The Portland daily press., 1899-08-08
PRES. WILSON.
Interview With Maine Gen.
trails Chief.
His Story of the Dis
aster.
PeOp.c Jostled, flushed and
Crowded.
Slip Had Been Strength
ened Recently.
Theory of Cause of Accident
Suggested.

franklin A. Wilson. president Of the
Maine Central railroad, was In the city
yesterday and SURF ounded by his general
manager, George r. Evans and W. g.
Davis, one OF the directors of the com.
pany, waa seen at the office OF the railroad
by reporter Of the PRESS
President Wilson talked In an earnest
and feeling manner about the great ca
lsmity which happened on his road on
Sunday last and said that Monday morn
ing he had visited tbs scene OF the disas-
ter and carefully inspected the surround
ings.
Asked X he had any theory as to what
most contributed to the disaster, in q
most thoughtful manner he said In SUBJ
stance. that when it was known that the
warships were to be at bar Harbor on
Sunday, the Maine Central made every
arrangement to accommodate the large
crowds along its line which it knew
would most likely avail themselves Of
the excursion rates. Careful instructions
were sent to ell the employees of the road
to do everything In thelr power for the
comfort OF the visitors and ample aocoa
modations In the way of steamers were
provided to take the crowds from the
cars on arrival at the ferry. The trains
moved with the greatest regularity and
everything seemed 10 be going along like
clock work and 1t was not until the early
excursionists left the cars and began to
GROSS the slip at Nit Desert ferry thai any
trouble began. At this spot things took
a most serious turn for no sooner had
the people began TO leave the cars than
rush and push commenced. They
acted like set of crazy psopls, jastling,
pushing and orowding one another In
their frantic efforts to reach the boats.
MIR. Wilson thought there was 20 necessity
for this, for the company had all the wat
er transportation that was required and
good deal mr-'. The Sappho was at
the slip and this Loaf could easily take
on board 12C0 passengers and as mat
ter of statistlos the early excursion train
from Bangor and places along the line
Ind just about s6S persons. And besides
the Sappho there was this Sebanoa, capa-
BILE OF accommodating 400 and IL these
two boats had not been sufficient anoth-
er one Was in call on the Bar Harbor
side.
Mr.. Wilson said that the officsrs of the
Sappho when they saw how the crowd
was pushing, did everything In their
power to check 1t. The mate and the
crew tried to reason with the people and
resorted almost to fierce to keep them
back. General superintendent McDon-
aid was on the spot at the time and fear
ing trouble did tine best he could do to
avert It, In fact Air. Mcdonald was di.
rected the day before to be on hand and
take general supervision of things in
that vicinity.
Despite all efforts on the part of the
employees of the road 60 persuade the peo-
pie to move in an orderly way the crowd
surged on the slip and began to get on
board of the boat with the widest kind
Of rush. 1t has been estimated that 200
people were packed together like sardines
and 1t is likely that even with this num-
ber everything would have gone we'll b ad
not q most singular movement on the
Fart cf the crowd taken place. Mr. VIII
son says that just bsfore the slip broke,
for some unaccountable reason the peo-
pls nearest the boat and at the furtherest
end OF the slip were seen by bystanders
to push backwards. The greater portion
of the crowd. however. who we're at the
other end of the slip, spreading out be.
yond the centre of 1t. fcontinued to surge
forward and thus created very UNEQUAL
strain. for we had, so to speak, two forces
Of moving humanity working along
different and opposing lines ana the re.
sultant Of both was pressure on a cer-
tain spot in that slip which doubled it up
like jackknfe. And when the break
did occur the people at the shorter end
end on the side OF the steamer frst
dropped into the water and soon pillng
over them were the crowd from the long-
er section of the broken slip.
Being asked about the strength of the
slip, etc., Mr.. Wilson said that the coE-
pAny officers had always considered It
strong enough to hold ali the people that
could get on it. In fact 1t had teen re-