Based on accounts in the Emporia Free State Democrat and other newspapers, the misfortune took place on about the 1st of December, 1857. The steamer burned and was lost close to Baltimore Bar on the Missouri. (Baltimore Bar was a large sandbar next to the town of Hodge, about 65 miles east of Kansas City.) Evidently this was the third steamer of the parent company, The Lightning Line, to suffer a serious accident that season, pointing to the hazards faced by a typical steamboat on the Missouri. The average life span of these boats was perhaps 4-5 years.

This map, taken from an 1897 publication by the Missouri River Comission, shows the location of the New Lucy wreck (top center) along with other wrecks on that stretch of the river.