The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 4, 1902, Page 1

VOLUME XCIII- STEAMSHIP PROGRESO IS DESTROYED AND TWELVE MEN LOSE Qall. FRANCISCO, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1902. PRICE FIVE CENTS. THEIR LIVES AS THE RESULT OF A TERRIFIC EXPLOSION ON BOARD VESSEL WHICH WAS L The ship is a total zoreck and still burning fiercely. The loss is estimated at $250,000, which is fully insured. WELVE men were killed and a large number more/ or less severely injured shortly after 9 o'clock yesterday morning by a mysterious. explosion in the hold of the converted oil steamship Progreso at the wharf of the Fulton Irom Works. Sixty men were working on board at the time and many hairbreadth escapes are reported. The cause of the disaster is not definitely known, but the most favored theory is that of gas combustion in the partly filled oil fuel tanks. - - oo A * THE DEAD. CAZEBTTE, JOHN, electrician; no residence. DOW, HOWARD, sailor; no residence. CLENN, CHARLES A., quart:rmaster; Philadelphia. GALLAGH : R, DANIEL, rivete'; Potrero. HACKSTON, JOHN, fireman; no residence. LABELLLE, W.LLIAM, riveter; no residence. MAGUIRE, JAMES, riveter; Potr:ro. McGREGOR, COLIN C., foreman drillers; 1206 Mission streets NELSON, EDWARD, riveter; Eighte:nth and Minnecsota. REX, JOSEPH, quartermaster; 640 Chestnut street. SPARKS, E. R, first a_sistant engineer; 712 Folsom strect. STRAND, JOHN, fireman; 1123 York strect. THE INJURED. BEUTELL, E. V.. New York, store keeper; left wrist broken. COLE, JAMES, no residence; riveter; three fingers blown off. CONNOMA, HARRY I, Ridley street; rivet heater; fracture left arm necessitating amputation at the shoulder. GIBSON, ROBERT, 125 South Park; boiler maker; fracture of both bones of right and left leg; burns and severe shock. HANSEN, RETER, Sailors’ Home; ship carpenter; right leg frac- tured and abrasions. HIGGINS, MAURICE J 3; left shoulder lacera: Q{. KANE, EDWARD, 3613 Broderick street; rivet holder; fracture of right foot and leg; burns and severe shoeck. McGILL, HUGH, 517 Folsom street; boilermaker; scalp wounds, burns, broken wrist and contused back. May lose sight of both eyes. McNERNEY, GEORGE, 19A Harrison avenue; riveter; burns, la- cerations and contused back. VAN TASSEL, WILLIE, a boy residing at 38 Eighth street; com- tusions and abrasions about left hip and both thighs. 1273 Pacific; driver cheriical engine No. FHOTOGRAPH OF STEAMER PROGRESO TAKEN SHORTLY AFTER THE FATAL EXPLOSION AT THE FULTON IRON WORKS YESTERDAY MORNING. YING AT FULTON IRON WORKS a4 + - —_ been recently inspected by him and they were up to requirements. Lad withstood n 360 pound test, ther was caused probably | butim what particular manner I have been unable to learn. | fuel tenk had = capacity of 1940 barrels, or §1,480 gallons, and con- tained only two bulkheads, three feet apart, forming a coffer-dam, which was filled with water. feet before the boilers are reached. | | feet, plus the ihickness of two bulkheads, between the fuel tank and the boilers. trict asing oila Petitions for permixsion to use petroleum ns fuel | mre written on printed forms in Dlank spaces nnd addressed fo the Seeretary of the Treasury.” plosion was causcd by some members of (he crew searching for Jeak with = light and that the wases from the petroleum were thuy ignited. | flows stuggishiy oll of a lighisr gravity is sometimes mixed with the petroleum in order to increase its fluidity, lighter gravity ofl may have generated the gas that worked as an engine of destruction @ | the Progreso. UNITED STATES INSPECTOR the cargo or the kind of freight that a freight vessel may carry. She may carry dynamite so far as our duties ore concerned. We are responsible for the bollers and the hulls of vessels, ber of the erew should xet fire to a cargo of dynamite that is not our affair. Inced by Inw in the hands of the Secre ; e i MR RN rechmmend‘.-r) ©f the Treasury, running between Eureka and Pasadena, the past sixteen ycars, and the George Loomis has been using same kind of fucl for eight or nine years, deson, a wooden vessel, burned oil for eighteen years. sreso was a collier and had just been transformed into an ofl carc rying vessel. | submitted to Supervising Inspector Bermingham and him and then received the approval of the Secretary of the Treas. ©ry. —b | Awful Disaster Bursts Upon Its Victims BULGER THINKS EXPLOSION WAS With Appalling Suddenness. CAUSED BY GAS IN FUEL TANK UDDENLY, swiftly and without warning twelve men were hurled into eternity and several others severely injured yesterday morning by a mysterious explosion on board the freight steamship Progreso. The vessel was moored to the wharf of the Fulton Iron Works at-the foot of Broderick street, where it ‘had been lying for the past three months undergoing conversion into an oil burner and oil carrier. This work was already nearly completed when the disaster came. In addition to the fuel tanks for the steamer’s own use eight others of 1800 barrels capacity had been built ~in under Lloyd’s regulations and approved by experts of that company. On Monday last six of these tanks had been tested, found satisfactory and partly filled with oil, about 400 barrels in all, it is believed. Yesterday morning the work of testing the two remaining tanks was begun, as it was de- sired to get the vessel ready for sea in a few days. In addition to the officers and crew of twenty men about forty experts, machinists, boiler-makers, riveters