Death by Fire and Ice tells the little-known story of the sinking
of the steamboat Lexington on Long Island Sound in January 1840.
Built in 1835 by Cornelius Vanderbilt, the Lexington left Manhattan
bound for Stonington, Connecticut, at four o'clock in the afternoon
on a bitterly cold day carrying an estimated one hundred
forty-seven passengers and crew and a cargo of, among other things,
baled cotton. After making her way up an ice-encrusted East River
and into Long Island Sound, she caught fire off Eaton's Neck on
Long Island's north shore at approximately seven o'clock. The fire
quickly ignited the cotton stowed on board. With the crew unable to
extinguish the fire, the blaze burned through the ship's wheel and
tiller ropes, rendering the ship unmanageable. Soon after, the
engine died, and the blazing ship drifted aimlessly in the Sound
away from shore with the prevailing wind and current. As the night
wore on, the temperature plummeted, reaching nineteen degrees below
zero. With no hope of rescue on the dark horizon, the forlorn
passengers and crew faced a dreadful decision: remain on board and
perish in the searing flames or jump overboard and succumb within
minutes to the Sound's icy waters. By three o'clock in the morning
the grisly ordeal was over for all but one passenger and three
members of the crew--the only ones who survived. The tragedy
remains the worst maritime disaster in the history of Long Island
Sound. Within days, the New York City Coroner convened an inquest
to determine the cause of the disaster. After two weeks of
testimony, reported daily in the New York City press, the inquest
jury concluded that the Lexington had been permitted to operate on
the Sound "at the imminent risk of the lives and property" of its
passengers, and that, had the crew acted appropriately, the fire
could have been extinguished and a large portion, if not all, of
the passengers saved. The public's reaction to the verdict was
scathing: the press charged that the members of the board of
directors of the Transportation Company, which had purchased the
Lexington from Commodore Vanderbilt in 1839, were guilty of murder
and should be indicted. Calls were immediately made for Congress to
enact legislation to improve passenger safety on steamboats. This
book explores the ongoing debate in Congress during the nineteenth
century over its power to regulate steamboat safety; and it
examines the balance Congress struck between the need to insulate
the nation's shipping industry from ruinous liability for lost
cargo, while at the same time greatly enhancing passenger safety on
the nation's steamboats.
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