THE MAJESTIC ON FIRE.
On Wednesday morning last, at about 5 o’clock, a fire was discovered in the linen room on the forward part of the orlop deck of the White Star steamer, the Majestic, while the ship was still a considerable distance from New York. It was soon apparently extinguished by the officers and crew, and very few of the passengers knew anything about it. About an hour later, however, while breakfast was going on in the cabin, a second fire started, and once more the firefighting crew set to work. They did so coolly and promptly, and again without alarming the passengers, expecting to be able to get the blaze under as easily as they did the other.
When they opened the door of the linen room, however, they found out their mistake. The room was in a mass of flames. A hose was at once attached to the hydrant cock at the foot of the ’tween-deck companionway, and the water turned on the blaze. Meanwhile the dense smoke had made its way to the saloon deck, aud soon forced the passengers out of the aft entrance to the dining saloon and to the upper deck. After dragging out the burning linen, it was found that the planks, seamed with marine glue and tar to make them watertight, were smouldering. The smoke from this broiling mixture of glue and tar made the air stifling, and almost sickened a number of the passengers as it swept in clouds up the companlonways to the ’tween and saloon decks overhead. It was not until most of the planking in the room had been ripped up that the officers and crew could extinguish the blaze. Many of the quiet, knowing passengers were happy when t he ship reached its pier, and lost no time in getting ashore. An insulated electric wire and overheated boilers are given as the cause of the two fires.
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