General Jackson
Steamboat · United States · Lost 1831 · Hudson River
A Hudson River passenger steamer whose boiler exploded at Grassy Point in Haverstraw Bay in 1831, one of the era's frequent river steamboat disasters.
Become Captain of Record
The Vessel and Her Loss
General Jackson was a sidewheel steamboat owned by Jacob Vanderbilt running between New York City and Peekskill on the Hudson River. On 7 June 1831, while under way, her boiler exploded near Grassy Point in Haverstraw Bay, killing at least two people and injuring several others, including passengers thrown by the blast. Period press accounts described scalded survivors and damage to the vessel; the disaster contributed to competitive pressure among Hudson River steamboat lines of the era.
Vessel
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- Wood
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- Steam, sidewheel
- Jacob Vanderbilt
Loss
- June 7, 1831
- Mechanical failure
- Haverstraw Bay, Hudson River, near Grassy Point
- Hudson River
- New York, New York → Peekskill, New York
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- 2
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The Wreck Today
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Position
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- Grassy Point, Haverstraw Bay, New York
Loss located generally within Haverstraw Bay near Grassy Point; no exact coordinates published.
Evidence
Overall confidence: Partially documented (55/100)
Her ultimate salvage or breaking-up disposition after the explosion is not established in the sources reviewed.
Contemporary newspaper accounts of the boiler explosion and its aftermath.
Wikipedia, List of shipwrecks in June 1831
Date, location (Haverstraw Bay), and loss-of-life figure.
