The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1900-07-07
200 PERSONS PERISH
Hospitals in Three Cities Crowded
With Injured.
-Four Great Ships Destroyed by Fire-Ons
of the Ships Carried $50 People and
Was Ready to Sail--Property
Loss @1O,OOO,OOO.

new YORK, June 3O.-Almost $40, 000,-
600 worth of property was destroyed,
many lives were lost, many persons
were injured and at least 1900 lives
were imperiled by fire that started
among cotton bales under pier of the
North German Lloyd Steamship Com
pany in Hoboken at 4 o'clock. In less
than Is minutes the flames covered an
area of quarter of mile long, ex-
tending outward from the actual shore
line to the bulkheads, from 800 to 900
feet away, and had ignited four great
ocean liners and dozen or more smaller
harbor craft in its grasp.
Stories in regard TO the loss of life are
conflicting, the number being variously
estimated at from SO to 200. Twenty
five bodies have been recovered, but
they are SO badly burned that ldentifica-
ton is impossible.
While the fire was still burning the
work of relief was begun. Men came
to the Office of the North German Lloyd
line almost naked and with their cloth
ing ruined by the salt water Men who
had been treated by doctors, but who
were not sufficiently injured as to be
taken to hospitals, also gathered at the
ofice. Every man was given money
and clothing aud taken to temporary
lodging house. The sailors from the
ships lost absolutely everything Il ey
possessed. Fully 80 per cent. of tae
sailors are Germans who have no home
and no relatives in this country. Most
OF them lived in Germany.
+ NEW YORK. July 1.-The losses sus.
tanned in the fire at the docks of the
North German Lloyd Steamship Com.
pany at Hoboken yesterday are tonight
conservatively placed at 10000, 600.
The loss of life, while merely guess
work at even this late hour, will proba-
bly, reach as high as 200, and there are
more than 300 men in the hospitals in
this city, Hoboken and Jersey CITY
badly burned.
The scene of the great fire TODAY pre-
sented spectacular but horrible sight.
Over in Hoboken, where two days ago
piers reached hundreds of feet out into
the river and rising in the air like great
hills, stood, alive with outgoing and in
coming commerce, a great waste of
burning and smouldering beams, with
here and there remnant of high brick |
wall, all that remains of the thousands |
OF dollars, worth of property. Four
large storehouses of the Palmer Camp
bell Company were wrecked, and they,
with the piers, go to make up the ap-
palling mass of debris that lies smok-
ing, Sizing and steaming across North
river. 1t covers over four city blocks
and reaches out into the river for more
than a thousand feet.
Scenes That We're Sickening.
The fireboat Robert A. Van WICK,
which arrived on the scene first among
the river ire-fghting craft, presented
a picture of horror and ghastliness as
she lay at her dock in the East river
today. The docks were covered with
cotton, saturated with the blood of the
victims rescued by the brave men
aboard
Pieces of human skin chung to the
'ags, and the dreadful experience of
The firemen of the day previous was
brought again to eyes and memories
which sought to forget the horrible
spectacle. Lieut.. McGinnis said:
Il should say there were passengers
hn9 r6 tho Soo1o |
passengers and surely were not mem
'ers of the crew. They were locked
Town in the hold of the vessel as
ecurely as ever a convict was i'm
in cell. There was no escape
or them after the vessel began to take II
water. We got thirty out of there
While we were allowed to work from !
he dock. 1t was then that we wit
essed the awful sight of human agony.
"A hundred arms with the flesh torn |
rom them and blackened with smoke. .
from the small port holes, r
which were but foot or less in diane
er. If these port holes had been larger.
efficient to admit the passage of hui |
lan body, the rescues would have been '
1any more in number than they were. q
he thirty men we rescued were raving
1aniacs when we got them aboard
hey could not realize that they had
scaped the horrible death that threat
ned them but few minutes before.
n their delirium they fought each
Their after they were rescued.
THE most agonizing sight witnessed
'as that of a woman who was burned.
1e could see her face and arms as she n
cached out and got a handful of water,
18th which she washed her face seek
lg to cool it and gain relief from the .
srrible heat. She never once uttered
scream. We passed her cup of water.
he grabbed it eagerly and drank it. She
build not speak English but murmured r
a foreign tongue and in tone which
pparently denoted that she was pray -
lg. We spoke words of cheer to her.
he boat gave lurch, water filled tn, i.
which she was in, and she A
INK from our sight and we saw her no
ore"