The Steamship ''Pulaski'' disaster was the term given to the June 14, 1838, explosion on board the American

steam packet Generally, packet trade is any regularly scheduled cargo, passenger and mail trade conducted by ship. The ships are called "packet boats" as their original function was to carry mail. A "packet ship" was originally a vessel employed to carry post ...

''Pulaski'', which caused her to sink 30 miles off the coast of

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

with the loss of two-thirds of her passengers and crew. About 59 persons survived, and 128 were lost."Heart-rending Catastrophe"
''The North-Carolina Standard'', 27 June 1838, from Office of the ''Wilmington Advertiser'' Her starboard boiler exploded about 11 p.m., causing massive damage as the ship was traveling from

Savannah A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the Canopy (forest), canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to rea ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, to

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

; she sank in 45 minutes.

The disaster

The packet steamer ''Pulaski'', bound for Baltimore, Maryland, departed Charleston, South Carolina on June 14, 1838, under Captain DuBois, with a crew of 37 and 131 passengers on board. That night at about 11 p.m., when the ship was 30 miles off the coast of North Carolina, the starboard boiler exploded, destroying the middle of the ship. Some passengers were killed immediately. Knocked out by the explosion, the first mate Hibbard assessed the small boats and put three in the water. Because two had been over exposed to sunlight, they were in poor condition, and one sank immediately. Ten persons got in one boat and eleven, including Hibbard in another. They started rowing away from the sinking ship, which went down in 45 minutes. Others clung to makeshift floats made from the wreckage.

Survivors

Among the 128 persons lost in the sinking was former

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

Congressman William B. Rochester from New York, and Jane (Cresswell) Lamar, wife of banker and shipper

Gazaway Bugg Lamar Gazaway Bugg Lamar (1798–1874) was an American enslaver and merchant in cotton and shipping in Savannah, Georgia, and a steamboat pioneer. He was the first to use a prefabricated iron steamboat on local rivers, which was a commercial success. In ...

of Savannah, five of their six children, and a niece. Her husband and their eldest son

Charles Augustus Lafayette Lamar Charles Augustus Lafayette Lamar (August 1, 1824 – April 16, 1865) was an American businessman from Savannah who invested in the ship ''Wanderer'' to import slaves from Africa in 1858, decades after it was prohibited by law. The ship ran block ...

were the only members of the immediate family to survive. File:Gazaway B. Lamar.jpg,

File:Charles Augustus Lafayette Lamar.jpg,

The ''

Delaware Gazette ''The Delaware Gazette'' is an American daily newspaper published in Delaware, Ohio. It is owned by AIM Media Midwest. The newspaper is published on weekday and Saturday mornings and is the only daily newspaper in Delaware County, Ohio. The pape ...

'' newspaper later ran a story about the fortunes of two alleged survivors: Charles Ridge, left penniless after the shipwreck, became engaged to heiress Miss Onslow, whom he had saved from the shipwreck. But neither of these persons was listed among the survivors in a June 27 ''North-Carolina Standard'' article published two weeks after the wreck.

Search for wreckage

In January 2018 divers reported that they believed they had found wreckage of ''Pulaski'' off the

coast. This was confirmed several months later, when salvage divers recovered items from the wreckage.

Depiction in media

* The ''Pulaski'' disaster figures prominently in

Eugenia Price Eugenia Price (sometimes Genie Price; June 22, 1916 – May 28, 1996) was an American author best known for her religious and self-help books, and later for her historical novels which were set in the American South. Biography Eugenia Price was ...

's 1985 novel ''To See Your Face Again,'' the second book of her Savannah Quartet. * ''Surviving Savannah'' is a historical fiction novel based on this tragedy written by Patti Callahan, published in 2021.

References

External links

June 1838 newspaper accounts of the wreck of the Pulaski

posted at North Carolina Shipwrecks blog, May 2012
"Steampacket Pulaski Lost"
''Niles Weekly Register'', June 1838
Southworth Allen Howland, ''Steamboat Disasters and Railroad Accidents in the United States: To which is ...''
1840, pp. 47-75
Charles Elms, ''The Tragedy of the Seas; Or, Sorrow on the Ocean, Lake, and River, from ...''
1841
"Historical Collections of Georgia" 1854 by H/George White pp. 353–64

''The Museum of Perilous Adventures and Daring Exploits: Being a Record of ...''
1859
Hordance Edward Hayden, "Virginia Genealogies: A Genealogy of the Glassell Family of Scotland and ..."
1891 by 1891]
Samuel Breck Parkman (Victium) The Diary of Rev. Ebenezer Parkman, of Westborough, Mass: For the Months of ...” pub 1899. p. 57
*

Henry Cadwalader Chapman Dr. Henry Cadwalader Chapman (August 17, 1845 – September 7, 1909) was an American physician and naturalist. Early life Chapman was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Henry was the son of George W. Chapman, lieutenant in the United States Arm ...

''A Manual of medical jurisprudence, insanity and toxicology''
1903
"The Prominent Families of the United States of America" by Arthur Meredith Burke 1908

Mrs Hugh McLeod (Miss Rebecca Lamar), "The Loss of the Steamer Pulaski"
''The Georgia Historical Quarterly'', 1919, pp. 53–95]
"‘The Titanic of its time’: Divers claim historic find of 1838 shipwreck off NC coast"
''Charlotte Observer'', 19 January 2018 {{DEFAULTSORT:Pulaski, SS Shipwrecks of the Carolina coast Maritime incidents in June 1838 Paddle steamers of the United States Ships sunk by non-combat internal explosions June 1838 events