| Disaster on the Potomac: The Last Run of the Steamboat Wawaset Contributor(s): Oickle, Alvin F. (Author) |
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ISBN: 154022077X ISBN-13: 9781540220776 Publisher: History Press Library Editions OUR PRICE: $28.79 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: November 2009 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | United States - State & Local - South (al,ar,fl,ga,ky,la,ms,nc,sc,tn,va,wv) - History | United States - 19th Century - Transportation | Ships & Shipbuilding - General |
| Dewey: 975.529 |
| Physical Information: 0.38" H x 6" W x 9" (0.76 lbs) 130 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 19th Century - Chronological Period - 1851-1899 - Geographic Orientation - Virginia - Cultural Region - South Atlantic - Cultural Region - Southeast U.S. |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: For passengers of the steamboat Wawaset, August 8, 1873, began with a pleasant cruise from Washington, D.C., down the Potomac River. As the Wawaset came into sight of a small Virginia landing, fire broke out below decks, and frantic passengers leapt from the flames only to be pulled down by the swift waters. Author Alvin F. Oickle puts a human face to the tragedy as he profiles some of the seventy-five who perished, among them young mother Alethea Gray and six members of the Reed family. With a fast-paced style and firsthand accounts, Oickle masterfully narrates the last run of the Wawaset against the backdrop of a tense post-Civil War society. |
Contributor Bio(s): Oickle, Alvin F.: - Alvin Oickle is the author of two other recent disaster books"? from The History Press: Disaster in Lawrence: The Fall of the Pemberton Mill and Disaster at Dawn: The Cedar Keys Hurricane of 1896. His other nineteenth-century history books include Jonathan Walker: The Man with the Branded Hand. Al has been an Associated Press feature writer, a daily newspaper editor and a writing instructor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His long career in journalism has also extended into broadcasting." |