THE TAY DISASTER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 139, 14 June 1930, Page 10 (Supplement)

THE TAY DISASTER.

WHEN THE BRIDGE FELL BRITAIN'S MOST TRAGIC TRAIN WRECK. NOT A SOUL SAVED.

WRECK.

Fifty years ago the British nation was shocked by the news of the Tay Bridge disaster. On Sunday night, December 28, 1879, during a hurricane which swept the country, the large centre portion of the bridge collapsed, carrying with it into the storm-tossed waters of the River Tay a mail passenger traiu and between 75 and 90 human beings. At that time the catastrophe was unequalled in the history of the British railways. Since then there have been railway disasters in Britain of greater magnitude, inasmuch as there has been more loss of life, but none has equalled the Tay Bridge disaster for circumstances of such appalling horror. The imagination is almost powerless to reconstruct the terror of the swiftlyenacted scenes of destruction and death which attended the disaster, but it can picture a small community of travellers nearing their journey's end at Dundee, many of them feeling, no doubt, as the train meets the full force of the gale to which it is exposed crossing the river, that the sooner they are over the bridge the better. Suddenly there is a nurricane gust more violent than the rest, the train jolts and lurches, wheels scrape noisily, sending out showers of sparks, then comes an ominous sagging and a blinding flash as, amid the deafening crash and grinding of shattered iron and steel the train sinks downwards, slowly at first, then hurtles a hundred feet into the rushing tidal river, a twisted, broken thing, entangled in the collapsing bridge structure. Tragedy Complete. For a few moments the river is threshed into greater fury than ever the storm drove it to. It settles again, and the water has closed over the wreckage of the bridge and train. Not one person in all the train's living freight comes up alive. The whole centre section, which was spanned by 13 girders, crashed into the Tay that night, leaving a gap of 3000 feet between the sections which remained standing. Little was left of the centre section save the piers which supported the girders. The bridge had been completed only 18 months before. Twenty lives were lost while it was being built. On that fatal Sunday night it carried over 75 more to death. The train which in addition to the engine and guard's van, consisted of one Ist class, one 2nd class and three 3rd class coaches, left Edinburgh for Dundee , at 4.15 in the afternoon. ' As it wound its way across Fife the , storm which was sweeping the country \ grew in intensity, causing great destruc- , tion to property and endangering life in city, town and village. Streets were strewn with debris, chim- ' ney cans and slates were blown from rooftops like chaff, trees were uprooted, palings and walls demolished. On Tay- ' side the storm -was at its worst when ■ the train from Edinburgh reached St. Fort, the last station on the Fife side before the bridge was crossed. J At the little station tickets were col- j tected from the passengers, doors were slammed, again shutting out the stormy darkness; the stationmaster gave the juard the "all clear," the guard's lamp i >hanged from red to green, and the ■( mg-ine-driver slowly opened the throttle md started the train on the last stage c )f the journey. £

The throttle -was never closed again by the same hand. Communication Cut. At the signal cabin at the southern end of the bridge the train slowed down, and tho baton or train staff, without which it was not allowed to cross, was handed to the fireman by the signalman. The train got up speed again, and in a moment was running clear on the bridge. At 7.13 Signalman Barclay signalled the cabin at the north end of the bridge that tho train had passed through. When the man at the other end attempted to signal back he discovered that communication between one end of the bridge and the other had been cut off.

