THE TAY BRIDGE DISASTER.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1866, 16 February 1880, Page 3

THE TAY BRIDGE DISASTER.

On the night of Sunday, December 29th, b large portion of the Tay Bridge was blown down, and with it a passenger train was precipitated into the sea below causing, it is supposed the loss of ninety lives. The original estimate was three hundred, but the number is not known. A hard gale was blowing at the time. The discovery was first brought brought about by means of Mr J. B. Lawson, of Windsor place, Dundee, who left hie own house with a friend a few minutes after? Naturally enough their conversation turn- d on tho fury of the gale, which was blowing from the south west. They began to question whetner on such a night the Edinburgh train would venture on tho bridge. To satisfy their curiosity they went to tho block telegraph signal box at the north end of tho bridge, where they found a number of men also anxious for information. Some of these as serted that about a quarter past 7 they had ssen the lights of the Edinburgh train enter on the bridge. They followed the lights across the lower spans and into the high girders, and then saw a sudden shower of fire. This shower, with the lights of the train, seemed to descend to the river, and then there was nothing but darkness. In consequence of this alarming statement, loud appeals were made from the Esplanade to the signalman, who in reply said that the Edinburgh train was signalled to him from the south end of the bridge at nine minutes past seven, and entered the bridge, according to signal, at fourteen minutes past. He had looked out from his box for it, but had seen nothing. Until then (7 30) he had been unable to learn anything of tho train. Find ing that the tra n was not in sight, he endeavored to telegr ph to the signalman on tbe south side of the Bridge, and then discovered that between 7.14 and 7.17 the means of communication had been interrupted. The news ’spread like wildfire, and a crowd soon began" to gather at the Tay bridge station. The facts, so far as they were known, having been conveyed to Mr James Roberts, locomotive superintendent of the North British Riilway Company at Dundee, he, with Mr Smith, went up to the north end of the bridge, but could learn nothing more than had been reported byMrLawson and th e others, who, as it now turns out, had seen what must have been the descent of the train into the river. In spite of the violence of the gale, which was such that no foot passenger could enter on the bridge except at the risk of his life, and after great exertion and laceration of the hands, caused by clinging to the rails, Mr Smith and Mr Roberts ware able to go far enough to see with certainty that a gap had been made in the structure. The first evideno;of this disaster by which they were startled were the clouds of spray from tbe overflow of the broken piping of the Newport water supply, which, as the local public know, was laid along the railway. Further, they could see that a number of the high girders had disappeared, but, as the driving of tho spray and the fitfulness of the moonlight prevented them from perceiving to what extent the structure had been destroyed, they returned to Dundee, and the worst fears of the crowds that had gathered on the Esplanade and at the Tay bridge station wer e confirmed. In the midst of tho excitement news came up from Broughty Ferry that two of the mail bags had been picked up on the beach there This news, having been verified, also spread with electric rapidity, and every doubt of the truth of tho disaster, not to the bridge only, but also to the train, was thereafter dispelled. On the following morning several railway officials walked along tho bridge and they report that the fallen girders had made a very clean break from that which ia standing. Almost the only signs of a smash are the ends of the rails on which the train ran. These had been torn asunder at the fish joints, and the rails remaining are wrenched out of tho chairs for a few yards. The Tay bridge, indeed, presents a sad spectacle. When a steamer neared it, it was discovered to be only too true that all the large girders forming the central portion of the bridge had fallen. The thirteen piers on which the large girders had been placed were completely stripped, and with only two exceptions did any part of tho iron columns which had s upported the girders remain on their foundations. On tho first pier from the south side about half the pillar remains standing, and as it shows no sign of twisting it is believed the iron had suddenly snapped. On the third pier from the south side there is a small piece of the iron pillar, but the massive iron rods are sadly twisted. On the eleven other piers part of the iron columns lie in a mass of rains. Tho brick piers remain intact, and the foundations do not appear to have been in the slightest degree unsettled. Boats were sent out and divert) went down into the water to discover the missing train, but it was not until the second afternoon after the accident that they had any success. Then Captain Robertson, of the Bot.rd e£ Trade, the railway officials, Fox, the diver, and others again went to the bridge at high water. The weather was unfavourable,, and the descent was difficult. A first attempt at the fourth pier of the south side of tbe fracture was no more productive than the morning efforts. Fox went down again at a point further to the north. He could not long remain, but from signals he sent up his coming was eagerly awaited. He reported that he had at length come upon what was evidently a railway carriage. He had thrust his hand in at a broken door, and felt some soft substance, which he could not remove. In compliance with a suggestion that ho should make one more effort to remove the substance from the carriage, the divtr returned, and after a short absenos came to the surface with a portion of a cushion and the oil-cloth of a first-class carriage. It being known that there wore no fi:-st-clans passengers, work was no longer persevered in sgainst the growing current, but tho workmen left full of hope of more success next morning. The carriage discovered lay beneath a girder about 60ft. north-east cf the fourth pier, or nearly a thousand fept from the spot where the train would enter the great girders. The diver formed tho opinion that the train was lying in a straight line towards tho north, and that next day at the ebb of the tide he should be able to reach the o‘ her vehicles. The search for the train and tbe bodies of the people who were in it was continued on tbe last day of the year. The diver Simpson, returning after twenty minutes from the first of his descents from the launch, reported that he had met with a third-class carriage. It was, like all the other wreckage, encased in the lattice work of the great girders. The water was muddy from the recent rains, and seeing was impossible; but getting through the lattice, which was much broken, and groping in the dark, he found a third-class carriage, to which there was neither roof nor door. The side windows were broken, and there was nothing to be found iu any part of the vehicle. He came to the conclusion that the bodies of the passengers had all been washed away. On his second descant he was not long absent, and he returned to say that he had found what he believed to be the engine lying “on the cant,” that is on one side, but his lines having got out of order he was obliged to come to the surface. Speedily returning, ho verified his belief that the engine was found. It was almost immediately beneath tho launch, about twenty yards southeast of the fifth pier, which had borne eo strong a strain. On the first occasion he believed he had put his hand on the funnel. From the same spot he now followed the out • line of the engine, and made his way to t) o weather boards. Here he failed in an or. deavor U» discover tho bodies of the driver and stoker. There was a quantity of coal trom m o tender heaped up at that point, and from the heap he picked up and brought to the surface a gauge lamp bearing the initials o 1 the driver, “ W. M.” Fox, in one of his descents, which, like those of tho others, ware interrupted by the necessity of return ing to the surface for rest, brought with him a carriage lamp, regarding which there wer; naturally eager inquiries. It proved lo be the lamp of the first-class carriage which wi s discovered on the previous evening. Fox said on his return that he believed he had examined every corner of the carriage, IThad great difficulty in finding his way, anti groped along the angle irons. The girder enclosing thie carriage is, according to hie

