The Lambertville press. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1858-1???, 1858-11-18

How the Austria got on Fire

rest:
SIR: I have patiently been waiting to hear all
the evidence that could in regard to the origin
of this fire.
1t was said that the Austria took fire from the
tar-bucket upsetting, &c. There is only one
person that knows anything about that tar affair,
and how far does his testimony go? He saw the
fourth officer go down the Storage steps with
the bucket and heated chain The additional
story, that the tar was seen on fire. does not
appear in his statement, so far as can discover
and seems to be gratuitous supplement for the
sake Of answering public question.
If this person Q do not know his name-be was
the travelling companion of Messrs. Smith B.
Cox, of Boston, saw the chain fall into the bucket
of tar and the bucket upset and the vessel taking
fire from this cause, it may help to explain why
the flames spread so rapidly.
But should the evidence given by this person
(who alone, of all saved, is at all acquainted with
this tarpot affair) be the basis on which public
sentiment rests, / ask such to consider set of
circumstances which as yet have been untold,
and which to me seems worthy of notice by
candid public.
Could not the Austria haze taken fire from
the furnaces?
The facts are simply these: On Sabbath morn
ing (September II, the day before the burnine)
the report passed from passenger to passenger
that the Captain had made bet that we would
be in New FORK September 49," (the following
Saturday, The Captain had told us the day
previous, however, that we would not arrive at
New York until the evening of the 18th or the
morning of the Goth. But now this had been
thrown day or two ahead, and the 18th was
the fixed day of our arrival. The question may
be asked, what does this prove So much,
answer We had been making the rate of only
milo f1o T,r1Ao IL
the bet we must make 300 miles
We had been sailing in quiet but somewhat
head sea-had met with no storms-had consider
able use of the sails with the north breeze we had
in word, good sea weather and yet made only
81 | miles day. Now, this bet, running the
risk of gales and seas, determines our rate at
900 miles,
But was not this bet a mere reported scandal?
1t might have been thought SO had this been the
end of it. But the effect of it, as stimulus. was
soon seen.
About noon of Sabbath Sep. r. the black
smoke began to pass off from the smoke-pipe-
1t was thick, heavy, dense cloud that gave the
first cause of apprehension. At evening, when
it was growing dark, the smoke changed to fame
which, when it was really dark around, for it was
overcast came raging out of the smoke-pipe like
the flames from blast furnace fifteen or twenty
feet into the air. 1t was terrific sight and
somewhat of panic existed on board but the
officers quoted the passengers by saying they
were using new kind of coal, which they did not
understand managing" Thus being assured of
no danger they were credulous enough to be
apparently satisfied. The female that saw, and
heard scream the loudest, was the one that wore
green worsted dress, and was accompanied by
the person (German) who was picked up by Ma
jor Brew in the water and since brought in the
Yalorous to New York
The time that the flames looked the most fear
full was when was returning from the bows, after
we had concluded the burial service of female.
at SO on this evening An entry, taken at the
time in my memorandum- book is this What
discordant scenes eombined-on the bows the
solemnity of burial, and on the quarterback
the loud laugh, as if mocking sorrow, and between
US fearful saght-raging flames picture
| OF he'll" Remember, the hold of the vessel Twas
about forty feet deep and the smoke pipe about
tWenty-hye feet above deck, and the flames nearly
/ if not quite, twenty feet above the smoke-pipe-
giving a column of from siaty to serenity feet of
savage flames! That must have been pecu-
liarly ant7annaabIe coal! The next day, until
the vessel was n fames was this state of things
seen.
OF course the vessel was heated To stand
Oh lhe 16e-SlQe OF the Sn0ke-p1pe on MOnday
morning (September 49, was very uncomfortable
when other mornings stood entirely unconscious
of any Inconvenience from the heat The pas
sage-ways beneath deck were oppressivelY hot
and it was exceedingly disagreeabIe to pass from
fore to aft through them. This was not usally
the state of things, but everything was unusual
this day, and complexity of brainless endeavors
seems at last to have succeeded in destroying the
vessel, and with it hundreds of ives-perhaps of
souls.
Taking the Captains betting, together with its
conditioned requirements, and the excess of fire
in the furnace Immediately afterward, and these
facts tell the simple story THAT they were
pressing the Vessel to the uternaost, and which
resulted in a step beyond the uttermostn
Now, at the time the alarm was given. the
flames were coming in under the quarter deck.
They must have ravished already two hundred
and fifty feet of the ships length. If the far
bucket was the cause of the fire, the fire started
in the forepart of the Storage; and to completely
overmaster the midships and find their way
under the quarter deck, by the time the alarm
was given, must be explained by other principles
than that of common sense.
Could the fire not have originated from the
furnaces and how flames could rush through the
Storage, which had prepared the vessel for its
fate, by rendering it like finder for the flames?
WIN not this better explain how the flames were
SO aft at the time of the alarm Will it not
more satisfactorily explain the rapid spread of
the flames and the mystery of the burning -
Wilt not give some clue to uncover the Can
fain,S fatuft,y2 nnuId not entity