Daily Kennebec journal., 1899-08-08
PRES. WILSON
Thinks that Accident Was Not
Fault Of Company.
The Officials Were Endeavoring to
Keep Back the Crowd
Which Thoughtlessiy Over. Loaded Slip and
Caused il TO Give Way.

Portland, Me. Aug. THE Press, to-
morrow morning. will say:
Franklin \. Wilson, president of the
Maine Central Railroad, was in the
city, yesterday. and was seen at the
offices of the railroad by a reporter OF
the Press
President Wilson talked in an earnest
and feeling manner about the great
calamity which happened on his road,
on Sunday and said that, Monday
morning, he had visited the scene Of
the disaster and carefully inspected the
surroundings.
When asked If he had any theory as
to what most contributed to the dis
aster, in a most thoughtful manner he
said in substance that when it was
known that the warships We're to be at
Bar Harbor. on Sunday, the Maine
, Central made every arrangement to ac-
commodate the large crowds along its
lire which it knew would most likely
avail themselves of the excursion rates.
Careful instructions were sent to all
the employees of the road to do every
thing in their power for the comfort of
the visitors and ample accommodations
in the way of steamers We're provided
to take the crowds from the cars on ar
rival at the ferry.
The trains moved with the greatest
regularity and everything seemed to
be going along like clockwork and it
was not until the early excursionists
left the cars and began to cross the
slip at Mt. Desert Ferry that any
trouble began.
At this spot things took most seri-
Gus turn. for no sooner had the people
begun to leave the cars than a rush
and a push commenced. They acted
like a set of crazy people. jostling
pushing and crowdng one another in
their frantic efforts to reach the boats
Mr.. Wilson though there was no
necessity for this, for the company had
all the water transportation that was
required and a good deal more. The
Sappho was at the slip and this boat
could easily take on board 1900 passen-
gers and as a matter of statistics the
early excursion train from Bangor and
places along the line had just about
9GS persons.
And besides the Sappho there was
the Sebanoa. capable of accommodate
ing 400 and if these two boats had not
been sufficient, another one was in call
on the Bar Harbor side.
Mr.. Wilson said that the officers of
the Sappho. when they saw how the
crowd was pushing. did everything in
their power to check it. The mate and
tried n with 10
and resorted almost to force to keep
them back. General Superintendent
Mcdonald was on the spot at the time
and fearing trouble did the best he
could to avert it, In ract Mr.. McDon-
aid was directed, the day before to be
on hand and take a general super
vision of things in that vicinity.
Despite all efforts on the part of the
employees of the road, the crowd surg
ed on the slip and began to get on
board of the boat with the widest
kind of a rush. 1t has been estimated
that 200 people were packed together
like sardnes and it is likely that even
with this number everything would
have gone we'll had not a most singu-
lar movement on the part of the
crowd taken place.
Mr.. Wilson says that just before the
slip broke, from some unaccountable |
reason the people 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 were on the other end
of the slip, spreading out beyond the |
center of it, continued to surge for
ward, and this created very irregu-
lar strain. for We had so to speak. two |
forces Of moving humanity. working
along different and opposing lines and |
the result of both was pressure on a |
certain spot in that slip which doubled |
it up like a jackknife; and when the |
break did occur the people at the |
shortest end and on the side of the |
steamer just dropped into the water /
and soon piling over them were the |
crowd from the longer section of the |
broken slip.
Being asked about the strength of |
he slip, etc, Mr.. Wilson said that the |
Continued on page 80