SHOOTS THE WHIRLPOOL RAPIDS AND STILL LIVES

Buffalo Courier’s Report

[Welland Tribune, 13 July 1900]

Niagara Falls, N.Y., July 9-In his boat the Foolkiller, this afternoon, Bowser of Chicago, has navigated the terrible whirlpool rapids of the Niagara River in safely and is now one of the curiosities of the country. The much advertised affair occurred this afternoon.

The boat was launched last night on the Canadian side of the river near the Maid of the Mist landing, and this morning it was towed to the American side, as Bowser had promised the Canadian police that he would not board the boat from that side of the river, providing they let him put it in the water.

Bowser secured a boatman to tow the boat down the river just below the milling district where it was moored to the bank.  Here at 3 o’clock he went and for an hour was busy preparing for his remarkable voyage.

The river banks for miles down were lined with a curious and skeptical crowd. His boatman started to tow the boat out into the river at just 4.30 o’clock.

The craft started all right and began to drift down. It shot the “swift drift” at ten minutes after four, and passed over towards the American side. Here it reached a current that swept the boat over to the Canadian shore and in a few moments it was caught in a powerful eddy made by one of the little bays of the river on the Canadian side and was whirled around in it three times, taking over half an hour. Bower signalled to his boatman who was on the bank, and he came and towed him from the eddy. This was at 4.50 o’clock. The Foolkiller then started direct downstream in the middle and came down towards the Cantilever bridge of the Michigan Railroad with the swift current. It escaped all the eddies and shot under the railway steel arch bridge into the terrible whirlpool rapids at exactly 5 o’clock.

The Foolkiller behaved handsomely and rode the first waves capitally. Bowser waved his hat carelessly to the crowd above him and smiled reassuringly. The second heavy wave swept completely over the boat, submerging Bowser. On and on the mad rush of water swept the Foolkiller, but always keel down and Bowser in the cockpit, all right.

When near the centre of this fearful piece of rapids the boat was turned broadside and took several big seas, but did not capsize. The monstrous waves finally turned her bow on and swept over it. For several seconds at a time, the boat with its occupant, was out of sight in the raging flood, but again it would appear, always right side up, with Bowser half drowned, but still in that boat.

Bowser was alive, but he did not have any time or heart to wave his hat. He was grittily hanging on for his life in the little cockpit of the boat. In less than five minutes he had run the rapids and had shot into the great whirlpool. After having one or two pretty fierce shakings in the fierce swirls of this pool he was carried around into the smoother water and whirled about.

Bowser and his boat were in the whirlpool from 5.05to 5.40 o’clock, moving around at the will of turbulent water. Twice the boat entered the centre of the pool and was submerged. Bowser had no control over it. Finally the craft struck a current that took it to a point about fifty yards from the shore, and Arch Donald, Frank Hyde and Howard Lake swam out and towed it ashore. As the navigator stepped out of the boat he exclaimed, “What is the matter with Bowser now?” A fire had been built and the navigator was given a change of clothing. He was shivering as with the ague. A hundred or more people who had descended the wild and torturous Indian path shook his hands and congratulated him.

To a Courier reporter he said, “It was an awful experience. The whirlpool rapids are nothing like I had thought they were. They are many times rougher. Had I known the truth I never would have attempted the trip. I have no idea of trying again. I have got the laugh on those people who wanted to introduce me to the coroner, but the people have got the laugh on me in the matter of the boat line for the Pan-American. I have been through the rapids safely, and if that is encouragement enough for anyone to start a pleasure boat line, why they are perfectly welcome.

“After I passed through the first big waves that engulfed me I found that my hat, which had been drawn tightly over my head, had been washed off. I waved it off, and then some waves struck me, and it was all off. I didn’t realize much of anything after that until I came out into the whirlpool. During the brief time that I was going through the rapids it seemed as if a hundred men were pounding my head and the boat with great hammers. The boat never turned over, but it was on its side and ends several times. Each time I thought I was a goner sure. Only the straps, which at the last minute I decided to fasten to the boat and over my shoulders, saved me from death. I did not say any prayer; I did not have time to think of one. I was mighty cold and tired when I came out into the whirlpool. I will rest now until next Saturday, when I must be back in my work in Chicago, as my two weeks’ vacation ends then.

“I haven’t done this to get dime museum fame. I honestly believed that a boat line through the rapids would be practical, but I am convinced that it would not be. I would not make another such trip for any amount of money. I got through by rare good luck. I would forget it if I could. Three or four times my breath was nearly gone, and then the waters would open and let in some air. I did not use my steering apparatus at all, for I couldn’t. I just went into the rapids and the rapids did the rest.”

The navigator was taken to his hotel in a carriage. The boat is still in the whirlpool. A number of ladies shook hands with Bowser after he landed. The first was Mrs. Harry Castle of Detroit, and the second Miss Alma Garrett, of Niagara Falls, Ont.

Bowser is an assumed name for this daring navigator. His real name is Peter Nissen. He is a Dane and is 37 years of age. He was born in Denmark and came to this country seventeen years ago with his parents and settled near Chicago. For several years past he conducted a private school on the west side, but teaching not being profitable, he left it to make bookkeeping his business.

He was fifteen months building this boat, and did a great deal of the work on it himself. The immense weight of the keel, which was a steel shaft, hanging below the wooden keel, was the real success of the boat. There were four large bulkheads and six air-tight compartments, filled with cork. It was very strongly built and was able to withstand the terrible pressure and strain put upon it without a scratch or the breaking of a timber. The boat weighed 4,300 pounds and the keel nearly a ton. Bowser had given great study to the river and the rapids. He visited here in the spring and secured a walking pass on the Gorge Road, which skirts the water’s edge, and watched the effect of the big ice floes going through the rapids and the currents of the river. He made up his mind then that he could successfully navigate the rapids and went back to Chicago fully determined to build a boat that would carry him through.