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

NO FRANCIECO WARNING OF | JALL, THURSDAY, WORKMEN | DISPLAY COURAGE Rescue Their Fellow Employes From the Ship. Bravely Rush to Help | Injured Men to Safety. T twepty minutes after 9| o'clock yesterday morning the " workmen employed at the ( Fulton Iron Works at Harbat | View were startled by a ter- | rific explosion, which occyrred | teamship Progreso, lying at the | Instantly they realized what was | on the whart. Dense wrong clouds of smoke aross| | from the vessel and sheets of flame darted | | om ber Fold. Unmindfui of | danger and withowt an in- blazing ship and 4id heroic | rescuing their fellow employes. | lives were . saved through the energy and bravery of these men. The injured were conveyed to various places and their wounds given temporéry at- tention until they were hurried off to (hv! neral hospital at the Presidio and the While the rescuers were thus engaged| a second explosion occurred and many of | the rescuers were struck by flying splint- ers. Many of the men on the ship jumped | into the water and swam ashore. The fire rapidly gathered headway and within a few minutes the flames were leaping as high as the mastheads. An alarm was turned in from the auxiliary -box in the | pattern shop of the Fulton Iron Works and an attempt was made to-telephone | tc the State fire tugs, but every wire in | the neighborhood was broken by the| force of the explosions. One of the man-| agers the works rushed across the | street to telephone, but found the men | using the instrument to notify their {aml-‘ of les that v were safe. After some de- lay the tug companies were notified, as | were also the agents of the Saginaw Steel | Steamship Company, the owners of the | burning ship. EXCITING RACE DOWN THE BAY | There was an exciting race down the | by the tugs. The Spreckels tugboat | in command of Captain Mar- ashed toward Harbor View with €very ounce of steam concentrated on her | | engines. Captain Marshall saw | the burning ship before he reached her and he had two powerful monitors | | manned. As he brought the prow of the | & 1ug close to the burning ship he began | throwing two heavy streams of water | The monitors poured in 1600 gal- | ute for more than six hours man service. The fire Stirring Scenes At- 1Y i tug: 1 Governor Markham and Governor Irwin | tend EXpIOSIOfl \ were soon alongside and also had their | ) 3 W& batteries trained on the Progreso. The | on Shlp. ! \ tug boats Relief, Millen Griffith, Sea | Queen, Sea Prince and Sea Rover joined % | # e Bood work and for hours Houred | streams of water upon the burning ves- CEORGE- e & oup.. ety MENERNE> | FIGHTING THE FIRE. | CHIEF SULLIVAN PLEASED. || o shore the workmen, firemen and| Chief Sullivan put in an appearance | | worked like beavers to save the | Jater in the afterncon and was well H Before the firemen arrived the | pleased with the work of his men. He re- energetically at work. | mained at the fire for more than an hdur buildings were in danger | and keenly watched the efforts of the by fast work saved | tugs and his department to extinguish - SOME OF THE INJURED WORKMEN AND SURVIVORS OF THE FA- TAL EXPLOSION WHICH WRECKED THE STEAMER PROGRESO AND RESULTED IN THE DEATH OF TWELVE MEN. 0p was closed down |the conflagration. One fireman, with of steam utilized 10| more courage than sound judgment, The amateur fire-fighters | climbed on board the Progreso and walked ¥ aided by solders from thel| along the™deck looking for a good point Tf* bluecoats helped to couple | of vantage to direct the stream of his the hoses and stayed at their | engine. Flames darted out at him and he every ounce water. pests un < ed by Xhl—»muxn(,. 2l fire- | was in imminent danger of being burned. fighters 2 hooked up” | He seemed to brave the fire and 'stood ey heard the explosion, The | pointing at the opening in the ventilator —_— Fire Department Saves Big Plant From De- Struction After Hard Battle With the Burning Petroleum. ned them and they dashed | * Fulton Iron Works at top | m under the personal | Chief Sullivan spied the man and ordered him off the vessel. The man did so re- | . luctantly and when he reached shore he | alion Chiefs Dolan and | was sternly rebuked for his foolhardi- | the men on to their work. | ness. Morris Higgins of truck 4 was The fire lad devoted their efforts to | spiked in the shoulder while tearing up a keeping t wharf from being destroyed | portion of the wharf. A heavy plank was $nd preventing the flames from spread- | Leing raised and