STEAMER ON FIRE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIII, Issue 225, 29 December 1920, Page 6

STEAMER ON FIRE.

FLAMING LINER MENACES SHIPS . WITHIN-HARBOUR:•'■.' .

SPECTACULAR RACE SAVES SHIPPING.

NB\V ; YORK, Nov. 10. ! After a spectacular race against time dowi Ihe Hudson river, surrounded firqboate-and-flaintvi licking about her. forward decks, theburning Morgan Liw freighter El Mnndo to-night lay beached,on the flats near "Ellis Island, out of the way otJiarbour traffic. '• ;•;; * ' Thousands,of spectators-lined the Uew York ■Unit' New .Jersey shores und .'watched the heroic,litffiMf the ;tiny-trigs ,to .drag iheibuniing'freifjhtpiiout 'of the river an sli'u was threatening l«J8 sink.and block the shipping! channel; The ship,,,a craft of IQtCUO tons, is almost a- complete i wreck, with her' sides torn by blasts aiid hpr forward superstructure carried away by the fire. • ; i.'vii-j..' : ' '•.■'. ': All members'of the vessel, •which arrived fr?m> Galveston last Monday with, a general-cargo, have been accounted for. .Eight of the deck hands were reportod teriously 'burned, one -probably fatally. .Longshoremen, and members of the. crew were unloading the: vessel at the Southern Lino pien when tho fuel tank,/containing thousands of gallons of oil, blew up without warning, hurling men inraH direction! and carrying away; a. section -of the .deck. Plates on the jwrt side were also torn out, and the ship immediately began tO list-., , ;...,,' , f .;. -" • ■•'')-. Several tugs .were pulling the steamer into the middle-of-the riyer when- <anotUgju 'explosion occurred, and flames, leaped, up tlie.furward wast, sweeping tlio deck super* structure. She gave'another heavy list and tlireatened to sink in mid-chaiinel, blocking river /traffic. More than u dozen tugs raine to the rescue, mid after a valiant fight succeeded in dragging the burning ship two miles down steam, .with' ,tlio hope of getting her into the outer harbour.,, A .short distance north of Ellifl Island, .however, the freighter began to sink rapidly, and it was found advisable,to drag her ,011. rouhipaw mud flats, oif-the Jersey s,hqre. The origin "of .the explosion- lias not,' been learned,.. ~ '.. ~'_.. -, ',., .■„ i.- ,'.".' ■ ' i~ . j. .The ship was in command of Captain 11. rE. Parker, of Jersey. City, and carried a crow of 48 men. The greater part,of her cargo of fruit and rice had been unloaded.