New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-03-28
BLOWN THROUGH RIVER.
tW0RKER .4PEK OF GEYSER.
1cc;deut in Brooklyn Tunnel Caused
bu Compressed dir.

3
/ = C,-oassn. a workman in the Brooklyn ex-
/ -. ~ the rapid transit tunnel, was shot
| -, the roof Of a lock in the excavation
| .-as.er5av by a blowout, passing through ten
/ 80. >, river he'd and thirty feet Of East River
| water.
/ chief Engineer Rice of the Rapid Transit
/ Commission, reported 10 President Orr that
/ otber workman was blown against the outer
/ braces Of the shield behind which he was work
| .ng and was caught in the mud. His COM
/ panions succeeded in temporarily stopping the
| break and in rescuing him, but five minutes
| later a second blowout occurred. which flooded
| The tunnel to the top Of the Shield. The top of
| the shield is nearly twenty-eight feet below
| mean high tide.
| "A bowIder fl the top pocket in the excava-
ton. which had to be blasted. probably
| the immediate cause of the blowout said the
report.
President Orr was told that a blowout at
tended with the killing Of two laborers hap
| pened in the McAdoo tunnel which is being
| constructed from Jersey City to Morton-st..
| Manhattan on March g. the two men being
forced into the mud and their bodies not being
recovered.
/ Charles NJ Jacobs, chief engineer of the Nc
| Adoo tunnel said that there had been blow
out in that tunnel but that not even a single
/ life had been lost
L II was an acCluenL Ike yesterday S that caused
| the less of tyventy-four lives in the tunnel at
| l5th-st, Jersey City. twenty-four years ago.
/ Chief Engineer Rice told President Orr that
/ reports Of engineers who constructed the Boston
| tunnel described blowout in which laborer
| was caught in the outrush of escaping air and
| his body forced into the mud and never recov-
cred.
| CREEDEN'S MARVELLOUS JOURNEY.
In the huge geyser Of mud water and broken
H beams Creeden went whriing thirty feet into the
| air. Turning a somersault as he fell, he
i still conscious when he struck the water and
| started TO swim toward shore.
There are different stories of his rescue. Cree
den himself says he was picked up by tug
/ Policeman Cooney. of the Amity-st. station,
/ Brooklyn, says he pulled Creeden in from the
srringpiece of a wharf the tunnel shaft.
/ "Br-r-r. I'm cold,' shivered Creeden, his teeth
/ chattering. when he reached a wharf and po-
Eiceman and a dozen others began to try first
| aid remedies on him. Let me alone. I'm
! gon' to the sand room to get warm" he de-
lclared, and, pushing aside his well meaning tor
mentors. he walked. unafded for half a block to
lthe sand room. where he sat beside a huge fur
fnace for half hour. while physician dressed
his cuts and bandaged his head.
| Three other men who were in the forward
Icompartment Of the tunnel with Creeden were
injured when the blowout occurred but were
able to go to their homes also. The excess of
| afr pressure which forced out the roof of the
tunnel 1llr}ed sena against the calls. and held
lrE1eIn pinned there until the air pressure was
Ilessened. Esghteen men in the second ~oo1n-
ApsItment escaped withoat injury; a4tE-Uugh they
had TO move quickly when the lessened pressure
lanewed the river 10 food the forward compart-
iment.
/ The river bed at Joralemon-st. where the
Brooklyn extension is being pushed out under
the East River by the New-Yorl Tunnel Com
pany. is Of light silt and mud. Trouble has
been experienced with The air pressure from the
beginning. Leaks have been frequent A week
ago there was a blowout. rather serious,
which tore the Floating. Bethel mission house
boat from her moorings. Workmen said yes
| te-day that j pressure Of twenty-five pounds to
/ the square inch maintained, which is not
| st all unusual for work Chere there is q solid
Toof
| The tunnel is about fifteen feet from the end
| OF Joralemon-st, some two hundred feet beyond
| the shaft where the workmen the air
| pressure locks The pressure sustains the roof
| and walls OF the tunnel which propped by
| beams and boardings.
| Creeden and John Hayes, of No. 6S Bank-st..
Manhattan John Briody, OF No. 6S Jefferson-st..
| Hoboken. and John Egan. Of No. 300 13th-st.,
Jersey City, were. excavating on board platforms
On the chamber Of heaviest pressure directly
/
standing around the wharves noticed that the
river was sH-irling and boiling in farreaching
| whirlpool. as it did before the last blowout
and has in less degree ever since.
| Creeden has not used liquor for many years,
| es men who work in compressed air and tipple
are subject to the bends When he res
| cued whiskey was administered TO him. 1t
made him vomit sand and pebbles that he had
| swallowed while gasping for breath.
| Creeden is twenty-four years old. He is single
| and lives with his aunt. Mrs Ellen Driscoll, a
| widow with four small children. at No. 61319
| f5enderson-st.. Jersey City. He has worked in
| compressed air for several years. and was
| % the men employed IN the Hudson River tun-
| rel who went on strike about eighteen months
| ego. He went 10 Teeves, H. and worked for
| over the Missouri River He returned East a
/ year ago 10 go to work on the East River tun-
mel
CREEDEN TELLS HIS STORY.
| Il cannot remember much about it," Creeden
said last night TO a Tribune reporter but about
| an hour before the accident happened there was
| small break about twenty feet from where the
| second break occurred. We plugged it with
| bags OF sawdust. When the big break occurred,
| an hour later. we all ran with bags of sawdust
| 70 stop that. Then ! was shot upward and
| knew no more until / found myself top Of
| the water.
| IT all happened so quickly that ! still had
| bag OF sawdust in my hands I was picked up
/ by a tug and taken 10 JoraIemon-st The only
| injury received was a cut about three inches
| long on the forehead. A doctor sewed that up
| and WAS put into ooacn and sent home. AS
/ 70 nay sensations, cannot tell what they Were
| II was all over so quickly As said I was