Iditarod pioneer., 1915-07-03
DETAILS OF EXPLOSION
 WHICH SHOOK SEATTLE

Inc uetdliS or the teTTlDle explOSlOn WlliCl shook up the city of Seattle at 2 o'clock in the morning of May 3l, a teegraphic report of which was printed in The Pioneer at the time, is thus described by the Seattle Post Intellgencer:
 Seattle at o'clock yesterday morning was the vortex of an explosion that shook | up the country for radius of fifty miles | and did damage in this city estimated at | probably $100,000. The blast was accom- panied by flash that lit up the whole sky; culver that shook the stanchest buildings in the city, and a roar that carried terror to thousands and awoke the majority of Seattle residents from their sleep.
 "The Drummond Llghterage Company 5 scow Mo- 8, attached to city buoy Mo- 3, in the West waterway, off Harbor island, in Elliott bay, was blown up with fifteen tons of dynamite, destined for VladivOstok. With the scow there disappeared watchman, name unknown, who had been hired for the nights work only few hours before. He was known as Fat" and IS said to have GCne other odd jobs around the water front. Whether Eat" was blown up at his post or whether he deserted and left the scoW to the mercy of malicious de5troyers will per haps never be known.
 ''There are rumors that he was seen up town after the explosion, but these cannot be confirmed The property loss probably IS not less than S100,000. Representatives Of plate glass insurance companies estimate that 1000 separate pieces ot glass, with 3oO to 400 large plate pieces, valued at total of S50000 were destroyed by the force ot the blast which awoke the city with ter rife crash and roar. Albers Bros flour mill. on the East waterway, was one Of the places most seriously damaged.
 "The scow had been chartered for the storage of the dynamite by the Baldwin Shipping Company, in charge of the con- signment of 622 fifty pound boxes of 80 per cent dynamite, valued at total of S5,2S7.
 The explosive, which was said to be of a type usually used for submarine blasting or for war purposes, was brought from San Francisco on the steamer r. s. Loop on Nav 13, and was to have been taken to Nladivostok by the Japanese steamship Shensei Maru At the last moment the Shensei Maru refused the shipment, and 1t had been planned to send the dynamite pcross the Pacific on the steamship Hazel Dollar.
 "The exact moment of the explosion was fixed by the clock in the tower of the Col man dock, which stopped at exactly 13 min utes before o'clock
 "The whole town was awakened by the crash and the terrific shaking of buildings which accompanied it. Within minute m the downtown streets was gathered crowd of hundreds, which before half an hour was augmented by thousands of persons, waver- ing between apprehension and eager cunos ity The widest rumorS spread. While the general impression of those at distance Of \ mile or more from the water front was that the city had been shaken by an earth quake. there were other rumors of whole sale safe blowing, of British ships blown up in the harbor, of aeroplaues dropping bombs.
 "Sleepy-ey citizens rushed bewildered to their telephones The effect was a practical demoralization of the service for nearly half na hour. The police station, telephone cen tral the electric company dispatcher and the Post -Intelligencer office were deluged with inquiries before the origin of the disturb ance had been learned. A few of the wake ful, in fortunate locations managed to see the flash and thus the general location of the center of the disturbance was ascer tsned.
 The police department commenced work with the chatter of broken glass, which show cred the sidewalks all over the downtown district Policemen were sent all over the city to guard banks, jewelry stores and other establishments, which had practically been moved into the open street by the shatter- ing of their large windows No case of loot ing was reported to the department, al though windows were smashed in hundreds of stores all over the city.
 Reports of broken windows from Everett end Bremerton, as wei as from the out skirts of the city give testimony to the wide range of the disturbance There was however not the slightest tremor on the uni versity seismograph, which records only earth shocks"