The St. Louis Republic., 1900-09-16

WRITTEN FOR THE SUNDAY REPUBLIC.
Shag Rock No. 2, one of the serious men,
aces 10 navigation in San Francisco Bay, Is
no more. The other day 1t went up in a
| thousand-foot column OF spray. propelled
by ten tons Of ntrogelatin. over three
thousand cubic yards OF hard sandstone
mixed with quartz and having substrata Of
basat were torn away by the explosion,
scattered. and sent To the bottom of the
bay. The top of the rock was lowered near
ly twenty feet. Whereas it was seventeen
| feet below the surface before the explosion.
ii is now thirty-six feet under water.
No more gorgeous picture has ever been
shown than that of the destruction OF the
sunllen island, whose Jagged surface had for
all the years that San Francisco Bay has
, been used by man been a menace to all
vessels and had caused the untimely end OF
many of them. Preparations had been made
with the greatest care. The explosive, in
sacks continuing from three hundred 10 four
hundred pounds. had been carefully placed
about the rock in such a way that the full
force of the conclusion would strike the
mass at the top and shatter it for twenty
feet below To each of these bags two cleo
tric wires were attached, and caps were
placed where there detonation would insure
the explosion of the nitrogelatfn. The work
had required two months to accomplish and
even then there was three hours delay In
setting off the explosive.
This work had engaged a horde OF work
men for three months. for much of IT had
To be done two or three times over. On one
occasion, after all the sacks had been put
I'm place and the wires had been attached
To them. an inquring whale came into the
bay and sportively swan around the rock.
OF course he took several of the wires away
with him In his mad race TO get back into
the ocean after a member of the contract
ors party had shot at him twice. Then 4
schooner. trying to get out in light wind.
der and tore others away with her PROV.
All this meant serious delay and much loss.
The workmen did most of their labor from
q floating platform anchored above the rock.
Here the tools were kept, and from here
the powerful explosive WAS lowered upon
the rock. Then divers would carefully place
the heavy sacks and attach the wires that
were to do the damage.
Efforts were made to withhold from the
public knowledge of the exact hour when
he explosion would occur but they met
with poor success. The public got hold of
the news and nSked to points of vantage.
And there ii stood-several thousands of IL
for four hours, waiting for the explosion.
The public knew that the explosion would
not occur until the floating platform on
hiCh the workers had been stationed
should be removed. This platform was d
rectIy over the rock that was 10 be de-
stroyed. and on ii tine score OF cameras
planted all around the sea walls and the
cliffs were focused All morning busy lit
tie tugs pufTed ana churned around the
rock. but It seemed that they were doing
nothing. kt last. in the afternoon. one
of them took the platform in tow. 1t moved
away slowly while men unwound heavy
reels of copper wire.
After ii had got mile more from
the rock, the tug stopped. Then it gave
three sharp toots of its whistle and the
people knew that the explosion was near at
hand.
Then the public began t. think what
an accident would mean. 1t saw several
axe Schooners aud steamers darting about
in the bay. and some of the women be-
came hysterical from fear that the vessels
with their crowds of passengers would ap-
preach too close to the doomed island.
There were wild runors that thousand
tons of explosives lay buried beneath the
placid surface and that no vessel could
float within a mile of the scene at the time
of tine explosion.
But the masters of the vessels knew bet
ter than TO be careless. They gave the
rock a vice berth and we're as ready as
the public for the explosion.
The tug churned about in the bay for
ten minutes after giving the frs; blasts
of warning. and then gave another blast