The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-03-19
PASSENGERS TELL NARROWING TALE
 OF FIRE AT SEA
CA Panic Stricken Men and Women Locked in State- rooms and StokerS Held
 at Posts by Guns
By Associated Press

New York, March 1S.-A thrilling |ale of fire at sea with 104 panic |tricken men and women locked in heir staterooms and stokers held at heir posts under the threat of
 rawn pistols, was related by pas |engers of the United States liner Potomac when she arrived here today |rom Bremen.
 It was a tale of Yankee pluck and a shippers refusal to live up his ship until every hope had Eeen abandoned, and of his accept nee of the thousand to one chance
 Fhick turned a threatening eatastro- he into a merely narrowing expe- hence for those aboard.
 The fire was discovered at mid light March 2, few hours after the Potomac, with Capt. William McLeon b charge. sailed from Bremen up the |oast of Holland into the North sea. he had been steaming along on a |mooth sea when suddenly, with |owls of warning, the Spanish and Filipino stokers bounded from the |old and started for the lifeboats. Officers, with drawn revolvers, or tered them back to the fireroom, khich had become an inferno of |moke, with flames following from In adjoining compartment where mattresses, life preservers and ships |torcs had mysteriously taken fire. Passengers Locked in The dread cry of fire" spread &Ix -k.s ft, |assengers broke from their state looms and made for the lifeboats. Eap ptain Mcleod sent stewards to herd hem hack and prevent the fren- lied ones from 1eaping overheard. Chief Engineer E. M. Garland al- |eady had placed guards over the |oiler room crews, and with streams If hose were spouting tons of water In the blaze.
 The engine and fireroons were hooded with water, but huge clouds |f smoke pouring from the hatch
 rays and the almost unbearable heat round the stokers, next to the fire, lave evidence that it was gaining |eadway,
 At 1 a m. the fire had become so kerce that the decks were hot. At f peIock the Potomac slowed down to alf speed. At 4:5e Captain Mcleod |rdered the engines stopped, and the sizzing craft rolled sluggishly about Fhi1e the whole crew turned fire lighters.
 Steam Fails to Halt FIsmes Seamen went over the sides in kps'n's chairs with sledge hammers. mashed in the cast iron port lids and )t1ected their hose into the heart of |rs fire. but without effect Even |fve steam, turned into the hatch ksgs, failed to retard the flames
 At $40 a. n-~ after the s O. s had [eE.fi s.,ent oux and d rescue vessel Nas katfle, Captain Mcleod decided that, |ather than beach his ship, he would Try a stunt he learned during the |var, while lodging enemy subn1a- lines.
 He steamed ahead st top speed un- |il the whole ship throbbed with the |ibration and her outline was almost lbscured by the dense smoke sweep |ng astern. Suddenly he ordered the |udder hard over. As the vessel ca |eened in the "come about Her |tarboard side lifted so sharply as to |hrow the tons of water in her hold |p along her sides and over the heart fthe fire. Immediately the flames fu DSlOeu dtfQ dt T F. Ill., 1V hCbA Q e@A~Ni he alarm was sounded, the fire was bnder control and the vessel resumed Ter voyage.
 Chief Engineer Garland was over- |ome by heat and fumes in the last hour of the fight, and was under the |are of the ships surgeon for several lays, according to passengers who barrated the tale. Richard Albrecht, thief officer, and Alfred Puff. sea han, was slightly injured. The Potomac still had about % tons If water in her hold when, with list To port, she steamed in today.