Higgins stooped to get a ing. 1In this they were successful and | betier hold of it when one of his assist- they spent the afternoon 4n pouring | ants let it drop. A nail pierced his shoul- PROGRESO Sifection pital at the Presidio for treatment. Ccnlon, spurre: | paratus. was Sttt o ottt IS DES 4 der and he had to go to the general hos- That the Fulton Iron Works plant was saved was due to its splendid fire ap- A year ago the corporation in- vested $9000 in steam pumps, big pipes and hydrants and these were, placed in vari- ous parts of the yard. The apparatus pressed into service yesterday and | — the investment was found to be a good one. But for this fire protection the en- tire plant would have been destroyed and hundreds of men thrown out of employ- ment. As it is the men will be able to report for dtuy this morning, when the works will again present its busy appear- ance. When the first explosion occurred win- | their families know they were safe. DECEMBER 4, 19802, MPENDING SURVIVORS DEATH UNABLE TO GIVE CAUSE OF TERRIBLE ACCIDENT Captain H. A. Harding Believes That On Six of His Crew Perished on Board of Death-Stricken Ship. ONE of the survivors was able to give any satisfactory aceount of “the explosion ~or of the causes leading up to it. It came with such startling suddenness that the first im- | pulse of those who were not | disabled was to seek safety in flight from the burning vessel. Many of them | plunged overboard \ and swam to the wharf, where they clung until drawn to safety by the rescuers ashore. Others & g Soldiers Gallantly Aid in Saving " Property. 25 dows and doors were broken by the shock. Every window in the office build- ing was broken, as was also every pane of glass in adjoining buildings. Fearing a big conflagration, every book and paper of value was carried to a place of safety. The men in the pattern shops gathered their, patterns and blueprints together and carried them some distance from the meracing flames. The men employed in the toolhouse wasted no time in removing tools and other movable articles of use. However, when all danger was past everything was taken back to its original place. MANY MEN MISSING. It was impossible to.tell how many men were misging. As soon as the whistle blew notifying the men to cease work they all sprang to assist the wounded or devoted their time saving the buildings. Many departed hurriedly in order to let This morning when the men report for duty the timekeeper will check off their names and the missing will then be accounted for. The system at the Fulton Iron ‘Works is so perfect that the timekeeper knows by reference to his books the name of every man who worked on the Progreso before she blew up. For the past four months the Progreso has been anchored alongside the whart and the men have been engaged in trans- forming her into a fuel carrying vessel and a fuel burner. She was ready to go into commission to-day and her destruc- tion has been a keen loss to the corpora- tion. The Fulton Iron Works had a con- tract that amounted to $125,000, and a check for this amount was forthcoming as soon as the vessel was turned over to the owners. Work was being hurried -3 Continued on Page 5, Column 4. tarried on board until planks were se- cured“to span the space between the ves- sel and the wharf. H. A. Harding, captain of the Progreso, was as much at a loss to ascribe a cause for the explosion as were any of the men. "He escaped from the ship without in- jury, but was almost overcome by the loss of his ship and the sailors who lost their lives. Regarding the explosion, he said: “I cannot give any reason for the ac- cident. I had just left the pilot-house, and was walking aft when the explosion occurred. It was fortunate for me that I left the pilot-house when I did, or I would not be here now. That portion of the ship was blown into a thousand pieces. The force of the explosion was something tremendous. I am surprised that more did not perish. “The Progreso had a crew of twenty- six men. I do not think that there can be more than three men from the en- gine-room and three sailors missing. The sailors who are missing were working amidship when the explosion occurred. I have been captain of the Progreso on several trips, and had just been engaged to take her on a voyage to the Atlantic Coast. There were 400 barrels of oil in the tank of the steamer.” MASS OF SEETHING FLAME. First Mate W. D. Sloan of the Progreso was leaving the forward part of the ship and was about amidship when the explo- sion occurred. “I saw a sheet