The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, November 28, 1898, Page 1

The Call. VOLUME LXXXIV.—NO. 181. SAN FRANCISCO, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1898. PRICE FIVE CENTS. DEATH'S GRIM HARVEST ABOARD THE STEAMER T. C. WALKER AT LEAST SIX NAMES ON THE LIST OF KILLED Scenes of Awful Suffering Follow- ing the Explosion Near Stockton. Magnificent Heroism of Women in Caring for the Unfortunates Scalded by the Escaping Steam. oceur aboard the Improve- demolished ane deck an escape ATp Teport stem to ai timbe naking the creak, rushed out 1 dying in the for- Heartrending and \ssengers boat. unfortunates women ion on th efface. >t out lanterns the the made & which t The destroy boat a saptain T pilot-b the sugar below, and ed to the before upper de time his indeatity was ¢ red There was ot a drop of medicine on board. The crew, in seration, tore down piles of frelzht until they found a case of sweet oil. Flour was brought from t an angel ap- peared the person of Mrs. Frarnces R n of 1131% Har- San Francisco. This lady , and was formerly ame dc n among t gufférers in her nightr and in bare feet and began mixi | up of | | additional binding up the of sheets, she applied, burns with strips up. woman, with wonderful xed and directed the men. The cold d swept through the i boat, dealing what would have certain death to many wounded she not been equal to the emer- nerve, water and others jumped into the in their desperation to relieve awful agon ‘While part of the the crew rescued ther ers impre heroical. There is no telephone or telegraph point of the disaster. One of fficers, engaging a rig at a ranch ar by, drove desperately to Stockton and gave the alarm. Every doctor in ara Crow ene with surgeons and necessary ances. While this work of rescue was being arranged the steamship Dauntless came the river, and in spite of their awful sufferings those on board the Walker could not refrain from cheers. As soon as signaled the Dauntless came alongside, and every officer and man was ordered on board the Walker to assist in the work of rescue. It was found that the Walker was so badly crippled she could not pro- ceed, and it was decided to bring the injured to Stockton on the Dauntless. Litters were made ready and the suf- ferers were carried to the lower deck and laid in rows, with one dead already among them. The awful scene was only relieved by the heroic work of the assisted by Miss Keagle and other brave women as they moved ong the victims. The body of Cap- tain Tulan was carried to a room, was that of Henry, whose wife, hers fatally injured, pathetically called his name. When all had been transferred the Dauntless proceeded to Stockton. On the crowded deck were many able to walk, but their faces were swathed in bandages. Three miles below the mouth of the channel the Clara Crow met the boat nd six surgeons went aboard and be- gan administering to the sufferers until medical aid arrived on a steam launch. The scene on the lower deck of the Dauntless was distressing. Around one dead man lay several in agony, oth- ers lulled to insensibility by heavy opiates. At the landing place vast throngs were already gathered. Many had relatives on the Walker, and as usual, conflicting rumors were afloat. The suspense and uncertainty were responsible for many scen>s of hys- teria among women as the boat came into view. The uninjured all tried to be first to wave to waiting loved ones a signal of safety. After the passengers were discharged » member of the crew stood by | No doctor was aboard and | . from the watet oth- | ed a hospital and worked | . city was called out and the steam- | made ready to go to | and flour, | ‘AS THE WALKER' APPEARED AFTER THE EXPLOSION. Walker. C. Walker. L B B B b b B b B b B B e Bn B B B B BB Sugar Company. Walker. Dying. Back Hurt. EDWARD P, | £ the Head. Face; Head and Back |l Body; Scalded. | . HEN-E-E-0-E-EE N E-EEEE-E-E-E-E-E | T THE DEAD: JOHN TuULAN, Captain of the T. C. WATSON HENRY, Engineer of the T. MRS. WATSON HENRY. W. A. BLUNT, Foreman of Boggs’ Beet JERRY DAILEY, Fireman of the T. C. FERDINAND LAW, Passenger. THE INJURED: JOHN HOLDSBERG, Night Watchman; G. FOPPIANO, San Francisco; Dying. JOHN FIGONI, Deckhand, Head Cut and JONES, Stevedore, | on the Head and Hands. JAMES CORCORAN, Deckhand, Scalded about the Neck, Hands and Face. JOHN BURNS, Deckhand, Burned about ‘ C. DOMINICK, Deckhand, Scalded on the GEORGE V. SMITH of Boston, Mass., |1 Deckhand, Injured on the Back, Face and MARTIN IMcCAFFREY of San Francisco, Deckhand, Slightly Scalded on the Head. Fully ten others, who were removed hastily to their homes, suffered injuries that were painful, but not serious. Hurt Injured. MRS. FRANCES ROBINSON, THE HEROINE OF THE T. C. WALKER DISASTER ° CARING FOR THE'VICTIMS OF THE EXPLOSION. a groan escaped him after he was taken out of the steam. One of the remarkable escapes was that of Captain Henry Potvine, who was at the wheel of the Walker when | the explosion occurred. The pilot-house was torn away, but he was not dan- gerously injured, although he is some- what scalded about the lower limbs. ‘When the survivors had all left the | Dauntless the colors were run to half- mast. Many business houses evinced the public sorrow for the calamity by B B e R B I—I—l—.