Lucy Walker steamboat disaster

The Lucy Walker steamboat disaster was an 1844 steamboat accident caused by the explosion of the boilers of the steamboat Lucy Walker near New Albany, Indiana, on the Ohio River. The explosion occurred on the afternoon of Wednesday, October 23, 1844, when the steamer's three boilers exploded, caught fire, and sank. It was one of a number of similar accidents of early-19th-century riverine transportation that led to important federal legislation and safety regulations. The vessel's owner was a Native American, her crew were African-American slaves, and her passengers represented a cross-section of frontier travelers.

The Lucy Walker was an average vessel of her time: 144 feet (44 m) long with a beam of 24 feet 6 inches (7.47 m) and a draft of 5 feet 6 inches (1.68 m). She displaced 183 tons. She was built at Cincinnati, Ohio in 1843 and her home port was Webbers Falls on the Arkansas River in the Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). The boat frequently steamed to both Louisville, Kentucky and New Orleans, Louisiana. She was a side-wheeler, with three boilers, only one deck, no masts, no figurehead, and an above-deck cabin. Thomas F. Eckert, John Cochran, and Thomas J. Halderman had successively served as master or captain of the Lucy Walker. Captain Halderman was a very experienced river man, who since 1820 had worked as fireman, deck hand, engineer, and captain on steamboats, and later was a steamboat inspector. For some unknown reason, Halderman was replaced in Louisville just before departure, and her owner, Joseph Vann, took over the duties as captain.

Lucy Walker departed the Louisville wharf at noon on Wednesday, October 23, 1844, outbound for New Orleans. Some of the passengers were perhaps excited about the looming Presidential campaign in less than a fortnight between Whig and Kentucky native-son candidate Henry Clay and Democrat James K. Polk of Tennessee, while other passengers had likely participated in the pre-Churchill Downs horse racing season at Louisville. Aboard at the last minute was a Presbyterian church delegation.Lucy Walker probably avoided the rapids known as the "Falls of the Ohio" by traversing the new Louisville Falls Canal. She then crossed to the northern bank and picked up additional passengers at New Albany, a major river port. It has been asserted that Rezin Jameson, one of the pilots during the Robert E. Lee's famous race in 1870 with the Natchez, had also been a pilot on the Lucy Walker in 1844. However, Jameson's name does not appear in any of the New Albany or Louisville newspaper accounts of the explosion.

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