Daily News (Kingston, ON), 3 Sep 1885

p.4 Floating Facts - Ten vessels have passed the canal for Kingston.

-The str. Hiram Calvin took withes to the Island today.

-The schr. Elgin has been chartered to bring coal from Charlotte for Swift's.

-The prop. Nashua unloaded grain at Morristown yesterday.

-The steamer Rothesay has been laid up in the mouth of the Gananoque River all summer.

-The steambarge Nipigon, with consorts Middlesex and Melbourne, are at Ogdensburg with grain.

-The schr. Acadia has arrived at Toronto with 35 toise of stone taken from the shoals in this harbor.

-The steambarge Laura and Bruno are at the M.T. Company's dock lightening deals. They came from Manistee.

-The schr. L.S. Hammond has been chartered to carry 20,000 bushels of wheat to Kingston from Chicago at 3 7/8 cents per bushel.

-The steamer Corsican from Toronto; props. Armenia, Montreal; Lake Ontario, Montreal; Dominion, Montreal called at Swift's.

-The steamer Corinthian did not arrive here yesterday from Montreal until 7:30 o'clock last evening, four hours late. She was delayed at the Cornwall canal.

-The steamer Island Chief, which encountered a rock in the river on Saturday morning, during a heavy fog, has been released. She escaped without injury and went on her old route yesterday.

-Col. Hance's steamer Annie Laurie made her last trip for the season between Alexandria Bay and Cape Vincent on Monday. Hereafter the St. Lawrence will be able to do all the business of the route, making two trips daily.

-The steamer Gipsy, which is now running between Kingston and South Bay instead of the steamer Armenia, is commanded by Captain Hull, one time aresident of Wolfe Island. The engine is attended to by Mr. Lawrence O'Brien. The steamer was compelled to lay over here last night on account of the heavy sea running.

THE HERO'S ACCIDENT

Steamboat Inspector Burgess, of Montreal, arrived here yesterday afternoon, and made an examination into the cause of the accident to the boiler of the steamer Hero on Saturday last. He made a personal inspection of the boiler and heard the statements of the engineers in charge. His report is to the effect that the present condition of the crown sheets of the furnaces shows, beyond any question, that the accident was due to the want of water over the crown sheets of the furnaces causing them to heat and become soft, the pressure within bulging them outwards between the stays. The crown sheet of the starboard furnace was the first to be forced away from the stays which strengthened it, and allowed the steam inside to escape through the stay bolt holes into the fire, driving the gases and smoke out through the front of the boiler into the fire hold, where the fireman was, and immediately suffocating him there. The statement of the first engineer is that the water glass was full to within two inches of the top when the steamer arrived at Deseronto, the inspirator which feeds water when the boat is not running being then working.

The statement of the second engineer, who was on watch at the time of the accident, is, that he did not try the water himself at starting, but after the boat had left Deseronto he looked at the glass and did not see the water coming down in it, by which he took it to be full, and then told the fireman to try the water, and the fireman told him there was plenty of water. The result, however, shews that there was a mistake in regard to the water.