The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1922-03-24
lO4 LCCKlD UP
AS SHIP BURNS
Passengers Kept In State
Rooms; Stakers Work AT
Pistols Points.


tale of fire at sea, with 1O4 panic
stricken men and women locked in
their staterooms, and stokers held
at their posts under the threat of
drawn pistols, was related by passen-
gers of the United States liner Poto-
mac when she arrived here today
from Bremen.
1t was a tale Of Yankee pluck and
ingenuity of a shippers refusal to
give up his ship until every hope had
been abandoned, and of his accept
ance of the thousand to one chance"
which turned a threatening catastro-
phe into merely narrowing expert
ence for those aboard.
The fire was discovered at mid
night March 2, few hours after the
Potomac. with Capt. William Mcleod
IN charge, sailed from Bremen up the
coast of Holland into the North Ssa.
She had been steaming along on a
smooth sea when suddenly, with
bowls of warning. the Spanish and
Filipino stokers bounded from the
hold and started for the lifeboats.
Driven ut Pistols Points.
Officers, with drawn revolvers, or
dersd them back to the fireroom,
which had become an inferno OF
smoke with flames billowing from an
adjoining compartment, where mat
tresses. life preservers and ships
stores had mysteriously taken fire.
The dread cry of fire" spread
quickly through the ship. The 1O4
passengers broke from their state
rooms and made for the lifeboats.
Captain Mcleod sent stewards to
herd them back and prevent the fren-
zisG ones from leaping overheard.
Chief Engineer E. NJ. Garland al
ready had placed guards over the
boiler-room crews, and with streams
of hose were spouting tons of water
on the blaze.
The engine and firerooms were
flooded with water, but huge clouds
of smoke pouring from the hatchways
and the almost unbearable neat
around the stokers, next to the fire
gave evidence that it was gaining
Roadway.
At a. m. the fire had become so
fierce that the decks were hot. Al
O'Clock the Potomac slowed down
m half speed. At 1850 Captain Nc
Leod ordered the engines stopped
and the blazing craft rolled sluggish
" about while the whole crew turn
ed fire fighters.
Seamen went over the sides In
basins chairs with sledge hammers
smashed in the cast iron port lids,
and directed their hoses into the
heart of the fire, but without erect
Even live steam, turned into the
hatchways, failed to retard the
flames.
At 500 a. nj. after the 5. y. D.
had been sent out and rescue
was heaving to, to await the result
of the battle, Captain Mcleod decid-
ID that. rather than beach his ship
he would try stunt he learned dur
ing the war, while lodging enemy
Bidge Water Does Work.
He steamed ahead at top speed
until the whole ship throbbed with
the vibration and her outline was al
most obscured by the dense smoke
sweeping astern.
Suddenly he ordered the rudder
narrower. As the vessel careened III
the come about" her starboard side
lifted so sharply as to throw the tons
of water in her hold up along her
sides and over the heart of the fire.
Immediately the flames subsided'
and at 4 p. m. sixteen hours after the
alarm was sounded, the fire was un-
der control and the vessel resumed
her voyage.
The Potomac still had about thirty
tons Of water in her hold when with
a list to port, she steamed in TO-DAY