The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-10-23
A RAILROAD HORROR.
Pullman Train Runs into a Freight
Train at SeabrOOk, N. HI.
Several Cars Wrecked.
Three Men Killed and Twelve or Fifteen
Badly Injured.
Full Particulars of the Scene.

train was at Seabrook depot, waiting for til
Pullman train to pass it. The Pullman trai
came along on its regular time, about 4.15, an
when in close proximity to the switch the eng
neer discovered that it was wrong. He imme
diately whistled for "dswn brakes" reverse
his engine, and leaped from the locomotive
The fireman remained on it. The train wen
crashing into the freight train, telescoping sey
eral of the rear cars of the freight train an
smashing them into slivers. The express car o
| the Pullman train was next to the engine, an
was not much injured. The baggage, mail
smoking and one passenger car, were telescop
ed into each other and driven into the passen
| ger car. a solid mass, nearly two-thirds it
length. 1t was in this car where the only in
juries were sustained by the passengers. The
only passengers injured were in 1.-THE smoking
car, and look at the wrecked train woult
cause wonder how any could have escaped
alive.
The following is the list of the names OF the
killed and wounded as far as ascertained now
Capt. Robert Norton of Gardiner, Me-, killeo
instantly chad on his person $1,000, gold watcl
and papers of value); David f. Howard of Ban
Boi, iHJuIcu puo ~ 10 eiioo5ho nv
seriously; George w. Trott of Barring, Maine,
not seriously; Capt James M. Blaisdell OF
Brunswick, Maine, badly but not dangerously
injured on hip and leg; Earnest Holbrook Of
Portsmouth, left foot badly jammed; Thomas
j. Sanborn, Rye, mail agent, leg badly crush
ed; VIM. Allen, Bangor badly injured about
the stomach and bowels; Charles Estes, Elliot,
Maine, brakeman, badly cut apd bruised; Thos.
B. Cannon, baggage master, bruised but not
severely. The escape of the latter was miracu-
lous. He was sitting in the middle of the bag
gage car when the accident occurred, and was
only conscious of being rapidly borne through
a mass of ruins until he found himself at the
rear end of the smoking car amid the debris OF
broken iron and splinters of wood. Everett e.
Holbrook, Portsmouth, foot damned and leg
scalded One man, injured seriously, about 81
years of age, is delirious and talks of George
Hayward, Minneapolis, and Randolph, Mass.
He cannot live. VIM. H. Fairbanks of Win
throp, Maine, had his left thigh broken and re-
ceived two severe cuts on the head He may
recover. Charles Estes, brakeman of Pullman
train, was severely injured internally and his
recovery is doubtful. He belongs in Elliott,
Maine. A. B. Howdlett, Boston, fractured
clavicle and slight internal injuries Elisha
Seprill, Somerville New Brunswick, right hand
badly jammed; w. H. Whitenett, st. John, N.
b., slightly damned; Horatio Hall, Brunswick,
Maine slightly injured; A. NJ. Curtis, Bowdoin-
ham, Maine, fracture of right leg and slight in
ternal injuries. Some twelve or fifteen wound
ed in all, some probably fatal
Al.
have arrived in Boston. None of the passen-
gers in the two Pullman cars were injured
The train was running about twenty miles per
hour when the collision occurred. The Con-
ductor, Mr.. Goodhue, was in the last car at the
time of the disaster.
The body of Captain Norton was taken to
Portsmouth, where an inquest will be held.
Up to 2 o'clock p. M, Capt Norton was the
only person dead The wounded are being well
cared for f.
Second Despatch-Anoiher Death.
NEwBURYPoRT, Mass, Oct. 22.-Mr. Walk
er of Salem, has died of injuries at the Sea-
brook disaster, making two deaths in all At
the Merrimac House in this city are three men
severely injured, viz: Henry Fairbanks of
Winthrop, Me-, left thigh broken in two places,
right leg bruised and cut in the head Eben
NJ. Anderson, q years of age. of Annapolis, N.
S., ON his way to Providence, r. l., head badly
injured, but will recover. Jacob Edwards of
Annapolis, N. s., 2S years old, was slightly in
jured.
to Minneapolis, is lying fatally injured in the
spine at the City Hospital.
