Explosion of Tugboat "George S. Dodge"

Image of the tug “George S. Dodge”  by famous marine artist James G. Tyler.Built in  Philadelphia 1864 US #10546 blew up in Oswego harbor, September 28, 1870. Owned by Thomas Dobbie and Frost Brothers.  67’5”’x18’ x 6’ 37 gross tons. Enrolled in Oswego May 23, 1870.

 (Oswego County Historical Society John S. Parsons Marine Collection)

Oswego Advertiser and Times

Wednesday, September 18, 1870

TERRIFIC EXPLOSION

Destruction of the Steam Tug Dodge - Heavy and Wide-spread Damage - Remarkable Escape of Crew from Injury - The City Treated to a Mild Earthquake Experience

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   About ten minutes past 4 o’clock this morning the whole city was aroused by a most terrific report and concussion that shook buildings to their foundations and rattled windows and crockery ware like a veritable shock of an earthquake. Indeed such was the overwhelming force of the concussion, that many people were fully impressed with the belief some natural conclusion had occurred, - either a stray earthquake had glanced off from the Pacific Slope in this direction, or that one of Prof. Peter’s newly discovered asteroids had fallen in upon us.

   Everybody was abroad at an early hour, anxiously enquiring the nature of the alarming event, and to what extent our already decimated census had further reduced.

   The intelligence was soon circulated that the steam tug Geo. S. Dodge had exploded her boiler, while lying at the wharf in front of the Columbian Elevator, on the east side of the harbor, but with the gratifying assurance that no injury to lime or limb had attended the disaster.

   A glance at the neighborhood of the explosion, and almost anywhere on the principal streets on the west side of the river, indicate widespread destruction of property.

   The Dodge had been laying up at the wharf over night, and the Captain and Engineer being ashore, and the only persons remaining on board were James Burns, the fireman; Penfield, deck-hand, and the wife of the latter, who was employed as cook.

   Between 3 and 4 o’clock, Burns started up the fire in the furnace, as he was accustomed to do, and an explosion took place in an hour afterward. From the circumstance there can be no doubt that the occasion was a lack of water in the boiler, the small quantity which it contained being speedily generated into the dangerous explosive gas, of ten-fold more force than steam.

   Who was responsible for such culpable negligence as this appears to have been, the parties who owned or run the tug are better entitled to explain than us. The upper portion of the tug at least was blown into atoms, and Burns relates that he was sitting in the engine room when when the explosion occurred, and found himself floundering in the water some yards out in the river, without any clear comprehension of the manner of his sudden transition. He swam ashore and escaped without the slightest injury which was one of the most astonishing  preservations that ever happened.

   Mr. Penfield and his wife, who were sleeping in the cabin of the tug, also found themselves in the water, and were rescued by men from a neighboring vessel, and found to be entirely uninjured.

   Fragments of the boiler and debris of the wreck ascended through the southwest corner of the Columbia Elevator, tearing away a large section of the building, and splintering the timber into match material. The damage to the elevator will amount to somewhere between  one and three thousand dollars.

   The great destruction elsewhere wrought was on the West side of the river, the lofty elevators breaking the force of the concussion on the East side. A few windows were broken in different stores on East First street, but the damage was light.

   On West First street, on Water street, on the west sides of those streets, the destruction of windows was almost complete in some buildings, and the damage extended from Seneca to Bridge streets. In some instances the whole front windows of stores, sashes and all, were entirely smashed, and numerous parties have sustained damage to considerable amounts.

   A large piece of timber, a part of one of then knees of the tug, was found on First street, in front of the Palladium office, and smaller fragments have been found as far away as 5th street.

    The starting bar of the engine, bent out of shape, and which weight twenty-four pounds, was thrown over the commercial buildings on the wharf, the high stores on the east side of First street and passed through the front of William Blackwood’s grocery, making a clean sweep of windows and sash, knocking a show case and its contents into chaos, and bringing up against the head of a barrel of vinegar in the rear of the store. 

   A large piece of iron went through the roof of the Bronson block, on Water street, doing considerable damage to the building.

   A piece of timber was thrown through the side of Mr. Ashley’s Hotel on Water street, smashing shelves and crockery ware, and destroying a clock in the dining room. Another piece of timber struck Mr. Ashley’s buggy, which was standing in the street, and made a complete wreck of the establishment. The worthy landlord relates the the uproar occasion no little consternation in his hotel, and a few moments afterwards one or two travelers came down from their rooms with their valises in hand and enquired if the next train was about to leave.

   A long list  of parties who have suffered more or less damage by the explosion could be made up, and which would include most of the occupants of buildings north of Bridge street from the river front back to Second street. 

It must be considered fortunate that the disaster occurred at an hour when the streets wee entirely deserted, as it could hard have been possible in the daytime that such an explosion could have failed of fatal results.

   Many splinters of the tug have been picked up today, on the streets and in the dooryards on the west side, add a water pale, somewhat battered, was found on the roof of a building on Water street.

   The captain of the brig Sea Gull, who was sleeping in his cabin within feet from the bow of the Dodge, relates that the shock of the explosion completely overwhelmed him, and he was unable to collect his senses for some moments, when he came up and assisted in resting the parties in the water.

   The stern of the Sea Gull was slightly shipped, and one of her davits was out off square. This morning fragments of the tug were seen floating over the spot where she sin, while pieces of her wheel, and large fragments of boiler plat, torn in ragged strips were found lodged among the timbers of the elevators.

   Space would not permit us to recount the profusion of incidents, many of them very amusing, related in connection with the disaster.

