A tramp steamer, the _Alum Chine_, lay peacefully at her dock in
Baltimore Harbor on March 6, while a gang of stevedores loaded her with
dynamite for use in the Panama Canal. The boxes of the explosive were
being transferred to the hold of the ship from cars which stood on a
barge alongside. About 300 tons of dynamite were on board or in the cars
when smoke was seen coming from below. Knowing the inevitable result the
men leaped overboard with a rush but before all had reached safety the
explosion came.
No words can convey any adequate conception of the terrific destructive
power of such a sudden loosing of immeasurable force. The _Alum Chine_
and the barge with its cars alongside disappeared. Other vessels in the
vicinity were shattered. Men upon the deck of a new ship five hundred
feet away were swept down like tall grass in a gale and a rain of
fragments of iron and wreckage killed some, injured many and pierced the
steel hull like shots from a cannon. Houses miles away were rocked to
their foundations and windows were shattered without number.
[Illustration: REMARKABLE PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN AN INSTANT AFTER THE EXPLOSION
OF 300 TONS OF DYNAMITE WHICH HAD BEEN LOADED ON BOARD THE “ALUM CHINE”
FOR SHIPMENT TO THE CANAL ZONE.]
Immediate measures of relief were undertaken in behalf of the families
of the thirty-one men killed and the fifty-eight injured. The Baltimore
Chapter of the Red Cross held a meeting and appropriated $500 while the
newspapers were equally prompt in collecting funds. By common consent
the Federated Charities, with its experienced agents, was given charge
of the gathering of the information necessary to effective action as
well as of the actual relief distribution. The next logical step was
the consolidation of all contributed funds from whatever source. Thus
efficiency and community unity of action were assured from the start.
With this beginning it may be confidently expected that the greatest
possible good will result from the generosity of the Baltimore people.