Passaic City record., 1893-10-07
LOSS OF THE JAPAN.
An Ocean Horror Recalled by a
Survivors Tragic Death.
Two Thousand People Imprisoned
in a Burning Steamship.

the sequences of history 1t SO hap
pens that one of the half-score souls
that escaped alive from the burning of
the Pacific Mail steamer, Japan, in
the Formosa Channel, early in Octo-
Der, 1872, was George Lavender, re-
Gently found murdered in Detroit.
The horrors of that dreadful scene SO
filled the rest of this wretched man S
life that he rarely spoke of his fear
some experiences, and shut out as
much as possible from his minds eye
the bewildering, bloody glare of sea
and sky in which nigh 1900 men.
women and children fed from the
flames to the sharks, only to postpone
the inevitable. This is the tale as
George Lavender once told it, vowing
that he would never again follow the
sea.
The Japan was side-wheel ship of
some $500 tons, one of the magnifi-
cant fleet then trading between San
Francisco, Yocohama and Hong Kong.
She left San Francisco with fnll cargo,
and carrying 1000 passengers, most
of whom were Cinnamon returning to
their homes with the competence
they had earned in the States. Her
crew were Chinese, and in spite of the
prohibition against gambling, fantan
was soon all the rage forward and be-
low decks. The Cinnamon would
crawl into space timbered off in the
forward end of the guards, and play
until driven away by the heat. They
cut plank out over their heads, to
let in air, and bribed the deck hands
to keep silent. It was grand moon
light night on the Pacific, the wind
just freshening as the ship entered the
monsoons in the Straits of Formosa.
Her square sails were set and she was
bowling off some thirteen miles an
hour, when all hands retired for the
night. II went to the guards" said
Lavender, ITO call the Cinnamon to
the watch, and as / opened the door
of the stable in which a number OF
cattle were feeding, dense black
smoke rolled out, followed by sheets
of fame / crawled into the cattle
pen, and there, through the window
they had cut for ventilation, saw five
Cinnamon wedged in the grip of death,
each trying to force his way out of the
gambling hole, each determined to sell
his life dearly. The flames were even
then roasting them-their bursting
eyeballs cracking in the heat Their
heartrending shrieks ring in my ears
yet.
81 rushed back on deck The whole
crowd Of Cinnamon, some 1900, I should
suppose, had burst out of their quar-
ters and were rushing around like
yellow demons in the light of the
great tongues of flame whichnow start
ed up in every direction When Capt.
Warsaw jumped from his bed and cut
the topsail halliards, he ordered the
wheel down, thus bringing the ships
head to the wind, driving the flames
and smoke into the fire and engine
rooms and forcing the engineers and
firemen to fee for their lives. The
cabin passengers, men, women and
children, rushed from side to side OF
the doomed vessel, shouting with that
awful hoarse cry of terror which one
who hears may never forget, for the
boats, the boatsl'
ssThree boats were got into the water
but they were swamped. Many jumped
on the life RATS, to be instantly
washed away. At that moment the
forward half of the ship blew up, and
400 human beings were hurled instant
ly into the death pit. Their cries il
the vortex of flame were beyond hui
man endurance. One man, safe or
deck, saw his wife in the flaming abyss.
and leaped to her side to perish with
her. The cattle, of which there were
several hundred on board, had worked
their way loose by this time, and
swept across the decks, living hurri-
cane. Youth and age went down be
fore them, and those who turned te
flee from this new horror were either
impaled upon their horns or dashed
into the furnace beneath. Suddenly
the survivors, about 1000 in number
seemed stricken by merciful Provi
dence with the loss ofreason. Their yell.
Of fear were changed into shriekl
Of laughter, laughter that chills my