Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1917-02-05
'GUNBOAT GEIER
TAKEN TOPEARL
HARBOR BY NAVY
Vessel Shoulders at Dock All
Day Sunday; Officers and
Crew Taken to Camp?

Catching from the superheated boil
| ers which were being burned out and
1 ruined by order Of her officers, the
| fire on the in erned German gunbUat
Geier Sunday was something which
the vessels crmmanIer and crew had
not anticipated when they started &c
destroy the luuV JCilera.
This important TACT developed to-
| day Il shows lhe r,eicr episode "a
have been Il Hrit IN the concerted
action taken Ly tn" commanders u!
! the German merchlut ard naval YES
sells in port, to disable thelh complete
rly in case they should fall into the
hands OF the United States
Boilers Filled %ith Fuel
Sunday morning the Geier's four
boilers were crammed full of fuel and
lighted. The fire grew hotter and hot
ter so that in time half the boilers
were so superheated that the heat ra'
diation began scOrching the asbestos
paint coating covering them. The
scorching asbestos sent out the smoke
fumes which resulted in the calling of
the fire department by Capt William
r. Foster. The intense boiler heat
then ignited the wooden covering OF
the steel deck.
Thurston Goes Aboard
Fire Chief Charles H. Thurston and
his assistant, w. w. Blaisdell, board
ed the Geier early Sunday afternoon
with a crew from the Central station
and eXtinguished smouldering flames
on deck with chemicals. No water
was used.
Although the ship was fired in no
other place than the engine room
where the boilers were burned out
and absolutely ruined the intense heat
generated by the redhot metal spread
to the steel deck over the engine-room
which in turn set fire to three-inch
wooden deck which covered the steel.
The firemen stayed on the ship I'M
til o'clock in the evening applying
chemicals, tearing up the plankfng
and throwing it overheard or piling it
along the sides.
Blaisdell says the engine-room
looked as if cyclone had struck it.
Not content with the damage done to
the boilers the wreckers had attacked
the engines with sledge-hammers, do
ing irreparable damage and leaving
what had shortly before been hand
some array of shining machinery a
shattered mass of debris.
The German gunboat Geier, which
was totally ruined so far as immediate
service is concerned when her boilers
were burned out Sunday morning, was
transferred this morning from her
berth near Pier z to the government
navy yards at Pearl Harbor by the
u. s. tug Navajo. There she will be
kept indefinitely 80 ''S'"'st' ,. 'ei'' s'.5
In a succession of exciting events,
from the time smoke was first seen
issuing from the Geier's stack early
Sunday morning until she was towed
from her mornings today those who
gathered along the waterfront by hun
dreds on Allen street from Fort to
Alakea Witnessed some stirring
events.
Smoke Noticed Early -: i.
Capt. James Gregory Of the IL.
steamship Kinau is the first known to
have seen smoke issuing from the
Geier's deck about 8 o'clock in the
morning but thought nothing of it at
the time. Later, shortly after Z o'clock,
two government officials saw the
smoke and noticed a smell as If Of
burning metal and they notified the
navy department. ~.
1t was nearly 10 o'clock when from
the harbormaster's office a call was
sent to the fire department; the police
simultaneously rushed to the scene in
answer to the fire whistle and in a
very few minutes the vicinity of the
Geier was a jumbled mass of rushing
humanity. -.-..... IL
Crowd is Forced Back
The police held the crowd back as
much as possible and the fire depart
ment stood by to go aboard the Geier
at the proper order. The u. s. tug
Navajo hurried back to the Geier and
offered to tow her>out into the harbor
but was refused tow line from the
Geier's crew. T. j
Navy, army and customs officials,
after a joint conference, ordered
troops to the scene and the crowds
were given additional thrills when the
khaki boys came on the double quick
from all sides; received orders to
load and hurried to commanding posi-
lions with guns laveled. Orders were