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Show FOURTEEN FLEE FROM A FIERY FATE I TO MEET DEATH BENEATH TIE WAVES I Steamship Queen, En Route From San Fraacisco to Paget Sound, Takes Fire I While at SeaSeveral of the Passengers and Crew Took, to 'the Boats-Captain I Stands by Vessel and, After Desperate Battle, Flames Are Checked. I SEATTLE, Wash., Feb. 2S. Fourteen people lost their lives r.s the result of the fire on the steamer Queen from San Francisco to Seattle early yesterday f morning. Tho origin of the fire ls as yet unknown. It started in the social hall of the vessel at about 1:30 ln the morning and raged for three hours before be-fore it was gotten under control. When the conflagration was first dis- covered, the lifeboats containing the women and children and many men, wcro'launfched, but three of these, owing ow-ing to heavy seas, capsized, spilling the passengers In the water nnd causing the loss of nine lives. Three men." waiters on thc vessel, were suffocated before they could reach the outer air in safety from their bunks ln the "glory hole" ln the aft part of the ship, and ono woman died later from exposure. expos-ure. According- to thc stories told -by pas- . songc-rs and. crew of the Queen, which I arrived in this port at 5 o'clock this af- tcrnoon. the vessel wan off Tillamook IH and about thirty milon from land when uM the lire was discovered. There was a IH heavy sea on and the ship was pitch- IH t ing badly. When amok1 was rlpcovered IH coming out of the. social hall on the af-ter af-ter main deck of the Vessel, an alarm was pounded and the crew and passen- HJ gcrs all tumbled out in wild alarm, IHJ (Continued 011 Page 8.) FOURTEEN FLEE FROM FIRE TO DROWN IN SEA (Continued Prom Pago 1.) When Capt. CouslnR, commander of tho vessel, discovered the extent of tho lire, which embraced practlcnlly all tho rear portion of the vessel, he immediately imme-diately ordered the lifeboats lnunched. Four tilled with women and children and sufileiont men to man them, were dropped over from tho leeward side of the vessel, each containing about sixteen six-teen people. The first boat capsized almost us eoon as it touched the water by getting under the stern of the ship. All the passencors In this were rescued res-cued by the other small boats, with the exception of n Mien Stainer, a first-class first-class passenger, who was drawn under tho ship when the boat capsized. The Koconcl boat capsized while being1 lowered. low-ered. There wero no passengers In this at the time, but the crew of four men who were aboard, wore spilled out and lost. A third boat filled about half a mile from the Queen and all but four of its passengers and crew were rescued res-cued by tho other small craft In the vicinity. The list of the missing Is as follows- Flnst Cabin Miss Steiner, Cloeluni; Wash., drowned In destruction of small boat. Mrs. 13. Adams, Seattle, a woman wo-man lof SO, who died from exposure throe hours after the discovery of the fire. Second Class D. E. Newberry and II. Buckley, drowned. Deck Hands A. NIlBon, J. Nelson and J3.,Fiutas, drowned. Engineer Department Peler Nuhn and M. Flynn, drowned. N Walter? W. Holneman nnd Raymond, Ray-mond, drowned; M. Somers, H. Doug-Ins Doug-Ins and A. Donnelly, burned and suffocated. suf-focated. Tho lifeboats that were floated safely safe-ly and two rafts that were thrown over to pick up any who might be thrown In the. water, remained in the vicinity of tho burning vessel and within view of It while the fire wns being fought by the crew and those among tho male passengers who remained on board. Every available stream of water was thrown Into the burning cabin, the men working coolly and without excitement. ex-citement. The Burvlvors etato that every man kopt his head and worked hard to subdue sub-due tho flnmca Despite their efforts, however, It was after 7 o'clock before tho fire was under control and the signal sig-nal given to tho Email boats to return to the vessel. Passengers, when Interviewed thiB nfternoon, stated without exception that everything was done by Capt. Cousins that was possible, to Insure their safety. Had it not been necessary neces-sary to send off the boats not a life would have been lost, but us It was dark when the fire started and It was Impossible to light the vessel or to confine con-fine the women to their staterooms, It was absolutely necessary to send them away to avoid a panic. Practically the entire after part of the ehlp la in ruins. The intense heat of the Humes haH bent and twisted the Interior Iron work into a shapeless mass, and sailors viewing the ruin today, to-day, slate that they do not understand how it was found possible to get control con-trol of the flames. Were Is not for the fact that the- captain, crew anil passengers passen-gers behaved with the utmost orolncss, the vessel would have undoubtedly been dcstr03'ed and the loss of life been enormous. enor-mous. The vesBel carried more than 200 passengers. |
