SOME VICTIMS STORIES OF THE NEWPORT DISASTER
read quotes from newspaper clippings..
A workman
named Green had been the object of much anxious effort which was at last crowned with success but his face and nose were badly
smashed by timbers.....
Robert Brown who had not been seen by the
rescue party till dawn was a timberman, imprisoned low down the trench- he literally sawed his way to freedom.
It
is stated that one of the men killed met his death as a result of taking a wild leap for safety. He appears to have seen the
sides giving way and made a leap falling to the bottom of the excavations and breaking his neck.
This morning a youth
looked into the trench remarking that his father had not returned home and adding
They all reckon he is in there.
He went away in tears.
One man was located early this morning so tightly wedged between the timbers that
the only hope of saving his life was to amputate both legs. Surgeons and ambulance men with difficulty got under the timbering
and the former cut off both the mans legs, and he was got out and hurried to the hospital, but he died very soon after admittance.
One man speaking about his experience said,
Everybody at once rushed in
the direction and we got some of them out - two were dead - one poor chap evidently suffocated by sand and the other killed
with a haulk of timber.
Earlier in the night communication had been carried on with several imprisoned men.
One of the rescuers cried out to one of the men
How are you ?
And he replied:
I am gasping
for breath
He begged for a light to relieve his gloom and a drink to quench his thirst. These were lowered to
him.
Between 11 pm and midnight a 16 year old boy imprisoned among the timbers held a conversation with one of
his rescuers through a flexible speaking tube. He was imprisoned by a piece of timber, which rested upon his right hand. He
asked for a cigarette and a box of matches which were lowered to him and he smoked the cigarette with evident enjoyment.
A
later report comments that the boy who had his arm and hand pinned down that solaced himself with a cigarette offered to have
his limb amputated as a means of release so that attention might be turned to others. He and the other entombed living men
were being supplied with hot milk
Conversation with one of the men imprisoned:-
The rescuers had partly
dug down to where there was a man living:
Are you all right ? was the question put.
No!
was the reply. I am not all right, I am not all right
Are you free ?
No - my legs and
one arm are tight.
Hold on old butt, we'll get you out, they cried.
