Newspapers / The Franklin Times (Louisburg, … / Jan. 23, 1969, edition 1 / Page 5
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The Ship That Nearly Burned Down New York New' York (NAPS) ? She was the grandest of a dying breed. She inspired a 'poet, and threatened a city with destruction. She was the largest clipper ship ever built: the incomparable "Great Re public." Her iron-hooped hard pine mast - 44 inches in diameter at its base- towered 20 stories above the three-inch planking of her main deck. Fifty-six tons of copper bolts held her 325-foot hull to its white oak frame cross-braced with iron. Rigged with rope stays over a foot in circumference, she carried 1S.653 square yards of sail at full spread. The "Great Republic" was twice the size of any other clipper in existence, according to the records of the Atlantic GETTING UP III^UTC MAKES MANY nlVllI J FEEL OLD Common Kidney or Bladder Irrita tions make many men and women feel tense and nervous from frequent, burning or itching urination night and day. Secondarily, you may lose sleep and have Headache. Backache and feel older, tired, depressed In such cases. CYSTKX usually brings relaxing comfort by curbing irritat ing germs in acid urine and quickly easing pain. (Jet CYSTKX at druggists Mutual Insurance Company. "She's unseaworthy , the doubters had said. "Too big to handle. A storm will break her up. Her rigging won't hold under gale winds." But Donald McKay, the great skipwright whose dream she was. laid the keel in his East Boston shipyard and financed the vessel himself. McKay's grandiose project partially inspired Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem. "The Building of the Ship," which ends with the lines: "Thou, too, sail on. O Ship of State! Sail on. O Union. Strong and great!" ? AV noon on October 4. 1853, the "Great Republic" - christened in the spirit of ?L./iigtellow'j,, .poem -was launched in Boston harbor to the strains of "Hail Colum bia!" Donald McKay's brother Lauchlan would be her cap'tain. A shakedown cruise from Boston to New York proved the vessel's merits. The cap tain and his 130-man crew found her easy to handle. On her arrival in New York NEED MONEY Amt. Cash You Get Mo. Pmt. $239.12 515.00 $292.73 $18.00 $332.27 $20.00 $391.58 $23.00 $431.11 $25.00 $490.42 $28.00 $529.96 $30.00 $548.02 $31.00 CALL US TODAY - COLLECT 438-4113 CONSUMER CREDIT Co. 121 S. GARNETT ST. HENDERSON, N.C. Across From Woolworths WE CAN OFFER YOB i A GREAT DEAL ON 1 MANHOTAN, Dial station-to-stationtiirect and save up to 40%. This way you can get Manhattan for as much as 40% less than person-to-person rates. The same offer holds good for practically every city in the United StateF" or Canada. And the deal gets even better after 7 p.m. and all weekend when you can call anywhere in the United States (except Alaska and Hawaii), for a dollar or less, plus tax. @omUha, 7eUfi6o*te THE FIRE THAI THREATENED NEW YORK broke out near the docks on December 27, 1853 According to the marine archives of the Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company, flying sparks became "a shower of fire" as hand drawn, hand worked pumping machine rushed to battle the holocaust. The city was saved, but the proud "Great Republic", the world's largest merchant vessel, was ignominiously scuttledjji the East River - before it sailed a single sea. thousands lined the East River to welcome tier, and thousands more came to ad mire the world's largest mer chant vessel, moored at the foot of Dover Street. Corn, wheatr-flottr tobac co. tea and cotton were stow ed in the ship's vast holds -their capacity was ti.000 tons. Donald McKay ex pected his clipper ship to sel new records on her maiden Atlantic run to Liverpool, both for speed and amount of cargo carried. December 27 was set as a departure date. Shortly after midnight, on the bitter cold morning of the 27th. began the catastrophe which was to shatter McKay's dream and endanger the < itv of New York. The ship's \ watch; ^-Ihearing shouts of "Fire!" close at hand, rant out on the bowsprit and saw smoke rising from a building ?the Novelty Bakery -a block away on Front Street. Soon flames were breaking through I he roof. The fire tocsin in City Hall pealed the alarm, put fire fighting a century ago was primitive. "The city had but 50-odd pumping machines; men, not horses, drew thetn to the fire, and meny not steam, worked the pumps. And worse. firCmen/Were vol unteers, not regulars, on duty round the ckxk ; precious" time was'loM before they arrived, / ' The bakery fire rapidly spread/to neighboring' build ' ingvr Soon, between Front nwi Water Streets, a dozen structures were ' in flames Borne on a, brisk northwest wind, sparks and firebrands began to d,rift toward the docKs The library of marine archives kept by the Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company includes newspaper accounts of the holocaust. "Sparks were so thick. . as to assume tht agp*aranee of a shower of fire," wrote one reporter. "The streets and docks along the East River were literally alive with burning coals." Alerted by the watch. Cap tain Lauchlan McKay called all hands to stations, and sent men aloft with water buckets to protect the ship's rigging and sails. Also moored at doekside. just south of the "('?real Republic." were the | Liverpool packet "Joseph Walker," the California clip per White Squall .' and two other vessels But. continues Atlantic Mutual's archives. "The rigging and masts. . were completely enveloped in, flying sparks." Three ships were towed into mid-river despite the flames in their rigging by Kul ton Street ferry boats. One ferry and a tug tried to move the "Great Republic", but her load was so heavy that she could only be moved at high tide. Her moorings cut. the ""White Squall," driven by the implacable northwest wind toward the Brooklyn shore, threatened to spread the flames to still another section of the city. Toward 1:30 P.M: the "J seph Walker" caught