Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1918-08-26
FIRE
THREATENED SUB
CHASERS' HULLS
Suspicious Blaze Did Thousands
Worth OF Damage On Satur-
day Night At Eastport
THE CHANCE MARINE
COMPANY A VICTIM
However, Work On government
Craft Will Not Be Interrupted
BY The Conhagration

Fire of as yet unexplained origin,
but which was attended by number
of suspicious circumstances, seriously
threatened the hulls of four govern
ment vessels under construction at the
Chance Marine Construction Com
pany's ship yards at Eastport on Sat
urday night. The flames, starting in
the plant of The Home Laundry Com
pany, and then attacking the plant of
the Marine railway, did in the neigh
borhood of forty-fiye thousand dollars
damage and was only prevented from
spreading further through the work
of the Annapolis fire department, as
sisted by sailors from the Naval Acad-
emy, who were rushed across the har-
Dor in small launches.
Fortunately the four vessels, two
sub-chasers and two harbor tugs, under
construction for the government, to
gether with the wooden forms upon
which their construction is based, were
saved A further fortunate circum-
stance was the fact that all of the
Chance Company's loss is fully covered
by insurance. Through the quick work
of early arrivals at the scene of the
blaze, all of the Office records, and
plans and specifications for the con-
struction of the government craft were
saved. After the fire had been gotten
under control, Mr.. Chance announced
that he would be able to resume work
on the contract this morning and this
prediction was made goood. Inciden-
tally Mr.. Chance left Annapolis today
for New York, where he hopes to land
another and considerably larger YES
sel-building contract The work now
under construction at the ship yard.
totals about S45G 900.
The blaze started about 9 o'clock and
completely levelled the buildings of
the laundry company and the ship
yard.
An investigation of the blaze, the
origin of which is as yet undetermined,
undoubtedly will be made because of
many circumstances indicating that
the fire may have been the work of
enemy agents. The fire broke out in
the plant of the Independent Laundry
and few moments later the Office
building of the shipyard, a consider
able distance from the laundry build
ings, was ablaze.
Members of the Severn Boat Club,
who first saw the flames, assert that
the fire broke out simultaneously in
several places on the laundry's prop
erty and what appeared to be torch
/ hn 11-xy
to the shipyard. Several motor boats
were close to the yard when the fire
started and one of them put out swift
ly toward the bay as the flames tore
through the buildings.
Eastport has no fire-fghting faciii-
ties and the blaze had gained consid-
/ erable headway before the Annapolis
apparatus could be gotten across the
/ bridge.
/ Famed by a light breeze, the flames
/ spread to a large two-and-a-half-story
frame building. formerly private res
/ idence but now occupied by the Chance
1 Company for Office and storage pur-
+ poses. In this building were stored a
I large quantity of paints, oils and other
valuable materials. The two submar-
inc chasers on the ways about 10 yards
away were saved by heroic work.
The fire was a spectacular one, as
/ the destroyed building was at the
\ waters edge on Spa creek, and hun
dreds of persons viewed it from the
/ bridge and the shore line. The great
I er part of the loss is made up of ma
chinery of the latest type, installed in
4 the laundry only about a year ago.
A large quantity of unfinished laun-
dry, including many white uniforms
of reserve and naval officers under in
I struction here, were burned.