HOBOKEN’S DOUBLE HOLOCAUST.

HOBOKEN’S DOUBLE HOLOCAUST.

THROUGHOUT the length and breadth of the civilized world the telegraph wires have long since spread the news of the awful disaster of Saturday last, which desolated the waterfront of Hoboken and made a clean sweep of the piers, wharves, and freightsheds of the North German Lloyd, the Hamburg-American, and the Thingvalla lines, taking off in its course the Campbell stores, which were located immediately north of the offices of the last-named line. In these stores was merchandise, including sugar, rice, jute, mineral waters, whiskey, hides, and other miscellaneous goods belonging to various business men. The damage (fully insured) to the Campbell buildings alone, the president of the Campbell corporation claims, will amount to at least $150,000, and to the contents $1,000,000. Had the fire occurred at any other time of the year, the loss would have been much greater, as just at the present time the imports are very light and the houses were not well filled. This statement accounts for the comparatively small loss on the three piers of the North German Lloyd line. The other losses are conservatively set down as follows: Steamship Main, wrecked, $1,000,000; ditto, cargo, stores, etc., $250,000; steamship Bremen, wrecked, $500,000; ditto, cargo, stores, etc.. $200,000; steamship Saale, wrecked, $750,000; ditto, cargo, stores, etc., $425,000; steamship Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, damaged, $30,000; North German Lloyd piers and other Hoboken property, $350,000; merchandise on North German Lloyd docks, $450 000; Scandinavian line dock, damaged, $40 000; Hamburg-American dock, damaged, $20,000; forty small vessels, mainly lighters, canalboats, barges and their cargoes, $125,000; Hoboken Shore road, losses various property, $10 000; miscellaneous losses $50,000 —total $4,200,000. The cargoes on the burned North German steamers were covered by marine insu ranee, as were the goods on the piers which had lately arrived; the outwardbound merchandise still on the piers at the time of the fire was largely covered by floating policies in fire companies. The steamship companies insured their own vessels, and the lighters and other small craft that were burned were also insured by their owners, many of whom likewise had policies covering the cargoes. The loss of life was probably something over 200—but the exact number of those who perished will never be known. Of the officers of the various vessels, many were lost, and among them Capt. Mirow, of the Saale, whose body, however,was so fearfully burned that it would never have been recognized, had it not been for a knife, some keys, and other articles found upon it. Fortunately the number of visitors on the pier and boats was unusually small, because no steamer was due to sail except the Saale, and she only for Boston, where she was to have taken on a load of Christian Endeavorers bound for the convention in London. No passenger is known to have been lost on any of the boats. A number of Christian Endeavorers were visiting the Saale, drawn by the interest taken in the boat because of her charter by the Christian Endeavorers. Some of these visitors are reported lost. One of the officers of the steamer Bremen said there were fully two hundred visitors on board that vessel when the fire touched there— the majority of them being women. A boat was lowered from the Bremen shortly after the alarm had been given; but the craft capsized as it touched the water,and all hands were precipitated into the water, and none of them were saved by those remaining on the vessel. The three docks of the North German Lloyd line are total losses, with all their contents. The Thingvalla line is totally wiped out, and an extension which had justbeenbuilt on theHamburgAmerican line’s expanse of piers was burned down to the spile tops.

THE SAALE AS SHE LIES BEACHED.VIEW OF HOBOKEN FIRE FROM NORTH RIVER.—THE SAALE ON THE LEFT; KAISER WILHELM DER GROSSE IN THE CENTRE; THE BRKMBN ON THE RIGHT.

