The Tragedy
A HORROR!
The City of Sanford was one of the most successful steamers on the St. Johns River until catastrophic tragedy struck. So horrific that the disaster was reported internationally, the City of Sanford became one of the worst maritime catastrophes ever recorded in State of Florida history.
Headline Page 1, New York Times, April 25th, 1882.
Moonlight on St. Johns River, publisher unknown c1880
At 3:30 AM on April 24, 1882, with 45 souls onboard, and laden with vegetables, the City of Sanford was approaching downtown Jacksonville. Near Point La Vista, 5 miles from town, the steamer caught fire. The cause was never determined, although a spark from the furnace was suspected.
Contrary to regulations, all of the officers had retired for the night. The steamer had been left in the care of a deck watchman with a second pilot and second engineer on duty.
It was in the channel 300 yards from shore when the fire erupted. It was run aground as quickly as possible, beaching starboard. The fire was in the hold under the pilot house on the port side and spreading. Deck passengers and crew began jumping from the bow, stern and starboard side into the shallow water.
Catastrophically similar, The Sultana Steamship Fire.
"An Artist’s Impression of the Fire"
By J. Windh, 2015, Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Cropped from original.
Original https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Johan-windh-sultana-fire-3500.jpg
The passenger cabins were all on the saloon (upper) deck leading to a narrow passageway and gangway at the stern. Although the cabin passengers had been awakened by the purser and made aware there was a fire, they were told not to rush. They received no further direction, information or help.
No officer was in charge to direct the crew when the fire broke out. No pumps or hoses were used and only one pail of water was thrown on the fire. The Captain was among the first to jump overboard. The steamer burned to the waterline within 30 minutes.
The cabin passengers had been awakened then abandoned. The entire 21 man crew, including all of the officers, jumped overboard leaving them behind.
High winds were fanning the flames and churning the river. Not only was the stern wheel steamer on fire, the paddle wheel had been left running. The Captain never gave the order to stop the engine and the panicked engineer had jumped overboard. Wildly spinning, the paddle wheel lashed the river to foam drawing many of those who had jumped into deeper water.
The steamer now had a "runaway" engine. A catastrophic scenario in itself, it would have snapped support mechanisms and placed tremendous strain on the hull. Unable to move forward, the boat flexed and twisted aground before suddenly shearing from starboard to port.
The City of Sanford had experienced not one, but two catastrophic events, an out of control fire and a runaway engine.
The entire steamer exploded in flames. Anyone in the water on the starboard side would have been crushed. If still on the ship, they would have been consumed by the fire. Two badly burned survivors who had been trapped on the stern were blown back by the flames into the spinning paddle wheel.
Bits and pieces of bodies were delivered to the coroner. The dead were found with their heads and limbs burned off. Among the cabin passengers were found the charred remains of mothers with their children by their sides. None of the documented women and children survived except one 22-year-old badly burned woman.
All but three of the cabin passengers died. All but three of the crew survived. There is no record as to the fate of the deck passengers.
Tragically the victims all died surrounded by just 3’ of water.
Woodcut, The Florida Daily Times April 25, 1882
Controversy
At the inquest the Captain wove an elaborate tale about trying to save the women and children. It was entirely false.
He had jumped overboard with an unknown female passenger whose identity was left out of the record. There is no record of her whatsoever other than in the total count, but their escape was witnessed by one of the survivors with corroborating testimony from the two others.
Inexplicably, the Jacksonville Inquest chose to believe the Captain and commended him for his heroism. They inferred the Steamboat Inspection Service may have been too lax when enforcing the rules, although the steamer had been inspected four months prior and was well equipped with fire fighting equipment.
A Horror April 25, 1882, The Florida Daily Times
Peter Jones, Federal Steamboat Inspector,
later Jacksonville’s first fire chief c1886
The federal Steamboat Inspection Service, however, revoked the Captain’s license for dereliction of duty.
They stated that had an officer been in charge to direct the crew the fire could have been contained and everyone saved.
They revoked the licenses of the Captain, Mate, Chief Engineer and Second engineer.
Only the dutiful second pilot who drove the boat ashore, the purser who risked his own life to rescue others and the emotionally devastated chief pilot were spared the federal government’s wrath.
Ironically the same Steamboat Inspector blamed for the fiery disaster, Peter Jones, was later named Jacksonville’s first fire chief. He was Florida's first paid fire chief and is credited with creating the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department, JFRD, in 1886.
Coincidentally Jones and George DeCottes, one of the six Inquest jurors, had been short lived business partners prior to the disaster.
Dereliction of Duty
Loss of Nine Lives, April 25, 1882. London Globe
The horror of the tragedy was reported internationally in both Europe and Australia. Captain Roberts was celebrated as a hero. He wasn't.
The City of Sanford fire was a terrible and senseless catastrophe that could have been averted. Because almost no attempt was made to extinguish the blaze, the quickly spreading fire demanded immediate and decisive action.
Captain Roberts decided to jump overboard.
The boat in flames, a survivor testified that the captain led an unidentified female passenger down the saloon deck to the stern and jumped.
He would have rushed past occupied rooms, leaving his other passengers still in their cabins, to their fiery fate.
Burning of a Steamer June 27, 1882. NSW (Australia)