ABSTRACT
… the news was reed, of the loss of the Pulaski steamer (see Figure 30), on her passage from Charleston to Baltimore, & of more than 200 persons on board her only 15 saved! Her loss occasioned by the bursting of her boiler, which caused her to sink. The Southern members, who had friends on board her look sad and solemn. Gov. Hamilton [South Carolina] & his two sons, it is said were on board her. Such losses are dreadful. The Nation must shake off its apathy about steam navigation and arouse itself; legislation must be had on the subject or nobody’s life will be safe who travels. Only last October the Home was lost with many valuable lives—recently the Moselle was blown up & hundreds of human beings hurried into eternity in a moment—the paper of today contains the account of the burning of the Washington on Lake Erie & the loss of more than 50 lives! Something must be done, or steam navigation had better never been discovered—it will prove, to the human race rather a curse than a blessing [ 4 , p. 88].
