New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-07-24
LAUNCH BLOWN TO PIECES.
MRS. ALFRED EUGENE CROW AND son
KILLED.
TIA BOATS ENGINE EXPLODES
OFF NEW-ROCHELLE


| thirty foot naphtha launch in which Alfred
! Eugene Grow, Of New Rochelle, and his wife
| and fourteen-year-old son Harold were return
! ing from the Larchmont Yacht Club races. ex-
! ploded at ) o'clock yesterday afternoon at the
entrance of the New-Rochelle HarbOr. about a
mile off the home of G. oliver Iselin. The
| launch blown to pieces and Mrs. Crow and
! her were killed instantly, and their manged
bodies were found afterward floating fifty feet
from the scene of the explosion They must
have been sitting the gasoene tanks. as
| the feet both bodies were blown off. Mr..
Grow was terribly burned and sustained a COM
pound fracture of the thigh. 1t is feared that
he cannot recover
Many people along the Sound the acci-
dent. The report of the explosion was heard for
miles Persons who heard it thought at first
that it was the sunset gun at Fort Slocum, but
looking out over the water sheet of
flame covering the surface. The report had
scarcely died away when a score of yachts put
out to the rescue. They hurried toward the
flame which lasted several minutes. The Crony,
a sloop yacht owned by Henry B. Welsh. was
the first to reach the scene. Mr.. Welsh and
Frank Harmon of mis- sailors found Mr..
Grow floating in the water. He clingng to
a cushion and when they pulled him aboard he
gasped: My wife and son; they are here Can
you save them"
| After taking Mr.. Grow out of the water Mr..
! Welsh turned him over to Thomas McCahill and
| J. NJ. Daggett, two yachtsmen who had come
| down on the launch Dixie from the Horseshoe
Harbor Club and they started with him for the
| New Rochelle Rowing Club.
MAPHTHA TANKS LEAKING
| In the mean time Robert Cameron arrived in
! the launch Southern Star and picked UP the
| bodies of the mother and son. Mr.. Cameron said
to a Tribune reporter:
When reached the seem, Mr. Grow was eiI1g being
not assist him, l made for Mrs Crow. who was
the hair and on pulling her up that she was
dead A man in another launch helped me TO put
the body aboard l didn't see the boy until after
| got Mrs. Crows body aboard. Another launch
had picked the boys body up, and II was after
v ard put my launch and taken ashore.
Yachtsmen say that the launch was blown to
atoms. There was not a piece of it left as
large as mans hand. The boat contained
tanks on both sides of the engines, which held
twenty gallons of gasolene each 1t is said that
these tanks were leaking when Mr.. and Mrs.
Crow started for the from the New
Rochelle Yacht Club after luncheon. 1t is sup
posed that the fluid filled the bottom of the
boat and that Mr.. Crow in lighting a cigar
dropped a match into the mating and
ignited 1t.
Mr. Crow when taken to the New Rochelle
Rowing Club was unconscious, and later when
he regained his senses was too weak talk,
but moaned for his wife and child. Their
mangIed bodies lying at the float, but
the advice of the physicians the news of their
death was kept from him. Doctors Eddy,
Boyer and Peck were summoned and did all
they could for Mr. Grow, who was suffering
intense agony. Coroner Banning. of Mount Yer
nOn authorized the removal of the bodies 10 the
morgue.
SON SAW THE EXPLOSION.
ID obayla
Yacht Club and the Rowing Club of the same
city Members of these clubs said last night
that he had quite reputation life saver
and had probably rescued more people from
drowning than any other amateur yachtsman
on Long Island Sound They declared that he
regarded his boat absolutely safe and had
spared expense TO make it seaworthy in
every particular. The engines and tanks were
of a type which is supposed 10 be thoroughly
safe. Mr.. Crow is forty years old and was
born in this city. His father was LangstaT
Crow, a successful builder.
Mrs. Grow was Miss Lillian Estelle Burdette
also of this city. She was about forty years old.
and handsome woman She had two chill
dren-the boy who was killed and Clinton. eigh-
teen years old. They had lived for two years in
a large country place on Pelham Road New
Rochelle. 1t is said that Mrs. Crow did not care
for the water. and went with her husband yes
terday only to please him.
Clinton Crow accompanied the family TO
Larchmont yesterday to see the races. He went
back to New-ROchee in a sailboat, and was
standing on the pier when the explosion Oc-
Cured He had been waiting for them to come
in before going home, and was talking to Miss
Mabel Newman. When he learned that the
wrecked launch the Sarco, his fathers boat,
he nearly Crazed with grief.
Coroner Banning held an inquest last night
into the death of Mrs. Crow and her son. The
Coroner thinks that the coils conveying the fluid
from the tanks to the engine became overheated.
He says that In his opinion. the same kind OF
an accident is likely to occur to automobiles
under similar circumstances.