Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1900-07-09
AWFUL CALAMITY TO LIFE AND
SHIPPING.
THE DEAD NUMBER $50
Loss of Life During Hoboken Fire
Appalling Body Believed to be
That of Capt. Mirow Found on the
Deck of the Vessel-Property Loss
Put at $4,000 600.

Steamship Main ...........$1, 10000
Bremen .............. 100000
Saale 100000
Kaiser Wilhelm der Crosse =. $4,000
North German Lloyd docks
and contents ............. $4,000
Thingvalla pier ............ $4,000
Palmer Campbell warehouses. 100000
New York, July with a loss of
no fewer than $50 lives, mostly work
men and sailors, and the destruction of
property valued at nearly $10,000,000,
the entire pier system Of the North
German Lloyd Steamship company at
Hoboken was burned Saturday. The
magnificent ocean liners Main, Saale
and Bremen were destroyed by the
flames and the peerless Kaiser Will
helm der Crosse was scorched and
only was snatched from the blazing
piers and shifted into midstream by
the liveliest kind Of work.
Capt. j. Mirow of the Saale is be-
1ieved to have been burned to death
in his ship. The Saale was a mass Of
flames from stem to stern when she
was towed out into the river where
the freboats from New York and a
score of tugs poured water into her
and tried in vain to rescue the hapless
sailors and longshoremen who could
be seen at the water-line port holes
begging piteously for the aid that it
was impossible to give. The port holes
are too small to admit Of the passage
Of an ordinary-sized mans body.
The Bremen drifted across the river
when her hawsers were cut and was
within $50 feet Of the American line
pier, blazing fore and aft, before tugs
got line on her and toWed her down
| to the flats off Liberty island.
The Main, new boat, could not be
moved from her position in the slip
alongside of pier 8, SO rapid was the
spread of the flames, and she was the
center Of a great mass Of fire which
! burned around her and cut off the es-
cape of those below decks who had not
| jumped at the first alarm. The dead
are burned to ashes or drowned and
] floating in the river or bay.
At the hospitals in Hoboken are
nearly three score Of injured. Those
who were burned to death on the piers
or the steamships had no possible
/ chance of escape They were caught
like rats in a trap. The fire started
from bale of cotton on pier 8, neal
the foot of I'd street. The first flames
was seen about $3.50 p. m. In an in
slant almost the entire pier, covered
with cotton bales, was a sheet Of
flame. From pier to pier and from
! ship to ship the flames ran so rapidly
that in six minutes, so observers sale
! that night, the entire pier system, al
most a quarter-mile Of water front or
the North river, was roaring mass O
fire. Those who had the opportunity
to jump into the river did so. The full
list will never be known.
/ The Main, the Saale and the Bremen
were loading from lighters and taking
on coal from barges that lay alongside
in the slips between the piers. Al
their portfolios and matches were open
Men were in the rigging making re
pairs and overhauling. The crew
many of them, were below decks. Eacl
of these ships has six matches AM
/ from twelve to fourteen longshoreme1
were in each hatch unloading cargo
Other men were at work passing Goa
from the barges into the bunkers
/ Helpers were in the engine rooms AM
sailors everywhere. Lighters, barges
piers, freight, ships and all burned to
gether, and, as it seemed, sim
ultaneously.
The Hoboken fire department of les
than dozen companies was utterl.
powerless to cope with the fire. Tn
Hamburg-American line piers had
narrow escape. They adjoin those O
the North German Lloyd on the south
The steamship Phoenicia was docke
here and, as matter Of precaution
she was pulled out of harms way int
midstream. Two or three barge
which were lying close alongside he
caught fire and burned, but they wer
towed out into the stream and atten
ton was paid only to saving thos
nearest the burning North Germa!
Lloyd piers. When it was seen tina
, their nearest pier to the fire was il
grave danger 200 men and mass Q
dynamite were called into service. Tn
pier was blown up in dozen place
and the men jumped in with Dickaxe
and completed the work Of destruction
In this way the Hamburg-America
company saved the bulk of it's propert
from destruction at the expense of
single pier, valued at $4,000. \
The burning of the Saale, which wa
, to convey the 500 Christian En-
deavor delegates to London, ha
changed the plans of many individual
some having decided to give up tn
trip.