The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-07-31
OIL VESSEL BURNS In BAY.
NAPHTHA FUMES FIRED BY
FLAME IN GALLEY STOVE.
Captain and Mate Blows Overheard, and
the Cook So Badly Injured That He
May Die-Latter Was Frying sausaSes
and Built Fire Against Snip Rules.

May Dae-Latter Was Frying Sausages
and Built Fire Against Snip Rules.
An irresistible desire for fried bologna
sausage on the part Of the crew of the
Italian bark Angela Maria led yesterday
to the total destruction of that vessel by
fire. The cook who fried the sausages will
probably pay with his life for breaking
the rule against smoking and cooking on
board vessels loading oil.
The Angela Maria was tied up alongside
the Columbia Oil Company's pier No.
at Constable Hook and had $500 barrels
of crude petroleum and naphtha on board by
3 o'clock yesterday afternoon. About 500
additional barrels were to be slowed
away in the hold and she was to leave on
Monday next for Cette, France, with her
cargo. Some of the crew Of eleven were
aloft at o'clock, but Capt. Joseffi Siccardi.
First Mate Nicolo Be $50 and three or four
sailors were watching the cook, Gabrielle
Fortunate, frying sausages.
Presumably the fire communicated with
the fumes Of the naphtha, and two explo-
Mons occurred, following each other so
quickly that at distance they sounded
like one. The captain and the mate landed
away out in the water. The cook fell land
ward, coming down in heap on the dock.
His face was nearly burned away, and most
Of his clothing WIS torn from his body.
Tho crew scampered ashore as they best
could. Those aloft slid down the ropes
so quickly that one cut his feet, and the
cabin boy, Leon Votganni, fell and broke
an arm. In few minutes flames were
breaking out from the hold.
The EXPLOSIONS served as a fire alarm
and aroused both the employees OF the
docks and the crews Of every Standard Oil
tug in the neighborhood. James Donohue,
who is an old life saver, and two other
employees got into small boat and fished
out the captain and the first mate. Neither
was any the worse of for his plunge. The
cook was carried into the pumphouse and
received such attention as was possible
until an ambulance arrived and took him
TO the Bayonne Hospital. Thither went the
cabin boy. too.
Standard Oil tugs 4. I and IL were near
the scene of the explosion when it occurred.
Each of them had n tow OF oil barges at the
time. They dropped the barges at once
and made for the burning ship. No
got there first and pulled the bark away
from the pier before that was set on fire.
The tugs towed the bark to the fats,
half way between Constable Hook and the
Robbins Reef light, where they grounded
her, They were soon joined by seven or
eight more tugs, and the hreboat New
Yorker and the police boat Patrol
Ho ur after hour they worked, but with
out any hope of saving the vessel itself.
The oil put that out of the question. Their
efforts were concentrated on preventing the
fire from spreading to the rigging, and for
Al.
form an arohed cover between the fame
filed hull and the lowest spars. The masts,
as we'll az the hull, were OF iron. At a late
hour last night they were still standing
with all their spars intact.
The spectacle of the burning ship was
watched bv the thousands who CROSS tho
hey from Manhattan to Staten Island dur
ing the evening home rush. There was
less smoke than is usual at such fires be-
cause little water was sent into the hull.
The flames danced and leaped as If alive,
rising now half way up the masts and then
falling back to the deck.
As long as daylight lasted 1t was interest
Ing to study the different colors shown
by the smoke as it rose from the hulrs
glowing furnace. At the base Of the slender
column that assembled high into the air
it was Of almost snowy Wilderness. Then
it grew yellow, darkening gradually Into
dirty brown. and when the wind caught
the color was deep black,
The captain and the crew lost everything
but what they had on when the explosion
occurred Capt Siccardi, Mate Besso and
Ave sailors went last evening by way Of
Staten Island to sailors lodging house in
Brooklyn. The seven didn't have pair
of shoes between them.
Supt Frank McGoey OF the Columbia
Oil Works said last evening that 1t was very
fortunate that the explosion occurred
on an -off day One day is needed to put
the naphtha into the barrels, so that the
loading can go on every second day only.
Had they been loading, Supt. McGoey said,
every stevedore on board at the time would
have been killed. He was standing on the
pier only twenty-five feet away Almost
the entire deck went up in the air with the
first explosion, he said, but no fame was
visible.
The Angela Maria was built at Dun.
dee in 1868 She measured 865 tons end
belonged to A. Lagorio, OF Genoa, Italy.
On July IL she came here from Baltimore
and went direct to the Columbia Oil Com