   The proprietress of an establishment on Water street, who appears to have a ready comprehension from past experience, had the front windows of her place blown in, and shortly after came running up to the station crying “Police! police! There they go around the corner!”

   A guest at one of the hotels on the east side had requested to be called at 5 o’clock in the morning and on being aroused by the explosion, with a rattling of windows and wash pitchers, he sprang out of bed promptly, calling out to the proposed porter, “That will do; you needn’t make such a 

d — d noise about it.”

   A drowsy citizen on the west side was shook into consciousness by his wife, with the alarming piece of information that a burglar had just fallen down the kitchen stairs with the sewing machine. “Yes,” declared the exasperated lady, “I knew it wold be so, coming tom at all hours of the night as you do, and leaving the door wide open.” The citizen says it was the heaviest blowing up he has experienced for some time.

   The Dodge was owned by the Frost Brothers and Mr. Thomas Dobbie, and was valued at $8,000. She will prove a total loss, insurance not being recoverable. 

Oswego Daily Press

Wednesday, September 28, 1870

ANOTHER BOILER EXPLOSION.

THE TUG GEO. S. DODGE BLOWN TO FLINDERS.

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All Aboard Escape Uninjured.

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A Job Laid Out for the Glaziers.

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   Few Oswego people slept so soundly as not to be awakened last night by a peculiar concussion which shook houses, rattled window frames and crockery ware, and made nervous people jump from their beds in alarm. Everybody said something awful had happened, and sure enough morning disclosed an accident destructive in its results, but, happily, not fatal to life.

   The tug Geo. S. Dodge, owned by M. S. Frost, tied up at her dock in rear of the Columbia mills, at 11:30 p.m. last night, and all the hands left her except Samuel Penfield, deck hand, and his wife, who

acted as cook. About 3 o’clock in the morning the dock watchman called up the fireman, James Barnes, who went down and started the fire under the boiler, and, it is charged, then laid down and went to sleep. About twenty minutes to four the explosion took place and all on board were blown into the river, while the tug was torn into a thousand pieces, her machinery and the wreck of her hull going to the bottom.

   The fireman was thrown some distance, and scarcely knows how he got out alive. The deck hand and the cook got on some of the timbers and thence on to the dock. Their escape alive and unharmed seems almost miraculous, the chances for life seeming hardly as one in a hundred.

                     THE DAMAGE.

   A portion of the outside frame work of the Columbia mill was torn away and the sheet iron ripped off in several places from the ground to the roof. The bins were not broken in, but a number of barrels of flour stored on the first floor were bursted open. The damage to the mill is variously estimated at from $600 to $1,000. The Washington mills, adjoining, are slightly damaged. But the most singular part of the affair is the devastation made on West First and Water streets.

   On the west side of West First street between Cayuga and Seneca, there is scarcely a building in which the glass is not more or less shivered. In the Woodruff block, several glass fronts were broken

in, sash and all being carried away. So it is all along down that side of the street, scarcely a store escaping. 

   The lever used to let the water into the  boiler, with its iron attachments, weighing 22 pounds, struck the window casing in the south east corner front of William Blackwell’s store, went through the window, smashed the show case standing on the counter, and was found this morning lodged against a vinegar cask in the rear of the store, its course through the building being diagonal.

   A piece of one of the boat knees, weighing 33 pounds, was found this morning on the roof of Congdon’s grocery store, West First street.

   A piece of the rail, about 10 feet long, struck across the hind wheels of a light buggy belonging to Antoine Ashley of the Oswego Hotel, which was standing outside the barn. About half the spokes were

knocked out of one wheel, and the felloes of both were crushed in.

   A piece of timber struck the rear of the Oswego hotel, and the concussion threw a clock from a shelf in the dining room. The hotel windows were all open, else the damage by breakage of glass would have been very great.

   A good deal of glass is broken out of the new hotel block, and also in the rear of the Mansard block. It is impossible to estimate even approximately the amount of damage done on the West side.

   The tug was built in Philadelphia in 1864, and was estimated a first rate boat for her size. Her weight was 37 tons. The engine was high pressure with 17 inch stroke, the boiler being 15 5-12 feet long, 5 1-2 feet in diameter, and made of 5-16 iron.The engine was built by Orchambold of Philadelphia, and was inspected on the 29th of June, 1870, the inspector verifying that it had been subjected tp a hydraulic pressure of 130 lbs., and that its maximum working power was allowed at 80 lbs.

   The tug was valued at $7,000 and insured for $5,.000, though, unfortunately the insurance does not cover a casualty of this sort.It is thought that the engine may be saved.

   Hundreds have visited the scene of the accident, as well as localities heretofore mentioned on the West side, and the general sentiment is one of astonishment and relief that no person was hurt.

*U.S. #10546 Built in Philadelphia, Pa. in 1864 65’x18’x 6’ 37 tons. Owned by Frost Brothers and Thomas Dobbie of Oswego.”

Oswego Advertiser & Times

Tuesday, September 29, 1870

   The Tug Explosion - Contrary to the information which we received yesterday it is now stated that the explosion of the tug Dodge did not occur from low water in the boiler, as the engineer had left it the night previous with three gauges in which there was unquestionable proof.

   It is believed the explosion occurred from an over-pressure of steam, the government safety valve placed on the boiler not being calculated to let up at any particular pressure, or prove any safeguard whatever. A party who has been employed on the Dodge, states that on one occasion,, when giving her an overhauling, it was necessary to cut the safety valve open with a chisel, it being nearly as firmly cemented as if cast solid. The boiler is represented to have been as good and strong as any in the harbor.