Dredge accident caused devastating injuries
Luther Kuchenbecker was no stranger to the dangers of heavy construction.
In 1930, while in charge of a crew removing a shoal in the Brockville Narrows east of the Thousand Islands, 30 of his workers were instantaneously killed in a freak explosion on their drill boat.
Kuchenbecker worked for J.P. Porter and Sons of St. Catharines, one of the main contractors on the Welland Ship Canal, but also a prominent firm with infrastructure projects in other parts of Canada. At the time of the Brockville accident, Kuchenbecker was superintendent of the drill boat “J.B. King.” The $100,000 boat measured 150 feet (40.7 m) in length with a 50 foot (15.2 m) beam and featured 12 steam-driven drills for underwater drilling. The holes were then packed with dynamite.
On June 26, 1930, the crew was just about finished drilling, and had three tons of dynamite already set, when an electrical storm broke over the St. Lawrence River. A report from “The Welland-Port Colborne Evening Tribune” provided the following account of the accident: “The
flash from the sky was followed by a deafening report heard for miles. People on shore saw a sheet of flame. Fragments were hurled high in the air. The drill boat, the largest of its kind in Canada, vanished completely.”
Most of the dead were night crew who were off duty below deck and in their bunks when the drill boat was blown to pieces. Of the 42-man crew, only 12 were rescued.
Luther Kuchenbecker was fortunate to have been ashore at the time.
Luther Kuchenbecker was the second eldest of seven children of
two German émigrés, Ernst (Ernest) and Ottilie (Scheve) Kuchenbecker.
Born in Duluth, Minnesota in 1895, Kuchenbecker started his working life as a clerk and stockman for the Crane & Ordway Co., the world’s largest manufacturer of valves, fittings and steam supplies. Kuchenbecker married Gertrude MacDonald in 1914 at Two Harbors, Minn., 27 miles (43.5 km) from Duluth. The following year, their son, Donald Roderick Kuchenbecker, was born in Duluth.
The marriage did not appear to last long for in 1918 Kuchenbecker’s
wife filed a lawsuit for “relief” through the St. Louis District Court.
While a marriage certificate cannot be located, Luther seems to have married a second time, to Irene McDonald of Edgewater, N.J. (not believed to be related to Gertrude MacDonald).
It is unknown when or how Kuchenbecker or his second wife came to Canada, but two years after the 1930 drill boat catastrophe in the St. Lawrence, he was working on the final stages of the Welland Canal, again in the employ of Porter’s.
On Thursday, Oct. 20, 1932, Kuchenbecker was superintending the moving of the dredge, “Halifax No. 12” in construction Section 4B of the Canal (the Allanburg area). The dredge was being pulled by a steel cable when suddenly the base casting on a chock broke, flying back about three feet (0.9 m) with the cable attached.
Kuchenbecker was struck a devastating blow between the knees and the thighs, throwing him back against the housing of a nearby compressor and engine. Both legs and three ribs were broken, and his lung punctured. It was 5:15 p.m.
His badly battered body transferred to the hospital in St. Catharines. Kuchenbecker succumbed to internal hemorrhages and shock about 9:30 that evening.
The Kuchenbeckers resided at 166 James St. in St. Catharines. Luther’s remains rested at the George O. Darte Funeral Home until Friday evening when they were taken to the United States for burial in Mount Carmel Cemetery in Tenafly, N.J., located about 20 minutes from his wife’s former home in Edgewater. This article is part of a series remembering the men whose lives were lost in the construction of the Welland Ship Canal. A memorial to honour the men was unveiled in November 2017 at Lock 3 next to the St. Catharines Museum.