The Colorado statesman., 1911-02-04
EXPLOSION
TAKES 81 LIVES
CARGO OF DYNAMITE TAKES
LIVES AND PROPERTY IN
DIscRIMINATELY.
DAMAGE IS S750,0O0
VESSELS AND CARS BLOWN TO
FRAGMENTS MANY WORK.
MEN ARE MISSING.

New York-A cargo Of dynamite in
transit from a freight car to the hold
of a lighter moored at Pier No. Z.
Communipaw, N. j., let go at one min
ute past noon Wednesday, $50 yards
south of the Jersey City terminal of
the Central Railroad of New Jersey
and in the widespread ruin that fol-
lowed, seven are known to have been
killed, seven more are missing, hun
dreds were wounded and varying re-
ports leave from fifteen to twenty
more unaccounted for.
Thirty-two seems to be a conserva-
tive estimate of the dead, and prop.
erty damage will hardly fall below
$75O,000
The cause of the explosion is vari-
ously attributed to the dropping of
case of dynamite and to a boiler eX-
plosion on a boat. The cause prob
ably will never be known.
The Jersey Central terminal was
wrecked, three ferry boats in the slips
were damaged; lower Manhattan
across the river was shaken from the
street level to the top OF the Singes
Tower; severe damage was done in
Brooklyn; and Staten Island, and to
the Immigrant Detention Station on
Ellis Island; the shock was felt at
Amityville, l.. l., thirty-five miles dis
tant, and at Long Branch, N. j., torty
five miles away.
The damage is so widely scattered
that it is impossible to more than es-
innate it, but in Manhattan alone it
is placed at 100000; on Ellis Island
from $4,000 to $4,000, and, in all,
$75O,OOO.
The lighter receiving the dynamite
the katherine W." owned by James
Healing of Jersey City, vanished uf-
terly, with her crew of seven men, in
Guiding the Master, Edward Traver
Alongside was the lighter "Whis-
tier" 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 two deck-hands aboard vera
killed.
Fragments of one mans head were
found swinging high on tangled
piece of rope.
The katherine W." was tied to the
outer end of the pier, and crew OF
deck-hands was unloading a consign-
ment of fifty-pound boxes from two
freight cars to the lighter when the
crash came.
One report was that the explosive
was consigned to contractors up the
river for blasting along the Palisades;
another that it was bound for Havana.
Only the "Whistlers" Flagstaff has
been found.
The freight car went up in a puff
of dust.
On the rear deck of the barkentine
'Ingrid" were found pair OF IRON
trucks. They may be the trucks OF
the dynamite car or of one OF the
other four cars standing near, which
also were torn to bits.
Fifty yards back stood another car
of dynamite The explosion ripped tn
roof off and broke in the doors, but
the dynamite itself did not explode.
On board the "Ingrid" the steer
On board the Ingrid the steel miz
zenmast snapped off above the lower
yard, and the tangled wreckage cam
| tumblng about the decks. Everything
abaft was leveled flat, but the steel
plates of the hull held.
For 100 feet the pier end was demoi-
ished. vhe planking seemed to have
been ground to powder. Over the
broken edges twisted the steel rails
of tracks. A steel gondola car on the
southernmost track looked like an OLD
hat used for a football.