The Corvallis times. (Corvallis, Or.) 1888-1909, 1902-09-17
A SEVERE EXPLOSION
TONS OF POWDER AT FORT WIN
THROP BLEW UP SHAKING
THE CITY OF BOSTON.
Killing One Man and Wounding a
Score, While Two Are Missing
The Oregon Leaves Seat
tie after repairing and
Sails for China.

| tie after repairing and
! Sails for China.
Boston, Sept. THE whole city
was shaken just before five this af
ternoon by terrific explosion il
the upper harbor, one of the ole
time magazines at the historic ole
Fort Winthrop on Governors Isl
and blowing up from some unknown
reason. One man was. killed, two
are missing, five were severely hurt
and score slightly cut aid bruis'
ed.
All were civilians, for the ialand
once the summer home of Governor
Winthrop in Colonial days and q
fortifcation for ESQ years, has not
been garrisoned by the army for a
long time, and this summer its use
for park purposes was granted to
the city of Boston.
AS yet no bridge or easy means
has yet been established, but boat
ing and camping clubs use the place
for Sunday outings, and there were
fully $50 of these pieknickers on
the leland at the time.
Albert FL. Cotton, of West Som
erville. was killed, and Joseph
| Wakefield, of Maiden, and James
Ryan, of East Boston, are Missing.
Charles F. Flanagan. Dennis J.
Swanson, Paul Barry and John w
Crowley, Of Charleston, were &C.
verely bruised by flying stones.
Sergeant Thomas J. Shaw, U.
S. N, the caretaker of the island,
and his family, escaped without in.
jury, their cottage, like nearly all
the camps, being located at the end
of the island quite remote from the
magazine section.
The force of the explosion can be
appreciated from the fact that two
old time 10-inch Dalghren rifles,
weighing over four tons each, were
lifted from parapet nearly 100
yards away and blown backward
from their mounts a distance of
200 yards. Granite fragments from
the magazine and debris rained all
over the island and the nearby sec
ton of the harbor and the concus-
sion broke windows on the Win
throp shore, which runs parallel
about a mile away.
| Some of the granite blocks of the
fort were hurled several hundred
yards, while one Of the largest was
sent into the air and came down
through the citadel in the center of
the fort, making hole large enough
to drive team of horses through.
The detonation was heard twenty
miles away.
In Boston no great damage was
done, and no injury resulted to
shipping in the harbor. In fact,
while the report was terrific, some
persons rambling about the island
were within hundred yards of the
magazine when the explosion oc-
CURED, yet escaped uninjured or
with slight cuts. Mr.. Cotton and
the injured were closer.
Grass-covered terraces and tiers
of mounds covering old batteries
with underground passages cover
the island, while the uppermost
point is crowned with a square
granite citadel surrounded with
moats, &c. Outside this citadel, in
a series OF outer hidden battery
cham bers, has been stored for many
years lot of black powder used in
the old days, and some of the har-
bor defense mines and their charg-
es.
1t was in one of these, of concrete,
and granite thirty-five feet thick
and covered with twenty-five feet
of earth, that the explosion occurr--
ed. About six tons of black powder
nearly all condemned, was in the
section that went up, the explosion
being miniature Mount Pelee
eruption in it's force and grandeur,
Seattle, Sept. 12-Capt Burwell,
ex-conmandant of the Puget Sound
Navy. Yard, but now captain of the
battle ship Oregon, was in Seattle
today, taking leave of his friends,
as his ship sails tomorrow at I o.
clock for San Francisco.
The Oregon has been at the Pu9
get Sound Navy-Yard for more
than year. She dropped anchor
in the harbor July 7, 1901, and was
there about the time the rivers ard
harbors committee come Sut to the
Coast to have a look around sand
decide upon the needs of this 1sec-
~