Tulip Disaster--Centennial Service

Archive

-

St. Mary's County Historical Society, Leonardtown, MD

Name/Title

Tulip Disaster--Centennial Service

Entry/Object ID

2014.018.0038

Scope and Content

1 folder ; 14 3/4" x 9 5/8" Captain Schumann, Patuxent River Naval Air Station commanding officer in 1964, decided to have a service to commemorate the centennial of the Tulip disaster. He later sent Mr. Beitzell a copy of the Lancaster Intelligencer of 1864 with an article about the tragedy, several 8 x 10 photos of the service, and a photocopy of an article in the Beacon quoting correspondence about the original event. The photos are described in the photos module. November 16, 1864 Lancaster Intelligencer from Lancaster Pennsylvania has an article that is 1 column wide and 10 3/4" long about the explosion of the gunboat Tulip. The boat left St. Inigoes about 3 pm on November 11 and exploded off Ragged Point about 6:20. Only 10 people out of 57 officers and men survived the initial explosion and 2 of those died shortly thereafter. November 11, 1964 St. Mary's Beacon article about the Tulip disaster. It quoted correspondence from a retired Navy captain who was visiting his grandparents at Cross Manor at the time, where the Tulip had been berthed. He remembered the captain of the gunboat planning to use the boat's defective boiler to go faster up the Potomac River to escape Confederate batteries. That was his first and last mistake. Eight bodies that could not be identified were buried together on the Cross Manor property. In the late 1930s, the federal government purchased the small property. Eventually, a monument was put up. The time and place of the centennial service were at the end of the article. The article is with the photos in Box 1.

Collection

County Trust Company Collection

Archive Items Details

Date(s) of Creation

1864 - 1964

Location

Folder

County Trust Collection, Folder 3

Drawer

Drawer 8

Cabinet

Map Case

Room

Basement

Building

Tudor Hall

Folder

County Trust Collection, Folder 3

Drawer

Drawer 8

Cabinet

Map Case

Room

Basement

Building

Tudor Hall

Relationships

Related Person or Organization

Person or Organization

Schumann, R. W.

Person or Organization

Ellicott, James M.

Person or Organization

Jones, Caleb M. (fl. 1865)

Person or Organization

Parker, Foxall

Person or Organization

Smith, William Henry