1912 SS Manchuria

FIREMAN LOSES LIFE IN BLAZE ON MANCHURIA.
GREAT LINER’S CARGO IN FLAMES ALL AFTERNOON WHILE BATTLE IS FOUGHT BY ENGINES AND BOATS.
FOUR MEN AND INJURED.
WATERFRONT IS SEEN OF ONE OF MOST SPECTACULAR CONFLAGRATIONS IT HAS KNOWN IN YEARS.

1912 March 18

One fireman lost his life and dozens others were injured and overcome by smoke in fighting a stubborn fire that took place on Pacific Mail liner Manchurian yesterday afternoon.

THE DEAD.

Ahern, Thomas J., hoseman, Engine Company No. 35, living at 133 Freelon street.

THE INJURED.

Lavorini, John, Lieutenant, Truck Co. No.17, struck on head by swirling nozzle.

Reynolds, C. T., Engine Company No. 8, suffocation from smoke.

Speckman, Henry, Engine Company No. 35, suffocation from smoke.

Wilson, William, Engine Company No. 9, suffocation from smoke.

The body of Ahern was found in the hold on the steamer by Captain Michael Drury of Engine Company No. 35 after the members of the company had returned to their headquarters. Ahern was missing when Captain Drury took account of his men, and returned to the steamer and began a search that resulted in the finding of the hoseman’s body in a hatch amidships. Ahern evidently died from smoke suffocation. He was about 36 years old, was married and leaves wife and a number of small children.

The Manchurian which lay in her berth at pier 42, ready for sail for Hong-kong and way points tomorrow afternoon, was the scene of a hard and spectacular fight from the moment the first trickles of gray smoke came out the after hatchway at 2:10 o’clock until far into the night, when the crew unloaded the burned cargo onto barges.

Seven fire engines backed up against the giant liner and put streams of water into her hold.  Nearly a dozen more streams percent from fire tugs tied up on the other side the burning vessel. More than 300 firemen and the crew 260 Chinese fought the blaze, which was controlled and trace to its lair only after three hours of work. However, a detail of fireman remained on board all evening to prevent a renewal of the blaze.

Dozens of firemen besides those mentioned were overcome particularly with the smoke and gas fumes as they worked in the deep hold.  They recovered, however, after being stretched out on the decks by their comrades and getting a breath of pure hair into their lungs. One fireman fell from a ladder and was just sitting from going into the day.

Hundreds of tons of cotton were destroyed in the fire, which was confined to the hold of the ship between Nos. 6, 7, and 8 hatchways. It will not be possible to estimate the damages to the ship itself until the cargo is out and examined my experts for any injury to plates from the intense heat.

It was thought that at first it would take several days to get the ship in shape to sail, but after a conference officials of the Pacific Mail Company last evening it was announced by A. G. D. Kerrell, general passenger agent of the company, that the Manchurian would sail at 1 o’clock next Thursday afternoon.

STARTED BY OILY BALES.

It will not be necessary to unload the entire cargo and put the ship into drydock unless the damage below is found to be so great that the underwriters refuse to allow the vessel to go to sea.

The fire is said to have been started by spontaneous combustion in the cotton bales. These bales were loaded during the rain of Friday and they were oily. It was even possible that there was a fire inside one of the bales before it was put into hold of the ship. The fire probably smoldered and ate its way toward the air all Saturday night and Sunday morning.

After the discovery by the members of the crew the blaze make terrific headway and it looked as though it would not be overcome for two or three days, or a week.  The intelligent, brave, quick work of the fireman under Chief Murphy saved the ship. The men were aided a great deal by the new oxygen helmets which were given their first severe test. With these helmets on the firemen were able to remain and work, where otherwise they could not have stood up. One fireman wearing a helmet remained in hold for an hour and a half.

Edward Lamb of Company No. 1 in oxygen helmet which proved successful yesterday in its first heart test.

First Boatswain Chug Hee, an elderly Chinese who pattered about in bare feet, made the first onslaught against the fire. He, and his crew, got a small stream on it before the fire department got there, but every instant the smoke was rolling up thicker and darker. The Chinese gave fireman great help in getting at the hatches and handling ladders.

With the seven fire engines chugging at the wharf side of the great ship and the state tugs, the Governor Irwin and Ajax, the fire boat Dennis T. Sullivan working on the other, the decks littered with hose in a tangled network, and hatches, the ship look like a junk heap. Down the hatchways it looked worse.

