The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1900-07-05
TWO HUNDRED LIVES LOST
Awful Calamity Occurs at the Hobo
ken WharYes in New York.
PROPERTY Loss WILL REACH 10000, 900
Spectacle That Will Be Mclnora-
bic in History--Mapy Small
Craft Burned.

Almost SlU, OOO, 600 worth OF prop
erty was destroyed, many lives were
lost, many persons were injured and
at least l 500 lives were imperilled
by fire that started among cotton
bales under Pier No. 3, of The North
German Lloyd Steamship company,
in Hoboken, New York, at 4 0 clock
Saturday afternoon.
In less than fifteen minutes the
flames covered an area of a quarter
of mile long, extending outward
from the actual shore line TO the
bulkheads, from 600 to 900 feet
away, and had ignited four great
ocean liners and dozen more smaller
harbor craft in its grasp.
Stories in regard to the loss of life
are conflicting, the number being
yariously estimated at from fifty to
200. Up to midnight ten bodies had
been recovered, but they were so
burned that Identification was i'm
possible. The hospitals in New YORK.
Hoboken and Jersey City are crow
ed with the injured, the men are be-
ing brought in by scores.
Those who gathered along the
shores Of the Hudson river to witness
the great confagration saw a spec
tacle that they can never forget and
one that will always have conspicu-
Gus place in the history OF New York.
River and bay were enveloped in a
pail Of black smoke, through which
flames, bursting as from volcanoes
from the Jersey shore and in the
water itself, leaped to the sky, The
surface of the water was covered with
floating masses of freight, thrown
buring in haste from the doomed yes
sells, all unnoticed in the mad race
to rescue the human lives threatened.
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 spectacle
presented on the surface OF the Hud-
son river, as if it were some holiday
pageant. 1t was made tragic by the
realization that somewhere in that
smoke, somewhere beneath the water,
scores of lives had been lost or were
then in their last struggle against
death.
At the docks OF the North German
Lloyd were the Saale, single crew
passenger ship Of 4, 963 gross tons;
the Bremen, a twin screw passenger
and freight ship of TO- 26 tons, and
the Maine, twin screw freight aud
passenger ship of 10, 200 gross tons.
They all caught fire and were burned
to the water. The Kaiser Wilhelm
Der Gross, which had just come in,
was the only one of the four big yes
sells at the docks that escaped.
Latest Estimates of the Dead.
The losses sustained in the fire at
the docks of the North German Lloyd
Steamship Company at Hoboken Sat
urday are conservatively placed at
nearly $40, 900, 600. The loss of life,
while merely guess work at even this
late hour, will probably reach as
high as zoe, and there are more than
300 men in the hospitalsin New York
city Hoboken and Jersey City badly
burned.
Late Sunday night list was pre-
pared showing as far as possible the
number of men employed on each
steamship who have been accounted
for. OF these 255 men employed on
the Saale, l27 have been accounted
for.
OF the 204 men employed on the
Bremen 127 were accounted for.
OF the 247 men employed on the
Maine 76 were accounted for.