THE HORRORS OF HELL.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 196, 18 August 1900, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE HORRORS OF HELL.

NEW YORK'S FRIGHTFUL PANDE-

MONIUM.

TRULY TERRIBLE TALES.

(From Our Special Correspondent.! LONDON, July G, 1900. You will have heard via 'Frisco the awful story of the destruction of the Nord-Deutscher-Lloyd steamers and-piers at New York last Saturday, Including- the incineration of over 300 souls, most of them under simply appalling circumstances. But you may like further details, as such a marine disaster is simply unprecedented. The loss at present seems to be four millions. On this fatal Saturday there lay in the docks of the Nord-deutscher-Lloyd the liners KaiseV "Wilhelm der Grosse and the Main, due to sail July 3; the Bremen, July 5; the Saale, July 31; and the Thingvalla, an extra boat, with no definite sailing date. Saturday afternoon is visitors' day at the docks, and several thousand men, women and children were Inspecting the vessels and strolling through the warehouses and along the ships. The liners were filled with men coaling, putting in cargo, cleanIng, and painting. It was intensely hot, and everything favoured fire. Early In the afternoon a carboy of acid exploded In the midst of plled-up cotton bales and merchandise. The blazing liquid scattered all about, and the bone-dry wood of the docks flared up like tinder. Before an alarm could be given to the folk 'on the piers and vessels, the flames were leaping from dock to dock, cutting off all escape. Almost in an instant the piers were peninsulas of fire, which spread to the ships. The people whose escape was shut off ran toward the pier ends to plunge into the Hudson; scores failed to get thus far and were overcome.

Scores of thrilling tales are told in the newspapers of miraculous escapes, of self-sacrificing bravery, and of splendid fortitude in the face of certain death. In the Main fifteen men-from the engineers' department were busy repairing the shaft. Tho fire had been raging several minutes before they discovered their peril, and their escape was cut off. They made a desperate dash for the upper deck, but were beaten back, blistered and blinded. They might as well have sought to stem a lava stream as mount into the storm of lice that roared above. Hopeless and raving, they finally sought refuge in the narrow shaft tunnel, where they lay awaiting death. Prayers, screams, and curses mingled, and men fought demoniacally to reach the furthest recesses of the steel cave, whose air began to grow stifling. The walls grew hot, and the men were unable to maintain their cramped positions without feeling acute pain from the heated metal. They crawled about ceaselessly like caged animals for seven hours, momentarily expecting death, and praying that it would come quickly and end their sufferings. MARVELLOUS RESCUE. A tug which came close to the stern heard the ring of metal in the shaft tunnel. It seemed impossible that there should still be life in the vessel, whose upper works were incandescent. But it was so, and the New York firemen rescued the imprisoned men, though all the chances seemed against them .when they disappeared in the smoke. As tho firemen, after a time that seemed interminable, staggered out of the still blazing cauldron with the men whom they had carried from tho deepest recesses of the boat, a hundred thousand onlookers cheered until the harbour was filled with sound, It was a splendid deed—perhaps the finest in the whole magnificent record of the department's daring. « ; ' In the Bremen seventeen firemen were Imprisoned in the engineers' department. They reached the starboard side and signalled through the ports to the huge flreboats which came close by and concentrated their mighty streams upon the section containing the helpless seventeen. Through the ports and hatches water was poured in a great cascade^ upon the firemen who, clinging to the side,, endured the buffeting df the water for three hours: Then, choking with smoke and water, their clothes steaming, they found the plates cooled sufficiently to permit a small steel door in the side to be unbolted, and through this they tumbled, one after another, into the river, to be picked up by the firemen. HELL AND NIAGARA FALLS. One of the firemen said that the experience in the Bremen was a mixture of Hell and Niagara Falls, for one minute the heat was roasting, and the next the cold water of the river poured down until one was well nigh drowned. This sort of thing lasted three hours. The Saale's engine-room contained several barrels of oil, which exploded.and covered a crowd of huddling wretches with flre.

The Bremen's chief officer, Mr Ahlborn, says that 250 people were on that vessel when the fire began. In less than five minutes solid sheets of flame were sweeping the d«ck as if it Were dry grass, and cutting down the visitors and crew in every direction. . ,

Many reached the rail and jumped, but of forty longshoremen down below, forward, not one reached the open air. All parts of the ship seemed to blaze up simultaneously. He barely got to the side, and as he struck the water the flames curled above him. TALES OF HORROR. A young collegian, named Cole, who escaped from the Bremen, saw a lifeboat filled with sailors and women sink, and all, he believes, were lost. The harrowing accounts of the survivors agree that the scenes were beyond description., Death coming with such terrifying speed and so unexpectedly brought the boldest to the extremity of terror,, and there were deeds done that are better unrelated, for they showed men acting with all the blind unreason j)t suffering animals. Captain Mirow stayed by his vessel until his uniform was burning. Then, in, view of hundreds, he..jumped upon a blazing lighter and fell, unable to arise. He writhed for a moment, and then lay still. The smoke hid him from sight, "and an hour after only a peculiar pocketknife remained by which he could be Identified. . « Lieutenant Marjinnis, of the flreboat Van Wyck, saved thirty lives. He saw blackened arms with the flesh torn from

them thrust through port-holes, which were too small to permit of rescue. Many of the firemen assert that the cries of the burning folk behind the open ports will never fade from their memories, which were indelibly impressed with the horror.

The men in one band of thirty who were taken from the Main, when death seemed inevitable, fought and screamed and tore each other like hyenas, even on the fire-boat, sa strong was their delirium.