The Portland daily press., 1889-10-10
ON A BURNING SHIP.
A long Fight for Life In Mld-ocean
by the Crew Of Steamer Unionist.

n long Fight Tor Life In Mtd-Ocean
by tho Crew Of Steamer unionist.
New YORK. October 9-For six days, in
mid-ocean. the crew of the British tramp
steamer Unionist battled with a fire in the
ships bunkers, which contained $50 tons of
coal. There was q heavy gale on all the
time, and often the crew could hardly keep
their feet, while passing the coal out of the
bunkers up on deck. Tive explosions oc-
CURED. and altogether the crew of the
Unionist had thrilling yarn to spin when
the steamer, little worse for her experiences,
arrived yesterday at Dows's piers, Broo klyn.
The Unionist sailed from Liverpool on
September 2lst, in ballast, with crew of 30
men. -Four days later heavy gale set in,
which ragged for four days. On September
Both First Officer E. j. Attenbrow was stand
ing on the bridge, having hard time to
keep his feet, when he saw smoke curling
out from the bunker hatch, on the port side
of the bridge deck. He shouted to Capt. r.
w. Neate, who hurIiedly hauled off the
hatch. A thick volume of black smoke
poured out and nearly blinded the captain.
Neate summoned all hands, and the hatch
es were battened down and every creyice
closed. Then holes were chopped in the
bunker hatch, and hose pipes were run In,
and water soon flooded the bed of COAL AT
ter Willie the hatch was lifted, and two
seamen felt their way into the bunker and
passed out some coal. But at noon the
smoke began to pour out again, and the
fumes OF gas were so strong that the men
were driven away from the hatchway, and
TWO men below were overcome, and were
rescued IN an unconscious condition.
Again the harches were closed, and the
next day they were once more opened, and
the men entered the hold in relays to take
out the coal. staying half an hour at time.
SO the crew worked all that day until p. M,
when the smoke and fumes drove them of.
Again the hose poured water through the
day, October q. There was a strong gale
blowing. and when the crew tried to shift
the coal from the side bunkers into the cross
bunker, the ship pitched so that they could
hardly keep their feet. Yet the crew stuck
to their difficult task until 10 p. m. The
matches were once more battened down and
the hose played until the next day at noon.
There was so much water in the bunkers
that the crew next had to pump it out
BY noon of Thursday the coal was glow
ing and had to be passed up on deck In iron
buckets and played on with the hose. Near
ly two tons of burning coal were disposed of
in this way. The next day Second Officer
Heiming was on the bridge. He heard a
mnffied explosion and looked around in time
to see three hatches burst up and fall back
into the bunkers and sheets of flames flare
through the the hatcbways nearly to the
masthead. The matches were fastened down
again with difficulty, and few hours later
another hatch was blown off and piece of
it struck the chief engineer. He was not Sc
riously injured. A hole was cut into the
stokehoe bunkers and hose run in there.
by evening the smoke began to decrease, and
at 30 a. M, October 9TH, the fire was out.
Nearly 30 tons of coal were taken out of
the bunkers during the fire. 1t is thought
that spontaneous combustion was the cause.
A few hundred dollars will repair the dam
ages.