Steamboat Sinks at Monroe – 1841

Newspaper editors in the early days could get a bit snarky! This one is amusing!

Times-Picayune, December 23, 1841, Page 2

STEAMBOAT LOST. – The steamboat Little Rock sunk recently at Monroe, Louisiana, and her fate is told by the Olive Branch [note: a Monroe newspaper] as follows: “Alas! of all the individuals who sunk with the doomed boat, not one was seen to rise. – Need we say – rats, fleas, musquitoes [sic], bed-bugs, roaches, birds, coons, rabbits, &c., who have inhabited the boat for the last six months, sunk into a watery grave, and, if any escaped, they streaked it so fast that no one saw them. The loss of the boat and cargo is supposed to amount to the enormous sum of $123[.] 6 1/4c., not a particle of which was covered by insurance. We have not learned on whom this irreparable loss will fall. It is supposed, however, it will be borne by either Captain Buckner or her former commander, Captain James Murphey.”