STEPHEN SAALMAN
GUEST COLUMNIST
It is a historical fact that on the rainy night of May 8-9, 1825, the steamboat, Mechanic, sank in the Ohio River with the Marquis de Lafayette aboard. Several varying narratives of the shipwreck, have been recorded, and each makes separate claims to the authenticity.
First, a brief sketch of the official legend, from Thomas De la Hunt’s “History of Perry County,” written in 1916, 91 years after the shipwreck.