Evening star., 1951-01-17
Baltimore Fire
Investigated by
-Four Agencies
FBl Shows Particular
Interest in 55-GuIIon
Oil Drum on Pier
By the Associotsd Press

by me Associdfed PreSS
BALTIMORE, Jan. ia war;
time ammunition pier and his
toric troopship swept by dis
aStrouS waterfront blaze were still
targets today for tons of water
from fire hoses. But the loss was
almost absolute.
The SIS million pier which
caught fire late yesterday was so
far gone that the fire department
considered dynamiting the wreck
age to the bottom.
The commissioned transport
George Washington, which carried
President Wilson to attend the
Versailles peace conference in
1919, was only hulk good for
nothing but scrap"
Six firemen and a Coast Guards l.,
man were injured in the battle
against the spectacular blaze.
The firemen suffered only minor
injuries. The Coast Guardsman,
Robert Long, II. was reported out
of danger today.
Oil Drum on Pier.
While two fireboats and 200 fire.
men still poured water on the
wreckage at noon, the Army,
Coast Guard, Maritime Admins
tration and FBI investigated.
The FBI showed particular inter-
est n 55-gallon oil drum on the
pier,
The drum, with it's top off, had
holes bored in the bottom and
outdoors workmen had used it to
hold fires and keep them warm.
The George Washington was
put back in service in World
War II for $8.8 million. Bethle-
hem steel shipyard officials and
others said it would cost $25 mil
lion to $50 million to build such
ship now.
Fire department officials de-
scribed it as the worst fire Balti-
more has had since a major part
of the city was destroyed in 1904.
A blazing tug was abandoned
to sink near the burning pier, and
two barges and a huge pile driv-
ing derrick being used in the
building of Maryland's Chesa-
peake Bay Bridge were damaged.
Pier Owned by Army.
Owned by the Army, the pier
was used for shipping hundreds
of thousands of tons of ammu-
milton through the Port of Balti-
more to the war zones during
World War II. 1t had had no
ammunition on it recently but
was leased by Merritt, Chapman
& Scott. engineering firm which
was the principal subcontractor
on the Bay Bridge project.
A spokesman estimated the
company's loss at 100000 but
said 1t would not delay compile
tion of the bridge next year.
The Gen. Edmund B. Alexander,
another decommissioned troop
ship tied alongside the George
Washington, escaped with only a
scorched port side.
The George Washington housed
offices of the Maritime Admins
tration, the agency in charge Of
the reserve maritime fleet. All
the agency's records on board
were reported destroyed.
Six administration officials were
on board the ship when the pier
fire was discovered by two guards.
The six, including Capt. M. j.
Kaminski, superintendent of the
maritime reserve fleet, tried to
free the George Washington from
the pier but were driven back by
the quickly spreading flames.
They were rescued from the
extreme end of the pier by quick
acting Coast Guard boat crew q
few minutes before The flames
swept the length of the 1,000-foot
pier.
High Winds Spread Flames.
The guards, Leonard w. Bassane
and, Lawrence Wade. discovered
flames shooting out of a small
shack on the pier about 4 pm.
When fire equipment reached
the Hawkins Point area, 40-mile
winds had spread the i1ames the
length of the pier.
Five hundred firemen fought
the blaze from the land and from
fireboats.
Ship Was Built in Germany.
The George Washington-not
to be confused with the big Amer
lean liner S. S. Washington-was
built in Stettin, Germany, in 1908
and until World War I was used
by the Hamburg America Line in
transatlantic passenger service.
She was known as S. S. Vaterland.
In Hoboken, N. j., when war broke
out, she was seized when her crew
was suspected of sabotage, and
after the United States entered the
war she was put in service as a
troop transport. She carried 100.-
900 soldiers to and from France.
She then was operated as a
passenger liner under the Amer
ican flag until laid up at Solo,
mons Island, Md, as obsolete in
1882. In 1910 she was outfitted as
a transport again by the Navy and
renamed the Catlin. The follow
ing year she was transferred to
Great Britain, but in 1912 she was
returned as too slow, and the
Army then took over and spent
$8.8 million to convert her from
coal to oil.
The ship was placed in the re-
serve fleet and tied up in Balti-
more in 1947.
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