Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-10-29
60 LIVES LOST IN WRECK

eastern edge of the meadows, and
 was directly due to the draw failing
 to work properly. The fishing schoon-
 CT Sinbad which was recently wreck
 ed of Winter Quarter shoals light, a
 short distance from the Delaware
 breakwater, had just passed through the drawbridge. As the schooner was
 entering the draw the electric train
 hove in sight and started across the
 meadow from the direction of Pleas antville. Before the draw had swung Unto position the three cars which
 were running at a high rate of speed dashed on to the trestle. With a lurch the forward car left the rails
 and dashed into the guard rail, the other two cars following. At the point where the cars jumped the ltrack the top of the trestle is nearly twenty feet high. Had the cars been open 1t is doubtful If many of the passengers would have escaped be-
 cause they must have been stunned I by the dive from the trestle. The first two cars were instantly sub-
 merged, but the third car of the train
 caught on an abutment and remained
 suspended. It was this car from
 which nearly all of the injured es- capped.
 The news of the awful disaster
 was quickly telegraphed to this city and in less than an hour the work of rescue had been begun. At the time of the accident the tide, which rises about ten feet, was running in and the work of the divers was necessar- fly slow. It was not until several
 hours later that the divers were able to make any progress. Then the aw- ful evidences of the disaster became more apparent. When the two cars struck the bottom of the waterway they stood almost on end and the first man to descend reported that the victims were packed in the lower ends of the submerged cars so tightly that 1t was difficult to move them.
 He said the sight was a sickening one. The bodies of men. women, and children, many of them badly cut and bruised. bore grim proof of the terrible sufferings of the victims. Faces were distorted and clothes torn during the brief agonies which the victims must have endured. One by one the bodies were carried to waiting train and laid side by side. later to be borne to this city and placed in the old Empire tbeater which was pressed into service as a temporary morgue.
 Thousands of persons quickly gath cred at the scene of the disaster. and a score of boats soon surrounded the spot where the cars disappeared, but they were unable to render any aid, and could only await the arrival of the divers.
 SCENES AT THE MORGUE.
 At the morgue the scenes were pathetic. Persons who had friends on the ill-fated cars crowded about the entrance and were with difficulty restrained from forcing their way in to the building. One of the most heart-rending. incidents was furnish ed by Frederick Benckert, who losts his entire family. a wife and two children. Benckert was not inform ed of the accident until too late to catch train and he hurried here in an automobile. When he saw the bodies of his wife and two little boys lying side by side on the cold floor. Benckert collapsed and had to be carried from the building. Benckert had intended to come to Atlantic City with his family yesterday, but was unable to get away.
 Walter Scott, the dead motorman, was killed because of his anxiety to spend part of the day with his wife here. It was Scott's custom to run only as far as Millville, but yesterday he swapped runs with another mo- torman and his terrible death was the result.
 DrsHudders and his wife were on their way to this city to purchase a cottage and intended visiting Mrs | German. the doctors sister-in-law. who resides in this city. The latter I was at the station waiting for the | arrival of the doctor and his wife and 1 when she learned of the accident the | woman collapsed. The bodies of the | doctor and his wife were among the | last brought in from the wreck.
 Prosecutor Albertson. Coroner Cas- kill, Captain Woodruff and Chief of Police Maxwell superintended the re- moval of the bodies from the scene of the disaster. As each body was brought to the surface 1t was search ed and the effects were taken in 1 charge by Captain Woodruff. The | were placed in packages which were numbered and a number was placed on the body. The police were unusually careful and not a single instance of the work of ghouls was reported.
 DIVERS WERE EXHAUSTED.
 The divers were SO completely ex- hausted by their continued efforts that they were compelled to suspend operations a short time before day break. Their work was particularly arduous because of the wrecking crew, which had been summoned to the scene of the accident. was unable to raise the submerged cars. The huge derrick which was run out up on the long trestling. with the added weight of the wrecked cars suspend ed from the crane, was more than the bridge would sustain. and if was feared the stress would cause it to 
 An attempt was made to cut the first and second cars asunder and lift a single car out of the water. but the cables broke at the first attempt and on the second the already twisted car buckled. The attempts to lift \