The Coconino weekly sun., 1893-11-09
AWFUL CALAMITY.
That Which Visited Santander, a
 Seaport of Spain.
CAUSED BY UNLAWFUL CREED.
A Huge Cargo of Dynamite Shipped as MerChandise-The Whole Country Indignant Details of the
 Horror.

MADRID, Nov. 6.-The terrible dis aster which has wrecked the port of Santander and destroyed hundreds of lives has sent thrill of horror through ont Spain. The story of this great dis aster in brief is as follows:
 The Cabo Machichaco, Spanish steamship belonging to Bilbao, caught fire about o'clock Friday afternoon while the steamer was alongside the quay discharging part of her cargo, which comprised nearly 2,000 tons of merchandise. Though the main part
 f this cargo was iron ore, there were a number of sacks of flour, barrels of wine, many cases of petroleum and over 800 cases of dynamite, of which only twenty cases were declared on the steamers list The remaining 4S0 cases ot dynamite were contraband, and, to the shame of the shippers of this con- t.aband dynamite, it has caused i'm mense loss of life and vast damage to property.
 The fire was first discovered in the coal bunkers, and is said to have been due either to spontaneous combustion or to some carelessness upon the part of the engineers or firemen. In any case flames broke out from the bunkers at about the hour mentioned, and soon ragged so fercely as to be beyond con- trol of the ships crew, though the lat ter promptly took steps to smother the fire. Finally, seeing the fire was spread ing in the bunkers, and that the smoke was driving the crew from below, the local authorities were notified and the fire department and a detachment of the civic guards being sent to the scene.
 Leading municipal authorities headed the fremen and guards in the effort made to save the steamer The pro- viucial governor, who was one of the first to reach the spot, displayed the greatest activity in directing the oper- ations and upon learning that the ships manifest showed that there were twenty cases of dynamite on board, the fremen were directed to assist the crew in bringing this quantity of ex- plosive material ashore. This was done in safety and it was believed no more dynamite remained on board, and a tug which had been hastily sum- moned to the spot was ordered to tow the burning vessel out into the bay in order that the flames might not com municate to the wharf and to adjoin- ing property, which was of a decidedly combustible nature, many of the build ings consisting of rickety old houses which few sparks might set on fire.
 At about 4:3O D. m. detonation on lzl ,.l out, that the boilers had burst, and soon after there was another terrible detonation heard The steamer seemed to open in half, sending blaze of fire skyward over which a crown of smoke rested for several minutes. Then a re- port of such awful intensity was heard that it shook the earth for miles around, caused houses to totter, smashed every window pane within the radius of rifle shot, filled the air with mass of flying iron, burning wood, blackened timbers and scorched beams which soon after fell a death dealing hail upon the neighboring houses, scattering death and destruc- tion wherever it crushed downward
 The scene that followed the blowing up of the steamer is almost indescriba- ble, and the effect of the explosion of the forty-cight cases of dynamite will hardly be believed. The power of the explosion shot tons of iron into the air, where it mingled with the burning fragments of the steamship, tug and wooden quay as well as with the mangled bodies of hundreds of the un- fortunate people who were hurled up ward at the same time, and the falling of this horrible mass can be better i'm agined than described. Over the ad- joining buildings, tottering with wreck age, fell shower of iron, followed by huge pieces of wood and the remains of human bodies, and above all dropped flaming splinters which set fire to hun dreds of buildings, causing a scene of panic similar, one would imagine, to the one which would have succeeded the bursting forth of volcano at the waters edge.
 The force of the exploding dynamite caused such concussion that in ad- dition to shaking hundreds of build ings off their foundations, it actually sank a small craft in the harbor, in ad dition to setting fire to a large number of other vessels and starting fires upon several of the larger ships, includ- ing the Alfonso XII, which vessel caught fire and burned so fiercely that forty of her crew lost their lives on board of her. Nothing is as yet re- ported here concerning the damage done to foreign shipping, but the loss is said to be very great
 The effect of the explosion upon the inhabitants of Santander was bewilder- ing in it's intensity. For some time after the disaster the people.were pos itively stunned with dismay and hor- TOT, and then followed panic, during which hundred people are reported to have gone stark mad while the vast majority was so paralyzed with fear and the shock that they were incapa ble of moving to the assistance of the dy- ing, or of making any effort to extin- guish the flames which sprang up from mass of buildings, and which began