Few calamities in the States can vie with the sudden loss of life, awful scenes, and swift destruction of property which marked the last day of June in New York. In the bright summer sunshine, looking across the Hudson, a sudden whirlwind of smoke told of an immense conflagration. Great ocean liners before long were seen drifting on the river surrounded by tugs, flames piercing the smoke. In nine minutes the four piers, alongside which had been moored the pick of the North German liners, where aflame from end to end. Crowded with merchandise of every description, the dock buildings, light wooden structures, burnt like tinder. Barrels of oil and spirits exploded, and spread the fire to the shipping. One vessel, with several lighters, was destroyed on the side of the wharf. Three other great ships, the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, the pride of the company, the Bremen, and the Saale, by Herculean efforts were towed out into mid-stream by tugs. Fortunately, the Kaiser Wilhelm got off with comparatively little damage, and was taken across the river to the Cunard dock just opposite. Far different was the fate of the other vessels. The Saale floated down stream and is stranded on the mud of the Weehawken shore*. The Maine and the Bremen were towed up stream and are in a similar plight, dismantled wrecks. The scenes during a wild fight with the flames were horrible. So sudden and startling was the outbreak that scores of the crews were imprisoned under the decks of the burning steamers. Comparatively few escaped in a marvelous fashion after some hours. The decks were strewn with the bodies of those who succumbed to the fierce heat, which speedily made iron and steel red hot. Numbers of others leapt into the water only to meet death by drowning. As to the lost of property, this, it is conjectured, will reach at least 2,000,000 pounds. Of the north German Lloyd's piers, on which the building were erected, only charred stumps remain.

Four North German Lloyd steamships burned. They had been tied up at the pier and none of them had enough power to quickly pull away from the docks. They had to wait for tugs to come and tow them away. The best they could do until the tugs arrived was cut themselves adrift and hope to float way from the fire.

Canal boats, lighters, barges and other debris caught fire and drifted in flames into the North (Hudson) river causing concern that they would set the New york piers on fire. Consequently, two fireboats, the New Yorker and the VanWyck, called from the New York side, initially turned their attention to these drifting menaces and subsequently turned their hoses on the steamships.

The fire was reported all over the united state and in many countries abroad. Images on this page are from the Evening News (Detroit, Michigan), Buffalo Courier, Buffalo, N. Y., Munsey Magazine, the Graphic and Leslie's Weekly

The situation could not have been worse with four berths of the North German Lloyd piers taken, enabling the fire to jump from ship to ship. The ships were (from left to right); The Allers, the Saale, The Bremen, The Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse and the Main.

This diagram is not completely correct: The Aller had left that morning bound for Naples, Italy.

Crew and others aboard the Saale were trapped below deck as the fire raged above and the port holes were too small to allow escape.

The Kaiser Wilhelm de Grosse Towed to Mid Stream

The Steamships Bremen and Main as They Lay Beached and Burning

The Burning Piers and Warehouse as They Looked at 6 o'clock the Night of June 30th

Steamship Bremen Burning

Towing the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse Out of the Fire Zone

There was no additional text with the images of the Hoboken pier fire.

I cannot find anything on the tug nearest the ship. I believe she is a Moran company tug as she appears to have the "M" on her smoke stack. It may be "Peter Gah" or "Cah" on her bow; ------ Cahill on her wheelhouse.

The other boat is the M Moran. See Tugboats below.

THE SMOKING WRECKAGE OF THE PIERS AND WAREHOUSES, ALL THAT IS LEFT OF A FAMOUS AND POPULAR SHIPPING CENTER

THREE GREAT OCEAN LINERS AND TWENTY-THREE SMALLER CRAFT GO UP IN FLAMES —THE RIVER COVERED WITH BURNING WRECKAGE

The crowd appears to be curiosity seekers.

Until 1898 the U. S. Post Office had the exclusive right to print postcards. In May 1898 Congress passed the "Private Mailing Card Act" which allowed private companies and individuals to print "Private Mailing Cards". They were also as "souvenir cards". Until 1901 these cards could not be called "postcards".

"Private Mailing Cards" were printed after the fire. I have obtained the following three examples.

Campells Store House - The Main - The Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse - The Saale - The Bremen

Captain Mirow was reportedly one of the most popular captains in the fleet. He remained with the burning ship even as others jumped off. He was awarded a hero's death.

A service was held in the German Lutheran Church on Schermerhorn Street in Brooklyn on July 21, 1900. His ashes were sent to his widow in Bremerhaven. [Honolulu republican, July 21, 1900]

" The divers picked up what they were sure was the body of the Saale's captain. He died at his post. The cruel flames left so little of his body that it was identified only by his pocket knife and his gold watch chain melted into a shapeless lump

Boston Daily Globe, July 2, 1900 Pier3

At the North German Lloyd docks in Hoboken on June 30, 1900 were four ships: Bremen, Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, Main, & Saale. All of these ships were tied to the dock and none of them had their power up. This put all of them in a very precarious position, as they were virtually incapable of moving with any speed under their own power. They were dependent on the tug boats to get them quickly away from the burning piers.

