Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1902-03-21
GREAT DOCK FIRE
WATER FRONT HAS A
DESTRUCTIVE BLAZE.
Property Loss Estimated at About Million
One Big Steamship and Number Of
Lighters Destroyed - Docks Contained
Baled Hay and Cotton-Severai Lives
Believed to Have Been Lost.

New York, March pa swift and
picturesque fire last night destroyed the
pier of the Phoenix Steamship Line on
the Hoboken, N. j., river front, with
many bales of cotton and hay; burned
that company's vessel, the British
| Queen, to a hull; consumed several
lighters and their cargoes; damaged a
dock belonging to the Barbe Steamship
Line and for tine threatened the
property of the Holland-American Line
and the Hugh Campbell stores.
The loss, according to conservative
estimates, will approximate 81 ,000, 900.
Whether any lives were lost is diff
cult to say. While the confagration
was at its height, and after it had been
reduced by the fremen and fireboats,
rumors were rife that several men per-
ished. 1t was tolerably certain at mid
night that Chief Engineer Scott, of the
British Queen, was burned to death on
her and that sailor met the same fate.
One of the men who escaped says
that he saw several men jump into the
water when the steamer became envel-
oped in fire and he saw few, if any, of
them rescued. The quartermaster Of
the burned ship said that the crew of
the vessel were in the forecastle and if
they escaped it was with difficulty.
Nevertheless, some of the British
Queens officers say that they are quite
positive that all were safe, save En-
gineer Scott, who, they simply said,
was missing. 1t is not unlikely that
some of the longshoremen and steve
dores who swarmed about the vessel
may still have to be accounted for.
The scene of the fire was Seventh and
River streets, Hoboken. Together
there are docks and basins of the
Phoenix Line, the Holland-American
Line and the Barber Line. The Phoe-
nix Line pier was wooden structure
800 feet long, covered with a frame
shed In this were many bales of hay
and cotton, which burned with the ut
most rapidity.
How the fire started is not known.
With but the barest warning the flames
burst out, quickly licking up the pier
and the cotton upon it and driving the
stevedores and crews to the street, for
the vessel was being unloaded, having
arrived here Friday from Antwerp.
The fire fared up from the steamer
with as great suddelfness as from the
pier and, since the vessel was made
fast to the pier and could not be backed
out, lighters and other water craft which
lay alongside her, some of them hold
ing such infamable stuff as oil cake,
quickly caught fire too.
The stiff wind which had blown all
day gave impetus to the fire, whose
glare redeemed the North river for a
long distance.
From the Phoenix Line pier the
flames spread to the pier of the Barber
Line and then to the steamer Heath
burn, newly arrived from Hong Kong,
with a cargo of tea. Among the crew
of the steamer Heathburn were 80
Cinnamon. When the flames began to
run over the vessel they all scrambled
to the pier for safety and began to make
their way to the streets of Hoboken.
There was large force of customs off
GERS on hand guarding property. AS
soon as these officials saw the fright
ened Cinnamon they became alarmed
that the aliens would make an illegal
entry into the country, so with drawn
pistols they ordered the Chinese to
| halt. The command was needed and
then, surrounded by guards, the for
eigners were marched to pier some
distance away. and there locked up,
under surveillance, for the night.
The Holland-American docks are be-
low those of the Barber Line. They
caught fire but were only slightly dam
aged. The company's big steamer,
Maasdam, was towed out in the river as
soon as the danger became apparent.