File:The 'Griffith' Steamer, passing the lighthouse at Buffalo Harbour Point ILN-1850-0727-0016.jpg

English: The 'Griffith' Steamer, passing the lighthouse at Buffalo Harbour Point. See page 82. Illustration for The Illustrated London News, 27 July 1850. Volume: 17 , Issue: 438.

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BURNING OF THE " GRIFFITH" STEAMER. This fine United States steamer was lately destroyed by fire, within 20 miles of Cleveland, and upwards of 200 persons drowned and burned. We find the following details of the melancholy catastrophe in the Toledo Weekly Republican of June 20:-Mr. Davidson, who lives in Manhattan, took passage at Fairport, on propeller Delaware, on Sunday night, June 16 ; say 12 o'clock. When about ten miles from Cleveland, he arose early, about half-past three o'clock, and discovered a bright light nearly astern. Discovering that it was a boat on fire, the captain of the Delaware changed his course, and proceeded immediately for the burning vessel. When they reached the Griffith, she was burned nearly to the water's edge, and was then about half a mile from shore. At twenty rods from the wreck, they lowered the yawls of the propeller, and proceeded to pick up the dead bodies strewed about the wreck. Before the propeller reached the wreck, citizens from the adjoining country had been aroused, and many of them were busy in the work of duty and humanity, of rescuing the drowning and picking up the dead. Mr. Davidson says, that about six small boats and one or two scows were emplayed in tlis way. The Griffith must have been ten miles from land when the fire broke out (near her boilers, some say behind the boilers, and some say on the sites), and about fifteen miles from Fairport. The flames spread with fearful rapidity-so rapid that those who were in the bow, as well as those who were in the stern of the boat, were compelled to remain apart by the flames, until, in seeking shelter from the flames, they were drowned. Mr. Davidson thinks that passengers and clew stuck to the boat in hopes of reaching the shore, which she was rapidly nearing. It is evident that they must have had confident hopes of this, as it appears that the small boats were not used at all. When it was found by the passengers that they could no longer find shelter from the flames on the Grifith, and that their only chance of safety was in abandoning her, it seems that all, or nearly all, of the 330 persons threw themselves overboard, not over half a mile from the shore-lake calm and water shallow, not over eight feet. Bodies, when Mr. Davidson first reached the wreck, were great many of them floating on the surface, and the water was so clear that many others could be seen floating beueath the surface. The small boats from shore and from the propeller were busily engaged in gathering the bodies. Mr. Davidson says that while he remained near the wreck some fifty or sixty dead bodies had been taken up, and not one among them had been burned. Two women, two men, and one child were found alive, clinging to the paddles of the wheel, and were saved. Mr. Davidson thinks that not over forty were saved, and of these most all of them swam ashore. Tie Captain (Roby) conducted himself nobly, and was the last to leave the wreck. He threw his wife and child overboard, and immediately followed. Another account states:-" We left the scene of the wreck at two o'clock, and at that time one hundred and forty bodies had been recovered, most of them those of German emigrants. The wreck of the Grifth lies about forty rods from shore, a mass of ruins, where she first struck, in seven feet of water. The emigrants, aroused by the cry of fire, sprang overboard, and they have been found some seven or eight together clinched in the close embrace of death. The long row of corpses, with green leaves laid over the faces of each, and the limbs distorted, was a sight we hope never again to witness." The Illustration shows the Grifith steamer passing the light-house at the point of the Harbour of Buffalo. Lake Elie is one of the largest of the lakes in America. The water is quite green, and looks precisely like the ocean, and at times is as rough. The Griffith makes the third steamboat accident this summer, on this lake. The other two blew up, each killing nearly oue hundred persons.