The Steamer, Belle Zane, running at night to make up for lost time, capsized during the early morning hours of December 19th, 1845 on the Mississippi River, about fifteen miles above the mouth of the Arkansas River and five miles below the mouth of the White River, after striking a snag which ripped through the hull of the steamboat. The Mississippi was killingly cold that morning, with ice rapidly forming in the river. The air temperature hovered around zero degrees.

    The passengers who survived had only moments to escape before the boat filled with water. Most of them were in their night clothes and were completely unprepared for the disaster which struck and the lethal temperatures which they found themselves facing. Among the passengers, Gerardus Wynkoop, his wife, Nancy (Farrell) Wynkoop and their son, Henry William Wynkoop, were swept into the river and separated. Amazingly, all three survived.

    Shortly after the disaster occurred, the boilers rolled into the river and the hull separated from the cabin, drifting south towards the town of Napoleon, a small hamlet at the mouth of the Arkansas River, where, four hours later, it snagged on a sandbar.

    The cabin floated as far as Island 74, where it too ran aground. The passengers clinging to that portion of the wreck were taken off in a small boat. The citizens of Napoleon opened their doors and hearts to the survivors and later held a social, raising many things for the unfortunate victims of the wreck.

    Of the one-hundred and twenty-five passengers on board at the time, only sixty-four reached the shore. Four of them died of exposure, while others drowned or were swept into the river, never to be seen again.

    Chris.

The Belle Zane Steamboat.
     From the New-York Daily Tribune, New-York, Friday, 9 January, 1846.

The Steamer Belle Zane.
     From the Brooklyn Eagle and Kings County Democrat, Brooklyn, Monday, 12 January, 1846.

The Steamer Belle Zane.
     From the Hartford Courant, Hartford, Connecticut, Tuesday, 13 January, 1846.

More About The Belle Zane.
     From the New-York Daily Tribune, New-York, Wednesday, 14 January, 1846.

The Sinking of the Belle Zane.
     The Mississippi River, December 19th, 1845.