The times., 1899-06-02
RACING WITH FLAMES.
Steamship Reaches Port With n Vol
cano in Her Hold.

New York, June 1.-The steamer Knick-
erbocker of the Cromwell line came into
port on fire yesterday. and the captain
General Manager Allen did not tell of it
until it became necessary to summon the
fire department boats.
The Knickerbocker left New Orleans on
May "a with fifteen cabin and thirty steer
age passengers. and a cargo of 1000 bales
OF cotton, as well as rice. molasses, and
hides. of Hatteras, on Monday, the mess
room steward discovered smoke coming
from the port side OF the saloon deck, be-
tween the messroom door and the door of
the chief engineers room.
Captain Pest called all hands TO quarters
and the fire was located in the second of
the three holds of the ship. the one be-
tween the freroom bulkhead and the
bridge bulkhead. 1t was right under the
steerage passengers.
Captain Post ordered holes bored in the
saloon deck on the port side, through the
deck in the messroom and through the pan
try. Into these openings, steam and wa
ter were forced through lines of hose. The
engineers were ordered to send the ship
ahead, full speed The matches were bat
tened tight.
Monday and Tuesday the Knickerbocker
plunged through the waves with fire eating
toward the vitals of the ship, gaining every
minute in spite of the well directed and
secret efforts. The three sections of the
hold of the ship are divided by trans
verse bulkheads of steel. but the smoke
and the gases generated by the fire en-
tered the fireroom forward of the engines.
Soon the atmosphere in the stokehoie be-
came such that the stokers could not live
any length OF time in the sitting vapors.
Working in short shifts the dozen fire.
men on the ship would jump one at time
into the stoke hole. their mouths and nos
trils covered with dampened handkerchiefs.
As quickly as he could every fireman, when
il came his turn, would throw two or three
shovelfuls of coal into a furnace, and as
quickly jump out of the suffcating hole"
1t was impossible to keep the knowledge
OF the fire from the inquisitive passengers,
but they were informed it was only as in
/ significant affair and the travellers behav-
ed well. The fire meanwhile had spread
to hold No. !, the fore compartment
When the almost exhausted firemen and
engineers and deckhands had worked the
ship as far as Quarantine and the port
doctor came on board yesterday morning
Captain Post Would say naught of the fire.
The Knickerbocker pier, near the foot
of Rector Street North River. was made
at II a. m; still no report of the trouble.
If the ship could be quietly unloaded. the
fire conquered and traces of it removed.
publicity might be saved.
Strangers were kept off the ship. The
first the police knew of the blaze was
when three longshoremen were par
TALLY overcome with smoke while dis
charging cargo. A policeman obtained the
fact second hand. He called an ambulance,
but the three men had all been sent TO
their homes.
For two hours more the steamship peo-
pie fought the enemy unaided. and then
General Manager Allen consented to send
secretly for the lireboat Zophar Mills.
| Together the Zophar Mills and the tugs
Edwin HawIey and Baltic poured their
combined streams into the blazing freight
| but at p N. Captain Allen and Captain
Post saw it was no use to stay longer al
the pier. The ship must be surrounded
with fre-fighting craft At this time zoe
packages, including many blackened bales
of cotton, had been removed.
So they towed the Knickerbocker to the
Jersey flats north of Liberty Island. sank
her in eighteen feet of water and called
the freboat New Yorker. This morning
the firemen were still forcing water into
| the stubborn cotton.