No Clue to the Cause.
The cause of the catastrophe is regarded as
mystery, as freight train had but twelve min
utes before passed the misplaced switch that
afterward caused the accident, and it was of
course all right then, and there had been no oc-
casion to change it again.
CorOner's Inquest.
PORTSMOUTH, n. H.. Oct 22.-Coroner Ry-
der has commenced an inquest on the Eastern
railroad accident at Seabrook, over the body of
Capt. Norton of Gardiner The jury consists
of j HI. Kent of this city, Emery Brown and
Robert Collins of Seabrook Aft.r the exam
ination ON one witness, Conductor johnson of
Newburyport, the jury adjourned till Wednes-
day morning and the body of Capt. Norton
was forwarded to Gardiner. "
Statements of Passengers and Incidents.
Nearly everybody ON board the train was
either browsing or sound asleep when the crash
came. The shock was no sooner realized than
all were pitched from their seats. In the
smoking car, visited but few moments be-
fore by one gentleman, nearly every seat was
occupied. This car is now ragged covering to
the WRECK OIL UDo baggage CdTY WulCu WAS bSIcS-
COPIED within. As the baggage car came through
several were pushed out upon the road-bed up
on the heavier parts of their seats, for the sides
of the car were rent open in many places as
large as a small house door, and pieces of the
flooring, with the seats, were thereby tipped
out. But the majority OF the passengers in the
smoking car were not so fortunate. AS soon as
the momentum ceased, those who were in the
uninjured Pullman cars Gears went to the res
cue of those whose screams told them that fell
dark, not then four o'clock, and it was by the
aid of lights that the injured ones were SEEM
The lamps in the broken baggage and smoking
cars and upon the engine and on the conduct
or's car of the freight train, were all extin-
gushed by the conclusion, so that the addi-
tional terror of conhagration to such a scene
was not suffered.
The scene of the wreck can be best described
by the remark of one gentleman, who said
THE two sleeping cars are all right, and they
with the half of the partially injured passenger
car directly in front stand on the main track
while for space of fifty feet on the siding are
piled the wreck of first an engine, two freigh
| cars Zone the conductors and the other an all
cary, a tender, baggage and mail, and smoking
| cars and part of the only passenger car of thu
| Eastern road"
This gives one an idea of the terrible mass Of
broken, sand-cOvered car work among whicl
were buried or imprisoned at least twenty-foul
persons, all of whom were undergoing pain.
| WIN ralirOdu iron, Cney VINO Were awe 2n0
| sound of limb took to the work of separating
the heavy timbers from the main body of thu
debris in order to extrcate the INJURED. But on
death face was presented at the time, and i
was that of Capt Norton, who had come ives
from his home in Maine that night. The repor
was at once circulated that the engineer, Mr.
Putnam Newhall, was killed outright, but tn
truth was shown to be that he was alive an
only injured in the face, which laceration wa
received as he jumped fIom the engine afte
the YESTERDAYS brakes had been set, the ma
chine reversed and the proper signals given
The fireman was not fortunate in getting
place to jump upon and SO stuck to the engine
it is said, as it tore through two cars of tn
freight traic. tti.
Capt Norton was in the forward part of tn
smoking car when the collision occurred, an
in the wreck was found his body, under til
flooring of the baggage car. He was shocking
ly broken in limb, and must have been imm'
diately killed. Some twelve persons were min;
led in the ruins about him, and these were til
more terribly injured, not one escaping withol
some bone or bones broken. Not one in Il
smoking car escaped and some had very ma
row chances. One mans experience was, as
described it to our informant, "almost laugh
: ble." We are told he did laugh when recitin
although his hand was broken and shouldt
had been disocated. He said: Il had in
awoke, when felt myself flying out a windo
, at right angles to the old car side when 1 sa
, a solid piece of timber coming for me, rig
straight from the front of the car. But w
. the fastest and had left the car when that pas
y ed the place 1 left. If you want to know mo
of it can't tell yer," was the Yankee story al
reply.
One man said he felt as if the bottom of t
car had been let out from under him and
T dropped in air, but the landing, he said, W