Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1900-07-05
AWFULLOSSOFLIFE
DEATH LIST IN tHOBokEN FIRE WILL
REACH THREE HUNDRED

REACH THREE HUNDRED. !
steamers saale, Bremen and Main Are
Destroyed and Property on Shore suf-
fers-Many Caught Below Decke-Toral
Loss Is Estimated at Ten Millions.
New YORK, July 2.-The losses sus-
tanned in the fire at the docks OF the
North German Lloyd Steamship COM
pany in Hoboken Saturday are conser-
vatively placed at nearly $4,000, 900;
the loss of life, while merely guesswork
at even this late hour, will reach prob
ably as high as 800, and there are over
800 men in the hospitals in this city,
Hoboken and Jersey City badly burned.
The only way the steamship officials
! have of approximating the loss OF life
I is by comparing the list of those re-
ported safe with the list of employees on
| the steamships.
h Gustav Schwab, the general agent OF
| the North German Lloyd line, gave out
a list showing what men on each vessel
are missing:
t7 On the Saale 225 men were employed
and only 127 these had been ac-
counted for, leaving 1873 men actually
employed as officers, sailors, stewards,
engineers, coal passers, oilers and trim
mers to be accounted for. lIniztni 9lit
The Bremen, had 2o4 men on duty
but only 1877 of these have been found.
| The Main had 1877 employees on board at
i the time and Of these only 76 have been
reported safe. 4i9 o. aaeH 9GIi .o t5tFs
! Appalling Mass of Debris Il pos
!. "A spectacular but horrible sightjwas
presented today. Where two days ago
A piers reached hundreds of feet out into
the river and rose like great hills alive
il with outgoing and incoming commerce,
lay great waste of burning and smol-
dering beams, with here and there
remnant of a high brick wall. The
! three immense piers of the North Ger
man Lloyd line were burned! to the
waters ripple. Four large storehouses
are wrecked and they, with the piers,
went to make up the appalling mass OF
debris, smoking, sizzling and steaming.
It covers over four city blocks and
reaches out into the river over 1000
feet. Streams of Is water are being
! poured ON the ruins and workmen are
poking about for bodies. 5t9EE
/ This was the scene of the greatest at
traction today and thousands upon
thousands of people went there. The
3 streets were jammed. Every trolley
car was packed with struggling hu-
manity, every ferry boat was crowded
3 to the rails and every tug that could be
brought into private use, had its quota
:, of people hurrying to the scene. @
Far off, up the North river, a great
3 cloud of smoke rose and tumbled, at
y one moment on the water and the next
rising just enough to show the skeletons
4 OF two Of the great ocean liners, the
Bremen and the Main, that rose like
y giants in the smooth surface Of the
water. They had been beached there.
q Around these a fleet Of small boats car
y rying sightseers was circled. .i ftyil
a Far down the river, off Ellis Island,
lay the smoking and, steaming hulk of
f the Saale, almost total wreck.
8 The loss Of life probably will prove
n greatest when the wreck of the Saale
a has been searched Already number
d of bodies have been taken off, and as
> soon as the fire has subsidized there is
: every probability that many more will
I be found, as several Of the tug boat
captains claim to have seen thirty OF
/ forty persons in one compartment just
9 before the Saaie Went down. It'd VA
v OF the 426 persons reported missing
/ it is believed some will be found in
e sailors boarding houses in this city
y Jersey City and Hoboken. n. .,55
= =. = The North German Lloyd officials
i declare that no passengers were lost
# declare that few if any visitors per
}. ished, and that the loss of life was al
most entirely among employees Of tn
company. = ii'9'' 49, o. fsl3i','as. ~,
!. lYaF,rffI Many Driven to Insanity. 4 lil.s.l
- The fireboat Van Wyck, which ar
e rived on the scene first among the rive
Il fire fighters presented a picture Of horro
e and ghastliness as she lay at the docks
y The decks We're, covered. with cotton
IF saturated with the blood of the victim
10 rescued byIth brave men aboard Hh
i fremen were at work cleaning the boa
!. and picking up the stained remnants o
] clothing which were torn from tn
burning bodies as they were pulle
aboard the fire boat from the pit of fire
M Lieutenant McGinnis said: II shoul
IS say there were passengers aboard tn
tie ISaale. They looked like passengers an
al surely were not members Of the crew
le They were locked down in the hold Z
Sc the vessel as securely as ever a conyi(
I'd was imprisoned in a cell. There wa
H. no. escape for them after the vess.
lis began to take water. We got about 8
n out Of there while we Were allowed t
in work from the decks. 1t was then W
Z witnessed the awful sight of huma
agony. A hundred arms with flesh o
q them protruded from the small por
as ~ holes which We're a foot or less in d
= ameterl 1t those portfolios had bee
" larger, sufficient to admit the passag
- of a human body, the rescues coul
- have been many times more in numbe
w. than they We're. Many of those re
- cued We're raying maniacs when we G,