Page 20. MAINE COASTAL NEWS March 2013
HISTORY FROM THE PAST - Disaster at Mount Desert Ferry 7 August 1899 Maritime History
Twenty Victims of the Mt. Desert Ferry Horror.
Of the Hundred Odd Persons
Precipitated in the Water by Breaking of the Slip on Sunday This Number Dead.
Scene One of the Most Frightful in History of Maine Disasters.
Search for Other Bodies Kept Up Monday But No More Recovered and it is Believed that all the Victims Have Been Taken Out.
List of the Dead. – Geo. H. Bennett, Mrs. Geo. H. Bennett, Miss Grace R. Sumner, Mrs. Alonzo P. Oakes, Miss Lizzie Ward, Mrs. Geo. H. Derwent, Mrs. A. H. Billings, all of Bangor. Mrs. Wm. J. Murray, of Brewer. Joseph Murphy, of Old Town. Miss Blanch Lewis, of Hampden. Clifford Cushman, Melvin McCard, of Corinth. Mrs. Hollis Estey, Mrs. Chas. William Downes, of Ellsworth. Albert Colson, of Levant. F. E. Sweetser, of Portland. Ora Mark Lank, of Danforth. Irving Bridges, of North Hancock. Mrs. Marjorie Mower, of Wisconsin.
Sunday, August 6, 1890, is a date that for many years will be held in memory as signalizing the most dreadful accident that has ever occurred within the boundaries of the state of Maine.
By the breaking of the slip at Mt. Desert Ferry more than a score of lives were lost and countless families plunged into mourning for the loss of a beloved friend or relative. Like a bolt from the blue sky fell the
blow, terrible in its suddenness, awful in its horrors, most bitter in its results, which are confi ned to no one section but reach with all encircling arms over Maine’s whole expanse, few sections having escaped the loss of some lives.
The catastrophe came without warning and in a few short minutes, lips that just before were uttering some merry jest were silent in death, and over the whole throng of pleasureseekers was cast a gloom that will not be dissipated for months to come, either night or day, for to many of the spectators of the dreadful scenes of death’s awful harvest at Mt. Desert Ferry on this beautiful Sabbath morning, the terrible visions will continue to appear both in their sleeping and waking hours.
The frenzied shriek of the dying, the agonizing fear and terror on the faces of the drowning, going hopelessly to death with life and hope only a few feet away, the wailing of the wives or mothers who suddenly found loved ones, who but a few short minutes before were glowing with life and happiness and love for them, rigid in death, these are not sounds or sights that can be banished from memory by any human volition.
Monday when it is believed all the bodies have been recovered the list of dead numbers 20 and is given elsewhere. Merry Excursion Party.
It was a merry party of excursionists that left Bangor Sunday morning at 8:25 bound for Bar Harbor, the Newport of Maine, with the intention of seeing the vessels of Admiral Sampson’s squadron. The weather could not have been improved upon and the fi fteen car loads of humanity thoroughly enjoyed the trip until Mt. Desert Ferry was reached. Here the excursionists were to board the Maine Central’s steamer SAPPHO for the ride of 40 minutes across the bay. The train came slowly to a halt and even before it stopped the passengers began to leave the cars and hasten toward the wharf, heading for slip No. 1, at the foot of which,
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almost touching the wharf, lay the SAPPHO. It at once became apparent to the excursionists that they could not all go to Bar Harbor in the SAPPHO at one time and then began the mad rush to get aboard in order that not one minute of the anticipated pleasure at Bar Harbor should be wasted. On to the slip swarmed the crowd, pushing and jostling each other good naturedly but ever eager to be among the fi rst. On and on they rushed until the slip was crowded to overfl owing. Still they poured on, while many eager spirits crowded under the railing and jumped down upon the planking. The people on the slip call to those still swarming on to wait awhile. They request this not from any fear of accident, as probably no such idea entered the heads of any, but rather because the close quarters and crowding were far from comfortable. Now about 200 have passed over and are safely aboard the SAPPHO while about the same number is on the slip. Suddenly comes a slight quiver and then the harrowing sound of grinding timbers. A shriek, swelled into a chorus, comes from the center of the slip and the middle of the throng drop from view and into the cold waters below. Then All is Chaos.
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Then comes chaos. A few of the people on the outermost end of the slip, toward the steamer, by a desperate jump reached safety before the end of the planking inclines downward and backward, fore shortened by the sudden dropping in the middle; a few on the inner end, who have not yet fairly entered upon the slip, save themselves by catching hold of the railing or the side of the wharf; but as the slip caves in, concaves as it were most of the people on its surface are drawn toward the awful abyss as surely as needle to its pole. Those who have already passed the centre slide back to the rift in the planking, their feet futilely attempting to stem the tide and to ascend the inclined plane which every instant grows steeper and steeper. The same fate awaits those who have not yet reached the fatal place. Horrifi ed at the gaping orifi ce before them, through which so many have already fallen, they attempt to stay their steps, to hold themselves on the edge of the precipice. It is in vain. Hundreds are coming behind, pushing on their companions before them and so into the abyss goes the multitude. And then the horror, the awful horror of the thing, pervades the crowds upon the wharf and for an instant an appalling silence reigns, a silence broken only by the shrieks and cries and groans arising from the struggling mass below. Taught no lesson by the breaking of the slip the crowd on the wharf pushes toward the scene of the disaster and by this movement several people are pushed from
the wharf into the water, landing upon the struggling mass below.
Then the men realize that something must be done and in an instant the scene is changed. The gaping horror-struck throng melts into an army of workers. Planks and pieces of timber are hastily lowered to the water where they are snatched at as eagerly as a dog offers at a bone. Ropes are procured and let down and ladders. The station employees and railroad men are working like Trojans, while the crew of the SAPPHO are saving many lives, pulling people from the water with boat hooks and oars and throwing life preservers in every direction. To the anxious watchers it seemed that the struggle in the water went on for ages, but in reality it was but the question of a few minutes before the last living person was raised from the water.
And then began the gruesome search for the dead. Body after body was taken out of the horrible trap, each being received with groans and cries as the eyes of bereaved relatives rested upon some beloved face. The Bodies Removed.
The bodies were hastily removed to the freight house where, if all efforts to revive them proved futile, they were tenderly covered with a sheet and laid one side to await identifi cation.
The scene here as the identifi cation proceeded was a heartrending one, piteous in the extreme. Husbands or wives, brothers or sisters, entered tremblingly, fearing lest they should fi nd what they sought. A low moan or sudden shriek would tell that their quest had been only too successful, and to those who were parted from no dear ones, the sight of those pallid faces with the dank hair sticking to the marble forehead, the foam fl ecked lips and glassy eyes, was no pleasant spectacle. In the meantime everything possible was being done to save the lives that science and energy might avail, to save. Dr. Phillips, of Ellsworth, was speedily on the spot and set to work immediately. He was soon joined by Dr. Bunker, Dr. Hagerty, Dr. Morrison, and Dr. Elmer Morrison, of Bar Harbor, who were sent across in exceedingly quick time by the CIMBRIA, the party arriving before noon. The physicians arrived too late to give the treatment given immediately after a patient is taken from the water, but their prompt and energetic work doubtless saved a number of lives. They gave external application of heat, applying hot water bags, hot irons, etc. also hypodermics of strychnine and digitalis.
The Maine Central men did everything possible to assist the injured and to aid in the identifi cation of the dead. At the Bluffs the management threw open the house to the unfortunates and many of the guests
Continued on Page 22. HISTORY FOR YOURWALLS
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