of flame shoot from the forward hatches, rising in the air a hun- dred feet or more,” saild he. “I was staggered by the shock, but managed to grope my way to the hatchway, where I saw at once that the entire hold was a mass of seething flame. The deck was heating rapidly. I noticed that the ves- sel had broken in two. I did what I could to get the survivors safely ashore, and then came off myself. There was no pos- sibility of rendering assistance to those who had been caught below decks, and I have no hopes that any of those re- ported missing have survived.” Charles Lundt, second assistant engi- neer, had been conversing on deck with the missing first assistant engineer, E. R. ) OYED AND TWELVE LIVES ARE LOST Continued From Page 1, Column 5. —+ seething furnace below, while scorched and blackened semblances of men crawled with desperate, Jaborious effort from flame-ringed hatchways and holes and groped blindly through the thick, con- g vapors to the rail on either side. Some of these only found death in another form, though most of them reached the rescue of ready hands. Several smaller explosions followed the first in frequent succession as the now raging flames reached the different tanks. Streams of burning oil flowed through the jagged holes torn in the vessel’s sides and spread into a blazing lake for several yards around the steamer. Some of it drifted underneath the wharf and caught its seasoned timbers in a fiery embrace. Then_a new horror was added to the despair of those imprisoned below. = The shock of the first explosion had broken the vessel’s back, parting her,amidships and letting in a flood of water that settled her broken keel down to the muddy bottom, leaving - only her rail amidships above the surface. the The report of that first explosion was heard a mile away and shattered windows as far dis- tant as Pacific avenue. The post band at the Presidio was practicing at the time, and when Colonel Rawles, the commandant, heard the sound of the explosion and caught sight of that omi- nous column of flame and smoke rising above the doomed Progreso he immediately ordered the bugles to sound a general fire alarm. Large detachments of men from the Seventeenth and Nine- teenth Infantry regiments and the Fourth Artillery were promptly dispatched on the double quick to the scene of disaster, with four Presidio ambulances and a couple of grocery wagons close at their heels in charge of Surgeon Major Kendall and his entire hospital staff. Arriving ‘at the scene part of the soldiers devoted their attention to attaching hose to the hydrants there and ex- tinguishing the:flames that were already threatening to destroy the wharf. The soldiers formed themselves in a rescue crew and threw planks from the wharf to the vessel’s rail for survivors to escape. Many of them also went on board at the risk of their lives and saved many a helpless victim of smoke and flame. Heroic work was also dorie by Harold Ramsden and four young men who sprang into the bay and saved 2 number of drowning men, supporting them until the rescue-boats of the soldiers could arrive. ] By this time the fire-hoats Governor Markham and Governor Irwin and the tugs Defiance, Relief and Millen Griffith had responded to the alarm and turned their heavy water batteries upon the burning ship. The flames were soon confined to the redhot hold, and surrounding property saved from further danger, but no water seemed able to reach the heart of the fire. All day long fons and tons of water were poured upon it, but that high column of grimy smoke was still surg- ing up into the clouds when darkness fell. Three engines and a battalion under Chiefs Dolan and Conlan were also on hand and did giant’s work.in saving property and lives. " As soon as the news reached the city great crowds of sightseers and anxious relatives flocked to the scene and many a heart-stirring incident was witnessed, Mothers, sisters and Y T T xd wives were there, weeping and hovering near the gate that was barred to them. Each mangled unfortunate that was carried out to a waiting ambulance was immediately surrounded and a shriek of woe was the sure sign of recognition. But the worst was when some trembling mother or wife was told to go home as her loved one was among the missing. Some fainted and were carried away by friends,-but a few there were who just turned and walked away with the awful, unseeing, stony stare of nameless grief in their eyes. -One poor lad, Harry Connoma, a machinist’s helper, whose left arm had been almost torn off and was hanging by only a shred of flesh, had no anxious ones there to see him. But he was brave and asked the surgeon if he was to die. He was assured that he would not. “Then don’t let mother know,” he said. “She would worry too much. Poor mother,” he added with unselfish regret, “I can’t give her that Christmas present now. I won't have the money.” And Harry is only a lad of 14. 