Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1900-07-07


Burned-nenth List VIII Probably
Never lie comprehensive Property
Damage May Exceed Ten Millions.
Fire started among cotton bales stored
on Pier No. OF the North German
Lloyd Steamship company in Hoboken at
o'clock Saturday afternoon.
Ia less than Il minutes the flames coy
! cred an area n quarter of a mile long. ex-
tending outward from the actual shore
line 90 the bulkheads. from 600 to LOCO
| feet away. ard had caught four great
ocean craft in It's grasp.
! The queen OF the North German Lloyd
/ fleet, the Kaiser Wilhelm der Crosse.
was pulled out into the river before she
| was greatly damaged, but the Bremen.
| the Saale and the Main were from the
! first beyond help. The latter was burned
at the dock. The former two We're tow
cd TO the Jersey flats. where they now
| nc in ruins. The hold of each of the
thfxe ships was full OF fremen, coal
nasseTs aud sailors. who were roasted TO
death&r drowned.
| ThirtyAwero caught on the piers along
side of which the burning vessels were
moored andS either were suffocatcd by
choking clouds of black smoke, torn to
pieces 10y explosion or driven to death in
the frenzied leap into the swift running
| tide.
| Careful con,y1tation by a staff Of ex-
! ports of the Worth German Lloyd compa-
ny places the list OF dead in the crews of
the three ships destroyed at 142. This
does not include any ofFthe longshore-
men engaged in slowing cargo in the
holds of the vessels or the visitors or
workers on the piers.
! The list of the missing Of these classes
will not be complete for several days TO
come. So far MS known now il will not
fall short Of ~ and may go to 100,
From now until the interior of the
hulls of the Saalc, the Bremen and the
Main are pumped out, so that they mny
he explored properly, the recovery OF
bodies or fragments thereof from any
one Of these submerged sepulchers win
| be desultory.
Complaints AGAINST Tugboats.
Fourth Officer Oscar Book and Third
| Machinst Onto Brockhom are in charge
OF the work on the Saale Both men
were aboard during the fire Saturday aud
are indignant at the treatment accorded
them by the tugboat captains whom they
asked for assistance while struggling IN
the water. Book said at least three cap
tains wanted TO know how much they
would pay to be rescued.
The first formal complaints OF alleged
cruelty OF tugboat captains on the night
of the fire were made yesterday by Fritz
Heinrich Kruse. third officer Of the Saalc,
and Henry Brocksted, a longshoreman,
OF - Bloomfield street. Hoboken, who
both filed atiidavits with Recorder Stan
| ~. IL.
! Krnsc's affidavit is to the effect that the
captain OF the tug Dandy refused to take
him to a place where he might be OF
some assistance in the work Of rescue be-
cause he had no money with him.
Afdavits corroborating that of Officer
Kruse were filed by Rudolph GRAIN
physician On the Phnnieia. and Christie
pher Gerkens and Oscar Heuntechel
stewards IA the phunieia.
That any large number of visitors Ell
Their to the piers or the ships were lost is
not probable. but figured ont TO its ulti-
mate there is no system of calculation
| by which this particular estimate can he
made. Averages are not possible, The
differences are so great on different days
and on different ships that mean is not
obtainable.
The officers Of the Bremen are authori-
! ty for the statement that there were full
! ly 200 visitors on board that vessel when
the fire broke out. a majority of them
women, and that to escape death on the
blazing pier many took to a boat lowered
after the alarm was given, and the boat
was capsized.
How many persons were in 1t, how
many escaped or how. many persisted can
only be conjectured.
The Property Loss.
The properly loss will fall not far short
Of S10,00Q000N and this estimate is as
conservative as the estimate Of the loss
Of life Not until the adjusters get to
work and figure ont the cost Of replacing
what has been lost can the value Of the
food fed to the flames be reckoned with
exactitude.
The Saale, with her horrible sepucher
below decks, is a total loss. Her warped