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Disaster on the Potomac (DC) (VA): The Last Run of the Steamboat Wawaset
Disaster on the Potomac The Last Run of the Steamboat Wawaset - DC - VA Author:Alvin F. Oickle 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 pu... more »ts 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.« less