A Thrilling Story of Heroism.

Evening Star, Issue 7828, 8 February 1889, Page 4

A Thrilling Story of Heroism.

The steamer John H. Hannawas destroyed by fire on Christmas Eve, on the Mississippi River, at Plaquemine, Louisiana. The first accounts received stated that there had been fearful loss of life, thirty persons being burned and sixty persons drowned ; but later telegrams reduce the casualties to thirty. The fire was discovered by a negro boatman about midnight, when most of the passengers were asleep. The steamer was laden with cotton, in a very dry condition, and the flames spread with fearful rapidity. They sprang from bale to bale like flashes of lightning, and in three minutes from the discovery of the fire the vessel was one sheet of ilamc from stem to stern. The scene that ensued was terrible in the extreme. Some of the men yelled and ran about the deck like maniacs ; others, screaming at the top of their voices, threw themselves into the river. The chief clerk went to every door, waking the passengers, and urged them to hurry to the front of the boat before they were cut off. They did so, but were thrown into confusion by the blinding smoke and the fright. The smoke was so thick and suffocating from the high piles of burning cotton that a number of persons, in trying to force their way to the bow, were overcome by it and suffocated on the deck, where they died beforo the flames reached them or the boat sank. In the meantime the crew were fighting the flames as best they could, but without success. Soon the fire reached the engine room, bursting the steam pipes and releasing great volumes of steam that severely scalded several of the men, who were driven from the room. The pilot headed the boat for the shore, and she touched the bank in three or four minutes. The captain, crew, and passengers endeavored to leap ashore, but immediately the vessel touched she swung round and drifted down stream.

A great deed of heroism was then performed by a deck hand named Joe Girens, When the burning steamer touched the bank and bounded away, the pilot left the wheel and sprang overboard. Girens quickly realised that the salvation of all on board depended upon the steamer being brought back to the bank. The pilot house was surrounded by flames, but the brave fellow sprang to tho wheel, and headed the steamer again to the bank, and, in order to keep her there, made the wheel last in the proper position. The fire swept over the pilot house, and he was imprisoned by the flames. To escape, it was necessary that he should push through the wall of fire. lie fchen made a da3h for the side of the vessel, and, although frightfully burned, succeeded in reaching it with his clothing all ablaze, lie jumped into the river and struggled to the bank, where _ he was pulled tishore by willing hands in a horribly burnt and exhausted state. He died in indescribable agony a few hours later. The majority of those on board sprang from the boat when about ten yards from shore. Both the captain and Bob Smith, the famous pilot of tho burnt steamer, met their deaths after getting ashore. They sprang into the mud on the bank, and becoming fast were slowly roasted to death by the intense heat from the burning boat. They buried their faces and handa in tho soft mud to protect themselves, and appealed to the people on shore to come to their assistance. This, however, was impossible. The captain was finally protected from the fire by means of a box, and dragged ashore with ropes, too late, however,~as he had suffered too serious injuries ; and although he received medical care at once, he died before he reached Plaquemine. Others also met their death by being burned when fast in the mud. The boat was about fifteen yards from shore, when the intense heat compelled almost all the crew to spring from her. Some reached the shore, and tried to climb the steep, muddy, slippery bank, but wero caught in the flames before they could do so. Others clung to bales of cotton in the river, but in many instances the bales floated against tho burning vessel, and the occupants were either roasted to death or compelled to let go into the water and drown. It is believed that the fire was due to a careless smoker throwing his cigarette among the cotton.