The "USS Chenango" Boiler Explosion,

April 15, 1864.

by Terry Foenander.

On the afternoon of Friday, April 15, 1864, the side-wheeled steamer, USS Chenango, leaving the Navy Yard at New York, had steamed out into the harbor, on her way to Hampton Roads, Virginia. She was to have anchored at the buoy at Sandy Hook, until the next morning, Saturday, April 16, to await the double turreted monitor, USS Onondaga, which was to accompany her south to her destination. [NYT; DANFS.]

Lieutenant Commander Thomas Scott Fillebrown, in command of the Chenango, was a veteran of over twenty years service, having entered the United States Navy in October, 1841, as midshipman. [Callahan.] He had only recently taken command of the vessel, and her complement of about 170 men (one contemporary account gives her complement, at the time of the tragedy, as 130). [NYT.] The vessel had only been commissioned some seven weeks before, on February 29, 1864. Her complement of nearly two dozen officers included several engineers, who controlled the engine room under the watchful eye of their first assistant engineer, Joseph N. Cahill, who had been originally appointed in the Navy in July, 1858. His service must have been quite exemplary, since his first promotion, to second assistant engineer was about two and a half years later, and his next promotion, to first assistant engineer, came just over two years after that, in March, 1863. [Callahan.]

The Chenango commenced her journey, from the New York Navy Yard, at about 2.35 p.m., April 15, 1864. Coming abreast of Fort Richmond, in New York harbor, at about 4.20 p.m. (some accounts show the exact time of the explosion as 4 p.m.), her port boiler suddenly exploded, tearing up her decks and causing some chaos, especially amongst the engineers and firemen. [NYT; Log; DANFS.] Killed instantly were at least two of the personnel in the engineering room, fireman John Murphy and coal heaver, John Maher, and more than thirty others were severely scalded. [See the list of fatalities, at a separate page.] The majority of the casualties were confined to that section of the vessel. The New York Tribune report states that, "One poor fellow was blown overboard, and picked up in a most deplorable condition."

On seeing and hearing the explosion aboard the Chenango, several vessels within the immediate vicinity came to the assistance of the unfortunate victims, including the C.W. Cheney, the revenue cutter Bronx, and the Naval vessel, the USS Rose. Some of these vessels took a number of the wounded aboard, and transported them to the city, where they were taken, in a number of hacks and wagons, to the United States Marine Hospital. A police boat, and the Bronx, took the Chenango in tow, and headed back to the Navy Yard. [NYT.]

The newspaper report gave praise to the prompt attention paid by all the medical staff and others in rendering immediate aid to the victims of the tragedy, but also noted that, "Many of the poor fellows were literally flayed alive, some of them being quite blind from the effects of the steam. Their shrieks and groans were painful beyond expression; great, stalwart men implored the surgeons to give them something to ease their pain. It was evident that several of them were beyond human aid and would find in death a speedy easement of their suffering." [NYT.]

Although this tragedy was of some significance, with a large loss of life (many of those who were severely scalded eventually succumbing to their wounds), it seems to have had little impact on the Naval authorities, and the Navy Department. Strangely enough, no report of the disaster is included in the pages of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion.

In the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, investigations were conducted by Navy Department personnel and several engineers, and within a short time of the explosion, several reports were published within the pages of the magazine, the Scientific American, as well as in General Orders issued by the Navy Department. General Order No. 38, issued by the Navy Department on June 27, 1864, found negligence on the part of second assistant engineer S. Wilkins Cragg, who had been inspecting officer at the construction of the particular boiler (a design known as the Martin's patent), and he was dismissed from Naval service, on that date. It was assumed that the boiler had been constructed defectively, and the build up of pressure had caused the explosion in the weakened structure.

However, possibly in light of eventual post war revelations about the actual cause of the explosion, it seems that the Navy Department allowed Cragg to be re-appointed in a higher grade, and he was appointed as first assistant engineer, July 25, 1866. [Callahan.]

A letter, held in the collections of the Chicago Historical Society, and written by Confederate agent, Thomas Edgeworth Courtenay, dated at Mobile, Alabama, May 21st, 1864, includes the following confession: "My work is beginning to tell on the Yankees[.] A short time since[,] the "Chenango" U.S. Gun boat was blown up at Brooklyn by one of my coal torpedoes (as the Yankees call them) and I am now preparing to start for Canada & England to send parties from there to all parts of the West & North. You will soon hear of my success."

Even before this letter was written, the Union authorities had an idea of this recent invention of Courtenay's, known as the "coal torpedo." This was an explosive device camouflaged as a lump of coal. Confederate agents are indicated to have placed this amongst ordinary pieces of coal, on several occasions, and, when fed into the fire, would cause an explosion. [The subject is covered at the web site "The Courtenay Coal Torpedo," by Joseph M. Thatcher Jr. (at http://home.rochester.rr.com/thatchertree/coaltorp.htm), great grandson of Courtenay.] Although, at this very late stage, it is almost impossible to prove that the boiler explosion on the USS Chenango was indeed caused by one of these "coal torpedoes," it can safely be assumed that Courtenay, in his letter of May 21st, 1864, certainly had no reason to lie about this.

What the eventual consequences would have been, had this invention been used much earlier in the war is hard to imagine. However, by the time it was eventually placed in use, the war had just about run its course, and the effect of such a devise would have been rather minimal.

Sources:

Callahan - "List of Officers of the U.S. Navy, and of the Marine Corps, 1775 - 1900," edited by Edward W. Callahan; originally published by L.R. Hamersly & Co., New York, 1901; reprint edition by Olde Soldier Books, Inc., Gaithersburg, Maryland, circa 1987.

DANFS - "Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships," compiled by the Navy Department, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Naval History Division, Washington, D.C.; published by the United States Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.; reprint edition, 1977; refer to the entry for the USS Chenango in volume 2, page 93.

Log - Deck Log of the USS Chenango; original held at the National Archives, Washington, D.C.; all accounts referenced here are from the entry of April 15, 1864.

NYT - New York Tribune, Saturday, April 16, 1864; report of the boiler explosion, under the heading, "Terrible Marine Disaster," page 1.

© Terry Foenander.

March, 2005.