Fire at the pier at Hoboken in 1900

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Coordinates: 40 ° 44 ′ 20 ″  N , 74 ° 1 ′ 37 ″  W The fire at the Hoboken pier was a major fire that broke out on Saturday, June 30, 1900 and claimed approximately three hundred lives. The fire causeddamage tothe port facilities of North German Lloyd in Hoboken (New Jersey) and to the docked liner ships of $ 5.35 million. The fire is considered to be one of the largest disasters in the New York Harbor and one of the largest fire disasters in the United States .

The port facilities in Hoboken around 1900

Fire at the pier at Hoboken in 1900

At the end of the 19th century, Hoboken was an important landing stage in the New York harbor for liner shipping with Europe. Norddeutscher Lloyd , Hamburg-American Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (Hamburg-America Line, Hapag), Scandinavian America Line and Holland-America Line all called at the port, with the connections being mainly used by immigrants from Europe.

The port facilities were located north of today's Hoboken Terminal . The Holland America Line piers were at 5th and 6th streets, and a Scandinavian America Line pier and three North German Lloyds piers were between 4th and 2nd streets. To the south of it followed the three jetties of the Hamburg-America line.

The Lloyd and Hapag piers were numbered in ascending order from north to south. At that time, these two companies had the fastest passenger ships in service. The Scandinavian America Line is still referred to as the Thingvalla Line in contemporary documents , although the company's passenger shipping was already part of DFDS .

At the time of the fire, the following ships were at the docks:

Holland America Line

  • none (on July 2nd the Obdam arrived)

Scandinavian America Line

  • none (the Iceland had already left the port in the morning)

North German Lloyd

Hapag Lloyd Pier

Course of the disaster

North German Lloyd ships' courses during the pier's fire.

The fire broke out on Pier 3 shortly before 4 p.m. The wooden buildings and the stored goods gave the fire a lot of nourishment, so that, fanned by the wind, it spread quickly in a northerly direction. Even before the fire brigade arrived, the fire spread to the cabins of the Saale ship , which set Pier 2 and Bremen on fire. Shortly afterwards the fire also reached Pier 1, where the Kaiser Wilhelm der Große and the Main were lying. Within a quarter of an hour, the entire docking facility of the North German Lloyd was in full fire. The flames then also destroyed the Scandinavian America Line pier, a Campbell warehouse, the port railroad car shed and several freight cars. Only the bonded warehouse and the piers of the Hamburg-America line could be saved. The latter could only be saved by the fire brigade tearing down parts of the shed adjacent to the Norddeutsche Lloyd piers.

Ships

The attempt to save the ships was made more difficult by the fact that the crews on the ships were reduced due to shore leave and that there were also many visitors from the local population on the ships because of the weekend. Only the Kaiser Wilhelm the Great was able to be saved with comparatively minor damage. The Bremen and Saale drifted out of the docks into the Hudson River in a full fire, the Main burned out while lying on the pier. In addition to the Norddeutscher Lloyd ships, 15 barges and 12 inland vessels were burned at the docks. Ships and debris floating on the river partially set fire to docks on the opposite bank in Manhattan . The fire brigades on-site were able to prevent major damage. Some tugs were also slightly damaged by the fire.

Kaiser Wilhelm the Great

The main focus was on the Kaiser Wilhelm the Great . At that time she was the bearer of the Blue Ribbon and the flagship of North German Lloyd. About a quarter of an hour after the fire broke out, it was the first to be pulled out of the dock by tugs. At the time of the fire, almost all of the crew were on the ship. She managed to get the visitors ashore to safety in time and to loosen the lines. On the outer skin of the ship, the paint and wooden decorations were partially burning. The crew was able to put out these fires without causing any major damage. A fire at the bow, which was caused by a burning coal lighter, and a smaller fire at the stern could be extinguished by tugs. In total, about sixty meters of paint burned down the starboard side. Next were deck planks and lifeboats damaged. Several portholes burst from the heat . The Kaiser Wilhelm der Große was pulled into the middle of the Hudson River, where she anchored for the time being. However, it had to be implemented quickly in order not to collide with Bremen, which was burning on the river, and was therefore pulled by tugs up to the level of 46th Street.

Saale

The lines of the Saale were immediately loosened, and about a quarter of an hour after the fire had broken out, the ship drifted out burning on the Hudson River. About fifty people jumped overboard, some drowned; at least forty burned in the lower decks because they could not escape from the passenger cabins through the small portholes . The completely ablaze ship drifted down the Hudson River for about an hour before tugs could pull it to a shallow waterfront near Communipaw. There the wreck sank into the mud after a short time. Among the victims was the ship's captain, August Johann Mirow.