and helpers were on board working like beavers to get everything in ship-shape for the caming voyage to the Atlantic coast. Some -were scrubbing down the decks or cleaning paintwork, and the rest were scattered throughout the ¢hip-in engine-rooms, fire-room and even down in the black, ill-smelling hold, driving bolts, fas- tening rivets and working at tanks or furnaces. About 9:20 a. m. this peaceful scene of bustling, noisy industry was suddenly, shudderingly shattered by a tremendous explosion deep down in the bowels of the ship that sounded to those within earshot like the splitting of a planet. With it the vessel’s forward upper deck began to heave and bulge, and then the officers’ cabins were swept over the side into the bay as though by giant hands, while the pilot-house was shattered into a thousand fragments. At the same instant a volcano of flame and inky smoke belched forth from the hatchways and jagged openings in the broken deck, leaping two hundred or more feet into the heavens. Broken pieces of timber and metal flew in all directions, and great spars, loosened by the shock, . came tumbling and rattling down from above. A very bedlam of $hrieks and horrid sounds greeted the éar, and death reigned everywhere as the flames grew fiercer and hotter ‘and the great cloud of black, impenetrable, suffocating smoke rolled out and spread its blinding, asphyx- iating pall over all the scene. : Sailors toppled from the. rigging into the sea or plunged headlong into the vortex of that (kndnued on Page i, Column 1. NITED STATES INSPECTOR BULGER arrived at the Falton {ron Works during the early part of the forenoon. The fire was then raging fiercely and dense volumes of smoke were rolling skyward from the doomed steamer. He said that it might be some days before he would be able to personally inspeet the wreek. He said that the fuel oil tanks of the Progreso, as well as her boilers, had “The boilers were brand new,” said Inspector Bulger, “and and at the time of the accident ure of forty-three pounds on. The explosion ¥ &as gemcrated by the oil in the fuel tank, | | The was only n pre: 0 barrels. Between the fuel tank and the boilers are Beyond this coffer-dam is an air space of ten This gives a space of thirteen “The United States local inspectors have mothing to do with and if a mem- The matter of barning oil or any other sabstance is and The steamer Pasadena, has been burning oil for the while the George Har- The Pro- The plans amd the Jocation of the ofl tanks werp approved by There are in all one hundred and ten steamers in this dis- It was persistently rumored yesterday afternoon that the ex- 1t is said also that in cold weather when crude petroleum and that this O CAUGHT UNDER A FURNACE EXFERT HEWSON HAS NARROW MONG the many hair-breadth escapes at the fatal explo- sion of the steamship Progreso perhaps the lucklest as well as the narrowest was that of R. B. Hewson of 606 Oak street. Mr. Hewson is an expert engineer commected with the firm of Charles C. Moore & Co., and he visited the ship yesterday morning to inspect the furnaces and see that everything was right before the vessel left the whart. «About 9 o'clock,” said he, “I put on my overalls and went down into the lower hold where the furnaces are loeated. After testing the farnaces which we had comtracted to place in the ship I got down on my hands and knees and erawled under the ash pan of the center furnace to inspect it. I had not been there more than half a minute when I felt a sudden shock, followed by a loud, muaffled roar apparently above me. I was thrown prostrate with great force and a shower of fine black dust fell all around me, get- ting into my eyes and throat and nearly smothering me, while the atmosphere seemed to be pressing me down. “I yas half dazed at the time and canmot now remember very clearly what followed. But somehow I managed to seramble out into the passageway, where it was as black as piteh. In the comn- fusion of the moment I had completely lost my bearings and could not tell in that darkness which way to go, but after fee! a bit, by the greatest good fortune I soon struck the ire: leading to the main deck, and groped my way up. » “There I w=s appalled by the sight of a great column of flames reaching up into the sky and a lake of fire encircling the ship, while huge masses of sooty smoke floated around and over all. In that one 'swift glance I also saw that the vessel’'s back was broken and that the water was rushing in through her shattered sides. Then the maddened, despairing shrieks of the ‘imprisomed victims below reached my ears and quickly mnwakened m senses to n realization of my danger. lowed by several half-stunned men, phyxiating smoke belched up from the burning hold. It was an aw- ful indescribable sight and one that will haunt me all my life. “I am positive that the bollers did not explode or in any way contribute to the cause of the disaster. Neither did the explosion come from the section of the ship I was in. It occurred well for- ward of amidships. The angle of the break at the pilot house is convineing proof that the bollers had nothing to do with the mcei- dent. Crude oil cannot be exploded. Some other material was the cause of the trouble. “The shock of the explosion broke the ship in two forward of the boilers and only an exploration will disclose the real cause. This, however, cannot be done for many days yet until the hull cools off.” } ESCAPE FROM DEATH IN HOLD: e e