Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1898-12-04
She Was Just About TO LeaVa New
York fOf Galveston.
Ii Fills n Large Part of the Ship
With the Deadly, Cruel VapOr-Five
Persons Painfully, Though Not
Fatally scnIded.
Fatally scnlded.

NEW YORK, December Six members
of the crew Of the Mallory-Line steamer
Alamo were killed tonight by the burst
ing of a steam-pipe while the vessel lay
at her pier in the East river. The dead
are:
PATRICK MURPHY, second engineer.
THOMAS MHUGH fireman.
PATRICK FARRELL, oiler.
FRANK MMAHoN. fireman.
l.. CONNELL. fireman.
j. RYAN, coal-heaver.
Injured: JOHN SLOVENIAN. passenger,
of Albany; scalded; not seriously hurt
The Alamo has only recently been dis
charged from transport service for the
government. and is fresh from Roach's
yards, where she received thorough
overhauling, including. it is said, new
steam-pipes and boilers. She was sche-
duled to sail at 1:SO p. NJ. yesterday for
Galveston, via Key West, but was detain-
ed in order to place on board an unusual
quantity of freight. She carried thirty
passengers.
At the time Of the accident-about Z
o'clock-the ship had cast off her lines,
and the tug President had her line taut
10 assist the Alamo into mdstream. Her
engines had made but two or three revo-
lutions when the explosion came.
STEAM IN CLOUDS.
The flooring of the deck Immediately
over the engine-room was torn up and
the steam poured through the open seams
i'm clouds The sound of the escaping
steam was mingled with the shrieks OF
the dying men who were enyeloped IN IL.
The flow of steam was checked with great
difficulty. and not until after five or six
minutes had elapsed.
Then It was found that 1t had complete
~ filed the engine-room and fire-room'
and that all who had been confined there
had been not only parboiled, but sufo-
Gated. by it. There was no sign Of life
left i'm one OF the bodies, and in several in
stances the skin had peeled from their
hands and faces.
The second engineer was found close 10
the break, i'm a position which Indicated
he had tried to shut off the steam at the
boiler when the accident occurred, and
had died in the attempt.
Two of the firemen were found gripped
i'm one another's arms, at the foot CT the
ladder leading from the fire-hole.
FOUR MEN INJURED.
Hugh Canning. chief engineer OF the YES
sci; John Ryan, the port engineer OF the
Mallory Line; r. H. Robinson, an assist
ant engineer, and one other escaped, more
or less badly scalded. The other men in
the engine-room were barely recognizable
when their bodies were taken out an hour
or two later. Most of the passengers were
on deck when the explosion occurred.
John Ryan. the experimenting engineer
OF the Mallory Line. was technically
placed under arrest.
Robert Mallory, OF the Mallory Line,
was at the pier shortly after the acct
dent occurred. He said that so far as
he could see no blame could be attached
to any one.
Patrick Murphy. the second engineer,
was formerly second assistant engineer
of the transport Comal. He lived In TINS
city. Nothing is known about the o'hers
killed.
STEAMER RECENTLY INSPECTED.
The Alamo was inspected by the local
steamboat inspectors and license Is
sued by Captain Petrie two or three days
ago. The pipe that burst was an ll-inch
brass pipe running from the stoke-room
I'D through the pump and englhe-ioom'
and thence to the engines. in :he upper
engine-room was the fange. ~hich parted.
The riyets were sheared off as with
knife. The pipe was tested by the steam
boat inspector, and, it is stated, with
stood a hydraulic pressure OF fifteen
pounds to the square inch. Chiei-En-
gineer Canning stated that there was
only forty pounds pressure on the pipe
when II parted.