• The Bremen (2) threw off her lines and drifted until she was towed to mid stream by tugs. She was beached in the Weehawken flats.

  She was built in 1897 and ceded to Britain as war reparation in 1919. In 1921 to Byron Line renamed the Constantinople. The Ship List

  See also Norway-Heritage, Bremen (2)

• The Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse was cut loose and towed by tugs to safety in the North River (Hudson). She was taken across the river to the Cunard Line docks. She suffer some minor damage. By July 4, 1900 her sides and deck had been painted hiding all marks of the fire. The only signs of her ordeal were an occasional scratch or cracked porthole glass. She set sail from the Cunard pier in New York for Germany at 10:30 July 3, 1900. She carried many survivors of the disaster.

  The Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse was built in 1897. In 1914 she became a German armed merchant cruiser. In 1914 she was sunk by HMS Highflyer at Rio de Oro, Spanish Sahara. The Ship List

  See Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse 1897 - 1914

  and Norway-Heritage, S/S Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, Norddeutscher Lloyd

• The Main (2) which was actually furthest from the starting point of the fire was not able to get loose from her mooring. After seven hours she was towed by tug to Weehawken where she was beached. Sixteen men survived the burning of the Main.

  SIXTEEN ESCAPE BY A MIRACLE The most remarkable incident of the fire was the escape of some of the crew of the Main. The vessel lay helpless in a cauldron of fire for seven hours. Finally, at 11:30 P.M. the tugboat Edwin A. Stevens managed to make fast to the still burning hulk of the Main and towed it to Weehawken, where it was beached. The tug went next to the ship, and the crew were greatly astonished to see sixteen men crawl out of the ruin.

  FLED TO COAL BUNKER They said that when the fire started they had fled to a coal bunker in the lowest part of the vessel and had staid there until they felt the motion of the ship. Many men in the compartment above them had been suffocated, they said. The Stevens took the men to Hoboken where they went to Meyer & Stenck's Hospital on River Street. They had all suffered terribly from the heat, but after a while all revived sufficiently to go away, except Carl Mehl, who had been blinded by steam. He was taken to St. Mary's Hospital, where the doctor feared that his sight was gone forever.

  New York Times

  See Hoboken Pier Fire

  She was built in 1900 and ceded to Britain as war reparation in 1919 The Ship List

  See also Norway-Heritage, the Main

• The Saale threw off her lines and drifted until she was towed to mid stream by tugs.

  She was built in 1886. In 1900 she was damaged in NY dock fire, sold Luckenbach SS Co., NY, renamed J.L. Luckenbach. The Ship List

  Norway Heritage, the Saale

  In 1889 the Saale hit an iceberg at sea as evidenced by an engraving for sale on ebay in July 2010: A MOMENT OF PERIL AT SEA -- THE STEAMSHIP SAALE AT MIDNIGHT, RUNS UPON AN ENORMOUS ICEBERG, IN LAT. 42 54', LONG 49 54' FRANK LESLIE'S ILLUSTRATED NEWSPAPER

Several tugboats were mentioned by name in articles about the pier fire.

It seems the tugs performed three main functions during the fire: spraying waster on the burning vessels and piers, pushing or tugging the ships around, and rescuing men over board.

I have not been able to find any pictures of the tugboats with the exception of the M Moran which is identifiable in one of the pictures from Leslie's Weekly.

• Edwin A Stevens

  Named for either Edwin A Stevens (1795-1868) or Edwin A Stevens, Jr (1858-1918) both of the Hoboken family of Stevens. At his death Edwin A Stevens senior left land and money to found "a institution of learning" - The Stevnes Institute of Technology. Colonel Edwin A Stevens was president of the Hoboken Ferry company in 1894. He designed the first screw propeller ferry boat.

• George P. Cooper

  I cannot find anything on the "George P Cooper". I may be the George F Cooper. George F Cooper was a U. S. N. Captain and the "hydrographer of the navy" under President Wilson.

• Morgan steam tug

  Man-o'-War Rock post light, East River, New York.—On May 1897, the steam tug Morgan or barge she had in tow, damaged the spindle so that a new one, at a cost of $495, was put in place of it.

  Annual report of the Light-House Board of the United States to the Secretary ... By United States. Light-House Board

  The tug Morgan, bound down the lake with a Standard Oil barge in tow, encountered the steamer Robert Rhodes in distress, make for shelter behind Pelee Island. The Rhodes had been badly battered and most of her bulwarks were gone.

  New York Times article on big storm in Lake Erie, September 13, 1900

• Eli B. Conine a steam tug built Wilmington Delaware, 1900, home port, Albany New York

  Captain in 1900 was Capt. Eli B Conine.

