Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1885-02-28
WHERE nANY VICTIMS FELL.
xlAe Horrible Explosion &C mremer,
haven wildly Recalled.

IccaHeu 0ther atrOcI0u8 attempts similar
IN character. Among them may be men
toned the partial destruction Of the
Royal Palace in st. Petersburg by Nj
hiiists. the murder Of the czar BY bombs
thrown beneath his carriage by members
OF the same order, the more recent at
tempts on the life of the emperor Of
Germany, the attempts to blow up the
mansion house in London, and notably
the great dynamite plot at Bremerhaven,
planned and executed by the notorious
Thomassen. This frightful crime in
volved the loss Of over one hundred in
nOcent persons and for cold FLOODED
atrocity has no parallel in the annals of
crime.
Tnomassen, whose right name was
William King Thompson, was about
thirty eight years of age and married.
His crime was the result of greed for
pecuniary gain, and he had but one ac-
complete, mechanician named Fuchs,
residing at Bernberg, Germany, who
manufactured for Thomassen the infer.
nal machine with which the heIlish deed
was accomplished. In 1866 Thomassen
was arrested in Berlin charged with
scuttling ship on board of which he
had goods insured in England for
ga, 900, but he subsequently managed
to escape. How many other disasters he
was the direct cause of has never been
ascertained. but it is not likely that he
had been idle in the interim between
that crime and the ficndish plot at Brem-
erhaven in 1875.
1t then transpircd that Thomassen and
Fuchs had been negotiating for internal
machines from 1873 up TO the time of
the disaster. The latter made clock
work apparatus to run noiselessly for ten
DAYS, when it caused lever to act and
strike with a force of thirty pounds.
Twenty of these machines had been
ordered. Thomassen telling the maker
they were required for mandatory in
the United States. The particulars of
the terrible catastrophe are thus wildly
recalled:
On December II, 1875, the North
German Lloyd steamer Mosel was lying
alongside the quay at Bremerhaven and
was about ready to sail for this port.
She was laden with freight. and had
embarked her passengers. while their
luggage was in the act of being put
aboard At Southampton she was to
have taken on board the passengers who
were saved from the Inflated steamer
Deutschland, whence she was to sail
direct for New York. just as the Mosel
was about to move into the stream cart
containing four cases and barrel was
being unloaded for shipment on the
steamer Suddenly terrific explosion
occurred. The effect was horrible The
quay was then thronged with people
men, women and children-some Of
whom belonged to the steamer, others
passengers who remained on the wharf
to take last farewell of their friends,
while the majority were relatives and
friends of the departing passengers.
After the first shock of the explosion
had passed, very few of the persons on
the QUAY remained visible. The air had
been filed with black Jumps fragments
of humanity and materials. The steam
er's decks, the surface Of the water and
the wharf for great distance were COW
cred with sand, broken glass. fragments
of flesh, bones and clothing. The
devastation on tn Mosel was terrific.
Not a skylight was left. The cabins
were mashed and the port windows were
crushed in, while not few of the iron
plates were bulged out. The whole
ship was besmeared with blood, and
pieces of quivering flesh mingled with
other debris adhering to the vessels sides.
in the hold and all parts of the ship
were found arms, legs and other por-
tons Of the human frame. The lower
hold received some limbs through the
open hatchways and these were found
strewn among the Storage passengers
between the decks The dismay and
CONSERVATION were indescribable. The
steeragc passengers and crew escaped
without serious injury, only the engineers
and stokers being hurt.
The havoc on land was terrible.
Where the packages had been unloaded
few minutes before there was hole In
the QUAY about seven feet deep. The
whole place was strewn with limbs, hor-
ribly mutiIated bodies, and shreds Of
dress.
Among the most heartrending scenes
was that Of d family named Elmer, who
were seeing of member of the family
to California. The father. mother, son
and son-in-law were torn to pieces and
Law In different directions. The daughter
had an arm and her child hand blown
of. There were no less than 1913 limo
cent persons killed and fifty-six wounded,
including thirty MANNED for life. It re-
suited in making fifty-six widows and
lS5 orphans. Nearly every family Ia
the little town suffered severely.
Soon after the explosion Thomassen
was discovered to have been the shipper
of the articles brought to the dock By
the cartman. who, together with his
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