Western sentinel. [volume] (Winston [i.e. Winston-Salem], N.C.) 1856-1886, 1883-11-01
A SHIP ON FIRE.
A SIGNAL THAT BROUGHT THE FIRE
BOATS TO MEET THE HEIMDAL.
Cases of Safety Matches Burning Under
the Steamships Closed natches---
Passengers Landed, Ship 10
Grounded and Fire Out.
{ Ne,o York .S,tn.)

| (Ne,o York SUM-
The iron steamship Heimdal, of the
Th;ngvalla Line, with the signal 81
am on fire. flying, was sighted off Fire
Island vesterday forenoon, and passed
Sandy Hook at 1:40. At z last even
ing she was aground between Bedloe's
and Ifflis Islands aud the Zophar
Mills, have;neyer and w. "a Cf1ssiiGy I
we're flEng her hold with water and
figl ting the flames, which poured up
in sheets through the matches. One
hour later the fire had been extinguish-
ed. Capt. Johanscn said to a reporter
of the Sun.
1--WE left Christiansand on October
9th, with cargo which occupied eve
ry available inch of space. We had
100 bales of hair, $50 tons of pig iron,
700 boxes of eggs, all of which, sup
pose, are cooked i; 30 hogsheads of
cherry juice and nearly / 90 cases of
safety matches of three different brands,
one brand manufactured in Norway,
another in Sweden, and another in
Denmark. We had $50 persons on
board, 3O3 steerage passengers, three
cabin passengers, and a crew all told
of forty-four. On Sunday afternoon
at $50 we noticed smell Of fire, and
little investigation satisfied us that
the matches were on fire in the main
hold. forward of the main hatch, and
| ON the starboard side. The second of.
| fcer notified the steerage passengers,
but told them we were in no danger,
and requested them to come on deck
with their baggage. They all came
quietly, and we turned steam from our
boilers into the hold, but the fire SEEM
ed, if anything, to gain little. The
women and children slept in the berths
between decks that night, and the men
slept in chairs on the upper deck.
Most of them were hardy young fel-
lows. This morning we opened the
matches a little, but closed them again.
The fire was gaining. We turned in a
stream of water through our ventila-
tors, and kept it going. At l o'clock
our signal was seen at Sandy Hook,
and then the tire-boats were telegraph
ed for. We reached Quarantine at
2:2O, There we were met by the
Havemeycr and the barge Fletcher.
All our passengers were transferred to
the barge. with their baggage, and ia,
afterward. and we brought the steam
er L, here and ran her aground to
flood the hold We shall get the wa
ter pumped out and get to our dock in
Hoboken tomorrow afternoon"
Pilot Robert Hall, of the pilot-boat
Thomas Negus, boarded the Heimdal
on Sunday morning 800 miles out in a
dense fog.
"The passengers acted splendidly,' .
he said, Though many Of them had
. been scasick, and seventy of them
were children, including four pair O.
twins. An iron deck separates the
hold, which is twenty feet deep from
the tween decks. A few hours after
the fire was discovered this deck, over
the fire, was so hot that one could no
stand on it. One of the steerage stew
ards discovered the fire, I understood
from the heated deck. The trunk o.
one of the steerage passengers caugh
fire, and, on being carried out into th'
open air burned ferccly. The cap
tain's management was excellent. Ht
kept the matches closed, and refused t.
have them opened until the passenger
were all off. Water was turned IL
through the ventillators, which wer
kept air-tight by being stuffed witt
: straw beds and tied tightly over witt
:. canvas. The water and steam scenes
! to have very little effect. After ou
passengers were transferred, the ques
ton of extinguishing the fire was sc
) rious. As the vessel is pretty nearl
: fat-bottomed, We ran her ashore wher
: she is now, and filled the hold wit
= water and the tween decks over it an
: water-tank, into all OF which the fir
had spread. We got all the boat
:, ready this morning, put water int
= them, and were ready to lower them a
;. moments notice if the fire had gain
= ed on us enough to make it necessar
= to leave the ship"
: The Heimdal was left far out of ws
> ter bv the receding tide last evenin.
and the work of pumping the immens
i body of water from her hold was b.
= gun. At Funch, Edge & Co.'S offie
= it was stated that the damage to shi
!, and cargo would amount to man
= thousands of dollars, though no est
mate could be made. Both are full
+ insured.