The fire started (how, no one knows) about 4 o’clock on Saturday afternoon, among a large pile of cotton bales on pier No 2 of the North German Lloyd company. It spread with such rapidity that in fifteen minutes three great piers, taking in over a third of a mile of waterfront, wereone mass of flame. In the freightsheds the accumulation of cotton and other dust caught at once, developed great heat,and caused explosions which served to spread the flames farther. The Saale was a single-screw passenger steamship of 4,965 gross tons; the Main and Bremen, twin-screw freight and passenger steamships of 10,200, and 10,526 tons respectively. The piers and ships were crowded with workmen, visitors, and people on business. Those nearest the ends of the piers escaped; the others were forced to leap off into the water, and in doing so many were drowned. The other piers caught, and, with them, the Saale anti Main. The Bremen and Kaiser Wilhelm were moored at pier No. 1. The Main, which had arrived only a few hours before, and on board which were still several passengers, burned so fiercely that no tug could approach her. The Kaiser Wilhelm was rescued, as was also the Phenicia, of the Hamburg American line, a 6.761-ton twin-screw passenger vessel, on which the flames had got a gootl hold. She was towed out to midstream where the flames were put out. The Bremen was also towed out. but, like the Main, sank all afire. To prevent, If possible, the spread of the flames, the officials of the HamburgAmerican line blew up one side of their dock, so as to save their great pier, but meanwhile a number of barges moored alongside were burned. The passengers on board the Main were seen to jump off into the water—a few were rescued by tugs, but many were drowned, while several of the crew, the stewardess. and probably some passengers who could not escape, met an awful death on board the doomed ship The same fate befell those on board the Saule; a few escaped with their lives by jumping overboard; those who did notperished miserably. The southern end of the Campbell Storage company’s building— consisting of five five-story buildings caught, and in a few minutes flames shot from every window. Four of the buildings were burned, and so intense was the heat that the Hoboken and Jersey City firemen were either altogether disabled or driven back, leaving a hose reel, with horse, and hose to be destroyed by fire. They could do nothing; no mortal men could avail anything against such a fierce couflagration, and that they saved the United States bonded warehouse adjoining the Campbell building was a highly creditable display of firefighting.

THE BREMEN, SHOWING SMOKE STACK OF THE SUNKEN MAIN.CHIEF APPLEGATE, HOBOKEN, N. J.

For sometime the New York side of the water front was endangered, owing to thehlazingsteamers and barges drifting down stream and across among the shipping and close to the docks and piers. The fireboats New Yorker and Van Wyck had been telegraphed for and steamed up the river. They rendered immense service, not only in putting out the fire on the burning steamers and other craft, but also in saving life. Men and engines were stationed at various vulnerable points on the water front, and the fireboats—especially the New Yorker—patroled the river. Jersey City could not afford to lend much of a hand. At any moment the fire might spread to its water front, or the sparks might set fire to some of its warehouses, in which case the services of every man and every piece of fire apparatus would be coiled upon. The city has no fireboats of its own, and is dependent in case of fire upon the firetugs of tbs Pennsylvania railroad and other private companies; and these were kept in reserve in case of emergencies at home.

VIEW FROM THE NORTH GERMAN LLOYD DOCKS. LOOKING SOUTH—HAMBURG-AMERICAN DOCKS IN THE DISTANCE; PIERS OF CAMPBELL’S STORES AT THE RIGHT.

The horrors accompanying the fire cannot be ade-quately described. Probably over 200 lives were lost, and nearly 300 persons were injured, some fatally. No loss of life is reported from the Bremen, except in the case of those who were thrown into the water and drowned by the capsizing of a boat which was hurriedly lowered from her deck. Rear-Admiral Melville of tbe United States Navy describes onescene he saw from on board a tugboat which was run up to tbe Saale. He says;

As we approached the ship’s side, we saw numerous persons between the burning decks above and also betweeen the bnikneads of the lower decks trying to get through the miserable little air-ports or defid lights, not more than eight or nine inches in diameter, lie said. Pretty well aft there was a woman, her gray hair parted in the middle, and combed down tightly over her head This, together «ith the horror-struck expression on her face, gave her a most pitiable appearance. She cried continually to us, “Come here,” in German. We pushed the tug directly alongside of the ship, holding the buoys of the tug close to the side of the liner and turning the propeller slowly to keep her in place. I immediately cried to the captain: “Turn the hose on that woman’s head and keep her cool,” in hopes that there might be found some means of rescuing her. The hose was turned on her, and in the meantime, just forward of where this woman was, the fire was raging, apparently between two athwartship bulkheads. Just forward of this seething furnace a man had thrust his head and arm through another of these miserable ports. The tug to the left of us had a stream already playing on his head.