  Merchant Steam Vessel of the United States, 1911

  July 18, 1901 Tug WALLACE B. FLINT was towing for the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad last week in place of the ELI B. CONINE. The latter broke her wheel and was out on Gokey's drydock for a new Sullivan wheel. She also received a new plank on her port side.

  Tugboat Enthusiasts Society of the Americas 1900-1911,

  The Eli B Conine was involved in an accident in New York Harbor on May 20,1902. She was towing a float carrying sixteen railroad cars when she collided with the Central Railroad of New Jersey's ferry boat, Mauch Chunk. The collision occurred in dense fog. No one was hurt.

• Despatch

• Cornelius Van Cott

  January 31, 1901 J. H. McConnell's Harlem River Towing Line now have tug CORNELIUS VAN COTT

  Tugboat Enthusiasts Society of the Americas 1900-1911

• James D. Leary

  June 12, 1902 The tugs CHARLES F. HARRIS and JAMES D. LEARY are towing ice barges on the Hudson. Tugboat Enthusiasts Society of the Americas 1900-1911

  August 14, 1902 Tug JAS. D. LEARY arrived from Albany on Monday with half-a-dozen deeply-laden canal boats. Tugboat Enthusiasts Society of the Americas 1900-1911

• De Witt C. Ivins

  The De Witt C Ivins was an ocean going steel tug and one of the "best tugs on the Atlantic Coast". She was bought by the US government from Morgan Towing in March 1898. She was built in 1897 by Neafie & Levy of Philadelphia and cost #30,000. [New York Times, March 24, 1898]

  Boston, Dec 12. Capt. Charles Olsen of the Standard dOil Company's Barge No. 48 and his crew of three men were bought to this port to-day by the fishing schooner Gertrude, the barge having been abandoned off Chatham Tuesday.
  The barge, with No. 75, was in tow of tug De Witt C Ivins, and both were anchored off Chatham Light, while the tug ran up to Provincetown to get coal. On Barge 48 the anchos could not would not hold and the barge drifted seaward. Barge 75 also drifted, and the barges staid together while their towing hawser held. Capt. Olsen lost sight of Barge 75 at 6 o'clock Tuesday night, when about thirty miles southeast of Chatham. At noon Wednesday the schooner Gertrude sighted Barge 48 and took off the crew.
  The whereabouts of Barge 75 is not known but a tug will be sent out to find her. Capt. Charles Peterson is in command, and she carries a crew of four men. New York Times, December 13, 1902

  The De Witt C Ivins listed as owned by M Moran by the tugboat Enthusiasts Society of the Americas 1900-1911, although it was not listed at Tugboat Information.com; Moran Towing

• M. Moran

  Moran Towing was established by Irish immigrant Michael Moran. See Moran Towing Corporation,Inc.

  The Moran Tugs were named for family members and a large white M was painted on the smokestacks.The M Moran was sold to the British Admiralty in 1916 but Moran Towing later bought it back at the end of World War I. Moran Towing is the biggest towing service in the US.

  April 16. — About 3:30 p.m. steamer lighter Long Island coollided of Fulton Ferry, East River, with towing steamer M Moran, causing very slight damage. Both steamers had tows. No one hurt. Investigated May 5, decision May 20 suspending license of Peter Cherry, master of the tug M Moran, for 21 days. Annual report of the Supervising Inspector General, Steamboat Inspection ... By United States. Steamboat Inspection Service, 1903

  December 3—About 4 a.m. Albert Johnson, Captain, of a scow in tow of tug M Moran, while in the East channel, New York Harbor, fell overboard and drown. Annual report of the Supervising Inspector General, Steamboat Inspection ... By United States. Steamboat Inspection Service, 1903

  Built in 1900 by Neafie & Levy Ship & Engine Building Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as the M. Moran for the Moran Towing Company. Her final disposition is unknown. Tugboat Information.com; Moran Towing

• Eugene Grasselli, Captain in 1900, Capt. James A Cox

• Champion

• Arnott, Capt. Eldridge was near the burning Bremen from 5 o'clock on Saturday to 1 o'clock Sunday [NY Times, July 4, 1900]

• W F Daizell rescued 70 people after the fire. Captain of the same name [NY Times July 4, 1900]

• Mary L Tyson rescued 75 people after the fire [NY times July 4, 1900]

• John Tracy, Capt Daniel Flannery, rescued 20 men

Tugboat Enthusiasts Society of the Americas

Hustler (Wrecker).

Fireboats, New Yorker and VanWyck

Lighters

Lighter n. A large flatbottom barge, especially one used to deliver or unload goods to or from a cargo ship or transport goods over short distances.

tr.v. lightáered, lightáeráing, lightáers

The Free Dictionary On Line by Farlex

"Erected, North German Lloyd Steamship Co., 1900"

This great web site contains images and information on the fire. It includes a list of 147 North German Lloyd employees who died in the fire.