New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-05-20
Engine Room Blaze Gets
Better of Grew of ll3
and City Force; Craft
Is Towed Out Into Bay
Shipping Board aid
5 Million for Vessel
Flames Above Water Line
Extinguished but Are
Still Raging i'm Hold

steamer Panhandle State, a new oil.
burning vessel operated in the United
States mail service, caught fire last
night at 8 o'clock at Pier 7, North
River. The blaze started in the engine
room and spread rapidly upward.
AT 10 o'clock, when the firemen real
lied that one Of the ships oil supply
tanks had sprung a leak and that it
would be impossible to extinguish the
blaze with the ship at the pier, the
vessel was towed out into the bay to
be beached on the fats back of Ellis
Island. There the sea cocks were
opened and the ship flooded. thus saw
Ing 1t from destruction.
Fifteen firemen and several members
of the crew Of 113, which Is composed
mostly OF strikebreakers, were aboard
when the Panhandle State left the pier.
AS 1t was hauled down the river the
firemen fought the flames that billowed
steadily upward.
Ffreboats on Scene
Two fireboats, the New Yorker and
the Thomas S. Willet, steamed along
side, and the police boat John F. Hylan
followed. Marine Inspector James w.
Hallock left the pier in launch soon
after the departure of the vessel, and
at 1880 o'clock sent word by wireless
to Police Headquarters that the FIRE
was still burning. All the fire above
the water line had been extinguished
when the ship left the pier.
Officials of the Fire Department said
last night that if the vessel had been
left at the pier it would have been a
menace to navigation and that the
blaze could not have been extinguished
for days. The vessel, it was said, was
not properly equipped for the extin-
gushing of an oil-fed fire.
The blaze was discovered shortly
after o'clock by member of the
crew. He notified the captain and the the
captain in turn called to A watchman
on the pier. Deputy Fire Chief Henry
Helm and Engine Companies and 20
and Truck Is arrived in short time.
The flames had made rapid headway
and when the firemen arrived had
spread to the cabin.
Upper Works Blaze Quenched
After nearly two hours work the
fire above the water line had been ex-
tinguished, but the engine room was
realized that one of the oil supply
tanks had sprung leak and that the
oil was oozing from seam in the tank,
feeding the fire faster than the fremen
could fight it.
1t was then decided that the flooding
Of the vessel was the only means Of
checking the engine-room blaze and
tugs were summoned.
AS the vessel moved down the river
great clouds of smoke poured upward
from amidships, and every few minutes
ribbons of flame burst through the
superstructure up alongside the big
single smokestack. Crowds at the tip
of Manhattan looked on as the smoke
belching craft, its smoke clouds tinged
with yellow, glided from the river into
the bay and headed toward Ellis
Island.
Thick smoke filled West Street dur
ing the time the blaze was in progress
at the pier and as the boat was being
towed toward the bay by tugs.
The Panhandle State had been en-
gagged in passenger and freight trade
between New York and Boulogne,
France, and London. She arrived here
last Monday morning with her cabins
full and berthed at her regular pier at
the foot of West Thirty-fourth Street
She was brought down to Pier Tues
day afternoon by her commander, Cap
tain Harold L. Cunningham, and was
scheduled to leave on her return voy-
age next Tuesday with every cabin
taken.
The Panhandle State, sister ship
Of the Old North State, was built at
the yards of the New York Shipbuilding
Company, at Camden, N. J. She cost
the government $5,000,000.
Her passenger accommodations were
of the highest class, with large state
rooms fitted with twin beds, mahogany
dressers and equally sumptuous COM
fort. She has but small passenger
accommodations for q ship of 10000
tons.
In case the ship is destroyed by the
fire the loss will fall entirely on the
United States Shipping Board. Deputy
Chief Helm estimated the apparent
damage to the ship when she was be-
ing towed away from Pier at $4,000.