burning of Steamer Lexington, The

Carol W. Kimball

Steamboat Lexington
Fire
Lexington brand cotton
Nathaniel Currier
Currier & Ives
Charles Phelps
The Stonington Cemetery

Kim03-100

Scrapbook

8: Communication Artifact

Documentary Artifact

The Day

New London, CT

03/28/1991

Carol W. Kimball

One frigid night in 1840 the steamboat Lexington burns on Long Island Sound and only four persons of 100 passengers and 40 crew members survive: Capt. Chester Hilliard of Norwich who was a passenger; the vessel's pilot, Capt. Stephen Manchester; Second Mate David Crowley and fireman Charles Smith. Sloop Merchant rescued Hilliard, Manchester and Smith. Crowley floated ashore after drifting for two on a cotton bale. He took the bale of cotton home to Providence and during the Civil War sold it for a high price to a mill that became famous for its "Lexington" brand cotton. Nathaniel Currier, later known as Currier and Ives, issued a print of the burning ship in what may have been the first illustrated extra edition in history. Charles Phelps of Stonington, who perished on the Lexington, has a stone erected to his memory in the Stonington Cemetery.

Hilliard, Chester (Capt.)
Manchester, Stephen (Capt.)
Crowley, David (Second Mate)
Smith, Charles
Vanderbilt, Cornelius (Com.)
Currier, Nathaniel
Phelps, Charles

Lexington
disaster
blazes
fire
Merchant
Providence
Civil War
cotton
Lexington cotton
steamboat
steamer
Long Island Sound
Huntington
Conflagration
Currier & Ives
Stonington Cemetery