iccount, whole, and the carriage is inextricable. The cap wag attached to the lamp, which was at the bottom of the carriage. A itiaeg of oilcloth wag tightly fixed between the carriage and the girder. Harley had not long disappeared before there arose lo the surface a piece of a panel of the firtt-olaaa railway carnage, lie had eomoupon the ruing of the same carriage as that mot with by Fox, but at a different point, and to get ia hod succeeded in tearing away one of the boards Ho dropped into the compartment, sustaining himself against the sides with his arms. Groping in this way with his feet, he failed to discover any sign of a body. On a second descent he took with him grapnel irons to make sure there was none, and finally, having only touched the cushions, left the carriage in the belief that it was entirely empty. The roof of the carriage also was gone. Travelling a little further south he found the fragments of a third-class carriage Hosting underneath the lattice work. He could got no opening from the upper side, and had to get down into the bed of the river, creeping under t.he girder. Ho at length reached the interior through the broken roof. No bodies were to be found, and he also searched the bed of the river in vain. The girder lay across a gully in the channel, the ends resting on the bottom of the river, while the central put of the girder was from four to five feet above the bed of the river. Ho had experienced the greatest difficulty in trying to reach the carriage, the lattice work presenting constant obstructions. During these operations Major-General Hutchinson and Major Marindin left to examine the south side of the bridge. They walked to the point of fracture, and found the rails in perfectly sound condition, so that up to that point at all events the carriages had not left the rails. The tremendous leverage of the continuous rails and footway may probably account for the falling of a length of bridge seven piers in advance of the spot where the engine was found.