3 Pathetic incidents and stories of harrowing escapes were to be encountered at every turn. Daniel Gallagher, one of the slain, had a wife and seven small children. He had been three weeks out of employment and times were hard indeed for them. Yesterday morning he started in on his first day’s work on the Progreso. Three hour later he was burned to ashes, while his wife and babies still live to battle with a cruel world. Quartermaster Glenn, whose brother is second of- ficer on the transport Sheridan, ‘also began his first day’s work on the ship yesterday morning. He lied in Philadelphia and shipped on the Progreso in order to get home again. Jack Maguire and his young brother James were working together in the hold. When the explosion occurred Jack was blown through the side of the vessel and drowned. James escaped—how he does not know—with only a few burns and bruises. Only a moment before the explosion Captain H, ‘A, Harding was in the pilot-house examining the charts, He stepped outside just as it burst into pieces, carrying with it three sailors who had been painting its outer walls. They have not been seen since, but Captain Harding escaped unharmed, though he wanders about his lost ship in' a mental daze. He does not yet seem to reéalize the magnitude of the disaster. Many theories are advanced to explain the explosion, but the real cause has not vet been definitely determined” The boilers/could not have exploded, for they were located twenty feet far- ther aft, and there was a coffer-dam and z water bulkhead between them and the center of the explosion. It is also argued that the oil in the tanks could not have been ignited in any way, be- cause fuel oil does not explode or burn until it first becomes heated. The most favored theo;'y is gas combustion. No examination to ascertain the real cause will be possible for several days to come, if at all. The vessel’s hold is now a redhot furnace and cannot be entered unti] it cools off. That may require a week. - The Progreso was an oldship, but valued at about $250,000, which valuation included the $125,000 recently spent in her alterations. This amount is said to be fully covered by insurance Too much credit cannot be given to Major Kendall and his hospital corps. The slightly injure(i were promptly cared for on the spot, while the others were treated temporarily to stop the bleed- ing of wounds before being removed to the hospital. ! 3 Sparks,~a few minutes previous to the explosion. He said: “We finished our conversation and Sparks went down the hatch stairway, W] I walked aft. It seems as though a minute had not elapsed after parting with Sparks when a terrific explosion oc- curred ‘below decks. I felt the heat of the flames as they shot high in the air. The ship begam to settle. I thought at first she was golng fo siak, but she mere- ly settled amidships. In the meantime those on the wharf had strung planks to the decks, and over these we helped the injured men. We then came ashore our- selves.” Mrs, Rose Healy, the stenographer for the Fulton Iron Works, was the only woman on the grounds at the time of the explosion. She was sitting in the office transcribing a letter. “To tell the truth, I was so badly fright- ened that I can hardly recall what dld happen,” sald Mrs. Healy. “I re- member a terrific noise. and then the ground trembled violently. My first thought was that a severe earth- quake had occurred. All the - window glass in the office was shattered and showered down on the floor. Some doors were wrenched from their hinges and the office furniture was overturned. I man- aged to get outside somehow and then learned that an explosion had occurred on the Progreso.” BLOWN THROUGH A DOOR. Superintendent High of the Fulton Iron Works was in the office when the explosion occurred. He was struck by a door that was blown from its hinges. He could give no explanation for the disaster. The explosions which fol- lowed the first outburst he at- tributed to steam generated in the ad- Joining tanks, which were fllled with wa- ter. He at once ordered all the machin- ery of the plant closed down and had all the power transferred to the pump, which at once