EXPLOSION OF DYNAMITE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 277, 15 April 1913, Page 2

EXPLOSION OF DYNAMITE.

FIFTY PEOPLE KILLED. San Francisco, March 26. Crass carelessness by an assistantforeman of a gang of stevedores is said to have been the cause of the explosion of about 300 tons of dynamite being loaded on to a British tramp steamer in Baltimore Harbour, dealing sudden death to between forty and sixty men, and maiming three score more, some of whom died later. W. ,T. Bomhardt, the man in question, according to the testimony before the Coroner, reproved the stevedore for working too slow, at the same time hastily jabbing a bale hook into one of the boxes of dvnamite on a chute. Immediately the explosion occurred. Bombhardt, who is now under arrest, made a statement that there were two explosions aboard the vessel the first occurring when a box of dynamite he and another man were handling exploding as they set it on the floor. The outstanding fact seems to be that in rushing the cargo aboard, the workers handled the explosive like so much hay, with the inevitable result of a frightful disaster. The steamer upon which the rlvnnmite wis hoinf loaded, known as the Alum Chine from Cardiff, Wales, and the landiV scow alongside of her. were completely annihilated; while a tug which went to the lescue of the imperilled seamen was set on fire and sank. Witnesses say that a'i r?' 16 e „ x !^ os ' on occurred on the Alum Chine, she jumped from the water as if a torpedo had struck her from below and then fell in fragments, in which were mmsrled the torn bodies of the dead Within a radius of scores of miles the shock of the explosion was felt and many thought a disastrous earthquake had occurred. The military defences m the harbour were seriously crippled. In many instances the concrete foundations of the lieayy wcro cracked. ' " '