The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1911-02-04
BAD As EARTHQUAKE.
THIRTY KILLED AND THIRTY IN
JURED BY EXPLOSION.
New York Shaken From Street Level
to Top Of Singer Building-Lighter
Containing Explosive Shattered Into
Powder.


New York, Feb. IA cargo of
dynamite in transit from a freight
car TO the hold Of a lighter moored at
pier No. Z, Communipaw, y. j., let
go shortly after noon today, $50 yards
south of the Jersey City terminal Of
the Central Railroad of New Jersey
and in the widespread ruin that fol-
lowed seven men are known to have
been killed, seven more are missing,
hundreds were wounded and varying
reports leave from 10 to 20 more un-
accounted for.
Thirty seems to be a conservative
estimate of the dead and property
damaged will hardly, fall below $780,
900. The cause of the explosion is
variously attributed to the dropping
Of case Of dynamite and to a boiler
explosion on boat.
The direct cause probably never
will be known.
The Jersey Central terminal was
wrecked, three ferry boats In the
slips were torn and splintered; lower
Manhattan, across the river, was
shaken from the street level to the
top Of the Singer tower; severe dam
age was done in Brooklyn and Staten
Island, and to the immigrant deten-
ton station on Ellis Island; the shock
was felt at Amityville, Long Island,
35 miles distant, and in New jersey
at Long Branch, 45 miles away. The
damage is so widely scattered that it
is impossible as yet to estimate more
than roughly. but in Manhattan alone
it is placed at 100000, on Ellis
Island at from $4,000 to $4,000 and
in all three-quarters Of a million ap-
pears to be a fair estimate.
The lighter receiving the dynamite,
the Katherine W., owned by James
Healing Of Jersey City, vanished ut
terly with her crew Of seven men,
including the master, Edward Traver
Alongside was the lighter Whistler.
which was so badly shattered that she
sank with her crew Of two, while the
Swedish steel barkentine Ingrid was
stripped Of her rigging and the lives
Of two deck hands aboard were
snuffed out. Fragments Of one mans
head were found swinging high on a
tangled piece of rope.
The Katherine w. was tied to the
outer end OF the pier, and crew Of
dock hands was unloading a consign-
ment of 50-pound boxes from two
freight cars to the lighter when the
crash came. One report was to the
effect that the explosive was con-
signed to contractors up the river for
blasting along the Palisades, another
that it was bound for Habana.
With the explosion the Katherine
w. simply Disappeared not a splinter
Of her has been found. Only the
Whistler's flagpole has been found.
The freight car went up in a puff Of
dust. On the rear deck Of the barken-
tine Ingrid were found a pair Of iron
trucks that were also torn to bits.
Fifty yards back stood another car
Of dynamite. The explosion ripped
the roof off it and broke in the doors,
but the dynamite itself did not ex-
plode.
On board the Ingrid the steel miz-
zenmast snapped off above the lower
yard, and the tangled wreckage came
tumbling about the decks. Everything
abaft the mizzenmast was leveled fiat
but the steel plates Of the hull held
stoutly and showed not even mark.
For 100 feet the pier-end itself was
utterly demolished.
All about were strange freaks of
the explosion.