REALISTIC PICTURE-CATCHING.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3345, 11 October 1911, Page 3

REALISTIC PICTURE-CATCHING.

SCHOONER BLOWN UP FOR FILMS The enterprise of a moving picture concern sent a sixty-ton schooner to the bottom of Great South Bay to the terrific tune of Iqo pounds of exploding dynamite. , , , With all sail set, the good but aged vessel known as the Robert Graham, was taken to a point off Bayberry Point Islip. Four moving picture cameras were trained on the schooner from four flat-bottomed boats, and about 400 ft away was a float from which the dynamite experts set off the blast that destroyed' the vessel. Hundreds lined the "shore to witness the scene, wihicn, when reproduced: throughout the land in picture theatres, is expected to thrill thousands. When the electric spark set off the dynamite there was a great puff of smoke, accompanied by a crashing explosion. The sails of the schooner were torn to shreds. The hulk seemed to rise out of the water and then sank slowly until the waves washed over the tips of the masts. And all the while the camera men calmly wound their reels of films.

The schooner was 60 years old. It had been purchased by the moving picture -men for 600 dollars from Captain William Stammee, who undertook to tow his old boat out into the bay, where she was to meet her doom. The captain, however, did not- think it necessary, under the circumstances, for him to go down with bis ship.—“ New York American.”