The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-07-21
CRASH At A BRIDGE 4!
Two People Killed and Thirty
Wounded.
A STEAMER TORN TO PIECES.
The st. Nicholas RBheS Into a
Closed Draw.
THE LIGHTS misunderstood
A CoIored Excursions Fatal
Ending.
THE WOUNDED CARED FOR.
An Investigation Of the
Disaster to be Held.
A CoIored Excursions Fatal
Eading,
SCENES ON THE STEAMER

The steamer st. Nicholas ran into the
Tybee railroad drawbridge over st. Angus
tine creek few minutes after o'clock
last night, carrying away the forward deck
of the steamer up to thepilot house, killing
two persons and injurlng thirty
others, some OF them it is believed fatally.
The st. Nicholas left Savannah, accord
ing to the statement of Lemuel Wade, a
committeeman in charge of the excursion,
at S:15 o'clock. and, according to the state
meDt of Capt Boulineau, at $50 o'clock
She had on board 500 colored excursionists
bound for Brunswick to attend the Mount
Olive Association of the Baptist church
which is convened there. The ex-
cursion was under the auspices of the First
African Baptist church. Wade said there
were 600 tickets printed, but about 100 were
left unsold, and the excursionists numbered
about 800. They were principally women.
The saloon deck was crowded, and when
the crash came there was panic. the sound
OF crunching timbers and the cries of the
injured beggaring description.
THE FATAL CRASH.
One OF the passengers described it as an
awful moment He said that when the
cry came to clear the deck and go aft, he
cried out to his wife to run aft, for Gods
sake, and he started to run after her.
but the crowd was so densely packed to-
gether that he couldn't make his escape,
and crouchsd behind heavy upright, and
the deck crashed in around him. He
crawled out from the debris.
Nancy Grant, one of the injured, said
that she heard Capt. Boulineau, who was
at the wheel, tell the passengers to get off
the deck as the boat was going to strike,
but the jam prevented her from making
her escape, and she was knocked down
among the debris, and didn't know how
she managed to get out
When the boat lay to, the work of re-
moving the injured was begun by the boats
crew and the committee in charge of the
excursion. The first brought out was
Emma Foreman. She was carried aft in
the saloon deck and was laid on bench.
She was unconscious and died in
five minutes afterward, She lived in
Yamacraw, and worked in the Habersham
rice mills An unknown colored woman.
whom no one was able to identify, was
brought out and laid on the same bench.
She was unconscious, and died ten minutes
after she was removed from the debris.
SCENES ON THE BOAT.
Piteous cries, means, and prayers were
kept up while repairs were being made to
the rudder, and the boat headed about and
started for Savannah. On the way the
injured were taken out from under the de-
molished deck and carried into the cabins.
When the boat reached its landing at the
foot Of Lincoln street, at the Inland Steam
boat Company's wharf, at IL o'clock,
the passengers had become quiet
A MORNING News reporter and the
wharf Waterman were the only persons on
the wharf when the st. Nicholas came
alongside. She was badly smashed
up, and before all the line,
were made fast some of tn,
passengers leaped from the vessel 10 til,
slip, and such expressions were common as
Five got enough of that kind Of excur
sion."
The MORNING NEWS reporters were frs
to board the boat, and with difficulty made
their way through the packed vessel to get
the names and character Of the injuries OF
the wounded. In few minute:
the physicians aud police were on the
wharf, and in half an hour the wharf was
impossible from the crowd of colored peo
pie who came pouring down under the bluff
from all parts Of the city, and the stream
of visitors was kept up until the dead anC
wounded had been removed
TOOK CHARGE OF THE DEAD.
Coroner Dixon took charge of the two
dead bodies and will hold an inquest to-day
There were cries from some who learned o,
injuries to friends, and the wailing wa
kept up until the last person had been re-
moved from the boat
There was considerable difficulty and de
lay in getting vehicles for the wounded pas
sengers, and some of them were compelled
to hobble along as best they could. TIL,
police ambulance was kept busy, anc
drivers for improvised ambulances were
secured, and in this way the injured were
removed At o'clock this morning the
last one had been taken from the steamer
The list of killed and injured SO far as could
b obtained last nizht is as follows;