The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-11-06

Baltimore City was soon gotten in hand,
but that In the forepcak of the Castle
. garth proved nasty, and it was some time
before it was finally gotteu In hand. on
/ account Of the fact that the wharf was
/ covered with cotton the engines could not
Z be used, for fear of setting fire 70 the
: cotton by the sparks. The engines were
4 sent back TO the headquarters on South
/ Broad street and streams were gotten
( from the plugs along the wharf.
At 9.l5 O'Clock hre was discovered in
i holds No. ] and . Of the Delegarth, lying
/ at the wharf Of the upper press. II was
( first discovered in No. 4 by the mate, who
/ gave the alarm. and got the hose and
/ started 10 work. They then discovered
/ that No. ! hold was also on fire. An
1 alarm was sent IN from Box So, which
/ was responded to by the engines which
/ had just returned from Gordons wharf
The tug Jacob Pdusen also went along
I side and got on a stream. The fire in No.
/ hold was not serious, and was soon eX-
I tinguished. Tt required considerable water
: to subdue the fire in the forward hold,
however, and it was necessary to remove
some of the cotton from the hold. The
I Dclgarth was also being loaded by Rich
ardson & Barnard and had about 5000
1 bales aboard There are about 500 bales
in all which are seriously damaged by
fire and water, and which will have to be
| removed from the hold.
After the firemen had begun work on
the Delegarth it was reported that the
/ Stag was also on fire at the Gordon
wharf The fire in this was worse than
in any of the others which are at the
! lower wharves,
The fire on the Stag was first discov-
cred in the bunkers or about amidships,
which hold was pretty well filled with
cotton. The Stag had aboard about $500
bales OF cotton, and it is believed that II
is all pretty we'll damaged either by fire or
water. Considerable of the cotton in the
bunkers was hauled out and put on
lighter and before this fire had been
gotten well under way another hre was
discovered in hold No !. This was about
half an hour after II was discovered in
the bunkers, and the fire here was about
as bad as it was IN any Of the holds of
this vessel. Streams of water were kept
up in these holds for almost two hours
and about 1880 O'Clock it was found that
hold No. 4. was also afre. small
smouldering fire was discovered in this
hold, and a close investigation led to the
belief that phosphorus had been used
in setting fire to the cotton. What looked
Ike a phosphorescent glow was seen in
hold No. of the Stag, before the tiremen
and sailors went down into It. This led
the shtpbrokers who were on hand to the
conclusion that phosphorus was the
agent used by whoever started the blaze.
One Of the shipbrokers who was at the
Gordon wharf and lower press wharf dur
ing the fires said that the entire 1900
bales on the Stag had been damaged either
by fire or water. He believed he said,
from what was discovered there. that the
fires had been started by the use of phos-
phorus, as there was an indication of the
use of that substance on the Stag. He
had no doubt, he said, that the fires were
of incendiary origin.
Later smoke was discovered coming
from the forward hold of the Petunia,
which was lying not far from the
Dalgarth. The matches were removed and
two bales Of cotton were discovered to be
burning. They We're just under the venti-
lator, and the captain stated his opinion
that a match had been dropped through
the ventlator. As the matches had been
covered this was the only possible way in
which the fire could have been communi-
Gated to the cotton. The fire was easily
eXtinguished
The firemen had a night OF 1t and such
night as they have never known before
with a new fire breaking out every hour or
less. Chief Puder certainly distributed hts
forces well. He seemed to always have
enough men, hose and machines for every
new fire With three of his best engines con
fined to the Skidby fire he managed to at
tend to all the other fires with the other
three engines and the hose The supply
Of hose seemed to hold out well. The adj
vantage of the fine water pressure at the
upper wharves was well used Chief Pu-
der and his men certainly deserve credit
for their work last night. Outside they
| held their own in spite of the un . u forces
which We're coutendIng against them.
A squad of police was sent to each end
of the town, and Chief Green and the de-
tectives also spent good part of the night
there. The police endeavored to keep the
crowds away from the ships but without
much success. 1t was that there
were fire bugs in the crowd
The second officer on the Mas
sasoit stood on the upper deck, shotgun
in hand, and threatened to shoot any
| person coming aboard the ship except
| hremen. The Massasoit has just about
completed her cargo, and it was very
much feared that she would be fired.
Acting Mayor Mills spent some time on
/ the scene, and Alderman Bohan, chair
man of the hre committee, remained with
the fremen nearly all night Receiver
/ Conner Of the Central railroad visited the
Central wharf. He had little to say. Col
Harmon also visited all the ships which
/ were on fire, for the purpose of aiding
| the captains in directing the tiremen as to
/ the best means of getting at the fires The
/ general opinion seemed to be that the
/ fires were incendiary. such a thing new
err happened before on this river" said
/ Chief Puder.
1T looks very bad" said Detective
/ Hanley
THE fires are of course, incendiary,"
! said Col. Harmon. The ship brokers and
/ Insurance men present seemed to agree
with him in this opinion.
The British steamship skidby Capt.
/ Stracha is 2,42l tons register and had
nearly finished loading with cotton for
/ Liverpool. She is consigned to Richard
son g. Barnard, and was 10 have left this
week. She and her cargo are the worst
dau ged Of all those which were disoov-
cred ahre, and her departure win I'M
doubtedly be considerably delayed
The British steamship Castlegarth
Capt. Tipdle, of 1878 tons register, with
part of a cargo Of phosphate had nearly
finished loading with cotton for Brake
and had about $500 bales aboard. She is
1 consigned TO J. F. Minis Co Less than
500 bales were damaged on this ship
The British steamship Baltimore City
was lying next the Gordon wharf Just
inside the Castlegarth. She had about
2,l00 bales cotton aboard for Barcelona, and
was consigned TO Richardson d Barnard
The damage TO the cotton on this ship
however, was much less than on any of the
/ others which were fired.
Rs rIf gtp n