Reindeer
Passenger Steamboat · United States · Lost 1852 · Hudson River
A Hudson River steamboat destroyed by a boiler explosion at the Malden landing in September 1852.
Become Captain of RecordSee Shipwreck on Map
The Vessel and Her Loss
Reindeer was a side-wheel steamboat working the Hudson River passenger trade in the early 1850s. On 4 September 1852, while landing passengers near Malden, one of her boilers let go. Fire followed the explosion and the steamer was destroyed. Many aboard were killed or badly scalded, and the disaster was cited in the pressure for stricter federal inspection of steamboat boilers.
Vessel
- 1850
- Not established
- Not established
- Wood
- Not established
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- Side-wheel steam
- Not established
Loss
- September 4, 1852
- Mechanical failure
- Off Malden, Hudson River, New York
- Hudson River
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- Contemporary reports place the dead at several dozen; no agreed figure was found.
- Not established
The Wreck Today
- Not established
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- Not established
Position
- 42.11° N 73.93° W
- Reported, unconfirmed
- Malden-on-Hudson, New York
Position given for the Malden landing where the explosion occurred.
Evidence
Overall confidence: Partially documented (58/100)
The number of lives lost and the fate of the wreckage are not settled in the sources reviewed.
Hudson River Maritime Museum
Service history and the boiler explosion of 1852.
Contemporary New York newspaper accounts, September 1852
Date, place, cause and reported casualties.
