ON FIRE AT SEA.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 10646, 28 June 1897, Page 4

ON FIRE AT SEA.

A NIGHT OF TERROR FOR PAS

SBNGERS AND CRISW.

The following acoount of a fire at sea, referred to In our cables last month, appeared In the American Press of May 10th I— Thirteen Charred ond blaokened corpses were carried from the steerage compartment of tbe Mallory liner Leona this morning and carted away to the morgue, while the lll<f*ted ship, wirh her bow bnrnpd oub olean and the outer plates swollen and burst from the beat of the holooausl) of early Sunday morning, lies tied up at her pier at tha foot of Burling slip. Some there are who Hay tbe crew were panic-stricken and did naught to savn the unfortunates penned In the furnace below, bnt tbe preponderance of evldenoo la that, with the exception of the stokers, Captain James Wilder and his crew did all that mortal men could do. When the stokers, 18 of them, and all Spaniards, mado a msb, panto-striken, to the deck, and ndzed the lifeboat, Chief Engineer Taylor dtuhed toward them, revolver In hand.

"Odp, two, throe," he called ; "I will shoot at five,"

Sullenly tbe Spaniards olimbed down out of the lifeboat. Wallace caught) the man nearest to him by the sornff of the neck and scut him sprawling headlong down the deok.

"Got book Into tbe fire room,' 1 he commanded, and the stokers slunk back to their work, thoroughly oowed.

The orew worked manfully at the pumps under the dlreotlon of the officers, and kept steady streams poarlng a deluge into the hold. As the night wore on the orew kept up their battling, the fears of the cabin passengers began to grow, and they strained tbeir eyes looking for a vessel. Jnßt) before daybreak a welcome sound was heaid— the Leona'a lookout reported a light ahead. It wbb an answering signal to the Lsona's burning lights apd distress whistle. Soon the steamship City of Augusta of tbe Savannah line, which was following the Lsona south, loomed up in the grey dawn, tooling her whistles and burning cotton ilgnalß at her how. She whs toon within hulling distance, and hove to within a few hundred feot of the bnrnlog Leonn.

The lifeboats were lowered from both steamships, and soon all the surviving passengers of the Leona were transferred to tbe City of Augusts, while tbe crew remained behind to continue their firefighting. The whistiiog attracted a number of fishing boats, and several of »hese surrounded the burning veaael, and, fjr want of something else to do, picked tip the cargo thrown overboard from the Laona. Among tbe articles' thrown loto the sea were nearly half a hundred sewing meohlnes. Tbe fishing sohoonnrs managed to save some of these before they sank

For seven long hours Captain Wilder and his men fought tbe LUmee,'nnd while the Leona's paseeugeia were at breakfast on the City of Augusta, word came that the lire was out, and they might retnrn to their vessel, whlob, it was sold, would retnrn to New York at once. They were transferred and took their state rooms again, while those of the steerage passengers who eurvlved wcra placed in the ■pare state rooms.

Two acts of heroism mark tbe disaster, Oae was that whloh oost RCotrane his life, while the other condemned Antolne Vlnclkp k, a 14 - yeor - old Bohemian girl, to her honlble death. Cotrane had FBGtped, but, Hading bis eister and her child were loft betiud, plunged into tbe furnace Bgsla to reooae them. Tho threo ware foand together. Tbe Vlaolkek girl could have gotteo out, bat bung beck to help one of her little brothers. She pnshed him up tbe companlonwoy, bad the effort wrs too mnoh for her, and abb fell back into the hold. Her father thought she was behind him, and when ho found ehe was left behind tried to go bank after her, but was rtstr&lned.

President Mallory said to day that the dam»g3 to tbe steamship wits about) 50,000 i01. No cause for the Gre is known, The office's of the Leona say that it is almost a miracle that the ship was not burned to the water's edge. All that saved her is the fact that one is an iron vessel and the crew wns able to confine the blaze to the forward hold.