The Falls of Niagara and Other Famous CataractsHolley, George W. (George Washington)
History
The Falls of Niagara and Other Famous Cataracts
Holley, George W. (George Washington)
Niagara Falls (N.Y. and Ont.) -- Description and Travel; Niagara River (N.Y. and Ont.) -- History; Waterfalls
her cost, if he would deliver her at Niagara, opposite the fort. This he
decided to do, after consultation with Robinson, who had acted as her
captain and pilot on her trips below the Falls. The boat required for
her navigation an engineer, who also acted as fireman, and a pilot.
Mr. Robinson agreed to act as pilot for the fearful voyage, and the
engineer, Mr. Jones, consented to go with him. A courageous machinist,
Mr. McIntyre, volunteered to share the risk with them. They put her in
complete trim, removing from deck and hold all superfluous articles.
Notice was given of the time for starting, and a large number of people
assembled to see the fearful plunge, no one expecting to see the crew
again alive after they should leave the dock. This dock, as has been
before stated, was just above the Railway Suspension Bridge, at the
place where she was built, and where she was laid up in the
winter--that, too, being the only place where she could lie without
danger of being crushed by the ice. Twenty rods below this eddy the
water plunges sharply down into the head of the crooked, tumultuous
rapid which we have before noticed as reaching from the bridge to the
Whirlpool. At the Whirlpool, the danger of being drawn under was most to
be apprehended; in the rapids, of being turned over or knocked to
pieces. From the Whirlpool to Lewiston is one wild, turbulent rush and
whirl of water, without a square foot of smooth surface in the whole
distance.
About three o'clock in the afternoon of June 15, 1861, the engineer took
his place in the hold, and, knowing that their flitting would be short
at the best, and might be only the preface to swift destruction, set his
steam-valve at the proper gauge, and awaited--not without anxiety--the
tinkling signal that should start them on their flying voyage. McIntyre
joined Robinson at the wheel on the upper deck. Self-possessed, and with
the calmness which results from undoubting courage and confidence, yet
with the humility which recognizes all possibilities, with downcast eyes
and firm hands, Robinson took his place at the wheel and pulled the
starting bell. With a shriek from her whistle and a white puff from her
escape-pipe, to take leave, as it were, of the multitude gathered on the
shores and on the bridge, the boat ran up the eddy a short distance,
then swung round to the right, cleared the smooth water, and shot like
an arrow into the rapid under the bridge. Robinson intended to take the
inside curve of the rapid, but a fierce cross-current carried him to
the outer curve, and when a third of the way down it a jet of water
struck against her rudder, a column dashed up under her starboard side,
heeled her over, carried away her smokestack, started her overhang on
that side, threw Robinson flat on his back, and thrust McIntyre against
her starboard wheel-house with such force as to break it through. Every
eye was fixed, every tongue was silent, and every looker-on breathed
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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