The Hawaiian gazette., 1894-08-21
TERRIFIC EXPLOSION,
Continued from page H.

ing houses were euveloped in the
sparks and flames from the houses
burning NJ the foot 81 the hill, and II
any wind had then been blowing, as
is so frequently the case in that bay,
the city must have gone, As II was,
sill night long the pastor and the
teacher, helped by members OF the
congregation, were moving the chapel
furniture and their personal effects TO
3 remoter house for greater safety.
Persons were made deaf by the con-
cuSsiou OF the air; Others were well
nigh If not entirely craEed, and thou
sands were so shaken and unuerved
that every sound OF shutting door or
window, every cry or call in the street
BY day or by night, frightened them
almost beyond control, from fear that
it might be another explosion.
1 reached SSntander the day that il
was discovered that, Of the thousand
and six hundred boxes OF dynamite
that were in the ship, six hundred were
still IN the wreck intact! \ frenzy
seized the people on hearing OF this,
and thousands whs had not fled be-
fore now broke for the country in
widest haste. When | entered the
city its streets were deserted, the
stores were closed in large part, and it
seemed like a city Of the dead. By
the time left, the last Of the six hun
dred boxes OF dynamite had been re-
moved from the wreck and had been
thrown into the deep sea, and the
eIaZed eitizons were slowly returning
TO town.
Now, how can it be explained that
the captain of the Inflated ship, aud
the owner, the Marques de Casa Pom
DO, and others, knowing that there
Were in the hold of their ship. duly
and lawfully received at Bilbao for the
Mediterranean ports of Almeria, Car
tagena and Alicante, some 10 coo box
es of dynamite, besides the twenty
two boxes for SantSnder, dared to stay
on board or near the ship? The an-
swer is: they fully believed that
though the ship should burn to ashes,
the dynamite on board would not eN-
plOde. Ii is remembered that this
captain was once in command, rs first
or second officer, of another ship that
years ago was destroyed by fire, while
a quantity of dynamite that was on
board did not explode, though the
wooden boxes { st held it were con-
sumed.
Why did the captain assure
the captain of the mail steamship
Alfonso NIL, who generously
came to help with his tug and
crew, that there were no more
explosives aboard? The explanation
must be that he knew, and that the
Marques de Casa Pombo knew, that if
he should confess that there was dyna-
mite still on board, the ship would be
instantly deserted by all who were
helping to extinguish the flames and
to save the freight, and as he thought
the dynamite would not explode be-
undoubtedly excused himself for the
falsehood.
1t is, indeed, not thought that the
dynamite exploded from the direct
action of the fire, but from the shock
of the bursting boiler. And yet We
must ask, how is it to be explained
that this shock, added to by the shock
of the exploding of the thousand
boxes of dynamite, was not enough to
make explode the remaining six hun
dred bOxes2
Il is plain that there are still mys-
teries in the action of this terrific ex-
plosive. Let it be hoped that in the
solving of these it may not be neces-
sary to wreck another city and to sac
rifice a thousand human victims.
WM. H. GULICK.
St Sebastian, Spain, Nov, 1898.