Bremen

The Bremen could be released from the dock before the Saale and also drifted burning out onto the Hudson River. Of the roughly two hundred people on board, many were able to escape to the pier before the ship drifted away, the rest jumped overboard or escaped through the portholes. After about twenty minutes no one was on the ship, which had caught fire mainly on deck, but did not show any major fires below deck. A salvage tug brought the wreck to the Manhattan shore at Pier 32 at Desbrosses Street. The pier caught fire immediately, so the wreck was towed away from the bank and held at Warren Street level for fire fighting to continue. When the ship was listed to port in the evening, it was towed to Weehawken and aground there in a shallow bank zone.

Main

The Main could not be released in time and therefore burned out completely at the pier. It was only after more than seven hours that a tug was able to fasten a rope around the rudder of the wreck and haul it to Weehawken, where it was set aground next to the wreck of the Bremen . Amazingly, 16 coal trimmers survived from the ship's crew , who could not leave the ship in time and therefore sought protection from the fire in an empty coal bunker, which they only left again in Weehawken when the ship was aground.

Factors contributing to the disaster

Various things made this fire disaster particularly devastating:

The dry, hot weather in the previous days and the 50 km / h strong wind from the south let the dock facility with the wooden buildings go up in flames particularly quickly. Only Pier 1, which was built specifically for the handling of Kaiser Wilhelm der Große in 1897 , had a metal structure. The fire found additional nourishment in the large amount of combustible cargo that was stored on the piers. In addition to cotton, there were also barrels of oil, turpentine and whiskey on the quay.

Due to the large number of visitors on the ships - especially on the Kaiser Wilhelm der Große and the almost new shipyard Main - as well as the missing crews, the rescue on the ships was difficult. Most of the population at that time could not swim , so those who were able to save themselves from the flames by jumping into the water mostly drowned if they were not picked up immediately by a tugboat.

People trapped below deck in the burning ships could not break free through the portholes if they were too small in diameter. They burned alive before the eyes of the fire fighting teams, which made this catastrophe particularly cruel in addition to the great material damage and the high number of victims.

Cause of fire

The cause of the fire could not be clarified. On behalf of the North German Lloyd, the investigation was carried out by Hugh Bonner, fire chief, and James Mitchel, fire investigator. Both were retired firefighters who had previously worked for the New York professional fire department . At that time, New Jersey did not have a fire investigation agency. The report only confirmed that the fire originated from a bale of cotton, the fire brigade was alerted immediately when it broke out and was on the spot, and that the fire was not caused by negligence. Some sources suggest the fire was caused by either cotton spontaneous combustion or arson. However, the latter is considered rather unlikely in the official report.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A Year's Fire Waste , Carpentry and Building, Vol. 23, March 1901, p. 58.
  2. ↑ Hoboken Piers Headhouse, River Street at Hudson River, Hoboken ( Memento of the original from January 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 549 kB), Historic American Engineering Record, HAER No. NJ-63  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / lcweb2.loc.gov
  3. ^ A b Maggie Blanck: Hoboken Pier Fire, June 30, 1900 , in the section with commentary by Larry Von Holland (English)
  4. ^ A b c New York Times, July 1, 1900: Over 200 Perish in Burning Liners
  5. ↑ Hoboken Historical Museum: Sepia-tone photo of what appears to be the Hoboken pier fire, approx. June 30, 1900 , the picture shows the ships at Pier 2 by Hapag Lloyd
  6. ^ New York Times, July 1, 1900: Over 200 Perish in Burning Liners - Sections Bonded Warehouse was saved and Hamburg's Piers in Danger
  7. ^ New York Times, July 1, 1900: Over 200 Perish in Burning Liners , section Hamburg's Piers in Danger
  8. ↑ The 1900 Tragedy and Fire of the North German Lloyd Ships Hoboken, New Jersey ( Memento of the original dated February 6, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gawhs.org
  9. ↑ Inside the Apple: [1900http: //blog.insidetheapple.net/2010/06/hoboken-pier-fire-of-1900.html The Hoboken Pier Fire of 1900 ], accessed May 30, 2012
  10. ^ A b New York Times, July 24, 1900: Ex-Chief Bonner on Hoboken Fire

Remarks

  1. ↑ The Innsbrucker Nachrichten of Tuesday, July 3rd 1900, mentions the Hamburg-America Line blew up its piers with dynamite to prevent the conflagration from spreading further. This statement cannot be reconstructed because the systems of the Hamburg-America Line are still preserved on the existing contemporary photos after the fire.