In April 1838 the Mississippi River steamer _Moselle_, crowded from stem to stern with passengers for St. Louis, blew up. She had gone a little way up the river from Cincinnati for the purpose of exhibiting herself and of coming back past the city “a-flying.” As she stopped to turn, the boilers exploded, blowing the ship to fragments. The captain, who was in the pilot-house, was blown about eighty yards away; a boy on board was found dead on the roof of a house on shore. It was never known exactly how many perished, but the number is estimated at anything from one hundred to two hundred. One of the boilers was thrown ashore by the explosion, and in falling made a large hole in the pavement.[23] [23] Cincinnati _Evening Post_, April 25, 1838. Another accident of that year befell the steamer _Oroonoko_ on the Mississippi. Her boilers blew up and, the wreck taking fire, about one hundred lives were lost, most of the victims being burnt to death. The engineer, before he died, said the boilers were full of water, and that his department was not in fault, but that the boilers were old and worn out and not fit for such a boat.[24] [24] Vicksburg _Register_. About the same time two other steamers, the _Pioneer_ and _Ontario_, were racing on the river near Cincinnati and collided. The _Ontario_ ran purposely into the _Pioneer_, which returned the compliment by deliberately ramming the _Ontario_, killing one passenger, dangerously wounding two others, and smashing the _Ontario’s_ guards. The _Pioneer_ won that race, but intentional collisions were too much even for the sensation-loving public which patronised the racing Mississippi steamers and used to bet heavily on the result, and dangerous racing of this character was for a time tabooed. One of the most famous races on record was that between the _Eclipse_ and the _Natchez_, two magnificent vessels which were very evenly matched. It is recorded that the immense funnels of these two boats, as they tore along almost on a level with only a few feet between them, were red-hot, and that the blaze from their pine-fed furnaces made the dwellers on either side of the bank think that the vessels were on fire.