The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1900-07-11
BURNED ALIVE.
FIRE At HOBOKEN
NEW JERSEY.
More Than Three Hundred PERISH
Three Magnificent Atlantic Liners
cstroyed-Appalling Scenes.

NEW YORK, July IAN appalling
disaster occurred at Hoboken, opposite
this city, yesterday resulting In the
death of probable 300 or more people,
and the destruction OF nearly $4,000, 600
worth OF property. This havoc was
wrought by a fire which originated in
a quantity OF cotton on one Of the piers
belonging to the North German Lloyd
Steamship Company, and spread with
such rapidity that scores OF sightseeers
and others were cut off from escape
and destroyed. Many people lost their
lives i'm the flames, but others were de-
voured after jumping into the water,
fully 1000 people being in the water
at one time, struggling to escape from
the fire. The property destroyed con-
sisted of the immense wharves of the
North German Lloyd Steamship Com
pany part of the dock of the Hamburg
American Steamship Company, and the
Thingvalla Steamship Company, vast
storage warehouse i'm Hoboken, twelve
canal boats and six barges; the ocean
liners, the Saale, the Bremen, and the
Main, the property of the North Ger
man Lloyd Company. The Kaiser VIII
! helm der Crosse, the fastest and one
of the largest passenger ships In the
world, was damaged and had narrow
escape from total destruction.
Thanking the heart of the fire were
the Bremen and Saale, both were soon
enveloped by the flames, and the scene
which followed was the most heart
rending in the history of New York
conhagrations A panic seized the
crowds of people on both ships. Many
persons jumped overheard, and the
water for some distance along the docks
was lined with people, clinging to the
piers, and even to the rudders of the
| burning vessels.
| A swarm of tugs pulled the Saale out
| into the river. No one had thought there
! was a soul aboard. Suddenly human
arm was pushed out of a portfolio, and
then another and another, till the long
! line of holes, each of that unyielding
! twelve-inch that never let human
form get through, held head.
Down the swift tide hoated the Saale,
ablaze from stem to stern. The horrors
of the destruction of the Saale can new
err be told by pen or pencil That row
of heads. That long elliptical curve Of
despairing men and women, each at a
portfolio, will live till the death day
| in the memory of every man who saw
the sight. Theirs was no agony of the
moment. For them it was to die after
hours. Above them and below them
battled hundreds. Hose ladders, fire.
hooks-everything was called upon.
But it was no use. Inch by inch the
I great ship settled in the mud of the Jer-
sey flats Inch by inch the water rose.
| First went the heads lowest on the long
/ line, then the others-one woman's
One by one the puny voices, the ours
es of men, the prayers of the priest who
had come in his clerical frock-one by
one they were silenced.
Suddenly the Saale, which, with its
consorts, had been blazing fiercely was
! seen to careen, tremble for moment
and then plunge bow forward beneath
the waters of North river. AS the YES
sci sank there was a great rending
crash and a report as of heavy ord
nance, coupled with towering burst
! of flame.
The story was the same with the Bre-
men. She had been unloading cargo,
and there was a large force of steve
dores at work on her The flames
spread with such incalculable rapidity
that all the men were penned in. mad
fight for the upper deck and safety en-
sued Some few managed to make their
way above and then either leaped to
the placing pier or plunged into the
river. Others endeavored to crawl from
the ships portfolios. but were caught
by the flames and choked as they were
held helpless.
AS she blazed out in midstream, six
men could be seen with their heads out
of portfolios waving handkerchiefs for
assistance. Tugboats and small boats
darted around the big steamships, max
ing every effort to save the men, but
the terrible heat from the flames kept
them away
With seventeen living men aboard
penned on one side of the hold, fire aft
and forward, and fire above them and
on either side, the vessel was beachec
off Weehawken at night Fifty tugs
hung around her, striving to put out the
fire and cool her off with hundreds OF
tons of water. Seventeen living mer
talked with the tugboat men through
the ports. They said the men on the
other side of the hold must be dead.
The most remarkable incident of the
disaster was the rescue at night of six
teen men alive from the burning Main
This ships steel skeleton was white
hot and was about to fall to pieces, anC
that anything alive could exist on Il
is nothing short of miraculous. Th'
sixteen men We're rescued from the
Main at midnight by the crew of thu
tug Stephens. They were found in thu
bunkers of the ship by the tugs crew
who broke in the bunker ports after sht
had been towed away from the wharf