The Steamer Princess

Ran Ashore at Dayton Sandbar

When the storm broke, the Coney Island steamer Princess was on her down trip.  Pilot Harry Doss and Captain Wm. Eakins saw the storm coming and immediately headed the steamer toward the Dayton Sandbar on all steam.  She ran hard aground, and lay there until after the storm had in part subsided.  There was some excitement aboard, but the ship’s officers quieted the women, some of whom it was reported fainted.  After the hurricane was over, the vessel backed off the sandbar and made for Cincinnati.  In passing under the Central Bridge she had two narrow escapes.  First, the pilots discovered a fleet of empty coal barges of the T. Hall Company standing out in the river and had to run close to the pier to pass them.  Not knowing, of course that the towboat Fulton had been sunk just west of the bridge in the center of the stream, it was a miracle that the Princess was able to circumnavigate the wreck, due to the watchfulness of the pilots.  Jack Bamberger, 51 years old, of 1620 Madison road, was the only one hurt.  He cut his wrist on a falling window and received medical attention at the Cincinnati General Hospital.

The Island Queen, when the storm broke, was tied up at the bank of Coney Island.  The passengers had left and she was waiting for passengers for the return trip.  The coal fleets of the Campbell Creek Coal Co. weathered the storm without loss.

Western Newspaper Union Service News dispatch