Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1900-07-10

municate to Steamers Mored Aiongo
the Piers-Death List Placed at Near
Iy 300 and the Monetary Loss at
$15,OOO,OO0 Victims Entombed in
the Blazing Hplls.
With loss of probably 300 lives and
the destruction of property valued at
nearly S15,000,000, the entire pier system
of the North German Lloyd Steamship
Company at Hoboken, n. J., was burned
Saturday by fire originating among
bales of cotton The magnificent ocean
liners Main, Saale and Bremen were de-
stroyed by the flames and the peerless
Kaiser Wilhelm der Crosse was scorched
and only was snatched from the blazing
piers and shifted into midstream by the
liveliest kind of work.
Starting where cotton bales and oil bar
rels were stored on a pier Of the North
German Lloyd Steamship Company, the
flames swept over FIVE acres of piers, de-
stroyed the FIVE large Campbell ware
houses near by and attacked the ocean
steamers lying at the piers. Three Lloyd
steamers, the new Bremen, the Saale,
survivor of many misfortunes, and the
freighter Main, were burned down TO the
water line The great steamer Kaiser
Wilhelm der Crosse, pride of the Lloyd
line and the second largest steamer
afloat, was seriously burned, while the
Phoenicia of the Hamburg American line
was damaged and a score of lighters and
harbor vessels were destroyed.
How Lives Were Lost.
Fully fifteen hundred people were
working on the piers and the vessels
when the fire began. There We're the
'longshoremen removing and loading car
goes, the sailors on the vessels, and even
number of passengers on one ship
which had Just arrived. Cut off from
shore by walls Of fire, driven off the piers
into the water, cooped up in cabins from
which the sky could be seen through mar
row portfolios but no rescue could be had,
hundreds of persons met fearful deaths.
Ships, piers and warehouses were all
burning within nine minutes from the
start of the fire. Then when the engines
and fire tugs came they were powerless
to put a limit to the flames. Not till a
| pier of the Hamburg American line was
blown up by dynamite was the fire under
control The Kaiser Wilhelm der Crosse
was saved by cutting the cables that
bound her to the4pier and towing her up
stream. Then the Saale and the Bremen,
one a mass of fierce flames which licked
up masts and tunnels, the other with fire
bursting from every part of the super
structure, We're towed down stream. The
Saale carried many imprisoned men in
| her hull, and the Bremen was known to
| have seventeen men still alive at the
pumps, but no power on earth could res
cue them. The Main could not be freed
and burned at the pier
Water and fire combined to make one
of the most fearful scenes of destruction
of human life that New York has ever
witnessed The black column of smoke
rolled straight to the east, where it was
visible still in a single mass seventy miles
away. Tens of thousands of people lined
the banks of the river TO witness the
awful spectacle. The hospitals in New
York, Hoboken and Jersey City We're
crowded with the injured, and men were
being brought in by scores.
An Awful Spectacle.
/ L
| the Hudson river to witness the great
| confagration saw a spectacle that they
| can never forget and one th / always
will have conspicuous place in the his
| tory of New York. River and bay were
| enveloped in a pail of black smoke,
| through which angry flames, bursting as
| from volcanoes, on the Jersey shore and
| in the water itself, leaped like red spheres
| into the sky. The surface of the water
was covered with floating and blazing
masses of freight thrown in haste from
| the doomed vessels-all unnoticed in the
mad race to rescue more precious human
| life being sacrificed in the great ships.
| And through the pail of smoke a great
| crimson sun, enlarged to thrice its size
| by the haze, glared like an enormous eye
as it slowly sunk in the west. Such was
| the tremendous spectacle presented on
| the surface of the Hudson river, as if it
had been some holiday pageant
The greatest loss of life appears to
| have been on the Saale. She carried 450
| people aud was to have sailed for Bos-
| ton during the afternoon. When the POI
| lice boat captain went aboard of her with
| his rescue party he saw bodies lying all
| about the deck. The steamship Bremen
carried crew of 800 men, the Main go.
| The burning or smoldering remains of
canal boats. lighters and barges were
/ scattered all the way down the river and
| bay TO Staten Island and Governors
| Island Each of these craft added some
! thing to the list of the dead.
Some of the Big Losses.
On the steamer Saale-Vessel. $780,
| 0OO. eorga S2O0O0O
On the steamer Main-Sessel, 81, ZOO
600: cargo, 100000.
On the steamer Bremen-vessel, $780,,
| 600; cargo. 100000.
| On the steamer Kaiser Wilhelm der
| Grosse-yeSsel, 5000: cargo. none.
On steamer Phoenicia reported badly
burnedl. aone.
On North German Lloyd docks and
merchandise, $3.50. 900.
On Thingvalla Line pier. including
stores. $50.0i0.
On Hamburg- American Line dock, S15,-
Ooo.
/ On warehouses of Palmer Campbell,
with contents. $1.30o,000.
| On lighter loaded with sugar, So. 600.
| On eight bargeS and eleven canalboats,
with cargOes. $l25,O00.
| On BOboken Shore Railroad Com
pany's property. $1,000.
On minor items, Jumped, $4,000
/ On business, profits, etc, no figures
/ given. ] at very large.
ON personal property, not even approx
mated.
Caused by Explosion.
The FIRE originated on pier 3 OF the
| North German Lloyd series. 1t was caus-
ell by the explosion OF benxine tank. so
the ire fighters declared. which ignited a
| large quantity Of cotton awaiting ship
ment. The FIRE was first discovered by a
watchman on the pier at / o'clock. He
saw a small streak of fame shoot from
a bale Of cotton and Immediately gave the
| alarm.