New-York tribune., 1900-07-01
THE BURNING OF TIE SHIPS.


The whole civilized world will turn to New
York to-day. horror stricken at the unparal-
leled disaster in this harbor. From time TO time
wars, pestilence and accident work destruction
of life and property as great greater. The
explosion under the Maine in Havana Harbor
sent more men to death than. so far as known,
were killed in all the North German Lloyd's
ships. ~ous wrecks like those of the French
Lines La Bourgogne, the North Germans own
Elbe and the White Star Lines Atlantic
suited in a much greater loss of life. On land
great fires have worked incomparably more
disaster. A dozen theatre and hotel fires can
easily be mentioned with death lists probably
larger than last nights. But in the whole his
tory of disaster by fire and water we do not
recall one which parallels this in its destruc-
ton of ships and crews, not where they are
supposed to encounter danger, but where they
are supposed to be safe. Nor do we recall any
thing proved to be more utterly at the mercy
OF flames than these docks and their stores
with water all about them and beneath them.
1t seems one of the mockeries of human fore
sight that the harbor of refuge should be the
port of destruction, that the land should reach
out its arms TO the sea to be burned.
How the fire caught and how it spread un-
checked with such marvellous rapidity cannot
yet be told. 1t is subject for thorough investi-
CATION, from which 1t would seem If some
lessons might be learned. The wind high
and cotton bales most infammable, but still
Il seems incredible that a great plant, where so
much property and so many lives were staked
on the greatest vigilance and the most per-
feet apparatus, should have been engulfed so
quickly that the fire could spread from pier to
pier and from ship to ship before the vessels
could be moved.
bo f0i t0 he fire. at ha hppi
suggests query about the provision made for
that purpose 1t Is obvious that a fire once
we'll started IN mass of cotton and spirits
would soon spread beyond control. If there
were NO pumps or hydrants instantly available
on the piers, and nothing could be done but
send an alarm and wait for f1remen from the
city, plainly all the elements were prepared for
a great disaster. We do not know at all that
there was any such unspeakable carelessness
TO leave these ships with hundreds of men
in them and these infammable docks without
what was IN all human foresight adequate
protection But that is a matter which merits
careful inquiry. If our waterfront a whole
or in part is a mass of tinder ready for the
match We want TO know it and protect our
selves against it. How much Manhattan Island
has at stake is easily seen from the way the
burning ships drifting about the harbor endan-
gered shipping and buildings far away from the
North German piers.
The fate of the poor men penned into the
holds of the burning vessels is too awful for
words. Those who the appealing faces at
the portfolios will never forget the sight. For
them and for theirs who mostly in a foreign
land all who read the story Of their fate will
feel deep sorrow and a generous impulse to
lend a helping hand. New-York will mourn
with the people in far off German homes and
ask what it can do to Tighten their burden of
affiiction.