470 EXPLOSION OF THE NEW-ENGLAND. 
EXPLOSION OF THE STEAM-BOAT NEW- 
ENGLAND, 
At Essex, Connecticut River, October 9th, 1833. 
The following statement was published in the Connecticut 
Courant of Monday, October 14. The boat left New- York 
on Tuesday afternoon, October 8, at 4 o'clock. She started 
in company with the Providence steam-boat Boston, but gra- 
dually gained on the latter through the Sound. A degree of 
anxiety was felt by some of the passengers on account of the 
competition between the two t)oats. But we have no evi- 
dence that this anxiety was warranted by any unusual press 
of steam on board the New-England. The boat reached the 
river about one o'clock, when, of course, all competition was 
at an end. At Saybrook some difhculty occurred with the 
engine, which rendered it necessary to throw out an anchor 
to prevent the boat from drifting ashore. After a detention 
of twenty or thirty minutes at Saybrook, the boat proceeded 
on her way up the river about eight miles, and arrived oppo- 
site Essex about three o'clock. Her engine was stopped, the 
small boat was let down to land a passenger, and had just 
reached the shore, when both the boilers exploded almost si- 
multaneously, with a noise like heavy cannon. The shock 
was dreadful ; and the scene which followed is represented by 
those who were present as awful and heart-rending beyond 
description. The morning was excessively dark ; the rain 
poured in torrents ; the lights on deck and in the cabin were 
suddenly extinguished ; and all was desolation and horror on 
board. Those only who witnessed the havoc which was 
made, and heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded and 
dying, can form an adequate conception of the scene. 
There were upward of seventy passengers on board, and 
others belonging to the boat to the number of about twenty, 
making in all nearly one hundred persons. Most of the pas- 
sengers were fortunately in their berths. Those who were in 
the gentlemen's cabin escaped without any serious injury. 
The most destructive effects of the explosion were felt on the 
deck and in the ladies' cabin. The ladies who were in their 
berths and remained there, we believe, were not much injured ; 
but those who were on cots opposite the cabin doors, and 
others who, on the first alarm, sprang from their berths, were 
