Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-02-02
Seven Missing and
Hundreds Injured
By Dynamite Explosion al
Communipaw, n. J.
Dead List May Be Increased
Property Loss $4,000.
Shock Fell 40 MiIes..Acres Of
Glass in New York Broken.


New York, Feb. IA cargo of dy-
Mantle in transit from a freight car
to the bold of a lighter moored at Pier
No. {, Communipaw, \. j., exploded at
just one minute past 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 10 have
been killed, seven more are known =
be missing, hundreds We're injured
and varying reports leave from u to
20 more u:laccounted for.
Thrift seems to be a conservative cs-
innate of the probable dead, and the
property damage will hardly fall be-
low $50 900. Tie cause Of the explosion
is variously attributed to the dropping
OF case of dynamite and to d boiler
explosion on d boat. Just what was the
direct cause will probably never be
known.
The New Jersey Centrals terminal
was wrecked; three ferry boats in the
slips were torn and splintered; lower
dtioSS tiit lINtI w DIS Sildh-
en- from the street level to the top of
the Singer tower; severe damage was
done in Brooklyn, Staten Island. and
the immigrant detention station on
Ellis island; the shock was felt on
Long Island in Amityyille. 80 miles
distant, and in New Jersey at Long
Branch, 40 miles away. The damage is
SO widely scattered that it is impos
Siple as yet to estimate it 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 million appears to be II
fair estimate.
The lighter receiving the dynamite
Healing of Jersey City. vanished ut
terly with her crew of seven men. in
Guiding the master. Edward Travers
Alongside. the lighter Whistler. owned
by the American Storage and Delivery
Co, Of New York was SO badly shat
tered that She sank with her crew of
two. while the Swedish steel barken-
tine Ingrid, a biscuits toss to the
south. was stripped of her rigging and
the lives of two deck hands aboard
were snuffed out. Fragments of one
mans head was found swinging high
on tangled piece of rope.
The Katherine w. was tied to the
outer end of the pier and a crew of
dock hands was unloading a consign-
ment of 50-pound boxes from two
freight cars to the lighter when the ex-
plosion occurred. The Du Pont De Ne
nours Powder co. were the shippers,
but to whom the explosive was con
signed could non definitely be ascer-
tanned tonight. Theoretically, dynamite
will not explode either from shock or
fire, but only from a combination of
both-the detonation produced by a
PERCUSSION cap. y boiler explosion
would have duplicated the effect of the
percussion cap. What followed is the
best possible example of the WITNESSES
of dynamite.
The Katherine w. simply disappear
ed; not splinter of her has been
found. The Whistler dissolved into
wreckage. Only her flag pole has been
found The freight car went up in
puff of dust. on the rear deck of the
barkentine Ingrid We're found a pair
of iron car trucks. They may be the
trucks of the dynamite car or of on" Of
the other four ears standing near. that
were also torn to bits.
Fifty yards back stood another car of
dynamite. The explosion ripped the
roof off of it, and broke in the doors,
but the dynamite itself rested quies-
cent.
What might have happened had the
Ito ,buipad TO ~ no
first can hardly be guessed: the visible
terrors of the actually were enough.
on board the Ingrid the steel mizzen-
mast was snapped off and the tangled
wreckage came tumbing about the decks.
Everything abaft the mizzenmast was
leveled fiat. but the steel plates of the
hull held stouty.
For 100 feet the piers-end itself was
utterly demolished. The planking seemed
to have been ground to powder. Grid
ers, planking, cross stays. all the mas
sive framework of pier built to uphold
locomotives aud loaded trains were mere
nullity. Over the broken edges twisted
the steel rails of tracks. A steel gon-
dola car on the southernmost track
looked like an Old hat that had been
used by boys for football. III the train
sheds of the terminal. nearly the whole
southern exposure of the glass roof col
lapsed, showering the passengers with
broken glass. One man was struck by a
20-pound fragment and so severely cut
that he died afterward. An engineer in
Il shifting locomotive was blown from
his cab and died of fractured skull. A
tugboat captain was hurled from his
wheel house and fished out of the water
Is minutes later.
Inside the passenger station. damage
was visible everywhere The floors were
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