STEAMBOATS DESTROYED BY FIRE. 



547 



the cargo, which, being fanned by the breeze, quickly 

 converted the entire vessel into a raging mass of flames, 

 in which hecatombs of victims frequently found a fiery 

 tomb, or were swept away by the swiftly flowing river 

 in the vain attempt to swim to land. The suddenness 

 with which these fires have been known to break out 

 and envelop the boats was sometimes indeed appalling, 

 and left no time for them to run ashore before the 

 pilot was driven from his post by the rush of smoke 

 and flame. 



The gloomy roll of some of these catastrophes has 

 nevertheless been occasionally lit up by a ray of glory, 

 in consequence of the deeds of heroic daring and 

 self-sacrifice which have not unfrequently been per- 

 formed by pilots, engineers and others belonging to 

 these boats, in the desperate endeavour to save the 

 lives of those on board, and more than one instance 

 is on record where these men have actually remained 

 at their posts until burnt alive in the execution of 

 their duty. One well known case was that of 

 Thomas Maynard, a sailor on board a steamer which 

 (in this case) took fire upon the lakes, through whose 

 devotion all on board except himself were saved, he 

 having managed to steer the vessel long enough to 

 run her safe ashore before he himself fell back a 

 lifeless corpse into the flames. Another well told and 

 characteristic story of this kind (very likely founded 

 on the case mentioned above) is to be found among 

 Hay's Pike County Ballads. The hero in this case is 

 supposed to be the engineer of the steamer "Prairie 

 Belle" who bears the suggestive name of "Jimmy 

 Bludso," and portions of it are, we think, quite worth 

 transcribing, as a specimen of Mississippi River man- 



