The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-10-31

accident must be placed where it belongs,
+ won't say what l think Of it. won't
by any means place the blame on Cap5
tain Durham We are much pleased at
the conduct of Captain Durham and his
men. From all accounts they were cred
it to the company.
"I cannot say how much the Chicago
is damaged She .may be ruined She
NAV not be so much damaged as we
think. She was worth 100000 to US be-
fore she got in the way of the City OF
Augusta. We will raise her and the We'll
| know more about the situation.
The city Of Augusta discharged her pas
! sengers soon after reaching her pier at
Spring street. At five A. M. she went to
| the pier at Twelfth street, Hoboken, prob
ably for repairs.
Captain Daggett, commander, declined
absolutely to see anybody and even lock-
| ed the gates of the pier 50 nobody could
/ get to his crew and get their version OF
the accident.
General superintendent P. E. Lefevre
| and General Agent c. H. Holridge of the
savannah line. arrived at the Spring
street pier about eight o'clock this morn
VQeY
| could give out no statement as they had
| to investigate the accident and receive the
report of the City of Augustus captain.
To see the captain and the vessel the men
went aboard the tug Dayton and started
for Hoboken. They said they did NOT
believe she had been much damaged OF
! that anybody had been lost on her-
| The steam lighter Thomas Watson Oh
| the Pennsylvania Railroad service with
crew of fifty men arrived at the scene OF
the accident a little before eight O'CLOCK
this morning. She anchored alongside OF
| the Chicago.
| 1t was supposed that the Watson hao
divers aboard but this was not fact-
There was no attempt made to ma out II
there were any bodies in the boat Inc
men ON board the lighter at once set 70
work tearing away anything they couio
get at on the ferryboat. The reason LOT
| not trying to discover bodies seemed 10
be because of the opinion OF General Su-
perintendent Shepherd of the Pennsyl-
vania road that there are no bodies In the
boat He thinks all those who were
| drowned were picked up. He Deneves
| everybody got out of the cabins safely
| This opinion seemed to prevail SO gener-
| ally among the officials of the road that
none of the men on board the Watson
and the Transit, a Pennsylvania tug
which came up later. tried to find out II
there were any bodies in the Chicago or
| about her.
| Instead the crew of the Watson jumped
| aboard the Chicago whose pilot houses
| were above water as well as some other
parts of her upper works. and they be-
gan to hack away at whatever seemed
| of value and worth saving. They cut
away two lifeboats from davits, rope,
steel and other articles and even chopped
| off the name of the boat on either pilot
house. 1t looked as If 1t were the opinion
| of the railroad officials that the sunken
ferryboat could not be saved.
| A big piece of the side Of one of the
cabins of the Chicago, which had broken
| off. foated into the slip of the Jersey
Central ferry line just below the Cortland
street ferry slip. 1t had several win
dows In 1t and none OF the panes of glass
| of the windows had been broken. 1t
was picked up and taken on the lighter.
| The wrecked ferryboat was an object
| of great attention this morning from the
passengers of all the boats running with
In sight of her. Especially SO was this
with the people of the Pennsylvania and
| Jersey Central boats. They crowded over.
| to the sides of the vessel nearest the
wreck and listed the boats greatly.
| Very few Jersey City people are sup
posed to have been aboard the ill-fated
! Chicago at the time she was run into
and sunk by the Old Dominion steamer
| City of Augusta The only Jersey City
people recorded as having been aboard,
so far are
Bayne, Walter W. whose address is not
! known.
schmidt, Charles F., of No. 80 Coles
street.
Day, George c.; address not known.
| Hunter, Joseph g., No. 167 York street,
an. engineer employed in New York.
Kaulosky. stanislaus. No. 3s1z Green
street.
Smith, W. H.. a pressman.
The latter, william H. Smith. is well
known down town. He is employed in
the press room of a New York news
paper and was on the Chicago at the
| time the accident happened.
This morning to reporter, Mr.. Smith
| said
81 was on my way to work, at the time
of the accident I was seated in the
women's cabin, reading an evening
paper There were about thirty others in
the cabin at the time when the collision
| came. there was panic among the pass
| engers. The force Of the collision wedged
| the doors of the cabin together and made
it impossible for them to be opened"
i (Smith broke the glass of the doors with
! his hand. which are badly cut, after
| the doors had been opened went back
to the cabin and assisted an old man and
woman, to put on life preservers. when
the deckhands yelled all on upper deck
| We then rushed upstairs The door Lead
| ing to the outer deck were held shut by
| the deckhands who semeed to want to
KEEP the passengers inside I shouted to
the man outside the door 1 wanted to
make my escape, that If he did not open
the door would kill him. The boat had
already begun to settle and / was fear
! full of being drowned Ike rat II kept
| inside. Heaving the life preseryer on,
forced open the door, rushed to the side
of the boat and dove overheard. I only
had to swim about $50 yards to reach
| starin & Company's pier.
/ ''The dock was crowded, and as soon as
I was seen struggling in the waiter over
a hundred willing hands aided me to