invited to go in her on an experimental trip. The day being pleasant, it is supposed that probably 100 or more were on board, including some of the directors of the steam-boat company and their friends, and a number of the hands engaged in finishing the vessel, putting in the machinery, &c., and otherwise connected with the construction or sailing of the boat.

Posted inUS Civil War

April 16, 1861 – A Richmond Vessel Hoists the Confederate Flag

In East Baltimore, on Sunday, great excitement was occasioned in consequence of the hoisting on the mizzen-top mast of the bark Fannie Crenshaw, lying at Chase’s wharf, lower end of Thames and Caroline streets, of the Confederate States flag at an early hour of the morning. The American says :

The fact of the flag being raised was not particularly observed for several hours after, and, on its being perceived, the Star Spangled Banner of the Union was immediately thrown to the breeze by the Captains of the barks Agnes, Mondamin, Washington, Chase, and Seaman, lying in the vicinity, from the gaff of their respective vessels.