New-York tribune., 1900-07-01
WILD EFFORTS TO ESCAPE.
Continued from second page.

NJ OF Ine North German Lloyd. They were
calling TO some of the passing tugboats, but
their appeals Were in vain. and when the flames
got near them they dived into the water. There
was no assistance near them the time, and
believe every one was either drowned or pershed
in the flames"
The saving Of the great Kaiser Wilhelm der
Crosse was attended with exciting Incidents
1t seemed if it would never be possible to
set her clear. and the fire was spreading so
rapidly that it threatened AT almost any mo-
ment to break cut on the big ship. The great
hawsers in the confusion could be handled
well, and axes were brought into use TO chop
them. releasing the vessel she was towed out
into midstream. and then far up the river. Her
bows slightly burned
WOMAN AND woULD-BE REsCUER
PERISH
Five minutes after the fire broke out a woman
5umped from ere of the ships in vain effort
10 reach the wate-. Tho flames drove her from
the ship. and she plunged heedlessly in the di-
rection in which it seemed that safety lay. She
leaped into barring lighter aIongside the ship
and when an of,ocr on board the ship who still
stood b:- the doom vessel say her and realized
what would he her fate he plunged down after
her, hoping 10 dag her ont 81 the burning
lighter into the water He followed her within
p couple Of secon5s. and both went down into
the flames in The lighter and pershed
The .Phwnicia. Of the Hamburg American Line.
Is little damaged. according to the employees
al re pier at midnight. II was reported
or tHicc dCrias the evening that she was on
fire. hut whenever she caught from the flying
emhers the blaze wes quickly extingushed. At
midnight ste still Al her pier. close up
the burned district, with steam up and pre-
pared to move out under her own steam If it
should be found necessary to do so.
Baggagemaster Mason. at the Holland Line
pier. Just above the scene of the connagration
manned one Of the rescue boats and succeeded
in making great record for himself as a life
saver. The fire hardly under way before he
saw man and a woman wearing life preservers
floating down toward the Holland pier. He
picked them up and took them ashore and by
the time he got back to the end of the pier there
were others floating toward him. He and an
assistant worked away till twenty people in ali
were taken out of the water and put ashore.
The purser Of the Saale is confident that Cap
tain Mirow and Third officer Auboern of the
Saale. perisheG. Last night at II O'Clock, at
N6egilfs Hotel in Hoboken, he said:
'Mirow and Auboern were on the deck of the
Saale I assisting in the lowering of one
Of the lifeboats. 1t being Saturday. there were
a good many visitors on the boat and when the
fire broke ont and there seemed no chance to get
the people ashore by sending them to the pier,
went 10 of the lifeboats. and with the
assistance of another whose name / don't
know, I lowered of the boats About
twenty women and children got into it. and il
pretty near the water when a great wave
Of fame swept over US, nearly choking and
binding US with the neat, and doubtless burn
ing the hands Of the man who had hold of the
ropes the other end.
Amy way, one end of the boat fell into the
water, and the women and children were all
dumped out. Many Of them sank while I was
hanging the ropes 1 slid down the rope
holding the front end of the boat and held on
close 10 the water till a tug came along and
picked up. That WAS between 4 and
O'Clock, and Mirow and Auboern have not
been heard from since, 1 am inclined 10 think
that they were lost"
THE ORIGIN UNKNOWN.
The manager Of the freight department Of the
North German Lloyd Line, when seen at the
fire last night. said:
LAS far make out, the fire started in
q cotton lighter of the Morgan Line discharging
a cargo alongside Pier No. g. No one knows
actly how the fire originated. but il happened to
be almost exactly the boundary line between
the North German Lloyd and the Hamburg
Line piers. The North German Lloyd Line was
Joined together with bulkheads The high wind
blowing carried the fire across these bulkheads
like flash of lightning almost, and the whole
cargo Of cotton was ablaze before we knew II.
We estimate that on the Saale. the Main and
the Bremen six hundred men belonging the
crews of the vessels at work. On the
Kaiser Wilhelm about FIVE hundred laborers
were AT work Of these il is not supposed that
many were injured, and few if any. killed. On
the piers about five hundred men at work.
and the larger part Of these escaped. There is
no possibility OF getting a list of the employees
Of the steamers and the laborers at work the
piers tonight Some are IN the hands Of the
German Consul and some were burned.
By Monday we shall be able 10 give out full
list OF the men employed. and then by hunting
up those who are alive we shall be able to find
have sent to the newspapers request TO all
our men 10 report to the office Of Meyer &
Steneck River-st., between Second and Third
sts. Hoboken. In this way may be able to
get an approximately correct list of the men at
work here yesterday, and by comparison we
may be able to tell who pershed"
OF individual acts Of heroism there
legion but in the rush and excitement there
could be no record Of those VINO did the deeds.
one man in the hospital, with burned hands and
face. said he was rescued by another man more
severely burned than himself. He said he was
helpless in the water, when the other threw an
arm about him and buoyed him up. The others
face was fearfully burned and the other arm
was useless, but ne treaded the water and
floated so skiIfuy that they foated down the
river and q tug went to their rescue. The
who told the story said he tainted after being
rescued and did not know if his rescuer had