Steamboat tragedy of 1853 killed 31

The Jenny Lind was midway through its voyage when steam trapped by a torn boiler pipe exploded outwardly through the ship’s furnace, scalding those in the way, many of them women and children in the dining area.

The Daily Alta California, the major newspaper in San Francisco, reported that the “scene on board beggars description.” Entire families were killed, among them the Noah Ripley family of San Francisco. Ripley, his wife Mary and their four children, all under 10 years of age, perished.

The victims included Jacob Hoppe, one of the founders of the Daily Alta California as well as being the first postmaster of San Jose. The explosion claimed the lives of other prominent citizens, such as Charles White, a rancher who served as mayor of San Jose when it was the Pueblo of San Jose, and Bernard Murphy, who came to California in 1844 in the first wagon train to cross the Sierra.

According to the Daily Alta California account, there would have been no injuries if the blast had taken place just minutes before when the dining area was empty. “No other part of the boat sustained injury,” the paper reported.

Exactly where the steamboat was when the deadly blast occurred is in dispute. The Daily Alta California reported it was abreast of Pulgas Rancho, possibly the land grant that covered much of the Peninsula.

Professor John Haskell Kemble, author of “San Francisco Bay,” a pictorial maritime history published in 1957, wrote that the Jenny Lind was “off San Francisquito Creek,” which would be near present day East Palo Alto.

The steamboat, Kemble wrote, was carrying 125 passengers when the 31 were killed “either on the spot … or soon after from injuries received.” Most modern accounts place the location of the explosion somewhere between the Dumbarton and San Mateo bridges. Don’t go scuba diving in a hunt for the wreckage. Shockingly, despite the damage, the Jenny Lind was repaired and eventually sailed again.

The disaster nearly caused the end of Alviso. Today it is home to a Santa Clara County park which currently features a Salt Marsh Safari that takes visitors on a voyage to view the plentiful wildlife in the area.

In 1853, Alviso was a major player in the Bay Area. Its docks enabled Santa Clara County to ship hay, lumber, local produce and other products to San Francisco and beyond. Passengers, whose only other alternative was a slow and jarring stagecoach ride, could sail to and from San Francisco in relative comfort.

Business at Alviso declined soon after the Jenny Lind explosion. The major reason for its near demise, however, was competition from the San Francisco-San Jose railroad that was completed in 1864. Nevertheless, until the 1890s, the ferry sailed out of Alviso for San Francisco once a day.

In 2013, a marker was dedicated in Alviso to memorialize the victims by listing their names and ages. The wording on the plaque, which is topped by a sketch of the steamboat, ends by saying that Alviso’s “past is forever linked to the history of the ill-fated steamer, Jenny Lind.”

The Rear View Mirror by history columnist Jim Clifford appears in the Daily Journal every other Monday. Objects in The Mirror are closer than they appear.