The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1892-07-14
THOSE POWDER BARGES.
Board of Army Engineers
Listen to the Board Of
Trade and Others.
A MENACE TO THE CITY.
The Lives of Thousands and Vast
Property in Constant
Danger.

The Board of Engineers of the United
States Army, consisting of General II. S.
Albeit, Colonel D. C. Houston and Lieu
tenant Colonel Gillespie. met in the
Armory building at No. 80 Whitehall
street, New York. this morning
to hear the views of people concerning
the powder barges at anchor off Ellis
Island. The only persons who appeared
60 be interested in the subject aside
from the Board of Engineers were Mayor
Wanser and Corporation Counsel Edwards
representing the municipality of this
city. and the President of the Board of
Trade, Jacob Ringle. W. j. Tate, H. w.
Carr, William Brown, James Banks an d
A. J. Corcoran, of the Board of Trade,
and six members of the Powder Com
pany.
General Albeit called the meeting to
order and said that the hearing to take
place was the result of letter that had
been written to the Treasury Department.
oy the Board of Trade, call
Ing attention to the danger to
this city, arising from the powder barges.
The communication had been referred TO
the War Department, and the Secretary
OF War had ordered the hearing and di-
rected the Board to ascertain what danger
there is to the city. The General said
that Captain Conklin. an expert In these
matters, had been directed to assist the
Board in Its investigation. and that the
Board had been put in possession of all
the facts had by the Treasury Depart
ment.
A stout gentleman, who was introduced
as the President of the Board OF Trade of
Jersey City, pushed himself to the front
and complained that the pow
der barges were a continual men,
ace to life aud property in
TINS city. He said there was always fire
en- these barges, and at any time an eX-
plosion caused by it was liable to take
place He pointed out the fact
that the powder barges were sta.
toned near the Standard OIL Company's
great works at Cavan Point and then
went on to prove to such powder ex perts
as the Board of Engineers who had ex-
perimented with explosives all their
lives, how much he did not know
about the effect of an explosive
of powder. When the stout and elderly
President of the Board of Trade had
thoroughly convinced all VINO heard him,
that he did not know what he was talking
about, he subsided.
A POWDER MAN TALKS.
The Board of Engineers next listened
to some remarks by Justus Won LenRerke
who represented the powder company
This paid agent of the company claimel
That the powder oarges were not
said, "and / knew of no better place
than the present location" Every
civilized country provided a place
for powder storage. The com
pany had used the present station for
thirty years and no accident had oc-
Cured. In regard to danger from explo.
oil r. 1f RI hot ,,%
as great as it would be on land for the
horizontsl force was but one-renth on
water TO what it was on land. He
attempted to give scientific authorities
for Ghis statement, but when asked by
General Albeit what his authorities
were ne was unable to state them. He
then misquoted the history of the blow
ing up of He'll Gate and ridiculed the
effects of the explosion Of q ton OF
powder in 1876 at the Delaware, Lacka-
wanna & Western tunnel. He said every
person who happened to have broken
pane of glass in his house attributed it
wrongfully to the effects of the exp xplosion
He added that as far as the powder
barges were concerned he believed in
stringent rules to govern them and
said There was no other ;place so safe fer
the storage of powder as the present
There was no current, no large ice foes, and
nothing but carelessness could
reduced to a minimum. He did
not think the close proximity of the
barges to the oil tanks of the Standard
Oil Company made them more danger
GUS.
Jacob Ringle informed the Board that
Mt present there are twelve powder
harges anchored between Ellis
daily receive and discharge great
quantities of explosives. At low tide
these barges lay on the mud, and if one
took fire it tcould not be towed off.
''There are at times thousands ofpounds
of explosives on these barges compared
most harmless" MIR. Ringle said.
IAN explosion on one barge would
cause concussion enough to explode all of
the others. This would destroy Jersey
City and do great damage to New York
and Brooklyn. The barges may never have
an explosion, and again an explosion is
liable to happen at any time" Mr..
Ringle referred to the nearness of the oil
work to the powder barges and said that
the danger because of this could not be
over-estimated.
DANGER FOR PROFITS.
Corporation. Counsel Edwards said that
he appeared at the hearing on
stand that powder has been stored
at the present station for many years and
no accident has happened, but one may
happen at any time. Your Board is
now de; ling with a matter that deeply
interests three cities and 250,00O
people. When the right was given this
company to store powder at Ellis Island,
the land was used by the Dutch for
farm purposes. Since then everything has
changed Factories have sprung up and
line she shore. Black Tom has been
created and the great Stand
ard Oil Works have been erected.
These works have thirty or
more tanks holding 100000 gallons of
oil each. A we'll grounded fear of dan
ger has possessed the people and it is your
duty to remove that fear. tightening has
frequently set fire to these oil tanks and
the blazing oil has doated on the surface
OF the water down the bay. What would
be the result il 1t foated to the powder
baroes and set fire to them? Some years
ago the people Of Staten Island
complained bitterly that refuse
oil from the tank foated down
the hay. II oil not burning
would do this blazing oil would do the
same. 1t has been said that there is no
current where the barge lie. There is not
SO for quite Strong current runs through
| Gillespie channel. Recently the Vreeland
estate was sold, and since then
| factories have increased wonderfully.
| This is not a question that the Govern
ment takes much interest in. 1t is simply
question between Jersey City and
| the Powder Company and the
profits of the latter. These prof
| it's should not be weighed against
| human life Yh6re are many nlaca where