C. T. Dumont Wrecks
Gale on the River - Steamer Dumont's Cabin Demolished
While the Madison packet C. T. Dumont, captain Charles David, bound for Cincinnati, was receiving freight at Warsaw, Ky., on Monday evening [8-19-1867], about 5 o'clock, she encountered a violent storm of wind and rain. Captain David, as soon as he discovered the approach of the storm backed the Dumont out from the wharf-boat, when she caught it broadside on the starboard and was blown back against the wharf-boat. In an instant the chimneys, pilot-house, texas, and the cabin, forward of the wheel houses, were completely demolished. The pilot-house being held by the wheel ropes and the guy chains, fell on the boiler deck. The officers and passengers escaped without serious injury. Captain Charles David and Pilot David were slightly bruised by the flying fragments of the cabin. The passengers sought refuge in the after hall of the ladies cabin, escaping without injury. A portion of her crew came here on the R. R. Hudson and chartered the Emma Floyd to take the place of the Dumont in the trade until the later is repaired. An alarm of fire, which proved erroneous, created a panic among the passengers. The officers, who roomed in the texas, lost all of their clothing. The General Buell encountered the same storm at Eighteen-Mile Island, but worked through it without injury. The R. R. Hudson was roundel by the gale. The ends and doors of the wharf-boat were blown in, while the roof of the wharf-boat at Florence, one mile below Warsaw was blown a distance of twenty feet up in the air. Trees were uprooted and barns demolished in that vicinity, but we can hear of no loss of life. The Dumont had just been repaired, at an expense of $5,000 or $6,000. The damage to her, by the storm, is estimated at from $10,000 to $12,000. Pilot Frank Duprez, of Vevay, was at the wheel when she entered the hurricane.
from the Cincinnati Commercial, August 21, 1867.
A little more on the Dumont is here, and the story of her earlier crash at Big Bone is here.