The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-11-30

Tacoma. Wash, Nov. 29.-Amid the
roar of an immense tidal wave beating
against the shores of Puget Sound, 6Oo
feet of Tacoma docks plunged in Com
mencement bay at II o'clock last night;
Half dozen steamers were tossed
about like chips and two were dls-
abled At 100 a. m, the nlled--n pof-
ton of the Ocean dock was still set
Ting and the accident, under the
threatening conditions, began TO as
sumo the form of calamity to TINS
city. H H. Allger's boat-house, con-
tanning himself, wife and six children,
was turned upside down, splitting the
children out Of their hunks into the
icy water, and it is feared one of his
daughters has been drowned. John
Hanson, a Waterman at the Northern
Pacific hydraulic pump, went down IN
the debris and cannot be found. lie
was roasted to death or drowned, IN
the opinion of the steamship men. Inc
fire department was called and before
midnight 500 excited people had gath
cred at a distance. For distance
of 500 feet the ocean dock had settled
and it was feared the big elevators
and coal bunkers would pitch into the
bay. Several times when the ground
settled from six inches to a foot,
panic resulted and there was wild
rush for places of safety. AT the cat
tie pens of the Northern Pacific, to-
gether with the office and that COM
panys 400-foot freight house, went
down together, and a fire at once broke
out where the pump station disap-
peared in the debris.
Nearly all the dock which fell into
the bay is that portion of the water
front which the city of Tacoma has
been trying to secure from the Rail-
road and Land company. Already the
damage is estimated to aggregate
$4,000. Steamboat men claim tidal
wave % feet high rushed up the sound
and tore the dock away. Employees
at the wharf believe there has been
great subterranean landslide or that
a great fissure or hole has been formed
in the bay, allowing the docks to be
swallowed up It is not positively
known whether the plunging of the
docks into the bay caused the heavy
sea which overturned AIlger's boat
from their fastenings, or whether it
was in fact a tidal wave.
Tacoma, Wash, Nov. 29.-An inves
tio'a ton proves conclusively that last
nights great landslide was caused by
neither a tidal wave nor an earth
quake. Puget Sound has very steep
shores and just outside the Northern
Pacific docks the bank slopes into deep
water at an angle of 40 degrees. Fifty
| feet from the dock the water is $50 to
! 200 feet deep. At great expense the
railroad has put in solid docks of made
/ land, supported on the water side by a
rock wall, built against the piling
driven into the mud. This was not
strong enough to bear the immense
| pressure, and when the high bank fur
| ther UP had been made slippery and
loose by recent rains, the outer edge
Of the dock began to slide and finally
gave way, precipitating into. deep wa
! ter one of the most valuable portions
of the wafer front. The submerged
strip is 1900 feet long and 200 feet in
/ width.
Two persons were killed: Emma
| Stubbs, the 15-year-old stepdaughter
of H. II. Alger, a boathouse proprietor,
and John Hansen, the night Waterman,
| who was carried down with the engine
| house containing the boiler and pumps
which furnished the power with which
the bluff side was being washed down
1 by hydraulic process and the balance of
the wharves flied in beneath. A few
| minutes before the slide, Hansen had
been talking with Policeman keene.
The latter is certain that Hansen had
no chance of escape Neither of the
|
| tendent McCabe says the permanent
damage to the railroad docks will not
amount to over $1,000. The work of re-
| pairing the ocean dock will commence
| at cnce, but the rebuilding of the sea-
wall for 1880 feet viii be deferred until
| the chief of engineers at st. Paul can
! decide what plan shall be adopted to
insure future permanence.
The south end of the Sound freight
warehouse, in which were the offices of
the cashier and twenty freight clerks,
went down in the crash. The safe con-
| tanning $2400 In cash and valuable pa
pers worth $4,000 were lost. 1t was
supposed this safe and the valuable
| freight records had been sunk in 200
feet of water, but this evening the two
story building in which the offices We're
located was found partly submerged
on the beach at Gig haT'bor. eight miles
away. The safe and records are now
supposed to be secure. A diver has
been telegraphed for to come and
search for them.
The damage to shipping and other
losses is estimated at $4,000