“the Steam Boat built at Pittsburgh...”
Date
2-17-1812
Newspaper
Boston Independent Chronicle
Page and Column
Page 1, Column 5
Newspaper Location
Boston, Massachusetts
Serial Number
169
Abstract
Account from Natchez, Mississippi of the arrival of the steam boat New Orleans, gives a description by a passenger of the destruction on the Mississippi River done by the December 16, 1811 earthquake.
Transcript
Natchez, Jan. 1 The Steam Boat built at Pittsburgh, so long expected here, arrived on Monday evening last with several passengers, after a very remarkable short passage. This boat, it is said, is intended to be a regular packet from this place to New Orleans, and will make a trip down and back in from 5 to 7 days. We have conversed with a gentleman who came passenger in the steam boat lately arrived here and are informed that the Earthquake, shocks of which were felt here a week or two since, has done great injury to the settlements on the Ohio and Mississippi, by throwing down houses, chimnies, & c. and in one or two instances, islands in the Mississippi, of considerable magnitude had been sunk or destroyed; that the banks of the river on both sides fell in to a prodigious extent, and at one place about 300 acres caved in a solid body. He also informs, that the western side of the river was the most affected -- and that the shocks lasted about twelve days, with intervals of fifteen or twenty minutes.
Recommended Citation
"“the Steam Boat built at Pittsburgh...”" (1812). New Madrid Compendium Far-Field Database. 164.
https://digitalcommons.memphis.edu/cas-ceri-new-madrid-compendium/164
