Public Ledger

A Steamboat Runs Half an Hour Without an Engineer.

[From the Monroe (La.) Telegraph.]

The steamer Rob Roy met with a most singular accident on her last trip down from this place. The engineer on the second night watch had just gone on duty. He was seen by the watchman after going on duty, attending the engines, and otherwise overseeing the machinery. When last noticed he was standing on the fantail at the stern of the boat (the Rob Roy is a stern-wheel boat), oiling the eccentric and gudgeon. Some half an hour later the watchman reported to Captain Benedict that the engineer was missing. This announcement caused no little consternation, since no one knew in what condition the boilers or engines were, nor how soon before some fatal explosion would take place which would cause the death of all on board The engineer previously relieved was immediately aroused and went below. He found the boilers nearly red-hot, the supply of water having been stopped by the missing engineer, as is frequently done on stern-wheel boats, where the doctor's speed cannot be regulated as on side-wheel boats, and he also found the engines considerably damaged. The fires were immediately put out, and the boat tied up for a few hours, after which steam was raised in one of the boilers, and the boat proceeded on to New Orleans, where she is now undergoing repairs preparatory to resuming her regular weekly trips to Monroe and Trenton. The missing engineer undoubtedly fell into the river at the stern of the boat. A short distance below the point on the river where he was last noticed by the watchman, his body was found by Capt. Gip Duke, and was buried by that gentleman. It was half an hour after he was seen at the boat's stern before his absence was observed, and thus the boat must have run half an hour without an engineer. This is, doubtless, one of the most singular steamboat accidents on record.