Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 July 1895 — ON FIRE IN MID-OCEAN. [ARTICLE]

ON FIRE IN MID-OCEAN.

Flames Break Out in the Lower Hold of La Normandie. The French line steamship La Normandie, bound from Havre, moved up the bay to her dock at the foot of Martin street, New York, Saturday morning with flags flying in the sunlight and nothing but the rush of water from her powerful pumps to give a clew to the terrible dangers of the voyage. Yet in midocean throughout Tuesday night, in the thick fog and storm, the starboard freight compartment of the good ship, packed with valuable merchandise, was a roaring mass of fire, while the seventy-five first and second cabin passengers and 205 occupants of the steerage waited for the seemingly inevitable order to “take to the boats.” For fifteen hours the battle raged between the crew and the flames, and it was not until well along toward noon of Wednesday that the vessel’s safety was assured.