Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1900-07-17

Could Save Her.
Speaking of the recent great fire at
the piers of the North German Lloyd
Steamship company, the captain of the
freboat Van Wyck describes as fol-
lows some of the scenes he witnessed:
Il never saw such a sight before, and
/ hope 1 never again will see another
Ike it," said Captain Connolly of the
fireboat Robert a. Van Wyck the other
day to a reporter of the New York
Press.
1t was nearly "a hours after the fire,
but the memory of it, the picture OF 1t,
was so strongly impressed upon him
that the commander of the ireboat
said he had not been able to sleep. L
can't get it out of my mind" said he.
IF live to be 100 years old, 1 never
viii forget; neither will any OF the
men on the boat"
The other morning was spent by the
men on the Robert a. Van Wyck in
cleaning up. The Van Wyck's crew of
fire fighters saved more than 80 per-
sons from the Saale. They were along
side of her all during the fire. The
fireboat became a temporary hospital
for those rescued, and it was the evil
dences of the wounded that were clear
ed away The deck looked like that Of
a man-of-war after a battle. There
were lint bandages and other evidences
of the duty performed by the crew of
the Van Wyck. Huge piles of cotton
used to cover wounds were about, look
ing CHASTITY with their red coloring. AS
the men cleaned up the boat many of
them turned sick from the work with
recollections of what they had wit
messed. Captain Connolly, Lieutenant
McGinness and others have been fight
ing fires for almost quarter of CEN
fury The fire on Saturday, June 80,
surpassed anything either ever had
seen.
81 believe we saw the worst of it"
said the captain. Anyway, / hope
saw the worst Of it, because L hope
there were no other poor souls who
went through the tortures Of the i'm
prisoned persons on the Saale. There
wasn't a man on this boat that would
not have risked his life a dozen times
to have saved any of them, but the
only thing we could do was to pour in
water and pray God in his mercy to
end their misery and suffering.
THE first thing we caught was
lighter filed with cotton. Then we
heard there were persons on the Saale.
We went alongside. Every portfolio
had a face. The headlights were no
larger in circumference than an ordi-
nary cuspidor. The men in the boat
went on deck and did what they could.
1t wasn't much at that time. We asked
bA of tho lnrfhnlaG hnvV
many men were in her. The only an
swer they could make was they didn't
know, but there must be 100.
Zone man asked for a drink, and we
gave it to him. He said the ship was
filling with water. At that time we
were pouring 1000 gallons minute
into her. We talked to half dozen of
persons forward. Some put their arms
out of the ports; others managed to get
a shoulder and half their head at the
opening. We tried axes. pixies, every
thing, to break a hole In the side OF
the ship. The Chapman came up with
the wrecking apparatus and tried to
break into her, but nothing made an
impression.
when we dropped amidships Of her,
saw the gamest woman that ever
drew breath of life. My men cried like
children. She neither screamed nor let
out a moan. Every man in the COM
pany would have lost anything, been
crippled or MANNED for life, to have
saved her. She was about IS years
old, with black hair that had been
burned In places. The clothes had
been burned from her shoulders until
she was nearly naked to the waist. She
did not say so, but / think she was q
passenger. She may have been a stew
ardess
I've played stream OF water on
the port and on her head and then
gave her a drink. when she stretched
her hands for il. we saw they were
burned. Then we passed int the port
one of our 2l1 inch lines. and she took
1t. For 10 minutes she played it about
her. first on one side. then on the other,
then over her head She spoke broken
English. but we managed to under
stand that she meant the fire was gain
ing on her. We took the standpipe
and jammed IL into another headlight
near her and swung 1t in all directions,
trying to aid her She saw what we
were doing. but shook her head as
though to say, 1t can't save me-. The
ship had listed. and. exhausted in one
of the rolls IL made. she fell That
was the last we saw of her. 1t was
the gamest fight ever saw any one
make She knew there was no hope.
was half burned to death. standing
waist deep in water. and never a
scream.
81 could see that woman last night
1 can see her now I've seen some
tough sights. scenes that would make
any man shudder. but that. with the
was the worst
while we were talking to her other
tugs. were to the stern of the Saale
talking to others. l must have seen
30 TO 40 persons at the ports The
Van Wyck rescued 80 from the engine
room. They were the men who stood
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