453 
EXPLOSION OF THE STEAM-BOAT HELEN 
M'GREGOR, 
At Memphis, Tennessee, Feb. 24, 1830. 
The following interesting narrative was written by a gen- 
tleman, passenger on board the Helen M'Gregor. 
On the morning of the 24th of February the Helen M'Gre- 
gor stopped at Memphis, to deliver freight and land a num- 
ber of passengers who resided in that section of Tennessee. 
The time occupied in so doing could not have exceeded three 
quarters of an hour. When the boat landed I went ashore to 
see a gentleman with whom I had some business. I found 
him on the beach, and after a short conversation returned to 
the boat. I recollect looking at my watch as I passed the 
gangway. It was half past eight o'clock. A great number 
of persons were standing on what is called the boiler-deck, 
being that part of the upper deck situated immediately over 
the boilers. It was crowded to excess, and presented one dense 
mass of human bodies. In a few minutes we sat down to break- 
fast in the cabin. The table, although extending the whole 
length of the cabin, was completely filled, there being upward 
of sixty cabin passengers, among whom were several ladies 
and children. The number of passengers on board, deck and 
cabin united, was between four and five hundred. I had almost 
finished my breakfast when the pilot rung his bell for the en- 
gineer to put the machinery in motion. The boat having just 
shoved off, I was in the act of raising my cup to my lip, the 
tingling of the pilot bell yet on my ear, when I heard an ex- 
plosion resembling the discharge of a small piece of artillery — 
the report was perhaps louder than usual in such cases — for an 
exclamation was half uttered by me that the gun was well 
loaded, when the rushing sound of steam, and the rattling of 
glass in some of the cabin windows checked my speech and 
told too well what had occurred. I almost involuntarily bent 
my head and body down to the floor — a vague idea seemed to 
shoot across my mind that more than one boiler might burst, 
and that, by assuming this posture, the destroying matter would 
pass over without touching me. 
The general cry cf "a boiler has burst," resounded from 
one end of the table to the other ; and, as if by a simultaneous 
movement, all started on their feet. Then commenced a gen- 
