Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-12-07
STEAMER
STRIKES WHARF
ONE WOMAN KILLED, MANY
BADLY INJURED
VESSEL IN OAKLAND HITS PIER
IN FOG
Boat Leaves San Francisco Crowded
with Commuters and Pilot Is
Unable to See Through
Dense Mist

OAKLAND, Dec. 6.-Missing her slip
in the almost impenetrable fog that
had settled down upon the bay and
blotted everything from view, the ferry
steamer Berkeley, crowded with COM
muters returning from San Francisco,
at 6:2S o'clock tonight crashed into the
bulkhead at the end of the Oakland
Mole with such force that one of the
passengers was fatally injured, three
seriously, and a score of others
crushed and trampled upon in the panic
that followed,
MRS. KATE CROWLEY, Berkeley;
crushed about the chest and internally
| injured, died at hospital.
Seriously injured:
w. NJ. Short, Oakland left leg frac-
tured.
Frank Creli. Oakland; right arm
crushed and broken.
Frank S. Mills, Berkeley; shoulder
dislocated and several ribs fractured.
The Berkeley with almost thousand
commuters from Alameda, Oakland and
| Berkeley, left the ferry on the san
Francisco side of the bay at o'clock
in a very heavy fog.
So dense was the fog that it was
almost impossible to see from one rail
to the other on the upper decks. Keep
| ing the steamers siren believing every
| few seconds, Capt e. A. Josnson, the
master of the Berkeley. slowly felt
his way through the thick white mist
Upon reaching the middle of the bay,
feeling of apprehension seemed to
seize the passengers, who every minute
| became more and more nervous, and
| began to crowd to the rails on the
| forward and after decks.
Fearing that a panic might seize the
apprehensive commuters and that some
| of the more eXcitable might jump
overheard, Captain Johnson ordered
the passengers off the decks into the
cabins, and had ropes stretched from
rail to rail to keep them inside.
Steering solely by the compass and
| by the fog bell on the end of the Oak
| land pier, which in the fog proved to
be very deceptive and sounded near
when far, the pilot kept his course
remarkably well, but miscalculated
! the distance.
Unable to see the red and blue lights
| at the end of the slip and the
bell tolling afar, he thought the slip
was some distance away, when sud-
denly the bulkhead on one side of the
berth at the pier doomed up out of
| the mist few feet ahead.
Lookout Gives Warning
The lookout on the lower deck sang
| out, but even before the pilot could
pull the signal telegraph to the en-
| Stll66T lIiG DtIhtity VI aSiltu AiibO bAiN
end of the slip.
| Although the steamer was proceed
| ing slowly, the force of the collision
was such that the heavy piling snapped
off like pipestems.
AS the Berkeley neared this side of
| the bay the passengers on the lower
| deck had crowded out upon the lower
| forward deck and broke the rope which
was to have kept them inside. Sew
eral pieces of the broken off piling
| fell upon the deck, crushing Mrs. Kate
| Crowley, an aged woman of Berkeley,
| so badly that she died shortly after 10
! o'clock at the Oakland receiving hos
pital.
Frank Creln who today left his home
| for the first time in three months,
where he had been confined by injuries
sustained in an accident, had his right
arm broken and so badly crushed that
| it was found necessary at the hospital
to amputate the injured member.
The shock of the collision snapped
| the stanchionS of one of the forward
lifeboats, causing the heavy boat to
| fractured the left leg of William
| Short.
When the Berkeley hit the slip there
was a wild rush for life preserves
and a panic followed in which men,
women and children were tramplel
| unQer 1901.
Frank S. Mills lost his footing in the
rush and was so badly tramplad upon
that one shoulder was dislocated and
| several ribs broken.
Perhaps dozen others were crushed.
and slightly injured, but only four
were taken to the hospital those sus-
tanning but slight injuries being taken
| to their homes.
The officers assisted by the cooler
heads among the passengers soon con-
| WINGED the panic-stricken commuters
| that the Berkeley was not seriously
damaged and that there was no dam
ger of her sinking. The steamer finally
succeeded in getting into the slip and
landed her passengers.
The Berkeley will be laid up a few
days to repair damage, which. accord :
| ing to the superintendent of the ferry
! service, Is only $3.50.
H~uSNE ~R~R naaIE0