The Hawaiian gazette., 1913-08-01
Joseph Mckay and Charles E.
Olson, steelworkers Employed
on Inter-Island Steam Naviga-
ton Company's Floating Dry
dock, Lose Their Lives When
Caught Beneath Three Ton
Sheet of Metal.
THE DEAD.
Joseph Mckay, foreman Inter Island
floating drydock.
Charles E. Olson, steel worker.
From Wednesday Advertiser

From Wednesday Advertiser.)
crushed by broken piece of wooden
Doom weighted with a three-ton sheet
OF steel, Joseph Mckay, foreman of the
inter, Island Steam Navigation Com.
rany 8 floating drydoek, and Charles L.
Oisoh, an expert steel worker, were
kliled yesterday afternoon at twenty
minutes past four clock, while fitting
q steel bulkhead on the end of one of
the two wings upon a pontoon in the
lnter-lsland coal bunker slip.
Depending upon delicately adiust.
ed lowering of the huge piece of steel.
and waiting for the psychological mo,
ment when bolt could be shot through
a rivet hole into the wing stanchions
to hold the piece in place, the men miss.
cd the shot by fraction, with the re.
suit that the steel sheet slipped off its
narrow ledge. The full weight of the
three-t ton piece took up the slack of the
lowering lines and bent the boom down
ward. The spring in the lines caused
the steel piece to rebound and as it fell
again the boom spar broke and feel di-
fectly upon Mckay and Olson, narrow
" missing j. A. Lewis, the superinten.
dent.
Both men were terribly mangled and
the bodies fell from the platform to an
inner grating between the walls of the
wing, from which THY vera taken,
Mckay still living, but beyond medical
aid He died one minute after being
laid on an operating table in the
Queen IS Hospital
Pursued by Fate
Fate pursued Mckay, for he was one
of the N
when the ter.lsland coal bunker boil.
er blew up, and only recently came out
of the hospital to resume work with
the company. When the boiler explod.
ed Mckay was washing his hands close
to the engine house. He was blown
several feet, but rose unaided and
CROPPED his way through debris to the
street. He was badly injured and was
hurried to the hospital where he re.
manned for weeks. By a strange coin.
cidence Death finally overlook him
within forty feet of the place of his
first accident.
Yesterdays tragedy took place in the
drydock slip where the company is put
ting its pontoon floating dock together.
Six pontoons had been rugged and the
wings joined, making two complete
walls, one on each side. Outside the
drydock pontoon was another pOntoon
on which donkey engine was rugged.
with ii. Cleveland in charge. Upon
this pontoon the jointed boom was ele-
waited, the spars being twelve inches
square. The boom rose several feet
upon the top of the wing and slanted
over so that its graphing rig could take
up steel pieces from the dock pontoon.
1t was one of these which was being
raised into position yesterday after.
noon.
How Accident Happened.
Superintendent Sheedy arrived at the
scene of the accident few minutes
after he was notified. His information
as to the cause of the accident was re.
ceived from numerous wOrkmen, who
stated that the three'ton piece was be-
ing lowered into position.
One attempt had been made by Nc
Kay and Olson to thrust the bolts
through the holes to pin the sheet to
the wing uprights, but this had failed
and it was again being lowered. Again
the bolts failed to shoot right and the
sheet resting upon narrow cornice
slipped off.
&C. As far as 1 have been able to
learn, the slack was taken up and the
whole mechanism, running gear and
boom, sprung beneath the combined
weight said Superintendent Sheedy,
land then went up on sort of re.
bound. 1t was then that the boom
broke in two places and the end piece
fell directly upon Mckay and Olson,
crushing them and causing them to
drop to the grating just below. The
steel piece fell into the slip and gov
stands upright.
As l have learned through hasty
when the piece did not
fit into position the men ordered it
hoisted again and then ordered il low.
cred once more to the position wanted.
"The same boom has been used in
lifting pieces of steel which weighed
within half a ton of the piece they were
handling, and it had also handled that
same piece early in the day when it
it to the dock pontoon.o
Mckay was an expert steel worker.
Fourteen years ago he was foreman of
the boiler shop of the Union Iron
Works at San Francisco. Dyson was
also an expert worker and had been
with the company since the steel ar
rived from the mainland for the loat.
ing dock.
Mckay leaves a mother and brother
in Montreal. He Lad been a resident
Of Honolulu for several years. DIN
worked on various jobs in and about
Honolulu before going ON the pontoon
work.
Olson IS body was badly mutilated.
McKay's skull was crushed and he was
otherwise cut.
D+Suty Sheriff Rose will hold a cor.
'ner's inquest TO determine the cause
If the tragedy. The public utilities
commission will also take hand in the
Investigation.