The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1906-10-30
Heroes
On Thomas
Fought Fire
MEN WE'RE EAGER TO GO INTO
HOLD WHERE HAY CARGO WAS
BLAZING TO TRY AND SAVE SHIP

81 can not speak too highly of my
officers and men is the brief but COM
prehonsivc way that Captain Lyman
of the transport Thomas refers to the
way that his crew behaved during the
fire aboard his vessel i'm Manila harbor
on October and 4. In fact the situa-
tiou aboard the vessel during that fire
was very grave and but for the heroic
self sacrifice of Captain Lyman and his
men the transport would have had to
be sunk and heavy cost to the gov
eminent resulted. 1t was through the
good judgment of Captain Lyman that
such "a course was not pursued however
and the fire was eventually extingushed
Colonel Patton the head of the quar-
termastcr's service at Manila. was Just
as high i'm his words of praise for Cap
tain Lyman as the latter had been of
his suborluates.
The fire aboard the transport occurred
on October Be- The native stcvedores
left the vessc, at $3.50 p. m. and an hour
later Captain Lyman was informed that
there was fire in hatch No. 2. About
a thousand bales Of hay We're stored
in this compartment and aft of that
compartment, in No. 8, was stored II
quantity of coal, Great quantities Of
smoke, and steam and gasses poured
out Of hatch No. . but despite the ter
rible conditions the members of the
crew argued with each other as to who
should be the ones to descend over 80
feet into the bottom of the vessel in
order to fight the fire, The men We're
let down with ropes so intense was the
heat and the smoke and steam that
they could not remain much longer than
q minute when they would have to be
hauled out to the deck. Streams of
water We're played constantly into the
hold and the steam jets were turned on
in the compartment but shortly after IL
p. m. Captain Lyman decided that that
work was to risky for the lives of the
men, so he stopped the crowd going
into the hold.
Water was poured into the hatch
however. Between and a. m. Of
October T. he had the steam jets stopped
for the purpose of ascertaining whether
any progress was being made with the
fire but volume of steam and smoke
and heat that poured out of the cover
ings of the hatch showed that the fire
was still raging. The assistance of the
Manila fire department and of water
boats was then secured. Later i'm the
day conditions looked SO serious that at
conference of the army people it was
urged that the vessel ought to be sunk
in order to save her. Captain Lyman
recommended that this course be fol-
lowed only as the last resource so the
matter was left to his discretion
The Thomas had a list to port of IS
degrees, so the starboard double bot
toms We're filled with water causing the
vessel to list 16 degrees to starboard. In
the meanwhile the fire had been dis
covered in the coal in compartment No.
and efforts had been made toward
eXtinguishing the fire in that part of
the vessel. The list of the vessel was
the cause of the fire being eXtinguished
about 4 p. m. of October 4.
An inquiry into the cause of the fire
resulted i'm the board deciding that the
fire had apparently started by spOn-
taneOus combustion i'm the coal and as
the hay in the other compartment had
been piled against the bulkhead the
heat from the original coal fire had
set fire to the infammable hay. No
blame whatever was attached to Cap
tain Lyman or any one for the fire
Colonel Patton expressed himself in the
highest possible terms over the gallant
, manner in which the officers and crew
of the vessel had fought to save the
ship. The transport was practically
not damaged by the fire.