Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1899-08-15
THE MT. DESERT FERRY ACCIDENT.
Personal Experiences Of Mr.. and Mrs. Chas
F. fIynt Of This City.

| Mr.. and Mrs. c. F. Flynt arrived in
the city. Monday morning. from Dex-
ter, where they have been since that
eventful Sunday when they were in
| the crowd which went through the
broken slip at Mt Desert Ferry. They
are well over the effects of their awful
experience. Mr.. Flynt was at his post
in the journal counting room, all day.
and was kept busy receiving the con
CALCULATIONS of his friends and telling
| the story of the accident. He sub
mitted to the novel experience OF be-
ing interviewed by reporter of his
! own paper and this in substance is his
narrative:
| When Mrs. Flynt and l went onto
the slip very fortunately Mrs Flynt
was directly in front Of me- and when
l felt the slip giving way l knew we
! should doubtless be precipitated into
the water, and my first thought was
| to drop my grip and wraps. which |
| was carrying in either hand, and
grasp Mrs. Flynt so that whatever
miXup occurred | should have my wife
! with me, and could give her whatever
assistance was possible. We went en-
tirely under the water, and after going
! down we came to stop; that is, we
| did not rise Immediately to the sur
| face. This was the only time ! gave
up all hope, for, being familiar with
| the water, when we did not immedi-
ately come to the surface | made up
my mind that there must be others on
top of us holding US down.
OF course you will understand
We went down standing so
close on the slip that there was no
chance for US to move or make any
effort for ourselves. and retained our
upright position until we rose to the
surface. When we did finally come
TO the surface land it could not have
been but short time that we were
under the water. because | held my
breath all the time) my first thought
was to speak reassuringly to Mrs.
Flynt, and | recollect that there was
SO much commotion and noise that it
occurred to me that l could not make
my wife hear unless | spoke directly
into her ear. | then had hold of her
in such a position that it was an easy
matter to do this. although she does
not remember to have heard me
speaking to her at all at this time.
She says she was very active just
about this time pulling herself TO the
side of the canal by graspingl the
shoulder of first one gentleman and
then another, without, however, any
attempt to catch on and drag them
down. l think at this time Mrs. Flynt
must have been of assistance to me.
for / do not remember of grasping
hold of anyone until We reached the
side of the canal.
I'VE soon reached the side of the
canal, and Mrs. Flynt secured hold
on man who was standing on some
plank or projection under the water
and had hold of the piling or planking
above | secured hold on a gentleman
who was similarly situated, and we re
tanned our holds until ropes were low
cred. Out of our party of Is only two
reached the boat, Mr.. and Mrs. Camp
bell of Ellsworth. had just stepped off
from the slip when it fell. Mr. Camp
bell knew that the rest of our party
were all on the slip and, of course. his
first thought was of He says he
located Mrs. Flynt and myself first.
and securing rope, came Immediate
" around to the side of the canal
where we were holding, and dropped
MIS-. lyIll Il IOBC, anu IL IiioiiNht Va
two later someone else lowered rope
which | secured a hold on. 1t was
some time before we were assisted out
of the water by Mr.. c. w. Robbins of
the Old Town Enterprise. and l think
we were among the very last that
were taken from the canal itself.
II confess that up to this time | had
given no thought to looking about me
to see if l could render assistance to
parties in distress. for l did not know
at what minute Mrs. Flynt might need
assistance although, as d matter OF
fact, she kept perfectly cool. and
showed no signs of exhaustion until re-
| moved from the water After Mrs
Flynt was helped out, l looked about
me and was fortunate in being able to
assist three other ladies to the slip,
where a rope was secured around
| them, and they were raised to the
wharf above. l think these were the
last three ladies taken from the canal,
and two of them were unconscious A
| strange coincidence was the fact that
after being rolled on a barrel, one of
these same ladies was carried
to the room where Mrs.
Flynt and Mrs c. W. Robbins
| were changing their clothing, and no
physician being present, it devolved
upon Mrs Flynt with Mrs. Robbins
assistance) to work over her, remove
her wet clothing. procure hot drinks
for her and put her to bed.
Il have heard considerable about
/; people getting frantic IN similar
catastrophies. but 1 must say that, so
. far as l observed. 1 never saw a cooler
I crowd than those around me in the
water. l saw only one man who ap-
peared inconsiderate Of those around
him. One man who had hold OF the
rope with Mrs. Flynt. started to climb
out of the canal hand over hand.
This Of course he could not do with