Misfortune followed the Annie P. Silver. Built in summer 1878 from the dismantled Susie Silver, she operated in the St. Louis-New Orleans trade. Just over a year after her construction, she caught fire near Cairo, Illinois. The pilot made a run for shore, where someone thought to scuttle the boat and let the river in through the hull. She was later raised, taken to St. Louis, and repaired. In 1882, she struck a snag near Sulphur Springs, Missouri. Five years later she ran into the bank at Kaskaskia Chute.
However, it was on January 21, 1882, that the most notorious event occurred on the Silver. T. Curtis Marsh boarded the Silver at Memphis, taking passage for New Madrid. He was known as a steady and energetic young man prior to that time. Shortly after he boarded, however, he showed strange behavior and wild expressions that led the crew and others to suspect he was insane. He was weak and sick, so the officers of the Silver took him to a state room on the cabin deck and locked the door into the cabin.
When the steamer reached Point Pleasant, Marsh left the boat, thinking he had arrived at New Madrid, but the second clerk, Mr. Daniel Blake, persuaded him he was mistaken and he re-boarded. Shortly thereafter he insisted they had carried him past his landing and wanted the boat stopped. He then made for the pilothouse, but first fired a pistol at a boy carrying coal. The boy dodged and hid upon seeing the pistol.
Marsh reached the pilothouse, occupied by the pilot, Capt. David Silver and Blake. He opened the door slightly and pointed his pistol at the clerk’s head, shooting him through the left temple before anyone could react. Blake died instantly.
Marsh then leveled his pistol at the pilot, but Capt. Silver caught hold of it and received the bullet in his hand—probably saving the life of the pilot. A terrible struggle ensued in which the two men finally overpowered Marsh and took the pistol from him by beating his head with a poker. Twice the steamer veered toward shore as the wheel drifted, but the pilot broke from the struggle to steer it right before returning to the fight.
The Silver landed safely at the New Madrid wharf and the crew handed over Marsh to the authorities. He was taken to Stiefel’s Hotel, medical aid was summoned, and the doctor pronounced him insane and in a very precarious condition. Marsh lingered for several days before expiring from the effects of his malady.
The Annie P. Silver became legendary. Nick Klein, an old watchman on the river, later observed, “I have heard some talk of ghosts on the Annie P. Silver since that—in fact, some of the boys did say that poor old Blake’s spirit hovered around that boat for years. I know anyway that several cooks left, and there was always an impression that something was wrong about her….”
The Annie P. Silver suffered the final fate of so many steamboats on the big rivers. November 8, 1889, she struck a snag 15 miles above Vicksburg, tearing a hole in her bottom that caused her to sink in 8 feet of water within a few minutes. The owners thought she could be easily raised and used as an excursion boat the next summer. However, after she sank the river quickly rose ten feet, destroying her completely. The steamer and its legends of hauntings were at an end.
