"Wreck Of The "Kanawha"

cont'd.......


Mercifully the wind slacked off and a mild rain began.  It was two miles to Mustapha Island which was to be the last resting place of the "Kanawha".  Hoyt could feel the hog chains dragging along the bottom and several sharp lurches nearly dislodged him.  At the head of Mustapha Island, at long last, Hoyt and several others were taken aboard the packets lifeboat and they made shore.
The broken remains of the "Kanawha" drifted on with two men still clinging to the hull, Captain Berry and an old cabin boy.  They were saved when the wreck went aground for the last time.  It was 9:15 p.m.--two short hours since the disaster began.
The B & O Railroad ran a special train from Parkersburg to pick up survivors strung out along the shore. 
Hoyt and others took refuge in a small cottage where they were warmed up in front of a roaring fire.  To him it seemed a "luxury lodge" and he soon was able to send a wire to his mother in Marietta to say that he had survived.  Movie theatres in Marietta had already begun flashing news on the screens that the "Kanawha" had sunk.
As so often happens after such a tragic event, the unexplainable is explained by superstitions or become the basis for the beginning of new superstitions.  Prior to the final trip of the "Kanawha," while repairs were being made to the smoke-stacks, the spreader-bar with its decorative star was removed.  When it was replaced, the star was upside down and this is the way it was on that last trip when the "Kanawha" sank and turned bottom up.

All of the information on this page was
compiled by Ernie Wright, while he was
doing genealogy research. It has been
put on this page with his permission in
hopes that it will help him to find some
missing links.