A FATAL EXPLOSION. A TERRIBLE DISASTER AT VALLEJO.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 253, 7 April 1888, Page 3

A FATAL EXPLOSION. A TERRIBLE DISASTER AT VALLEJO.

Oh b of the worst steamship explosions that over occurred on this 5 coast wrecked the Southern. Pacific Company \s steamer Julia at (South Vallejo, California, and re suited in the killing or injuring of every one of the forty-nine persons on board. Fifteen bodies of the dead have been recovered and identified, and fourteen persons are missing, all of whom are believed to be lying dead among the wreckage of the ill-fated steamer. Most of the killed and injured were workingmen going from Vellejo to the Contra Costa shoio to their daily labour in the mills and factories at the Junction. The explosion occurred just as the steamer was about to start from the wharf. The .Julia wa<> bioken into two, the crude petroleum used for fuel took fire, the vessel soon burned Lo the water's edge and the flames spread to the adjoining wharf, burning the ollices and four cai'h. (Stair's ilourmill was s.i\ed with difliculty. The entire loss is estimated at .5250.000. The saddest feature ot the disaster was the grief of those who lost husbands and fathers. The identification of the recox ered bodies was attended by terrible '•cones. .None of the survivors could give any clue to the cause of the explosion, but a diver settled the mystery by discovering one boiler with the end blown clean out, virile the petroleum tanks were found to be intact. The Julia was an old boat, built in 1864, and the boilers, though frequently overhauled, were never micwcd. They were inspected la&b June, and declaicd to be sound.