—I—I—III—II—I"II—IIIIi—HI.ll.l—.I—'IIIIIIHI—I— #—u—u-uuu doing likewise. At 1 o'clock the Walker was sighted, towed by the Clara Crow. Shortly afterward she was made fast at her wharf. The lower deck forward was a mass of wreckage; piles of bloody sheets, bedding and pillows showed how blood had flowed before Mrs. Rob- inson and her corps of volunteer nurses bound up the wounds. Windows were smashed and the space under the pilot- house was blown out as if by dyna- mite. Manager Corcoran is indignant over the claim that the boilers could not carry 160 pounds of steam. He says they would carry 300 pounds and that any board would have made such an authorization. | “It is one of those terrible calamities which will happen. We do not know just how it happened and never will. The boilers of the Walker were in splendid condition,” said Mr. Corcoran, quietly. Not a nerve flinched as he spoke and he watched the unloading of the freight as though nothing had happened. Herman Shafter, the cabin watch- man on the Walker, said: “I had just stepped out of the cabin and was walkiny forward when the boiler blew up. The electric lights were going at the time, but everything was dark in an instant. Hot steam was pouring up from below. I did not know for the moment what had happened. I heard some one say, ‘Hold this lady,’ and afterward I found that it was Mrs. Henry, the wife of the engineer. She was blown forward to the very bow of the boat. When we went up to Henry’s room we found that it had been THE LATE CAPTAIN JOHN TULAN OF THE T. C. WALKER, the grim scenes began. Patrol and ambulances backed up and trip after trip was made to the Receiving Hos- pital. Then came the dead wagon. It made a half-dozen trips to the Morgue before it's day’'s work was over. The entire city seemed to be one of mourn- ing. Nine men having no homes here were taken to the Recelving Hospital. The less dangerously injured were sent out to the County Hospital in carriages. Mrs. Watson Henry, wife of the chief engineer, died at her home soon after being brought to this city. Jerry Dailey, a fireman, dled at the Receiving Hospital. Both bodies, with those of Tulan, Blunt, Henry and Law are in the Morgue, making six dead in all. The scene had its heroes as well as its heroines. One poor Italian on board was burned terribly, but refused to give his name, saying his wife would be alarmed and he wanted to be the first to break the news to her. Many rumors are afloat as to the cause of the explosion. It is said the steamer left the landing with 160 pounds of steam, when her boilers could stand but 150. John York and wife of this city were the first to be awakened by the explo- sion. Mr. York says the first incident to attract unusual attention occurred at 8 o’clock last night, when the steamship ran into a mud bank near Lenicia. She L got off all right and everyboGy was asleep when the explosion occurred this morning. Mr. York noticed during the night a very peculiar noise, such as would have been made by escaping steam. It gave Mrs. York some con- cern, but he assured her that it was nothing unusual, and they were both sound asleep when the explosion oc- curred. The report was like the boom of a cannon. Just then Mr. York heard a passenger going past his room groan- ing with pain, as if seriously hurt. Mr, York got out as quickly as possible, and going forward saw a great hole torn out of the front of the boat from the boiler room up to the pilot house. The whole front of the cabin was a mass of splinters. Chief Engineer Henry had retired be- fore the disaster. He and his wife oc- cupied a stateroom under the pilot- house and were biown out of bed thrown some distance by the explosion. The screams of the men who were locked in their rooms near the pilot house were heartrending. Captain John Tulan had been blown from his bed against the door of the state room, and so seriously burned that he couid not move. The door could not be forced open and he was jammed up against it. One of the employes of the boat ob- tained an ax and cut the upper part away. Although the captain was suf- fering as few people are called upon to suffer, he bore it bravely and not wrecked. He was lying on the broken | timbers of the floor. His body was half way through and-was hanging across one of the beams, which prevented him falling.” In their once happy home the remains of Henry and his wife lay to-night. The survivors of the disaster cannot say too much in praise of Mrs. Frances Robinson of San Francisco and Mrs. C. | H Keagle, wife of C. H. Keagle of the | Farmers’ and Merchants’ Bank of this city. The wounded presented a shock- ing appearance, and their cries of an- gulsh were such as to unnerve some of the men who heard them, but they did not cow these brave women. Daniel W. ‘Webster of Vallejo and Dr. Davis of Oakland were on the Dauntless and as- sisted in the removal of the wounded and the dead from the Walker. Dr. Davis says he never saw any person use such good, practical and efficient measures to help the wounded as did Mrs. Robinson. The next best worker in assisting the wounded, he says, was