The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-03-18
A NEW jim BLUOSOE
Captain Stood the Flame TIL
the Last Cabot was Saved
STEERED HER TO TIE BANK
HIS BOAT ON FIRE. HE KEPT THE
RTDDER TRUE.

HIS RoAT.ON FIRE. HE KEPT THE
RUDDER TRUE.
UNTIL sHs STR4Ck s4ope
The Rescue, a work Of airing Ccolness
--Lik~ the praiie deIia Hcr
smoke Stack Fell 10
(New York Journai)
The fire bust out as she cleared the bar.
And burnt a. hole in the night.
And quick as Il flash she turned and
made
For that willer bank on the right.
There was runnin' and cursin', but Jim
yelled out.
Over all the internal roar:
:I'll hold her nozzle agin the bank
Till the last galoot's ashore!
Jim Bludsoe of the Parie Belle.
SO sang John Hay, who will soon repre-
sent these great United States at the
Court of st. James. If Mr.. Hay were
still writing poetry he would find a hero
in Captain Almer Downer, of the tug
boat Reindeer. 1t would be easy to find
rhymes for the captains name and the
boats name But, much more than that,
the captain is brave man, and he proved
his bravery yesterday, when he went
through fire aud water.
Captain Downer owned the Rein
I, ,,,ol
and dismantled hulk now lies on the
flats under the Palisades at Shady Side,
n. J. One of the Revolutionary battles,
which ultimately resulted in Mr.. Hay be-
ing Ambassador of free and independ-
ent country, was fought near Shady Side.
One ANCESTOR of Captain Downer fought
in that battle, and Captain Downer
fought in that slight misunderstanding
between brethren that has been
called the Civil War. Cap.
tain Downer commanded the
Reindeer for twenty years, for she was
one of the oldest crafts ON the line
Then he bought her, paying $4,000, all
the money he had in the world.
SUDDENLY SHE WAS ABLAZE.
The Reindeer left tow of barges at
Edgewater. n. j.. yesterday and started
for her berth at Pier No. 46, North River.
She was well out in the stream, running
fast with the tide. when smoke came
putting ~ from the engine-room amid
ships into the pilot house, where Downer
stood at the wheel. The captain jumped
to the speaking tube.
THE boiler rooms afirer' yelled the
engineer, l.. NJ. Downer, the shippers
brother.
Buckets and the hose" cried the cap
tain of the tugs crew, who were lounging
on the coils of rope aft. There were only
two men in the Eeindeer's crew who
were known simply as Deck and
Scratch" Before they could throw
overheard the buckets Engineer Downer
climbed up from the engine room. half
choking and binding by smoke. The fire
had driven him out.
Meantime Captain Douner had pointed
the Renders nose toward The New
York shore, intending to seek help along
the piers. But he realized he had not
time to reach there; that they would all
be drowned or roasted; that the Reindeer
would sink in deep water; that all his
money would be resting in the bottom Of
the Hudson. SO he determined to take
a chance to save what he could, to beach
the tug boat on the muddy Jersey flats.
He swung around the helm.
And quick as q fash she turned
For that willer bank on the right
HUNDREDS SAW THE SIGHT.
Hundreds Of people along the New
York shore watched the Renders fight
Flames were leaping from the windows
and the door Of her dockhouse, whose
roof was beginning to burn. A long trail
of smoke f1oated out behind her. Her
onward rush drove the smoke and the
smoke and the cinders into the pilot house,
where stood the skipper, hands ON wheel,
nearly smothered, but still cool-if one
can really be cool while fire is scorching
his face. The engineer and deckhands
sheltered themselves behind the deck
house and waited. 1t was useless for them
to try to fight the fire with buckets of
water They might as well have tried to
put out volcano with a squirtgun.
Lying near the jersey shore was the
schooner Sarah Ann Carpenter. Her
skipper saw the Reindeer running for the
SItdllOWS, TuUlHullS 10 Save Tic AouI lives
on board her. The Carpenters captain
and two of his crew lowered her yawl,
jumped into it and pulled nightly toward
the tug-boat.
The tug boat Guiding Star, Captain
Love, shot out from the pier of the Bar
ret Manufacturing Company, and as she
hurried up, visions of salvage money de-
lighted her captain and his men. They
manned her fire hose from which stream
was already letting.
The water in the Renders course
grew shallow, shallower. Her keel slid
into the mud. 81
into the mud. Overheard went her
smokestack. The fire leaped high above
the deck house and played around Cap
tain Downer in the pilot house.
As they neared the Reindeer the three
men in the carpenters yawl ceased row.
ing. They feared for their own lives,
for when her smokestack went by the
board they expected the Renders boiler
Id