The Jersey City news., 1902-03-19

pier. while the zophar Mills got line
about the blazing craft and pulled II ous
into the water. The line was soon burned
and the blazing barge drifted against the
Hoboken ferryboat at the foot OF barclay
street
Here another blaze was extingulsne1
and when the boat was gotten on again
the flre-fighting had TO be resumed at
Pier No. 4, where other blazing oarges
had drifted against the storage-nouse Oh
the Pennsylvania road The burning
barges were again hauled out into mid
stream and kept off shore unt4 they
rounded the Battery.
They dGifted across to Governor $ Is
land. where they landed against the ne"
Government wharf and set 1t ao-aze,
furnishing an hours hard fire-hghtlng
for the garrison at Castle William lhe
British Queen was pushed down to the
Communipaw Flats, where she ran
aground and burned TO the waters edge
Others of the burning barges drifted to
Liberty Island.
Captain Harry Benson, Of the lighter
Mystic, moored to the British Queen,
lost his change of escape by going TO
his cabin to get his papers. He had TO
lump into the water, where he swan for
nearly half an hour before he was res
cued by New oYrk Central tugboat.
The Heathburn, just in port from
Hong Kong, was manned by Chinese
crew, and they were quick to realize
their opportunity to get ashore and
give up the sea for the laundry business.
They hastily packed their belongings
and made a dash for the shore, but at
the end of the pier they encountered
two Treasury agents with drawn re-
voIvers, who had anticipated their little
scheme. They were lined up and
marched to Salvation Army headquar-
ters in Hoboken, where they will be
housed and fed untilN the Heathburn's
next sailing day.
The steamship British Queen, belonging
to the British Shipowners' Company,
Limited, commended by Captain Patter-
son, was built in Newcastle in 1899. She
is a steel singEe-screw steamship of 1888
tons gross, 4,O5S tons under deck and 2,so7
tons net. She is 400 feet long, Az feet
beam and 27.9 feet deep.
The sister steamers of the British
Queen plying in the service of the
Phoenix Line between New York, London
and Antwerp are British Empire, new;
British King, British Prince, British
Princess, British Trader, st. Cuthbeft,
ST. Hugo and ST. Leonards.
On January IS, 1897, the British Queen
outward bound sank the Atlas liner Al
vena off Sandy Hook NO lives were lost,
but the Alvena became total wreck and
had to be Blown up with dynamite.
T1,-;4f 4fs41, Ot,nr
has been confined in ST. Mary's Hospital,
IToboken, for the past two weeks suffer-
ing from general illness. His steamer was
to have sailed for Antwerp tomorrow in
command of First Officer HoEing shead
Included in her cargo were 200 horses
consigned to the British Army in South
Africa. The cattle and horses were to
have been placed abroad today. They
had not arrived on the pier when the fire
broke out.
Among the craft which had been lied
up near the British Queen was a barge
loaded with eottonseed oil cakes and an
other barge, on which were eighteen bar
rels of alcohol. Neither iremen nor long
shoremen nor tugboat men were willing
to go near the alcohol boat, and the oil
cake boat was almost as menacing. At
abobut 10 o'clock the lines holding the two
boats to the side of the British Queen
parted and both of them drifted slowly,
but certainly, over toward the berth from
which the Heathburn was just being pull
ed out. They missed the Heathburn by
the narrowest margin, and, in fact, scorch-
ed her stern and then lodged against the
side of the Barber Line pier.
In a moment a space of two or three
hundred feet on the outside of the pier
was ablaze Inside were hundreds of bar
rels of kerosene. With heroic coolness
two companies of Hobolxen firemen assist
ed by twenty or thirty policemen and a
number of employees of the Barber Line
began rolling these barrels ashore.
The fire never reached one of them; If il
| had the story of subsequent events would
| undoubtedly have been very different
| The only damage done to the Barber Line
pier was the burning of a hole about as
big as barn door where the alcohol and
cotton-seed burned for few minutes I'M
til they were taken away. On the other
side of the Barber Line pier was the big
| steamship Norge. In the first effort 10
get the Norge out she had been jammed
in between the Barber pier and the Hoi-
| land-America pier, so that she effectualiy
closed the basin between them and none
of the barges thus imprisoned could pos
sibly be moved.
The chorus of sulphurous language that
went up from the captains of the barges
and lighters thus imprisoned might easily
have started another eonfagration. There
were moments when the thunder and
shrek of euss words drowned the roar Of
the fire above, but the Norge went out
safely despite a bunch of blazing cotton
bales which bobbed about under her zargo
until she was well out into the stream.
After her departure the small craft
were in no danger. Nevertheless. the Hoi-
| fundamental company took the precau-
tion of putting all its boats and movable
safes upon trucks, to be carried up into
the town out of the dangerous district.
| Iangour and weakness due to the depletet