No. 678
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
November 23, 2024

Terrible Struggle with Flame and Flood

The burning of the steamer John H. Hanna near Plaquemine, Louisiana, by which thirty lives were lost
June 20, 2011
...
...

 "The Witches' Cove," Follower of Jan MandijnWelcome to this week's Link Dump!This seemed like a suitably Strange Company way to anticipate Thanksgiving.Al Capone and greyhound racing.The Meierhoffer murder.A plethora of American dragons.A brief history of olive harvesting.What it was like to be an ancient Roman gladiator.Harvard and the body-snatchers.How mistletoe became associated with
More...
Strange Company - 11/22/2024
Youth With Executioner by Nuremberg native Albrecht Dürer … although it’s dated to 1493, which was during a period of several years when Dürer worked abroad. November 13 [1617]. Burnt alive here a miller of Manberna, who however was lately … Continue reading
More...
Executed Today - 11/13/2020
Soapy STAR notebookPage 13 - Original copy1882Courtesy of Geri Murphy(Click image to enlarge) OAPY SMITH'S STAR NOTEBOOKPart #13 - Page 13 This is page 13, dated 1882, the continuation of deciphering Soapy Smith's "star" notebook from the Geri Murphy's collection. A complete introduction to this notebook can be seen on page 1. Page 13 is a continuation from page 11 and 12, and
More...
Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 11/21/2024
The Bloody Century 2 Audiobook
More...
Murder By Gaslight - 11/19/2024
An article I recently wrote for the British online magazine, New Politic, is now available online. The article, “The Criminal Origins of the United States of America,” is about British convict transportation to America, which took place between the years 1718 and 1775, and is the subject of my book, Bound with an Iron Chain: […]
More...
Early American Crime - 12/17/2021
Sparking in Tompkins Square | Belles of the Bowling Alley.

Terrible Struggle with Flame and Flood

steamboat

Plaquemine, Louisiana , December 25, 1888 – The burning of the steamer John H. Hanna, near Plaquemine, Louisiana, by which thirty lives were lost. 

Another frightful steamboat disaster has occurred on the Mississippi River at the little town of Plaquemine, ninety-five miles above New Orleans, La., on the night of the 25th ult., just as the bells were ushering in Christmas morning. At daylight the citizens of the town who had not yet retired were horrified to see the steamboat John H. Hanna round a bend in the river, a mass of flames from end to end. It was the flames that claimed most of the thirty victims. Others drowned in the water.


Reprinted from The National Police Gazette - January 12, 1889