The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-11-07
PHOSPHORUS IN THE SHIPS.
Traces Of It Found Everywhere Among
The Damaged Cotton.

Skidby and Delegarth Heavily Dam
aged-The Watchmen on the Damaged
Ships Arrested, But Released Later
on-The LonRshoremen's Union De-
nouncos the Firing of the ships-Col.
Harmon Receives a threatening
Letter.
The city council. the business men, and
the people generally, are determined to
bring the authors of the cotton fires to
/ justice. Monday nights work was de-
/ nounced on all sides yesterday. The uni
versal desire is that the guilty parties
/ should be uncovered and punished and
J that without delay. Nothing that has oc-
/ CURED here in recent years has aroused
/ such deep concern as the firing of the cot
/ ton ships. The evidences of the incen-
| diarism are too plain to admit of doubt
| The concerted manner in which the work
was done is sufficient evidence in itself
| Of its character but the evidences Of the
means used by the incendiaries was seen
everywhere aboard the ships yesterday.
| Traces of the phosphoric composition used
were discovered on half a dozen ships, in
Guiding unexploded pieces of the substance
and rags saturated with the solution. The
watchmen around the ships and yards
have been armed and instructed to shoot
any person caught attempting to fire the
property in their care. The city has Of
fered a reward of $500 for the arrest, with
proof to convict, any Of the parties en-
gagged in Monday nights work. In the
( opinion of many however, this reward is
not sufficient. 1t is believed that re-
ward sufficiently large TO make it to the
interest Of the best detectives in the coun-
try to come here and devote their entire
! time to the case for weeks should be
| oHercd, and that it be guaranteed jointly
by the railroad the ship-brokers and the
| insurance agents, together with the other
parties interested. The ship-brokers are
! determined that the parties who fired the
ships shall be brought to justice. THE
mills of the gods grind slowly" said one
of them, but they grind exceedingly fine
We may not discover the incendiaries to-
day nor tomorrow, but they certainly
| will be unearthed and brought to Justice
They have their day now. We will have
ours"
This is the sentiment of all the ship
brokers. Even the warmest friends of the
longshoromen are hearty in their cen
demnatiOn of the work of incendiaries
| The theory has been advanced that many
of the ships We're fired by members of
| their crews who had been bribed to Go
this work. The crews Of the vessels have
been spending their nights ashore and
as sailors will do, or many of them have
| sought out the very lowest haunts of the
city where, with the aid of cheap rum
| and the promises of reward, it was easy
for them to come under the influence Of
the criminal element.
The longshoremen adopted the following
(
mems Benevolent Association last night:
Resolved, That we condemn the action
| of the party, or parties, who caused the
! fires on shipboard in this port on Nov.
! and 6, and sincerely trust that they
may speedily receive the punishment that
! they justly deserve"
The resolution is signed by John Dris-
! coll, r D. Charlton and Charles Cooke,
| committee
The watchmen of the seven ships which
were fired before midnight Monday were
! arrested early yesterday morning by De-
| tectives Hanley, Bossell and Kavanaugh.
/ This was done it is understood at the
! direction of Acting Mayor Mills upon the
/ suggestion that all the ships could not
| possibly have been fired without the col
! fusion of the watchmen. The names of
the men arrested are J. w. Daniels, P.
/ F. Grogan Thomas Noon, Mat Hauley
| w. T. Sullivan P. Vandiviere and ]. w
! lice barracks, where they We're held with
! out bail. No charges were made against
/ them. They were simply held on sus-
/ picion. As the detectives had obtained
| no evidence against the men the case
! was not investigated in the police court.
! Recorder Wilson held the men to allow
/ opportunity for warrants to be issued
| against them, should any one desire to DO
! so. No warrants having been issued or
/ charges preferred they were released at
/ o'clock by instruction of the acting
/ mayor.
The damage to the cotton aboard the
ships at the latest estimate, is between
100000 and $4,000. There is probably some
/ damage to the ships which will hardly
/ exceed $4,000. An outside figure of the
/ total damage is 500 0OO The principal
damage is to the Skidby and the Dale
/ garth. The damage to the latter is great
( er than was first estimated, about one
half her cargo of 400 bales being dam
aged by fire and water-chiedy water
/ The damaged cotton will have to be re-
moved. The Slkidby had about 1000 bales
aboard. OF this fully one-half is dam
aged by fire and water, and probably the
4 whole cargo will have 10 be removed from
I the vessel, which will entail considerable
/ trouble and expense. Mir. Barnard of
/ Richardson & Barnard, agents of the
/ Sk!dby and the Dalegarth, said that the
/ damage win probably average about $40
q bdle. ms WOulu pace the damage
to the SlSidby's cargo at about $4,000 and
to the Dalegarth's at about $235O0. These
are only estimates and it will take some
time TO ascertain the actual loss Mr.
| Barnard said that there was probably
some damage to the Skidby, but he did
/ not think tho Dalegarth or any of the
other vessels had suffered any important
| injury. In the Baltimore City, also rep
| resented by Richardson & Barnard, there
are about 500 bales damaged by water
| which will have to be removed On the
Petuna, another one of Richardson a.
| Barnard's ships, there are about bales
| damaged by fire and about 80 by water
| on the Whitfield, which is being loaded
by Strachan & Co., there are about half
a dozen bales slightly damaged
on the Stag, loading by Minis & Co.
there are about $500 bales damaged by
fire and water which will have to be re-
moved from the vessel. On the Castle
| garth, also loading by Minis & Co., there
| arc between 300 and 400 bales dam
| aged, chiefly In the torepeak. on the Ar
meuia also loading by Minis & Co., the
| damage is slight
on the County Down which IS being load
] ed bv Wilder a. Co the dar1lapa "a -I{,eI,t