Mr Redfield on American Steam-Boats. 61 



I have noted, during the present year, such accidents by light- 

 ning as were attended with fatal results, so far as the same have 

 come to my knowledge. The whole number of cases thus as- 

 certained is twenty-six, which were distributed as follows. In 

 New Hampshire 1 ; Massachusetts 1 ; Rhode Island 1 ; Con- 

 necticut 2 ; New York 7 ; Pennsylvania 5 ; Delaware 3 ; Vir- 

 ginia 1 ; South Carolina 2; Louisiana 2; and Illinois 1. It is 

 hardly to be supposed that this statement comprises one moiety 

 of the whole number of fatal casualties of this kind, which have 

 occurred in the United States during the past years, and it com- 

 prises but a single accident, in the four great States of Virginia, 

 North CaroHna, Kentucky, and Tenessee. In recurring to the 

 list of steam-boat accidents, which was recently published in 

 this Journal *, it will be seen, that the entire mortality from 

 this cause, is estimated at three hundred in a period of twenty 

 years, which amount to an average of fifteen for each year. 

 The loss of lives by the bursting of steam-boat boilers, during 

 the present year, I have recorded as follows : Steam-boat post- 

 boy, on the Mississippi, 1 killed ; Ohio, on the Hudson, 5 

 killed and drowned; Adam Duncan, on the Connecticut, 1 

 drowned ; Connecticut, in Boston Harbour, I killed ; Monti- 

 cello, on the Mississippi, 2 killed : Total 10. Of this last 

 number, as far as I have been able to ascertain, three were pas- 

 sengers, and the remainder persons who were employed about 

 the engine, showing that the risk to passengers is extremely 

 small. 



What further improvement in safety, or speed, are yet to be 

 elicited in the art or science of locomotion, time only can shew 

 us. The steam-boat, a short time ago, appeared to our view, 

 as the ne plus ultra of human efforts, but the successful appli- 

 cation of steam-power on rail-roads, has already rivalled, if not 

 greatly surpassed, our achievements in steam-navigation. It is 

 however probable, that the maximum of useful effect, has been 

 nearly attained in both these departments, which, when practi- 

 cally considered, will be found auxiliaries rather than rivals to 

 each other. The art of obtaining the full power of steam, and 

 of applying it to the purpose of locomotion, on a fluid which 



• Vol. XX. pp. 336— 33a 



