On Feb. 10, 1851 the sidewheeler Autocrat collided with the Magnolia at Bayou Goula, 100 above New Orleans,
Louisiana. She was en route for Memphis and carrying a good amount of freight and passengers. She had made
a record freight run in 1848 when she carried 4,407 bales of cotton from Memphis to New Orleans for her
owner Capt. James W. Goslee. He was an experienced captain even owning part in several other ships.
From the sources I have it seems he was not at the helm that night, as the master of the ship is reported to have
been killed. If he was the master then the reports of his death were erroneous, he lived until Apr. 1, 1875 when
he was run over by a train in Anchorage, Kentucky.
Nevertheless the ship he owned, by all reports, sank within 5 to 10 minuets taking over thirty lives, including
those of a Mr. Ferguson and his child. The following story appeared in papers of the time.
"A Mr. Ferguson, we do not know his place of residence, but understand his father is landlord of the Gayora
House, Memphis, snatched his child from the arms of his wife, and ran to the forecastle, leaving his wife, in the wildness of his alarm, in the ladies' cabin. He stood by us a moment, and made such appeals to save himself and child, I trust in God I never may have occasion to hear again.
We got him somewhat calm and quiet, and for which he stopped to thank us, but the next moment the cry that "we are lost?' was heard, and indeed it was cruelly true with them, for he attempted to leap to the Magnolia, and fell with his child into the pitiless element to rise no more.
His wife was saved, and as she stood on the shattered wreck watching with the wildest eagerness for the
husband and child, she saw a man struggling in the water whom she supposed to be him. By maniac yells and distracted appeals she induced attention to the drowning man, and by power almost superhuman he was rescued, and when he reached the boat the lady fell round him with her arms, and thanked God for the salvation of her husband. Poor, helpless widowed woman! She awoke from a sad and cruel dream, clinging with frenzied tenacity to the neck of him who was another's.
You may partially imagine surrounding scenes when the gentleman thus saved remarked that he almost wished indeed it had been her protector instead of himself."
Many people were saved but the number is unknown, the cargo was insured for $28,000 but the passengers
belongings were not, one man lost $5,000, a tidy sum for that day in time. The ship sank so quickly that the
startled passengers had no chance to save any of their belongings and what did not go down with the ship was
rapidly pillaged by local "villains" leaving them with nothing.
Most of those who died were deck passengers and crew, however it was reported that several cabin passengers
also perished on that day. The third engineer was also killed and if as an afterthought one report states that
six negros were also killed, this was reported in only one article I could find.
