The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-05-15
CRASH In THE FOG
P. R. R. Ferryboat Hudson
City Strikes Canal
Street Pier.
TWO HORSES OVERHEARD
Several Men Hurt-The Boat Laid
Up for Repairs-Chaotic
Scene.

The Pennsylvania feryboat Hudson City
ran into the pier at the foot of Canal
street, New York. instead of into her
slip at Desbrosse street. while on her way
from this city at four O'Clock this morning
ard the Strawberries and cream she was
bringing over TO New York markets were
badly mixed up.
In the crash the mix wagons and trucks
laden with garden produce were thrown
forward against the gate stretched across
the. bow of the boat. Drivers were thrown
from their seats among the kicking and
piunging horses. Z Three horses went over
board, two of them to furnish as curious
story of escape from drowning as the
North River has furnished in some time
The fog which followed yesterdays
rain and overhung the river last night
was respens-b bile for it ali. When the
Hudson City left the Pennsylvania slips
on ner regular half-hourly trip at 3:45
A M, according TO Captain Wilson, it
was impossible 10 see a boats length
ahead. She drifted about in the stream
Ior tWeltylI1Ve minutes, and then the pi-
lot, thinking he made out the Desbrosses
street slips IN front of him, turned on full
steam si.a nnsS ana went ahead. L was then that
the crash came. Instead of Desbrosses
street it was the Canal street dock that
ne me pilot had seen, and in front of him
iay the long dock, which stretches out 200
feet into the river, far in advance of the
surrounding piers.
Some fifty truckmen were on the dock
waiting fon the arrival of the steamship
Holmdell from Keyport, laden with straw
berries. They saw the lights of the ad-
YaFleins ferryboats, and yelled in chorus
to her captain to look out. The lruckmen
on the ferryboat heard them and some
o. them ecaoed the shouts, but it was too
late to stop. A moment after the shouts
Were neard the boat crashed into the
end of the pier.
The piles which guard the end of the
RI -1ly
the Hudson City was damaged.
As the boat crashed into the pier the
trucks and milk wagons crowding the
against the chain. The horses horse Of Of" the Il e
foremost passing this, smashed down the
IRON gate and the trucks they, were haul
hung suspended over the side of the
the drivers, who had been thrown
from their seats under the horses feet
picked themselves up and went forward.
Three animals were seen suspended
They. were team of two grays owned
by George Letcher OF West street and
West Tenth street, and bay belonging
Duane and Washington streets. The
grays We're attached to. an Adams Ex-
press wagon; and the bay was hitched
back IS the deck Of the boat and John
cut the traces and allowed the animals
The nay. which went first sank and
face. Thomas Reagan, of No. 155 Hudson
street, one of the truckmen VINO had been
awaiting the arrival of the Holmdel on
to its SIDE. Guiding the horse by the bri-
die he swan with him to the dock below
the Canal street pier.
The river mas a sandy bottom there
which rises gradually to the dock and it
being low tide, the. horse was easily led
for the ducking, was hailed as a hero by
his fellow truckmen.
BY the time that Hilderbrandt had re-
the traces of the grays the ferryboat
haa drifted cut into the river and the pier
was no longer in sight, The grays,, which
into the water and quickly disappeared in
The ferryboat, only the guard rail of
way and landed about fifteen minutes
afterward at Desbrosses street ferry:
There three of the truck drivers who had
jUred to the Leonard street policemen who
was on duty at he ferry. They We're
field avenue Jersey City; injured about
of the horses.
John Johnson, of No. 6S2 Grand street,
Jersey City. butcher; bruised about the
face and legs.
Paul Russell, driver for E; A. Brown,
wagon and the side of the ferryboat
John Johnson was SO seriously injured
that he had to be taken to the Hudson
Street Hospital His wounds were dressed
and he then went home.
Leach and Russell recrossed the river
to their homes.
Nothing more was seen of the pair of
gray horses. which had disappeared i'm
mediately after the collision, until six
o'clock. when the captain of one of the
Chambers street ferryboats passed them
swimming together Down the river a
short distance from the New York shore,
as he ran into mis- slip.
He notified Policemen Hinch and Mack
ey of the Leonard street station. Hinch
ran out onto the dock at the foot of War
ren street and saw the horses disappear
under the dock. He climbed down under
the piles, the water reaching up to his
neck. A rope was thrown to him and hi.
tied one end of it around the neck of the
horse. Il was then led out into the stream
and subsequently lifted to the dock, ex-
hausted.
He was taken to a livery stable in Wash
ington street The other horse sank and
was drowned after he had disappeared
under the pier.
The Hudson Citys service was discon-
tinued after the accident and she was
taken over here, where she was laid up