New-York tribune., 1906-07-01
AN ICE SHIP ON FIRE
Cree Landed on Island and Then
Feared Volcanic Outbreak.

Captain Horace Atwood. Of Hampden Ne. one
Of the oldtime deep water shlpmasteTs, who re-
tired from the sea when the American merchant
marine had almost entirely disappeared from
the foreign trade. has lately been engaged in
tracing out on chart the courses pursued by
him In various ships many voyages to the
Far East. around the Cape Of Good Hope and
Cape Horn When he has finished making curv-
ing and ziz-zag marks on the chart 1t will look
like a sketch Of tangled fish lines. for he has
made hfteen voyages to the Orient seven around
Cape Horn TO the west coast Of North and South
America, and good many more to Europe, the
West Indies. the west coast Of Africa and the
east coast Of South America.
1T will be pretty well scratched up says the
captain. Maybe you couldn't follow all those
lines, but ! can. remember all the voyages
and all that happened on each OF them"
Captain Atwood is now seventy EIGHT years
oId' but ne IS big, plump. we'll built man. with
eyes as bright. skin as smooth and form as erect
as many man twenty years his junior He re-
tired from the sea in 1872. after a most exciting
experience in the Indian Ocean on the burning
ship Montana. The story of that voyage as he
tells it. is worth repeating
The Montana was one Of the Tudor ice ships
that is, she was one Of the feet engaged in car
rying ice from Boston to India for the once
famous house Of Tudor & Co. The Tudors cut
ana stored great quantities of ice at ponds near
Boston, ana shipped most Of 1t in their own YES
sels TO Bombay Rangoon. Calcutta and other
Indian ports. They had at one time a nuEner-
Gus and splendid feet including three vessels
that were built especially for the ice trade-the
ships Ice King Iceberg and Iceland. Not one Of
tnese Ice carriers is now afOat. and the fate OF
the Montana. a handsome 1400-tOn Newbury-
port built half clipper, similar to that which
betell several of the Others-burned at sea-
Although Captain Atwood had made many
SuccessIul voyages IN the ice trade. he always
mad dread that of the floating refrieera-
to:S would turn into volcano under him in
tiiOOCedns ana IN the case Of the Montana his
fears We're realized The Montana sailed from
Boston early In 1872 with a crew Of twentv-sfx
all told and a full cargo Of ice She made a good
around Of
and into the Indian Ocean, and then one day, a
man who had been sent to get a tub from the
Iorepeak 10 catch some fresh water discovered
the ship to be on fire He had barely lifted the
hatcn when cloud of smoke and steam hurst
up up INTO ms race and, dropping the hatch, he
ran art shouting the terrifying news that the
montana was burning under them
captain Atwood well knew that there was
nttie nope OF saving the ship, for an ice shin
like an icehOuse, will burn like FURY The fire
Whlcn was caused by spontaneous combustion
was far down among the saw(iust 'iUnnaee'' OF
the cargo, forward, and there was no getting at
IL directly. The only thing to do was to try
70 hood IT out. The fOrepeak hatch was taken
pump was let down. The men pumped water
into the hold all that day and night but next
morning the fire was burning hotter than ever
captain ATWOOD saw that the end Of the Mon
tana, and perhaps OF all her people, was near
at hand, and he looked carefully at his chart
The nearest land was St Paul's Island and
that was thousand miles away Had the ship
not been out of the usual cOurse-havine made
Gar TO the eastward to take advantage of a
Wlnd then blowing from the southwest in that
region-she would have been still further from
any land. and Captain Atwood cOngra tlYlated
himself upon that streak of luck in the midst OF
disaster There was ST. PauIs Island, and it
must be reached if the crew of the Montana
were to be saved for in the boats there would
not be one chance in a hundred for them So
all sail was cracked on and the Montana showed
the best that was in her. while the sailors PRAYED
for luck and the fire ragged in the hold.
Fire in pile of twelve hundred tons Of ice.
IT seemed strange, but it was the hottest kind
OF a nre Tor TO the sawdust were added certain
gases which are always generated in icehouses
and ice ships.
AS the days passed, the decks grew hotter and
hotter, so that the men, usually barefOoted in