Crushed Under a Falling Tier of Ties at the Newport Docks
A Northern Mercantile superintendent is pinned by heavy timbers while unloading a waterlogged barge, his back lacerated and left foot crushed.
Chas. P. Moore, superintendent of the pole department of the Northern Mercantile Co., was severely injured while assisting in unloading a sunken barge near the Transportation Co.'s docks on Tuesday.
The barge was loaded with ties loaded on trucks. The barges were waterlogged, and one of them had settled on a rock and tipped toward the stream. While attempting to push a tier of switch ties off from one of the trucks the whole pile gave way, and a number of the heavy timbers struck him and carried him to the deck of the barge. His foot caught under the cavil of the boat and pinned him down. His back was badly bruised and lacerated and his left foot crushed. The bones of the foot protruded through the flesh, making a very painful and serious wound. He was taken to his home, where he will probably be confined for some time.
“His back was badly bruised and lacerated and his left foot crushed.”
Industrial accidents on the river were routine before modern safety rules. Moore's injuries are a reminder of how much of Newport's economy ran on dangerous manual labor, often with little recourse for workers.
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