He began to strip himself of bis clothing, and at times the crew of the tug put the nozzle of tbe hose through the air-port and poured water on his back to keep him cool, so near were they to him, and yet unable to extricate him from his horrible position. Below ns were two German officers with a boat screw, and hammers and cold chisels, cutting away one of the cargo-ports on the port side After more than a half hour’s work they managed to cut the port open. To the horror of every one, they found It only opened into a coal bunker. The flap of tbe cargo port was raised up, but nobody ventured inside of the vessel to find the opening between the cargo-port and the passenger space where the man was clinging. Shortly after the man, from heat and exhaustion, fell back inside of the ship Those on board the tugboats were scorched, but all were working like beavers, and seemed utterly unconscious of tlie terrible heat. The most cruel part of it all seemed to be that had the portholes been a few Inches wider every person would have escaped It is a common practice in the engineering profession to make what are known as manholes and manhole plates 11 x 13 inches, in the shape of ovals through which an ordinary man of 200 pounds can readily pass. The ports on this fatal ship, which are only eight to ten inches in diameter, are an abomination. I am happy to say that the German officers, with the boat’s crew, worked most diligently and under the intense heat were enabled to keep alongside only when gallons of water were poured on them. In fact, the greatest credit is due to all who tried to rescue these poor wretches in that roaring furnace. The people on board the tugs seemed aliveto the occasion, but little did they realize the task before them Men with axes tried to cut holes in the iron plates, which everywhere were at least half an inch thick. Others, with sledges, battered in the portholes, thus either shutting off the only means we had of pouring water into the vessel, or else enlarging the holes, so as to force in a draught which only added to the fury of the flames.

Capt. Connelly, of the Robert H. Van Wyck fireboat, with Lieut.McGinnis, both veteran firemen.declared that he had never seen such a sight before, and hoped never to see another like it. He and bis boat were alongside of the Saale during all the fire. The fireboat was turned into a temporary hospital, for the unfortunates whom they rescued. There was not a fireman, he said, that would not have risked liis life over and over nguin to have snved any of them ; but all they could do was to “ pour in water and pray God in His mercy to end their misery and suffering.” The first thing they caught was a lighter filled with cotton Then they heard there were people on the Saale. On going alongside they said that every porthole had a face. The deadlights were no larger in circumference than an ordinary cuspidor. The men in the boat went on deck and did what they could. It wasn’t much at that time. We asked ttiose who were at the portholes how many men were in her. The only answer they could make was they didn’t know, but there must be a hundred. One man asked for a drink and we gave it to him. He said the ship was filling with water. At that time we were pouring 7.000 gallons a minute into her. We talked to a half-dozen of persons forward. Some put their arms out of the ports, others managed to get a shoulder and half their head at the opening. We tried axes, pikes, everything to break a hole in the side of the ship. The Chapman came up with the wrecking apparatus and tried to break into her, but nothing made an impression. When we dropped amidships of her I saw the gamest woman that ever drew the breath of life. My men cried like children. She neither screamed nor let out a moan. Every man in the company would have lost anything, been crippled or maimed for life to have saved her. She was about thirty-five years old, with black hair that had been burned in places. The clothes had been burned from her shoulders until she was nearly naked to the waist. She did not say so, but I think she was a passenger. She may have been a stewardess. We played a stream of water on the port and on her head, and then gave her a drink. When she stretched her hands for it we saw they were burned. Then we passed into the port one of our two and one-halfinch lines, and she took it. For fifteen minutes she played it about her, first on one side, then on the other, then over her head. She spoke broken English, but we managed to understand that she meant tbe fire was gaining on her. We took the standpipe and jammed it into another deadlight near her and swung it in all directions, tryingto aid her. She saw what we were doing, but shook her head as though to say, “It can’t save me.” The ship bad listed, and, exhausted, in one of the rolls it made, she fell. That was the last we saw of her. It was the gamest fight I ever saw any one make She knew there WHS no hope, was half burned to death, standing waistdeep in water, and never a scream. While we were talking to her, other tugs were to the stern of the Saale talking to others. I must have seen thirty to forty persons at the ports The Van Wvck rescued thirty from the engine room. They were the men who stood for hours on the pumping station. We left as many dead in there as we rescued living.The poorfelfellows had resorted to every means to prolong life. The heat must have been frightful. Some of them had kept blankets soaked in water about them. Others hud soaked their clothes and held them about their heads. When we reached them some of them were crazy. When we touched them, the skin of some of them had been so blistered that it peeled off. With it came pieces of flesh. It was horrible. When they were taken out they laughed. The actual joy of knowing that they were released made them forget tlie pain they were in. It was fearfully hard to stand by and see them. It was pitiable. They could give no estimate of the men left behind. The men taken out were not those who had been at the deadlights. They were men who had been beneath the surface of the water when the fire was discovered. Those who talked English said that when they found the ship was afire it already was too late to get out. There was an explosion on board the Saale which blew up the forward decks. I asked one of the men who was imprisoned what it was, and be said they had 300 pounds of powder in the forward part of the ship. Our men were on the deck fighting the fire when the explosion occurred. My own impression about the the men in the engine room is that they were never told there was a fire until it was too late. The persons on deck probably did not think it was going to result as it did, and wanted them then to run the pumps or something, and discovered too late that they were cut off Had the dead lights been larger we could have saved many who were either drowned or burned to death. Of course, they were the usual size dead lights, butl think there should be a provision, that in each compartment or stateroom, or anywhere where men or passengers are likely to be cut off, at least one deadlight should be large enough for a person to get through. The stories of the men in the Saale never will be known ; some of them were being burned alive while we were playiug waterupon their faces. I think many or them were burned until they were unable to stand at the portholes and then dropped back and were drowned.