Repeated bell-calls from both ends of the bridge brought no response, but while the man in the north cabin was ignorant of the cause Barclay in the south cabin and a surfaceman named Watt, who was keeping him company in the cabin had reason to fear that something dreadful had happened. Through the cabin -window Watt saw the train continue its journey. When it had travelled about 300 yards he saw sparks flying from the wheels, and after they had continued for two or three minutes there was a bright flash of light, and in an instant there was total darkness. The flash, the spark and the tail lights of the train all disappeared at the same moment. Dread Discovery. Unable to see what was wrong Watt and tho signalman hurried down to the shore, and by the light of the moon, which had just come from behind the clouds, saw a huge gap in the structure and realised with horror that the centre section was down. At the Dundee end<of the bridge there was consternation when communication with the south cabin remained cut off. Like all bad news, rumours that the bridge was down spread with extraordinary quickness in the city and in a short time hundreds of people gathered at the Tay Bridge Station of the North British Railway Company seeking information. No one was able to give them news, and those who went along to the signal cabin at. Magdalen Yard Point on the Esplanade could get no satisfaction from the signalman. Ultimately the alarmed railway officials resolved to satisfy themselves as to whether the superstructure was safe or not. Accordingly, Mr. James Roberts, foreman of the locomotive department, decided to go along the bridge from the Dundee end. lie took his life in his hands. At times Mr. Roberts was almost lifted off his feet and thrown over the parapet by the force of the wind. He was actually forced to his hands and knees, but in spite of the danger of his position he set his teeth, and with the doggedness and courage that all who knew him recognised were part of his nature crawled on as far as the point where the high girders began. Black Void. There his course was arrested. Nothing was to- bo seen at the end of his hazardous journey but a black void and the rushing water below. Mr. Roberts struggled back to the mainland and spread the terrible news, and another railway official, Mr. Smith, also went along the bridge and confirmed what I,; a colleague had reported.

('Mr. Roberts long afterwards became locomotive superintendent with the Caledonian Railway Company at Polmadie, Glasgow. He retired about 1908 and went to live in London, where he died in 1913.) The next move was to view the havoc from the river itself, consequently railway officials and Provost Brownlee, who had received news of the calamity soon after its occurrence went down to the harbour. The party was not able to set out, however, till well after 10 o'clock. The Tay Ferries steamer which made the trip was halted about 200 yards east of the bridge, and it was then that- the full extent of the calamity was ascertained.

Sad-hearted Company. Something was seen to stand up from the brickwork of the first and third piers on the south, and it was hoped that this might be passengers who had succeeded in freeing themselves from, the general ruin and were clinging to the base of the pier. The wind was blowing fiercely still and lashing the waves into foam but to make sure that no one was clinging to the bridge it was decided to launch, a lifeboat and have the base of each pier examined. At the end of half an hour the boat returned, but only those were in it who had gone out to the scene. All that the occupants of the boat saw were two or three pieces of wood tossing about on the stormy water. The steamer returned to the harbour after midnight carrying a sad-hearted company. During the evening it was learned that a party of men in a house in Perth Road overlooking the river had seen what the surfaceman in the south signal cabin had observed. The moon was shining brightly from a cloudy sky and the outline of the bridge was visible from where they were seated. Shortly after seven o'clock they-saw a train enter on the bridge, the carriages all lighted up and the lights on the front of the train shining brightly. "The train sped on," one of the watchers said, "till it reached almost the north end of the girders when Ave saw two fearful volumes of fiame succeeding each other at intervals of perhaps only a second and then all. lights of the train were extinguished. On looking narrowly at the bridge we could see that the whole of the high girders in the middle were gone." A man win was on the esplanade spoke of seeing a red glare as if a quantity of burning coal had been flung into the water. This was presumed to be the light that came from the engine cs it was upset and went dashing into the water. Alarming Rumours. Next morning the whole country learned of the terrible calamity of the night before. There was something almost like a panic of excitement in Dundee when the population, generally, heard the news, particularly a s it was at first estimated that 200 lives had been lost. All kinds of alarming rumours spread. An official inquiry showed, however, that about 75 tickets had been collect? i at St. Fort, but in addition to the adult passengers there were several children and a number of railway- servants bringing the estimated total to between 75 and 90. Tho railway servants on the train were David Mitchell, driver; John Marshall, stoker; David Mcßeath, guard; and Donald Murray, mail guard, all of Dundee. As soon as possible after daybreak a large official company visited the scene of the disaster in a steamer to see what could be done to recover the bodies. On the boat was Sir Thomas Bouch, C.E., engineer of the bridge. Diver's Failure. A diver was on board, and at the bridga he went down twice, but failed to discover the wrecked train. Dragging operations were also carried out, but all that was brought to the 3Urface was somo telegraph wires and _

miscellaneous debris. Some of the fallen iron columns could be seen below the surface, and a girder was found lying on its side projecting some distance out of the water.

