The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1911-02-08
RUIN AND DEATH
QUICKLY SPREAD
BY ExplOsiOnOf Huge Mass
of Dynamite
ON PIER OPPOSITE NEW YORK
Heads We're Blown From Vic
timS-Panic in Wall
Street Follows.
DON'T KNOW THE EXACT CAUSE


close by the Central Rail- Dad of
New jerseys passenger ferry slip,
at Communipaw, at noon to-day,
killed at least a score of persons,
injured more than $50 others AMI
wrecked everything in the vicinity,
including the Central's big terminal.
The authorities say that the num-
Der of dead will never be known.
The terrific force of the blow-up
reached through the underlying :.
strata of rock, not only Manhattan,
Brooklyn, Richmond and the Bronx,
but far-away points in Long Island
and Connecticut, rocking skyscrap-
ers, smashing glass, tearing away
window frames and sending panic
stricken tens of thousands of men
and women into the streets, fearful
that an earthquake or some other
vast natural turmoil was upon them
AS in all upheavals of tremendous
force, persons nearby escaped death;
buildings close at hand we're not in
jured; persons far away were kill
ed; structures at great distances
were almost torn apart.
For instance, Northport, 40 miles
down Long Island Sound, trembled
with the shock. Bayonne, only a
mile or two distant. did not know
anything had happened until 1t read
the evening newspapers.
Wall street for a time suspended
business through fright and anxiety.
New York's fire engines and ambu-
lances changed violently up and
down the street, searching for the
scene of whatever had happened
nobody for a long time knew.
There was a semi-panic for nearly
an hour in this city until it became
known that the cause of the great
roar, the swaying of buildings and
the tinkle OF breaking glass that cut
and bruised scores, was good mile
away.
What happened, briefly, was this:
Two cars OF dynamite, containing
25 tons each, from the Du Pont
Powder Works in Wilmington, Del,
had arrived on the tracks at the end
OF Pier No. Z, almost adjoining the
big Central Station at COmmunipaw,
the explosive being consigned to
Palisades, on the Hudson. for use in
blasting out rock.
Two lighters, the Katherine w.
and the Whistler, had drawn up to
the pier end to receive cargoes of
the dangerous stuff. They were to
have been towed up the river, once
it was slowed aboard. On the for
mer were Captain John Healy and
eight men; on the latter, four men.
On the pier end itself were IL Po-
lsh laborers, some starting to eat
their dinners from their pals; 9TH
ers engaged in transferring the dy-
Mantle from the freight cars to the
lighters.
There we're at least "a men, there
fore, within handling distance of the
dynamite.
Next there was an awful roar, a
great cloud Of haze and dust, a
tremble of earth and structure above
the earth within a radius of 80 miles
apart, an immense wave from the
river that splashed high above every
thing nearby (even scattering mud
upon the collars of persons on the
New York side of the river). And
then a vision of death, manning and
wreckage.
Later the railroad ofIlficials, in a
formal statement, said that possibly
the steam or gasoline engines of one
of the two lighters had exploded and
set off the dynamite, though they
ulun Sldlb IHlS pOblllNtigs
The Jersey City police declared
that one box of dynamite had be-
come stalled at the bottom of a chute
down which big packages of the ex-
plosive were being shot, and that an
other had struck it and gone off. Ex-
actly what happened was not known
tonight. except that certainly one
car load. and, perhaps, two car loads,
of dynamite had exploded.
But this is known surely: OF the
lighters Katherine w. and Whistler,
there was not a trace at the pier end.
OF the first freight car, which had
held 25 tons of dynamite, nothing
could be seen either.
OF the second there was only a
pair of rear trucks. Far out in the
river fioated a mass of wreckage that
might have represented part of the