The Cibola

Description

Media Type

Image

Item Type

Photographs

Description

This is not a photograph, but a print of a drawing of the Cibola (part of the Niagara Navigation Company) on the Niagara River with Fort Niagara in the background.
Within eight years of being constructed, the Cibola met a tragic fate. Belonging to the Niagara Navigation Company, the Cibola, built in 1888, was moored on the night of July 14, 1895 at the Lewiston dock. The fire was discovered shortly after one o'clock on Monday morning, when about forty people including the officers, crew, engineers, waiters and others were aboard, sound asleep.
The only two men awake on board were William Robinson, night engineer, who had gone on duty at midnight, and who was starting the fires in the boiler, and Robert Kelly, a night watchman, whose duty it was to inspect the ship from time to time.
The report goes on to say that Kelly awoke the crew, but the fire was out of control already. The fire spread quickly, a small warehouse on the dock, the customs house and the American hotel on the bank of the River all succumbed to the fire. The fire burned the ropes of the ship and the ship started to drift in the river.
In the chaos, second engineer, James Woodward and Third Engineer, William Hammond were unable to get onto the dock before the ship started to drift in the river. Woodward, who was fast asleep in the peak, jumped from a window and although he was somewhat burned, he was able to swim ashore. Hammond could not find an exit. He found his way to a porthole, where the people on the shore, who heard his cries for help, could see him. Soon they ceased, and he was lost in the inferno.

Local identifier

989.5.576

Geographic Coverage