TUGS THROWING WATER ON THE BREMEN.CAPTAIN CONNELLY OF THE VAN WYCK.THE NEW YORKER FIRE BOAT AND CREW.

Captain Thomas F. Conuelly, of the Robert A. Van Wyck fireboat, has been twenty-four years in the service, nine years of which he was assistant foreman, and six years foreman. He and his crew were on duty at the fire from 5:7 p. m. to 10:37. No mau ou board was hurt, nor was the boat damaged.

The New Yorker did at least equally good service as a patrol boat. When called on for duty on Saturday, she was sent to Morton and West streets, Manhattan, to look after the safety of the river front. She was then dispatched to Hoboken, arriving there about 4:30 p. m., when she devoted her attention to the Bremen, from which she took off forty persons. She then helped round the Main and the Saale, but was much hampered in her operations by the river tugs, which (her captain and crew say) on the whole did more harm than good. As she was patroling the river front, a derrick, falling upon her from a lighter, broke one of thecontroling standpipe wheels and smashed in her smokestack. She was on duty fifteen hours, and both officers and men worked nobly.

Her captain, William C. Braisted, has been twentyfive years in the fire depart ment, nine of which he has spent with the New Yorker, to which he was attached when she went into commission in 1891. Capt. Braisted served as assistant foreman for twenty years, and has been a foreman for two years.

The steamship lines insure their own ships. Other insurances amounted to nearly $1,500,000.

HOBOKEN’S SECOND HOLOCAUST.

As if the one fire horror were not enough, Hoboken witnessed another early on Tuesday morning, by which the double frame tenement houses 127 to 131 Adams street were totally destroyed and twelve lives were sacrificed. Before the firemen arrived the flames had swept up the airshaft, and the entire building was ablaze. The firemen tried to enter, but were driven hack by the flames. Each house was a regular deathtrap-a tenement of the worst type with the usual tortuous halls and crooked stairways, and separated from each other by flimsy partitions. What was worse, the bedrooms were BO constructed as externally to resemble closets. Hence the firemen passed them by, after having searched, as they thought, every room in the house. The consequence was that five young children of one family and their aged grandmother, five men and a boy periehed, while a mau and his wife are missing. The fire ie believed to have been the work of an incendiary, and Henry Pachts, who kept a saloon in No. 131 has been arrested ou suspicion. No. 125 was saved after hard work on the part of the firemen. It was somewhat damaged.

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