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Archiver > NY-TROY-IRISH-GENSOC > 2009-08 > 1250422822


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Subject: [NY-TROY-IRISH-GENSOC] Sickles,Link,Brown,Lodewick,Quigley
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 2009 07:40:22 EDT



Saturday August 15, 2009 TroyRecord Article 100years ago Sunday, August
15, 1909“The captain of a Troy-based steamboat defends the conduct of his
crew following reports of a collision with a rowboat that leaves one man dead,
The Record reports.The accident happens this morning near Tivoli during
the Trojan’s trip from New York City to Troy. According to a telegraph
dispatch from Poughkeepsie, the Hudson River Navigation steamer ran down a
rowboat that had two men on board.
One of the rowers, James Sickles, drowned. The other,Robert Link, managed
to swim to shore.In an interview for tomorrow’s paper, Captain Brown of
the Trojan explains that he and his crew did everything possible to try to
locate the rowers.“We were off the Tivoli docks about 1 o’clock in the
morning when Pilot Isaac Lodewick, who was at the wheel, and the lookout saw an
object about seventy-five feet ahead,” Brown
says.“We whistled and stopped and started to back. It was reported to me
at once that there was a possibility that we had run over a boat. However,no
outcry had been heard, and no light had been seen that
would indicate the presence of a boat, although river regulations require
that tall boats shall carry lights at night. “In less than five minutes we
had lowered a lifeboat and with three men in it a search was made of the
river. We used the searchlight and for forty minutes the light and the men in
the boat continued to look for any trace of an accident.“At that time the
atmosphere was a little hazy and there was some smoke on the water, but not
enough to prevent us from seeking objects. In the search for evidences of
an accident the
greatest speed and care were exercised and not a vestige of anything could
be found. There was no wreckage, although if we had struck a boat there
would have been some indication of it on the surface, and it
would have been impossible for a swimmer to have reached a point
sufficiently distant to have escaped our searchlight and our boat.”The Trojan crew
continued to search because passengers had reported hearing cries for
help,but Capt. Brown “could not verify” their claims. After “we had exhausted
every means at hand
for determining whether or not an accident had occurred,” the steamer and
two vessels that had joined the search continued on their scheduled
courses.Our reporter concludes that Brown’s statement “creat[ed]
something of a doubt as to the accuracy of the dispatch from Poughkeepsie.”
There is no independent
report confirming the accident or the death of James Sickles as our Monday
evening edition goes to press.

MURDER RULED OUT. A dead body is found today on the New York Central
railroad tracks, four miles west of the Albany line, but investigators have
ruled out murder as the cause of death.The corpse is identified as Frank J.
Quigley of Auburn.Investigators initially feared foul play by tramps when
they discovered a puncture wound in Quigley’s side, but an autopsy has
determined that the wound was caused by his own
punctured rib.Investigators now believe that Quigley tried to hop a freight
train but fell under the wheels.


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