fire, and biurned to the water's edge. Shortly afterward the main topgallant of the "Great Republic" began to smolder, then burst into flame. Fire Chief Alfred Car son had three engine com panies at dockside.. but they were helpless: no hand pump made could send a stream of water as high as the "Great Republic's" masts Pieces of flaming rigging began to fall to the deck, setting new fires. The McKay brothers of fered $1,000 to anyone who would cut the fore and main masts above the masthead, but in vain. They agreed that by cutting the rigging to bring down the masts- fire-ttmuage had already snapped the fore mast hull and cargo might be ?aved. Now the spanker, miz /.en -and the mainmasts were demolished. At last the firemen-eight or nine companies by this time -could "bring'their hoses to bear on the burning tangle of wood. rope, and sail on the badly damaged deck. A driv ing snow fell intermittently. T quote again from Atlantic Mutual* fHesv j:Fhe-streets In the vicinity were crowded with spectators. . and the night so cold that the water froze as it fell even on the side of the burning vessel! So violent was the wind that it threatened destruction to some of the buildings along the docks. " Mtan'while. the course of the drifting "White Squall" toward Brooklyn was causing great concern, especially in the Third District, where the engine companies were busy with fires of another origin. T. w?rd 3:30 A.M. she came broadside into a wooden pier near the present-day site of the Navy Yard, where she was made fast to avoid spreading the fire further. Every avail able firefighter worked to ex tinguish the flames, but by 9 o'clock that morning nothing .emained of the clipper "? except her shaking and creak ixtg hull, which was .being. . .levelled to the water's edge." About 4:00 P.M. the worst seemed over for the "Great Republic." Despite extensive damage to deck, masts, and rigging, the hull and cargo appeared safe. Only two com panies of firemen remained, washing down the deck while the crew raked the last live embers overboard. Then, amidships, came a telltale curl of briiwn smoke. Fire down below! . ? . They knew that when it snapped, the giant mainmast had pierced the main deck's planking. They had not known that the splintered mast butt had gone through two decks below, and buried itself deep in the stocks of wheat -more than 23.000 bushels- in the hold. They had not known that with the butt of the mast, deep into the wheat, had gone live coals. The firemen did what. -* COKER, McNAIR, SPEIGHT ' WATSON & BELL TOBACCO SEEDS PLANT BED FERTILIZER PLANT BED GAS PLANT BED COVERS PLANT BED APPLICATOR Alouisburg FCX SERVICE Sam Wood, Mgr. Bickett Blvd. Louisburg, N. C. could, /be done with. their handdriven pumj>s. They tiiok their hoses between decks, and asked, for niore engine companies, but the concentration of heat in the hold was too great The cargo could not be saved. Lauchlan McKay realized Hie. bitter truth. The mighty hull, of the "Great Republic" might still be saved if the ship were scuttled. The fire below could be. -drowned in he , waters of the East River. His brother Donald agreed. Three holes were opened below the waterlvtie. All hands went ashore. As the sun rose, the "Gieat Re public" began to settle. The fire in the cargo compart ments hissed and went out. But even with her keel agrqunft two of the great ship's upper decks, remained above water. It took another two days to put out the fire which continued to smolder in the vessel's timbers. The ordeal of the "Great Republic." however, v. as not 1 ye> over although the fire itself did end on New Year's Day. 1854. When Donald and Lauchlan McKay undertook to raise her scuttled hull. the\ found it warped and twisted from the swelling of the water-soaked grain in the hold. Still salvageable, for the .McKay brothers it was no longer their "Gieat Re public". no longer the dream which Donald McKay had spent a fortune to turn into reality. The hull of the vessel was sold. Raised and rebuilt-min ui her top deck- she was rerig ged with shorter masts. Thanks to her giant hull, she was still the biggest ship in * the world. When she -went to England, she had to^nchor in the Thames: no London dock was big enougu for her. Visit ors were heard to ask her captain "whether he had left any lumber for shipbuilding in -Ihe I'nited States, or brought it all with him." The French chartered Jier as a troop ship during the Crimean War. and the AGreat Republic" lived up to her name-and Longfellow's poem-by earning Union troops in the American Civil War In 1872. off Bermuda, she began to shfp water dur ing a hurricane, and her crew, abandoned her. The "Great Republic" was never seen again, but a few old sailors believe she's still afloat. . -.somewhere. Releasing Airmen The Air Force has agreed to release in February about '15.000 enlisted men whose terms were not up until late next year. The order applies to men who are not overseas and whose terms will not expire until the "last 'Three months of 1%9. YftaAtui W*M Gampxitiy. WELL BORING - DEEP WELL DRILLING WARREN TON. N. C. "A IVtU A Drty- The Martin IV ,iy' N. C. LICENSE NO Z DAY 257 3651 MANLEY S MARTIN NIGHT 257 3J92 AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION PFPAIP HEADQUARTERS EXPERT REPAIR SERVICE \ ON ALL KINDS OF AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSIONS MOST PARTS IN STOCK FOR PROM? I - EFFICIENT GUARANTEED SERVICE Pete Smith's Garage Rt. 3, Louisburg Phone 496-4983 GRADE A WHOLE FRYERS l. 260 SWIFT'S PREMIUM BACON ? 590 KLEENEX 2,2, 49C GOLD NOTE _ _ MARGARINE 1350 PHILLIPS PORK & BEANS 22!/2 SIZE CANS GREER 2 PEACHES! $1 WHITE HOUSE APPLE SAUCE a 190 COBLE PUKV-J ALL FLAVOR! ??. ICE CREAM ?- 690 WYNNE'S SUPER MARKET FREE iSWg&'VAL- u csvss. open DEUVER^M^^eserv^h^igh^^mMuantitie^llGHTS
The Franklin Times (Louisburg, N.C.)
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Jan. 23, 1969, edition 1
5
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