Mrs. Keagle. The scenes were horri- ble. Many women fainted at the sight and others were unable to assist from terror. Charlotte P. Ebbets of 1401 Jones street, San Francisco, helned the engi- neer’s wife, Mrs. Henry, and did not give up her post until Mrs. Henry had been removed to her home to die. Of the work of Mrs. Robinson another pas- senger is quoted as saying: “I found the forward part of the boat below demolished, and it was some time before any of us could reach the lower deck, as the stairs were gone. After a little a ladder was brought and we went down. Mrs. Robinson did not wait for a ladder. When she knew what had happened and heard the cries of the scalded men she handed her two-year- ¢ | 01d child to her husband and went down, Yl the dumb waiter shaft, out of which the elevator was taken for the pur- pose. There were no surgical appli- ances nni)nard, but she tore sheets into bandage® saturated them with sweet oil, of which there was plenty, covered the scalded sufferers with flour and soon had the wounded easier, though many of them cried and moaned piti- fully all the way up. I never saw a woman work so hard or so effectively as that noble woman did.” Miss Anna M. Budlong, a teacher of this city, was on the boat. She was so greatly excited that as soon as she was landed at the Union Transportation Company’s dock she started for home on the run and did not stop running until she was safe inside her gate. Mr. Reaber is accustomed to engage room 3 on the Walker when he makes a trip. When he applied for this room last evenine he was disar-ointed to find that it had been engaged. He was told that it was occupied by three young girls who were going to Antioch. He contented himself with room 26. Room 3 was néarly over the spot at which the explosion occurred, and had Mr. Reaber taken it he would have been in the hospital now, if not at the Morgue. As the girls landed at An- tioch the room was empty when the explosion came. M. L. Schiff, a San Francisco com- mercial traveler, was on the ill-fated steamer. He occupied room 40. Tell- ing of his experience he said: “I was aslee~ -vhen the explosion oc- curred. The concussion was so terrific that it almost threw me out of my | berth. The lights all went out immedi- ately after the explosion, and it was some time before I could coliect my senses and convince myself that we were not goine to the bottom of the river. Minzled with the noise of es- caping steam could be heard the moans of the wounded and the nervous screaming of women and children that made one's blood creep with fear. It was an experience I would not care to go thro. vh again for a great deal of money.,” The hand of fate seems to have de- scended on the California Navigation and Improvement Company. It had $75,000 invested in the H. J. Corcoran, and the vessel was a failure for the purposes for which she was built. The J. D. Peters sank sei.ral weeks aco, and the third disaster this morning has brought death and destruction. The inquests will he held to-morrow, be-inning at 3 o’clock. A deluge of damage suits against the company is expected. The story of Professor York that he heard steam escaping during the night will be investigated. In consequence of the disabling of the Peters and the Walker the naviga- tion company has no boat to send to San Francisco to-night on the sched- uled trip. At present it has but one boat running—the Mary Garrett, which left San Francisco at 6 o'clock this evening for Stockton. It is said the H. J. Corcoran, which has been laid up for the winter, will be put on in place of the Walker within a day or two. DOUBT AS TO THE CAUSE Officials Declare the Were in Excellent Condition. Inquiry among the officers of the Cali- fornia Navigation and Improvement Company in this city regarding the cause of the disaster aboard the T. C. Walker brought forth no definite infor- mation. Nothing had been learned by them from Stockton. They professed to be unable to advamce even a theory. Cantain C. D. Clarke, the company’s agent, said the machinery and boilers of the luckless steamboat were in the best of condition, the latter having un- dergone the official test before the Gov- ernment inspectors a few months ago. Chief Engineer Barber of the Mary Garrett made substantially the same statement. 1 Engineer Henry was chief engineer of the compar~ and was only relieving Charles Sampon, the regular engineer, for this trip. John K. Bulger, Assistant United States Local Inspector of Boilers. said the boilers of the T. C. Walker were tested last April to a hydraulic pressure of 250 pounds to the square inch, and registered for a pressure of 170 pounds. The bollers were made.in 1893 and were in excellent condition as was demon- strated by the careful test. Fifteen years is a safe life for such class of boilers, and those of the Walker had, never been subjected to great strain in’ their six years’ work. 3 4 Guiseppe Fappiano resides with his family at 1% Edith place, off Dupont street, between Greenwich and Lom- bard. He was a passenger on his way. to Stockton. He is engaged as a helper at the Palace Baths, in this city, and is Boilers - : N7 7 MW'W 4 hY 2 K/ THE UNFORTUNATE STEAMER T. C. WALKER.