The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1876-01-01
The Bremerhaven Disaster.

The following details of the explosion
at Bremerhaven, are given by the Weser
Gazette: "The Mosel was ready to COM
mence her journey on Saturday FORE
noon. The steam-tug Simson lay under
her bows, having to tug the Mosel
through the ice into the channel. At the
last moment two wagons came on from
Lloyd's Hall, one with mail goods, the
other with passengers luggage, both to
be shipped. The whole was taken to-
ward the steamer by carts, and when
the last of these, with four cases and
barrel, was unloaded in front of
| the Mosel stupendous .eXplo-
sion took place. The effect was horrible.
| The quay was then thronged with peo-
pie, partly belonging to the steamer,
partly. spectators, and partly passen-
gers who had remained there to take
last farewell Of their friends. An occu-
lar witness, who stood under the gang
way of the Mosel, on hearing the terrific
report, saw number OF black Jumps
flying about in the air, while very few of
the persons on land remained visible.
! Apprehend1ng a boiler explosion, he
threw himself fat on deck, where be
received volley of sand, broken glass,
| fragments of flesh, bones, etc. The devas-
| tatlon on board the Mosel was terrific.
No skylight was left; the cabins ait, star
board and port, were either crushed In
or bulged out by the pressure, or alto
gether smashed; the side plates OF the
ship were burst; the ports, with their
glasses and rivets, forced Inward, and
the whole ship was besmeared with
blood and stuck over with pieces off1esh
and other human debris. In the hold
and all parts OF the ship were found
arms, legs and other portions of the hu-
man frame; thus the lower hold received
some limbs through the open hatchways.
The sides of the hatchways were burst
by the pressure, and the front ut the nav
igation cabin on deck stove in. The
whole ship was Uttered with glass
shreds, which even filed the dishes
from the steam kitchen as they
were being served to the tween
deck or steerage passengers. The tug
got OIL comparatively unhurt, being so
much more below the quay line than the
Mosel, still the whole OF its deck was de-
stroyed. The crew came off with mere
fright, only the engineers and stokers
having been hurt slightly. On land,
where the package had been unloaded, a
hole mad been made from six to seven
| feet deep, which looked as if the earth
had been rammed In from above. The
whole place was strewn with limbs,
shreds of dress, SC. In large
reeking pools of blood you
| might see here an arm, there
a calf, intestines, mutilated busts, &c.
Among the most horrible details of this
calamity is the fate Of the Elmer family,
who were seeing off one of their sons to
California. The father, mother, son, and
son-in-law are dead-all four; the
daughter-ln-iaw has had her arm, and
her child its hand, blown of. The case
| which nx nIodpd had haeu In tho nara nf
the carrier Westermann, Of Bremerha-
ven, and was accompanied on its way
to the steamer by Mr.. Tumiorde, of
whom 1t is said all trace has been lost.
The cart has been shattered into thou
sands of splinters, and the poor horse
had hiss four legs blown off near the
Ihoofs."