The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-08-31
WHERE Did 1T COME FROM =?
An Enormous Bomb Shell Between
the Grand Trunk Rails.
MUST HAVE BEEN PUT THERE BY
HUMAN AGENCY.

1t Is Eleven Inches Through, Weighs Over
100 Pounds-Discovered Yesterday
Morning Near the Transfer Station-Ir
Not Removed Must Have Derailed the
Engine-Its History Mystery-Its
Presence Fact,
Early yesterday mmmorning two ofsthe
Grand Trunk yard men. John Munroe
and Walter Young. discovered lying be-
tween the rails of the Grand Trunk. just
east of the transfer station, most IN
usual object, it being nothing more nor
less than huge cannon ball, IL inches
in diameter, weighing over 100 pounds,
and looking very old and rusty. OF
course it projected some distance above
the rails, and must have wrecked sthe
morning train had they not removed it.
They had it carried along to the yard
near the station, and there a PRESS re-
porter examined it. He saw that there
was depression in one side, and scrap
ing with his knife soon revealed a fuse
hole and the fact that the great cannon
ball is bomb. He did not have the
temerity to scrape any farther to see
whether it were loaded or not.
The two men who found it thought
that it might have rolled out of the
bank onto the track, but investigation
of the place shows that that is impossi-
BILE. Last year the bank there was re-
moved for considerable distance and
no such heavy body as this bomb could
have rolled across the intervening space
to the track, much less rolled in be-
tween the rails. If the bomb came from
the bank, as.it might from ssome of the
recent land slides and washouts, it must
have been found land placed between
the rails by human agency.
The men who found it gave it to Mr.
William M. Bailey, of the Crane
Trunk, who will present it to thu
Maine Historical Society if they want it
Secretary Bryant was seen, but could
only con lecture as to how the she'll go
| there. General John M. Brown though
that it was more probably left on thu
| brow of the hill by some land force
than and fired from hostile gun.
| OF course when Mowatt destroyed
Portland more than 100 years ago, h
fired shot and shell Gin showers, and ;
shell might easily have lodged on tn
other side of Munjoy Hill, but that a
that time ithey fired shells as large a
this one is higly improbable, in fac
| not probable at all.
The shell may not have come out o
| the bank at ALL Whoever wanted e
wreck the train, and some one m us
| have wanted to, might have go
that bomb elsewhere. There are pile
of 11-inch empty shells in the yard a
Fort Scammel,, on House Island, tina
are easily accessible to any one. TIL
most feasible explanation seems to b
| that this is one of those bombs stolel
| from the fort and deliberately used b
some miscreant for the purpose of wreck
ing train. Railroad men say that ha
train struck that shell the engin
must have been derailed. Nobod
knows whether all the shells at the for
are loaded or not. General Henri
Thomas says that shell mightsbt load
ed fifty years and yet be in a conditio
to explode.
Wherever it came from, whether it
loaded or not. there Can be emo dout
that somebody placed it between tn
rails and for no good purpose.