Diving operations that day had no definite result but when they were resumed the following day one of the divers came upon a number of carriages which, however, were tenantless. Nowhere under the surface was there a sign of a body. In the subsequent operations the train was found partly in the fourth and partly in the fifth spans from the south end. The engine, after being brought up, was reconditioned and was in active service up till a few years ago. In the days immediately after the disaster, a disturbing factor was the non-appearance of the bodies of the victims, except one, that of a woman which was washed ashore on the Fife side. By January 10, however, 22 bodies had been recovered, and by April 27, altogether 46 bodies. The rest were never recovered. Narrow Escapes. Many stories were told of persons having narrowly escaped being involved in the calamity. One of the most interesting was recalled by the death some weeks ago of Mr. W. T. Linskill, ex-Dean of Guild of St. Andrews. Mr. Linskill was a passenger on the train, and intended alighting at Leuehars Junction. As a conveyance which was to have met him there had not arrived, friends on the train persuaded him to go on to Dundee. The train was- moving out of the station when a porter called, "Here's your carriage," and Mr. Linskill jumped out of the train just in time. Another providential escape was that of the official guard of tlie train, Mr. Timothy Hendry, who would have been on duty in the ordinary way had he not got permission to attend a party. His place on-the train was taken by Guard Mcßeath.

There was a rumour at the time, which was never verified, that a Dundee policeman who had been visiting friends in Fife and who had to go on night duty meant to travel by the ill-fated train. As it was running late, however, he walked across the bridge to Dundee. Conflicting Theories. Three men went with the train as far as St. Fort, but one of them being afraid that an accident might happen on account of the unparalleled force of the storm the trio would not cross the bridge, but went to Newport to cross the river by steamer. As the steamer did not cross to Dundee after they arrived at the pier they were compelled to stay in Newport all night and had no means of telegraph communication with their friends, who in consequence thought at first that they had gone down with the train. There were different theories as to the cans© of the catastrophe. Sir Thomas Bouch, the engineer, offered the hypothesis that the fall of the bridge was the indirect result of the force of the wind exerted on the train in the first place. It was suggested that a sudden gust of wind tilted the train over against the east girders without leaving the rails, tearing its way against the girders with a. force that could not be withstood.

Commissioner's Decision. The conclusion reached !by those who eat on the Board of Trade inquiry was that the bridge was "badly designed, badly constructed, and badly maintained, and that its downfall was due to inherent defects in the structure -which must sooner or later have brought it down." Some blame was attributed to the railway company on the' ground that trains travelled too fast over the bridge. Although two of the Commissioners did not consider that it -was in their province to declare who was to blame> the third, Mr. Rothbury, in a separate report expressed himself satisfied that the blame for the casualty to a considerable extent rested with Sir Thomas Bouch. Sir Thomas Bouch died before the year 1880 was out. The contract for the old Tay Bridge was placed in 1871, and in September 1877, it was completed at a cost of £350,000, more than £130,000 over the estimate. This was due to alterations on the girders. It took 3520 tons of cast-iron, 6281 tone of Mai iron, 90,600 cubic feet of timber, and 4,350,000 pricks, together with other, material, to complete the job. The New Bridge. The second bridge "was a more substantial structure, which cost £640,000 and was ready for use in 1887. It is 10,780 ft long and has 85 6pans. This bridge has stood the test of 42 years, and to-day is one of the wonders of Scotland from the sightseers point of view. Alongside part of it to this day the stone piers which supported the columns of the old bridge stand out of the water, dark, silent reminders of the great tragedy.