Los Angeles herald., 1905-11-22
ENGINE CRASHES
THROUGH PIER
FIREMAN KILLED IN WRECK
AT RED0ND0
Engineer Also Goes Down Into the sea
With His Locomotive, but Has
Almost Miraculous
Escape
tContinued from Page onsJ

body. While struggling under the
water he swallowed considerable hot
oil and water. This nauseated and
weakened him so much that he will be
confined to his bed for some time He
gave the following graphic description
of the accident which all but cost him
his life and resulted i'm the death of his
fireman, who had been his companion
for many years:
II was sitting on the seat box on my
side of the cab. the right side. Mrs.
Goodrich was sitting on the edge Of the
pier with her feet hanging over fishing.
She was not over three feet from my
cab window | had my hand on the
throttle and my foot on the brake.
BanksS was busy wiping the bright
works on his side of the cab.
Woman Has a Narrow Escape
1--WE were headed out toward sea and
had just come out to the end of the
pier to pull a carload of flour which
had been transferred from the Santa
Rosa the night before. l do not know
whether we had made the couplings
with the engine or not, but l believe
we had and were about to pull out
with the car.
II glanced out of the window and
seeing Mrs. Goodrich, whom l had
known for a long time and had often
seen fishing at the same place l spoke
to her, saying, Well, hows fishing|
She replied Pretty good
II had no sooner asked the question
and heard her answer when all of 4
sudden l heard terrific crash. The
engine sank like a plummet. When it
struck the water there was terrific
roar, caused by the kissing of the hot
engine in contact with the cold water.
/ went clear down to the bottom with
her.
''How 1 ever got out of that cab alive
is more than can explain. 1 have a
slight recollection of seeing a pale blue
opening in front of me. l do not know
what it was but it must have been the
light coming through the water through
the cab window. 1t is beyond my
knowledge how made my way through
that cab window. 1 weigh more than
25S, and under ordinary circumstances
and with unusual effort could not have
crawled through that window.
Thinks Steamer Weakened Pier
LAS l rose to the surface the first
time 1 struck against piece of wreck
age and the heavy current and the
weight above me carried me down. The
second time rose l came up beside the
big raft where the men We're. The next
instant l was lifted up and taken home.
/ never once lost consciousness.
when the engine pitched into the
water being as hot as it was, it turned
the water to boiling point at its first
contact This and a lot of escaping
oil / swallowed is the cause of the ter
rible nauseating feeling [ have had
ever since 1 am also sick from the
thought of the fate of the fireman.
But the whole secret of it is that L
could swim and he could not. AS ]
rose to the surface the second time l
saw bubbles passing by me. I shudder
when think of them as coming from
poor Banks.
For a long time the piles out on
that pier have been in bad shape. The
night previous the Santa Rosa was an
chored alongside of it. The sea was so
rough and the current so strong that
all the ropes and cables with which it
was secured to the wharf were broken.
The jamming of the boat against the
pier no doubt did much to damage the
piles.
Yesterday morning when the men
went to work there was no investiga-
tion made of the wharf's condition, as
should have been done. The current
has often been so strong there that the
pier has been imperiled several times.
I have been told that the soundings
have varied as much as forty feet in
one night. With the high seas that
we have had the last three days /
would not he surprised if it had varied
all of that last Monday night"
c. H. Burnett, superintendent of the
Los Angeles -Redondo Wharf company,
said when seen last night:
There is little to be said about the
accident It's tragic occurrence is "A
blow to the company. The only ex-
planation that we can offer for 1t is a
very probable undermining of the
piles caused by the heavy current and
high sea last Monday night. The
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