TEERIBLE FIRE AT SEA.

Thames Advertiser, Volume XXVI, Issue 7595, 1 August 1893, Page 1

TEERIBLE FIRE AT SEA.

INTp|6TiNG v particulara are given in the f'Xiinejot India" of the Joaa under serisa. ti6B!d'''circnmatance3 of' the steamer Khiva, which left Bombay on the 12th. April with 979;pi)grims for Mecca, and eigEtyjoi ft ij'ww. ,7 the fire was first noticed on April 17, fire days out from Bombay, and it had evidently been in progresa" i least 2i hours, if nofclongerr" Smoke was found coming up from the coal'bunkers on the orlop deckv Water was pumped on the coals but ,it f made no impression on the fire, and farther investigaUon led to the discovery ,ttiat the sourse of the smoke waa afire in the' lower hold; and on the hatches of the'tween desks being opened dense volumes of smoke rolled upwards. The officers and crew, aided by the Bokhar pilgrims (the only passengers who seemed to:have kept their heads during that critical period), worked vigorously'.'away shifting the cargo in order to get .at the source of the fire and enable the ship's hose to play upon it. Witb greaY difficulty, and amid blinking and suffocating smoke, this was eventually done but the fire had too long a start to give the most unwearing efforts a chance of overtaking it. As the flames rose higher and higher the men were, gradually driven back, until at length they had to abandon all hope ot saving the ship. Captain Schumaker then wisely resolved upon altering the ship's course and beaching her upon the nearest point of land, 160 miles off. All through the night of the 17th the burning ship pushed on in the darkness at her topmost speed. The engines were forced to their utmost capacity, for the lives of all on hoard depended on her speed being maintained. Meanwhile the fire was rapidly gaining ground. Below deck all was in flames, the rigging and woodwork had been consumed, and the foremast burned completely through, had fallen with a crash over the side. Early on the morning of the 18th land was sighted ahead, and then for the first time the panic-stricken pilgrims became calm, and knelt about the deck in groups offering up thauks, Cdptaia;.*'chutnakor ( as may be imagined, had an anxious time amoag his terlifted passengers, and when, at half past nine in the morning, the ship was run aground three miles west : of Bas Merbat, his relief could hardly have been greater than theirs. A melancholy incident marked the landing of the Khjva's passengers. In their des< perate hurry to get ashoru twenty of their number rushed for one of the boats, capsized it-and were dr wned 'I his was, howeverj'tne only casualty of the voyage."' '•It :; says •mui'h for the courage and resourcefulnessof. the captain aud his desperate circuni-. stance3.onlytwenty.werfi lost out of upwards of 1000. souls, and those only in their owo frantic hasto to escape.