New-York tribune., 1900-07-01
EXPERIENCES IN THE FLA NES
SAILORS OF THE SAALE TELL OF THE
AGONIES BELOW DECK.

Paul stoenberg was one of the sailors taken
from the Saale by the tug Mutual chartered by
the harbor police. He was burned about the
legs. and suffered greatly from. exhaustion and
shock. He managed. however. to tell graph
ically wha had happened. He said;
There we're forty of us. We had lust had our
o'clock when we sat down. BY 1 o'clock the
boss shouted, and We went forward to work in
the hold. We had been busy. say. five minutes
when some one shouted: Get out everybody!
The ship is fire."
turned into devil. We ran fighting and claw
ing and scratching and swearing for the ladder
leading up To the deck. We found the matches
battened down. Great Cod how the men did
cursei Some climbed up on the ladder and
pounded their fists against the iron hatch They
pounded until the blood ran. Through the iron
grating we saw flames Fire forward, fire
was in the stern. Everywhere was fire. Some
of the men started forward. We had to pass
over the coal bins. Part of the way could
walk; part of the way we had to stoop. Toward
the last crawled our bellies. Think Of
forty men struggling like rats in that black
hole. There was no air. Only everybody was
fghting and cursng to get out.
We crawled through the machinery and got
upon the pumps forward. But there were forty
Of us. and on the pumps only room for fifteen
or twenty.
AWFUL STRUGGLES
One man tried to pull me from the place
kicked his face in and he lay still. Ten men
The man that fell first was stamped on like
guess he's dead now My God. we were al
most all dead. Outside we could hear the
cracking of the flames We knew the fremen
were working to reach us, We could hear them
shouting.
But we thought they could never reach rs
1t was like hell down there. The men tore their
clothes off and threw them away Then after
a while they stopped cursing. The men down
at the bottom did not fight any more. One by
one they just fell down and lay still. A big
man near me- said we ought 70 pray. Near him
fellow who had dor[ a lot of fighting and
cursing began to cry. Then he prayed.
1t was like months. Think of such a place
from o'clock until after a. II we knew we
We're 70 he saved-but no, we were sure it
death.
But then we heard the hremen above After
little while they put down ladder got out
The others? Well. hope they got out. too.
TERRIBLE THREE HOURS.
William Younghasten, an oiler on the saale
said
After the men had gone twenty-nine of us
meanins the oilers and machinistsl climbed on
the pumping station. Several put their arms
around the central part OF the machinery, MAX
ing row Of FIVE on each side; then they locked
their arms around their neigh borS. For hours
the men stood in this position. Some of them
tainted from the oppressive heat and terrible
pain. When a third or fourth man from the
ceptral part of the machinery would faint from
exhaustion he would fall backward carrying
three or four men with him.
Ehrhard Weilder, coal passer, said the men
were all locked in from until T:15 o'clock and
had given up the thought of being taken out
alive. Continuing he said: When the fire
men rescued me cried"
Frederick Dusedan. OF the oilers of the
saale. who is suffering from suftoceton and
burns. describes the fire while he was in the
hold of the ship as follows:
I was working the machinery with Third
Machinsts Brockhoff and Weller when the cry
of "Fye." heard. The matches were i'm
mediately fastened This was about o'clock,
The smoke and fire were soon around, and the
hrasswork and other metals began to melt, the
fire was hot There were thirty oilers and
machnsts, and had to climb through the
machinery There fifty fremen This
was near of the pump stations. The part
that we climbed through from place would
only hold twenty men ordinarily, but the thirty
men reached the place at once. and fought like
madmen for their lives When we all reached
the hold where the hremen were, the fifty men
were crying and shouting, fighting for their
lives II seemed as II we had been in the place
a week Finally a lttle light came after a lot
OF hammering at the hatchways. and the Are
men at last came and rescued us. Several OF
them went mad and jumped overheard after
helng rescued. Brockhon and Weller could not
be found Many OF the men were drowned.