The sun., 1899-05-19
LINER. AFIRE, HITS LINER.
A HOLE IN Ia BRErIGNE'S SIDE
PRO DY THE B1RBIROSSi.


TO Put Out Fire in Her Hold, Cut Into
Her and Drove Her Into Two Ice BarEcs,
which snnk-Barbarossa Hit n Lighter,
Knocked IA Piece ON n PIcr End and
scared Ferrybont - Fire Out -- In
nr-tngn. VIII Take n Lot of Monding.
Tho great North German Lloyd steamship
Barharossa had many misadventurcs yester-
day right In this port. She sailed for South
ampton and Bremen at IL o'clock in the morn
ing. returned with her cargo aire and then
went on q nautical spree up the Hudson River.
She Just missed running down Pennsylvania
ferryboat. ran into a pier. and finally hit the
French liner La Bretagne in the Frenchman's
dock and made n great rent in her stnrboard
quarter. The impact drove la Bretagne for
ward toward the bulkhead. ana she sunk two
leo barges that were under her nose. The
Barbarossa backed out OF the mess and got to
Hobokep at 4 o'clock. still ailre. The fire was
out at y o'clock. and she may sail again to-mor-
row. Most OF her hundreds OF passengers. OF
whom the Rev DR.. Charles A. Briggs was ono
slept aboard. The French liner. due to sail on
Saturday. won't go for some time. She has a
big hole to mend.
Tho Barbarossa is a colossal twin screw OF
the second class: that Is. she Is not what the
Germans call all express steamship" She
measures 10000 tons. Is $50 feet long. and
when she gets going in the limited space OF q
crowded river. with fire aboard and strong
flood tide to bother her. it is wise to give her
the right OF way
She sailed from her pier in Hoboken at II
o'clock yesterday morning with 325 first and
second cabin passengers and small number.
nearly all Germans. in the steerage. She
carried large general cargo. including cotton.
The cotton caused the trouble. Itis n danger
Gus cargo, catching fire in inexplicable ways.
As the ship passed Quarantine at noon. Just
after she had entered the ship channel. one Of
the sailors observed a nero film OF smoke
rising from a forward vcntilator on the
port side. near the forward hatch. Capt. A.
Richter notified Chief Engineer Rose. and no
had steam turned into compartment no. 3 in
the lower hold. port side. Tho channel was not
wide enough for the Barbarossa's pilot to turn
her without grounding. and after consultation
between pilot and skipper it was decided to 60
on TO the Southwest Spit and then turn and
head for port. The code signals. "B. J. L."
and H. b." were broken out. indicating that
the liner was aflre and wanted assistance.
Thore was little excitement among the pas
sengers. The smoke from the ventilator was
not vouminous enough to fright"n anybody.
II was putting from other ventilators before
the Barbarossa got into the Narrows again.
Several tugs were alongside the ship when she
entered the upper bay. The nreboat Zophar
Mills accompanied her on her way up
stream. Capt. Richter declined to let
the tugs and the fireboat pump water
into the burning compartment until the
ship got to her pier. MEANWHILE. the crew had
stretched the ships hose along, tho decks and
we're using a stream apparently to small ad;;
persons aboard were the crew. There ap-
peared to be nothing at fiandyT the smok:
s S"rc "ms
had been stoppeed up before the ship had got to
70 he ns 81 sga 5 e4e
She went on serenely until she was nearly
Rshtsf RI % heads R HTo the s New shore %R'
make long turn in the, neiGhborhood Of West
Tenth street. or Just below, and then make
s2dns H6Ssen sp tsSS Fs. G s
nna he bulky Earbarossa cannot be handled
Nearly all tho cabin passengers were out on
the nr9menade Ieck; The The ship was going at
was abeam Of the Cunar pier, at tho loot Of
!Iarkson street. "a Pennsylvania ferryhoat:
SaR snPa 6ca% S% y Sw nS YORK i 70 o5eeG E cy
i the ferryboat were going to be spitted on the
liner steel PROV The hearts Of her passengers
must have come M into their throats. The
ferryhoat seemed to make squirt. and the
Barharossh, which had reversed her engines
but WAS still under way and the victim OF the
urrushing tide. missed tho ferryboat by less
than ten wards.
The big shrs course thereafter was erratic,
A steam lighter of The Erie Railroad putting
down the, yer against he t!dc was of Pier H.
. block above the Cunara pier when the luck
lan effort o got out ofthe road Of the lcviathnn
but shc WASH tIuIte swift enough Shenrowdssd cd
the Delaware aud Lack awnnna Railroad. Tho
Barharossa,s how hit the lighter on the star.
not not damnging % her otherwse Sc below o. or nbovS Owe
water. The Captain OF the lighter said things.
and there we're EXPLOSIONS OF polysyllahic Ger
rr RI" passengers were getting little nervous.
They wondered what was going TO hapresn
seemed @ to take cHnrse q Herself" il is ikeIy
passengers though ht thai her steering gear had
become lo deTanged Cart Richter said It was
al h AIT ns thu sGs the rSnSh
and /; Eier; iisr I!,ow grazed ii: .portthwes,,
J. per and cut the two;inch steel cable bind
ing the piles. incidentally lly carrying away lot
Of big slivers and splintcrs,
There was much commotion on the liner
when i was seen that she was going 70 run
down Manhattan borough: Capt hichter or or,
to check her momentum. Already the pLo-
peers were hacking at TOP speed .re Ihs
French line. On the south side Of the French
pier was the steamship La Bretagnc. which
wns scheduled to sail for Hsvre on Saturday.
The German colossus entered the French
dock Iagona!y, and in an instant her
stem had sunk. to the accompaniment of
grinding steel, snapping beams and crunchng
woodwork. six feet into the BretaRnes star
board quarter. The blow sent the Frenchman
forty feet up into her dock, tearing down her
ganEplanks and breaking her steel moorng
hawsNrs. There was almost as much excite
ment among tho crew OF the Bretagne as there
was aboard tho Barbarossa. The, lonGshorc-
lnen who had been. loading the French liner
were dcmoralized for moment and ran for
the street.
Tied up against the bulkhead in the French
dock, Just forward Of tho Bretagne, were the
ice-ladrn barGes Richard j. Foster and Leroy.
The Bretagnc's prov cut clean through the
Foster and buried itself in the l,eroy,,s side
Charles Paul, the skipper OF tho Foster
with his wife 'Thcy we're upset 6gt
moi, hurt. They didn't really know the craft
had been damaged until they saw tho other
half Of her floating of. Then they scrambled
on the inshore barge and got out On the bulk
head. The barges sunk ush with their upper
deck and the ice began drifting out, giving the
dock Il wintry appearance.
The BarbaTossa's way had been checked by
her engines going full speed astern. She was
backing out Of tho rcnt in the Brptagnes star
hoard quarter in less than thirty seconds atel