began flooding the burning ves- sel with water through five lines of hose attached to hydrants. His prompt action undoubtedly saved the plant from de struction. Peter Nelson, a fireman, who was in the engine room at the time of the dreadful accident, had a most miraculous escape. He Is of the opinion that Sparks, the first assistant engineer; Jack Strand, a fire- man, and another fireman whose name he does not know, perished down below. He saw them as he was making his way to safety. Nelson is a strapping fellow and it is probably due to his strength that he escaped. Regarding his escape he said: “I was In the engine room at the time of the explosion. The first intimation I received of any danger was an awful roar, and I was thrown off my feet. I thought that my time had some. As quickly as I could -I scrambled up the laudder to the deck. Poor Sparks and Strand were close behind me, but 1 fear they perished in the flames. I escaped with a few burns on the neck.” John Morgan, the chief cook, was in the galley at the time of the explosion. He sald: “I was blown out of the kitchen, but I escaped with an Injured arm. I was hurled out just in time, as a second later the pilot-house fell in on top of the kitchemn. I would certainly have been killed if I had remained in my place.” HAD NARROW ESCAPE. William Houston, third assistant en- gineer, had a narrow escape from death. His account of the explosion is as fol- lows: “I was in the forward fireroom with Jack Strand and Jack Hackston, fire- men; E. R. Sparks, first assistant en- gineer, and a number of others. They were all busy when I left them and went on deck to get a small hose, which I carried with me to the wharf. I was about to attach the hose to the hydrant, when the first explosion occurred. I heard shouts and calls for help. The men came pouring out of the hatchways. The position of the tank, which exploded first, cut off the men who were in the foreward fireroom.” F. O. Winquist said: “I was at work on the boat and consider that I had a providential escape. I had been working on the hatch cover and only about two minutes before the explosion I left the vessel. I knew McGregor and I fear he is among the dead: He was foreman for the drillers. The last time I saw him was about an hour before the explo- sion.” HEARP A MUFFLED ROAR. James, Desmond, living at 616 Tennesses street, explained his narrow escape as follows: “I was working in tank No. 4 at the bottom of the vessel when I was startled by the terrible report, which, so far down, secmed muffled, yet it was loud enough to warn me that something awful had oc- curred. At first I thought that the mast had fallen. The three reports following cenvinced me that explosions had taken place. 1 climbed through the hatch and pulled myself onto the wharf. There were/ cries for help, so I returned to the Progreso and assisted in carrying out the |- wounded. My mate, Albert Pinkoin, and | myself came near meeting with a dread- ful end. It was only a few moments befcre the explosion thaf he and I were | shifted from the engine-room by Fore- man Pengillie. We left poor Danny Gal- lagher behind us and never saw him agsin. He lived with his wife and eight little children on Secotch Hill in the Po- tiero.” Henry Meyer, a ship’s plumber, living at 15¢ Steuart street, sald: “I was at work on the Progreso put- ting ventilating pipes in the after part of the boat. Willlam Sherman, 19 San Cae los avenue, and William Brennan of 7% Geary street were working with me. It seemea to me that we had lots of time to get ashore after the explosions. We escaped down the gangplank. When we landed on the wharf we saw John Don- relly, who has charge of the boilermak- ers’ tools, hanging by a rope from the bow of the vessel. We got a small boat and rowed around and rescued him. The explosions must have happened ncar the forward boilers. I cannot offer a theory as to the cause.” A YOUNG HERO INJURED. John Herleston, third assistant engineer on the Progreso, said: “I was on the main deck at the time of the explosion gettin, fresh water from the hose for boiler mfil When the explosion’ came I ran to the companion way. Boards were falling all round me. A boy came out of the bunk- ers. He was alone and his arm was so badly injured that it was hanging the blood covered me. when I went to W aid. He was a young hero. I carrfea’ him safely to the office of the company and then hastened back to see what other service 1 could render. What with the dense, suffocating smoke and the vessel Continued on Page 6, Column 5.