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Moselle (riverboat)

Maritime boiler explosionsMaritime incidents in April 1838Ships sunk by non-combat internal explosionsShipwrecks of the Ohio River
Steamboat Moselle explosion (1838), illus. ex, Lloyd's Steamboat Directory
Steamboat Moselle explosion (1838), illus. ex, Lloyd's Steamboat Directory

The Moselle was a riverboat constructed at the Fulton shipyard, in Cincinnati, Ohio. between December 1, 1837 and March 31, 1838. The Moselle was considered one of the fastest river boats in operation at the time, having completed a record-setting two-day, sixteen-hour trip between Cincinnati and St. Louis. On April 25, 1838, the Moselle, piloted by Captain Isaac Perin, suffered a boiler explosion just east of Cincinnati, killing 160 of the estimated 280–300 passengers. The boat had just pulled away from a dock near the neighborhood of Fulton, when all four boilers simultaneously suffered a catastrophic failure resulting in the total destruction of the ship from the paddlewheels to the bow. The ship drifted approximately 100 yards before sinking to the bottom of the Ohio river. Negligence may have been a factor in the explosion: many eyewitness reports claimed that Captain Perin had been racing another riverboat, the Ben Franklin (1836) at the time of the explosion, and therefore the pressure in the boilers was excessively high.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Moselle (riverboat) (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Moselle (riverboat)
Pipe Alley, Cincinnati East End

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 39.12 ° E -84.475 °
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Address

Pipe Alley
41074 Cincinnati, East End
Ohio, United States
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Steamboat Moselle explosion (1838), illus. ex, Lloyd's Steamboat Directory
Steamboat Moselle explosion (1838), illus. ex, Lloyd's Steamboat Directory
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Charlton Wallace House
Charlton Wallace House

The Charlton Wallace House is a historic residence in the East Walnut Hills neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. Older than all other houses in the neighborhood, it was constructed in 1840 for a group of French-born Catholic monks who brought the house's elaborate wrought iron up the Mississippi River from New Orleans.Built with a mix of stone and brick on a stone foundation, the Wallace House was constructed in a distinctive French Provincial style of architecture. Its unusual architecture mixes plain, unadorned elements with certain Romantic elements that is common in French Provincial buildings in the United States. In 1849, the house was converted into a rectory for the newly founded St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church. Given its new role, the house became a leading part of the Catholic Church's presence in the neighborhood. With the construction of the new church building on an adjacent lot in 1851, the parish priest moved into the house, and it was also used as the parish school in its earliest years. Additionally, the house may have served a more surreptitious purpose: local legend holds that a room in the rear of the basement was employed as a station on the Underground Railroad.In 1877, the parish began to build its present complex of buildings on Woodburn Avenue in Walnut Hills. After the completion of the new property, the parish sold the property; it was later used as the private residence of a family named Baumgartner. In 1976, the house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, qualifying because of its well-preserved historic architecture and because of its place in local history.

Saint Francis De Sales Catholic Church (Cincinnati, Ohio)
Saint Francis De Sales Catholic Church (Cincinnati, Ohio)

Saint Francis De Sales Catholic Church is located at 2900 Woodburn Avenue in the East Walnut Hills neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. The congregation was organized in 1849, and its first building was dedicated on November 3, 1850. The parish patron is Saint Francis de Sales. The cornerstone was laid June 30, 1878, by Archbishop John Baptist Purcell, in the presence of nearly 10,000 persons. The edifice was dedicated December 20, 1879. The interior contains one of the finest altars in the United States, costing $20,000. The parent parishes were St. Mary's Church in Over-the-Rhine and St. Paul Church in Pendleton. The original congregation was mostly German. The main altar at St. Francis de Sales was consecrated by Archbishop W.H. Elder on April 27, 1887. It was a gift of Joseph Kleine and his wife Agnes Kleine, and was sculpted by Fred and Henry Schroeder of Cincinnati from designs by A. Kloster of New York. The altar of pure white Rutland marble and the white marble floor cost $20,000. The altar's onyx pillars and delicate Gothic spires are flanked by statues of SS. Joseph and Agnes in honor of the donors' patron saints. The church is home to Joseph, aka "Big Joe", the largest swinging bell ever cast in the United States. VanDuzen Company (formerly Buckeye Bell Foundry) at Second and Broadway downtown. The bell measures 9 by 7 feet (2.7 m × 2.1 m) in diameter and height respectively; it weighs 35,000 pounds (16,000 kg), including a 640 pounds (290 kg) clapper. Named for the parishioner whose donation to the bell fund was the largest, the bell reputedly could be heard 15 miles (24 km) away when first rung, rattling nearby buildings and loosening stone & mortar. It was soon decided to immobilize the bell, and for more than a century "Big Joe" has relied on a foot hammer striking its rim. In early 1974, the church, its parish school, and its rectory were declared a historic district, the "St. Francis De Sales Church Historic District", and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.