No Trace of 3 Long Island Men Missing in Amboy Explosion

Long Island Sunday Press
May 21, 1950

There was still no trace last night of three Long Island men missing in Friday nights explosion at South Amboy, N.J. and authorities said they were presumably blown to bits when 600 tons of ammunition blew up.

All barge engineers, the three missing Long Islanders are:

EDWARD HAVLICEK, 36, of 44-01 69th street, Woodside.

JAMES HART, 39, of Leroy place and Scudder avenue, Copiague.

WILLIAM C. COYLER, 58, of 56 Pearl street, Oceanside.

The known toll of the catastrophe stands at 26 dead and 312 injured with property damage running into the millions of dollars. At least five Long Islanders are among the injured.

All were on a train that reached South Amboy just as the ammunition exploded.

All three Long Islanders who presumably died in the explosion were employed by the James Healing Company, a lighterage concern, of 75 Montgomery street, Jersey City.

COYLER and HAVLICEK worked on the same barge -- the "George J. Healing."

HART was engineer on one of the other three barges -- the "Eugene F. Healing."

HAVLICEK's brother, Joseph, of 72-08 45th avenue, Woodside, refused to believe he was dead.

"Four times before he was reported missing . . . but he always survived," Joseph HAVLICEK told a Sunday Press reporter last night. "I'm not giving up hope yet."

HAVLICEK's wife, Edna, died Feb. 16. The missing engineer has three children, Barbara, 11; Edna, 7; and Mary, 3. None of them knew about the father being missing last night and relatives said they won't tell them for awhile.

HART has a wide and three young children in Copiague

COYLER has a wife, Lillian, and son, Donald, who is married and lives with his parents.

Mayor John LEONARD of South Amboy said every house in the city was damaged by the shattering blast. It appeared to have snowed glass in the streets of the city.

Four bodies lay in an improvised morgue, two identified. One of the identified was listed as among those loading ammunition. There were 22 others still unaccounted for.

Among those listed as missing were three sons of the president of the firm which was loading the barges, the James Healing Co., stevedores.

In Manhattan the Isbrandtsen Line said ammunition in the South Amboy was destined for one of its vessels, The Flying Clipper. But a spokesman said it was not known if that was the ammunition which exploded.

Officials in Washington said the munitions probably were part of a shipment to Pakistan. A spokesman at the Pakistan Embassy said a munitions consignment for Pakistan was due for shipment from South Amboy "at about this time."

South Amboy counted the damage as running into the millions of dollars. Normal life was interrupted. Most of the injured were wounded by flying glass.