Burning of a Dock.

Manawatu Herald, 5 July 1900, Page 2

Burning of a Dock.

SOME TERRIBLE SCENES,

Details of the fire at Hoboken Dock, New York, show that it was caused by an explosion of acid, which ignited a quantity of cotton bales. There were fifteen hundred visitors '„ and workmen about the docks at the . . time of the outbreak. The flames spread with incredible - rapidity, burning three piers belonging to the Norddeutcher Lloyd Company, and destroying their steamers Saole, Maine, Bremen a.:'' Thingvalia. It is estimated that between two hundred and four hundred persons perished. The same company's great liner ■• Kaiser Wilhelm Der Grosse tw»" fi**^ r saved through the splendid exertions ot the captain and crew. ■ .- The Hamburg-American Company I dynamited one of their piers, thereby saving their vessels. The people on the piers jumped Into the Hudson River by hundreds. Similarly all who could do so jumped from the vessels. Boats and barges rescued numbers of them, one lighter having a hundred on board. Scores, however, were drowned. While the Saole and Bremen were hauling into the stream, the men, women and children below could be seen through the portholes shrieking for assistance, but the flames rendered it impossible to give help. Seventeen men were imprisoned id* the Maine's coal bunkers for hours,

and had a marvellous escape. They were rescued after the vessel was beached by cutting through a steel bulkhead. Fifty unrecognisable bodies have i been recovered from the Saole. A great number of stokers perished in the enginerooms after indescribable horrors. Twenty nine escaped by climbing on each other's shoulders. On board the Maine a terrible struggle was witnessed amongst the P unfortunate people in their efforts to reach the portholes. ! The damage done by the fire is estimated to be at least ten million dollars (£2,250,000).