Morning journal and courier., 1880-07-22
News by Telegraph FROM ALL QUARTERS. TerribleD1saster Caying in of the Hudson
 River Tunnel. Twenty Lives Supposed to be
 Lost. ARRANGEMENTS FOR RECOVERING
 THE BODIES. Turkey Must Stand by Her Treaty. The American Riflemen's Success.
NEW JERSEY.


 Terrible DIsnster i'm the Hudson River
 TunneI-Twenty Men Killed and
 Eight Escape-Story Of the Fortunate l Ones.
 JERSEY CITY, July 21-This morning the
 caisson surrounding deep well leading to the foot of Sixteenth street in this city, caved ! in, carrying with it an immense quantity ot l earth. Twenty men were buried. Eight 1 were taken out alive, while fourteen re- mained underneath. The water from the river flowed in rapidly, and the steam fire en- l zine was set to work to save, if possible, 1 those who might still be alive, from drown l ing. The workmen resided in the vicinity of l the tunnel, and a very large and excited crowd of persons soon congre9ated.
 l The tunnel had been extended out about three hundred feet from the working shaft. | The accident occurred close to the working l shaft. There is a space of about thirty feet i from the working shaft to the point in the tunnel where the permanent work has been built. This passage slopes toward the river and has hitherto been protected by tempor- ary filling. The workmen have been engaged for several days replacing this temporary bulking with permanent work. The iron plating above the roof had been placed their way downward through the silt and debris, putting in the iron plates at the sides. It is supposed that some of these plates which were placed next the brick wall of the working shaft were not placed close enough to confne the compressed air supplied to the men working in the shaft by the engine on the surface. This compressed air worked it's way out, turning the plates backward and allowing the water to flow into the tunnel. It was not the water directly from the river that flowed in, as the place where the break occurred is about fifty feet from the bulkhead, but the ground is filled-in ground and was much loosened and broken up
 by the excavation for the working shaft. The ground is filled with water, and as soon as current was created the water from the river rushed in through the bulkhead, filling the tunnel and working through the refuse shaft to the working shaft, filing it with fifty feet of water and coming within ten or twelve feet of the surface of the ground. The ground immediately over the break sank down about eight or ten feet, and the water is now standing foot two deep in the bottom of this hole.
 Immediately after the accident word was sent to the Second precinct police station in Jersey City, and Captain Edmundson hasten ed to the scene with five of his men and kept back the crowd of excited men and women.
 Messrs. Spellman and Brush, the engineers in charge of the work, furnished the follow ing statement for publication:
 This morning at about 4:30 a. nl., while the men were changing shifts that portion of the iron roof adjoining the shaft and the con- necting chamber between the two tunnels and the working shaft, fell in.
 o1 xln time, of whom eight escaped through the air lock and twenty were killed. The accident occurred at the connection of the iron plates with the brick wall of the working shaft which during the changing of the shifts was probably not watched as closely as 1t should have been, and the compressed air was aI- lowed to escape. This compressed air is re- lied upon to assist in supporting the roof, which was also sustained by strong timber bracing and the escape of the air has always been prevented by stopping any leaks with the waste silt. AS the roof fell the plates the tunnel, and the water rising rap idly cut off the escape of the tBen- ty men who were killed The build ing of this connecting chamber, through a difficult piece of work has been very sue cessfully advanced until now. The roof was all in position and securely bolted. The con- nection of the iron plates with the shaft was making at the time of the accident. Work will be prosecuted night and day with all the men that can be advantageously employed until the bodies are recovered, which will prob1y take about three days The accident will probably delay the work for three weeks.
 James Hay, of No. 213 Newark avenue, Jersey City, who of the men who es- capped through the air-locl, gave the follow ing account of the accident. He said: ''At o'clock all but twelve of us who were at work in the chamber went through the airlock and up the shaft for lunch. At about half-past they came back again, and we who had not yet gone stopped work and were ready to go for our lunch. Two or three men were in the air-lock and ten or twelve of were near the air-lock waiting for these men to come out so that we could go up. Just as these men were coming out of the lock leak occurred in the mud on the northern side of the chamber, very near the air-lock. It did not frighten us much, because we had seen leaks of this kind be- fore, and knew what to do in order to stop them. We immediately set to work trying to plaster up and stop the leak with mud. But it was no use. It increased constantly. The air rushed through it at terrific pace, mak- ing very loud hissing noise like steam engine blowing off steam at high pressure. In less than a minute we saw 1t was no use We could not stop the leak. We waited for the orders of Night Superintendent Peter Woodland who had charge of the gang. He told us to save ourselves, and seven or eight of us succeeded in doing so. I rushed into the air lock with others. It was not two minutes before the whole thing was over. The water began to pour in upon and was rising fast A tremendous pressure closed the air lock door next to the chamber and poor Olaf Anderson, miner, was jammed in the door, heard thegmen inside moaning and Anderson was crushed to death by the door. tried to help him out but he was nearly dead in @ second. He clutched my hand as if it was his death grip, and I had all I could do to release myself from his grasp We thought that we should surely be drowned because the water rising fast. We attempted to open the inside door to let the other workmen out, but Superintendent Woodland, who was in the chamber with the others called to us to save ourselves and send the others help as quickly as we could. We put all our strength to the outside door to open it. It opened toward us of course. But we could not start 1t. Then we almost gave up hope But one man had an iron bar with which we broke the two holes in the door, which were filled with very thick glass. This was to let the water out, but they were not large enough to keep the water from ris- ing Help arrived outside the door, and two men pushed the door while we pulled, and we finally opened it against the force of the water Then we scrambled up the circular stairs of the large brick shaft and got out. After that Mike Kerley, the night watchman. and went back into the a1r-lock to see If we could get the outside door open, but the roof of the chamber had fallen in, the water had risen and we could not budge the door, All then was still I believe the men were drowned by that time It was all over in few minutes.
 Thomas Brady, one of the survivors, says: The groanings and meanings of dying men could be distinctly heard. As soon we got to the surface we commenced tearing down sheds and removing other heavy materials over the spot where the leak occurred in order to tighten the pressure over the leaky spot in the tunnel
 The tunnel company begun several years ago by Colonel c. D. Haskins. He finally succeeded in enlisting capitalists in the enterprise and applications for charters were made to both the New Jersey and New York Legislatures. Considerable opposition was met with from railroad companies, and it was not until last winter that the charter was obtained in Albany. The corper- ation is known as the Hudson Tun- nel Railroad Company and the capital S1O OO0 GOO Work had been going on slowly at intervals. but on November 1st last work was begun earnestly on the shaft at the foot of 10th street, Jersey City,. and has been prosecuted steadily ever since. Noth- ing yet has been done on the New York side