In the open hatch the way could be seen clear to the hold when the smoke lifted for a moment. Along on each deck the fireman were fighting tooth and nail, hanging on grimly to the quivering nozzles, their eyes red rimmed with the smoke, their faces black and their throats choking. Most of them pulled out their little “muzzles” after a few minutes of this work and applied them to their nostrils and this helped. But every once in a while a dripping, staggering man would be pushed up the ladder by his comrades, to fall on the deck in a half faint from the smoke in his lungs. No one had time to do anything except to step around the victim. The fire was pressing hard. No one knew just what it was or where was. All that could be seen was that the hold was a volcano of smoke.

All this time the ship was listing to the starboard, settling steadily minute after minute, until it one time it must have been at an angle of  forty-five degrees, and a rail of the upper deck almost touched the wharf. This was the time that the timid ones left the ship. There was speculation as to whether the water in the harbor was deep enough so that the boat would not sink if turned over.

Then they put the lines from the mastheads across to pier 43 and begin to pull the boat slowly upright. At the same time they pump water from the bay into the port tanks. This combination of weight rapidly righted the ship, but the trouble was that it went over nearly as far in the port as it had been at the starboard.

There was a time when it looked as though the lifeboats on the far leaning Mancheurts would crush the smokestack on the Dennis Sullivan, but the Chinese crew rushed to the bridge and got the boats drawn in and the ship begin to right again. The hold was rapidly being flooded by this time and the fire being drowned.

As the ship listed the water poured from the deck to deck into the dim hold like many tiny Niagara’s. The fireman in the bottom were almost drowned. They scrambled for the ladder through tons of water rushing down on them.

While the fire was going on the aft and the deck scene was wild and tumultuous there, forward the off watch of the Chinese crew sat around their little card tables or ate chop suey, chattering, gossiping and Sunday peace and relaxation. Once in a while sharp unintelligible cry of the boatswain will call for two or three more men and the Chinese would rush out to work. Other Chinese were engaged in the peaceful occupation of cleaning brassware and sweeping. The Manchurian is 600 feet long, so that a good many things may happen at one end of it which are not known of at the other.

The United States custom men thought so, too, for the entire Sunday crew of inspectors got orders to go on board the Manchurian and keep their eyes open for anything strange.

It was not long ago that a quality of opium was discovered on the Manchurian. The customs men were everywhere, on deck in between decks, but they did not see anything out-of-the-way.

Everyone agreed that the fireman and made a remarkable fight. Fires of this kind have been known to last a week or two. The Manchurian carries a great deal of cobra and the holds are stain with coconut oil. It was rumored that there were 200 barrels of oil in the hold and several men left the ship, fearing that the fire would get to the oil and it would catch.

The Manchurian has a net tonnage of 8,750 tons. She was built in 1904 in Camden N. J., and carries 350 passengers. It was the boat that took President Taft and his party on their famous Philippine trip.

Source: San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco, 18 March 1912, page 1, and page3, column 2.

MANCHURIAN FIRE DAMAGE COMES TO $150,000.
NEARLY ALL IS CONFINED TO THE BURNING OF COTTON AND U. S. STORES.
BIG LINER IS EMPTIED.

In Part

Investigation made yesterday of the fire in the cargo of the Pacific Mail liner Manchurian, developed that in addition to the death of brave Thomas Ahern, the fireman who lost his life through suffocation, and the injury of five other firefighters, the damage amounted to over $150,000.

One-half of this loss was caused to the 800 bales of cotton, which were either burned or soaked with water, while 600 tons General merchandise stored below the cotton it is also counted a total loss.

HAD LOT OF U. S. STORES.

The work of taking the cotton and another cargo out of the ship begin immediately after the fire had been extinguished Sunday evening, and has continued ever since. The task will be completed, it is said, at 7 o’clock this morning.
.
The lower portion of the hold contain a lot government stores for Manila, including numerous bales of engineers waste. It is the opinion of the underwriters and some of the officials the Pacific Mail that spontaneous combustion on this portion of the cargo was responsible for the fire.

As soon as the damaged cargo was raised from the ship and swung out over the side over the waiting lighter, a hose from the fire boat Dennis Sullivan was played upon the blackened and charred merchandise, in order to put out any remaining spark.

BALES BURST INTO FLAME.

Although most of the bales of cotton have been submerged in water, some of them burst into flames when they were swung into the air. When the fireboat left in the afternoon and returned to her station an engine was sent to the dock to standby, ready to pump water in case there was a renewal of the blaze in the hold.
Source: San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco, 19 March 1912, Tuesday, page 3

Extracted from original sources with grammar and spelling as published.

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