ACCIDENTS FROM IGNITION OF PETROLEUM. 
303 
cause of it and a custom-house officer who accompanied him were dreadfully burnt 
about the face, legs, and hands. In a few moments the barge was enveloped in names, 
when the ropes which secured it to the shore, catching fire, snapped asunder, whereupon 
the burning mass drifted with the tide up the river, facing the general warehouses. 
Some small steamers belonging to the port authorities, with sailors and firemen on board, 
at once got up steam and made for the still burning barge, which they empora.i y 
secured with a chain, and then made efforts to sink by pumping water in 01 , iu or a 
considerable time without avail. In the course of these proceedings one of the steamers 
caught fire at the bows. Eventually, the commander of the life-boat Monte Christo 
after the repeated orders of the captain of the port, succeeded in scuttling the barge at 
the stern. It was now imagined that all danger was oyer. A train of liquid tire, coming 
from the barge, was drifted by the current in the direction of a mass of ships, and speedily 
communicated itself to them. Almost at the same moment three or our vesse s wei 
discovered to be on fire, with no means at hand of rendering them the smallest assist¬ 
ance. Up till eleven o’clock the tide was coming in, and, the floating fire rising with it, 
several other ships became ignited. Those most heavily laden were the first to sullei, 
as their copper bottoms being below the water-line their wooden sides offered no 
resistance to the flames, whereas the unladen vessels, protected by their copper, 0 
most part escaped. Within the space of less than a couple of miles something like 
five-and-twenty ships were to be seen on fire at the same moment. *1 L 
o’clock the following morning, fourteen vessels were stiff to be seen in flames, or 
smouldering with their huffs burnt almost down to the water s edge. The damage 
is estimated by the port authorities at ten millions of francs. . , i 
The Chairman of the Board of Works, in referring to tins case, said that ^ the event 
of any explosion on any of their wharves, the burning petroleum mig y 
into the sewers, and from them into the Thames, and thus endanger ie PP n 
thought they ought to be particularly careful in granting licences, an ' 
Captain Shaw to give them a report and all the information that he could affoi 
Board on this important question. 
Ignition of Petroleum at Sea.-On Saturday, September 
‘Lady Wodehouse,’ on her way from London to : Dublinencountered a ^ v ) g 
Part of the cargo consisted of petroleum and lucifer match.es The lashmg^o^the 
petroleum casks gave way, and being dashed against the cie set fire to 
immediately ignited, and the casks rolling towards the centre o ’ , rapidity 
the sides of the saloon, fired two of the lifeboats, the flames rising 
above the deck. The scene, it is said, lasted three hours; but happffy, by the judg ne t 
of the captain and the untiring exertions of the crew, the ^ ™ 
flames broke out a second time, when the petroleum casks an , r t we lve 
thrown overboard, and the ship, after contending fruitless y wi 
hours, put into Dungeness, where most of the passengers were an e 
Convictions under the Petroleum Act.-Meem. Thoro^o^of OTtapnrStoe^ 
were summoned for having kept a quantity of petroleum on .V i’ . } ia q ^ eea 
the provisions of the Act. They had made two applications ’ 
^ta/or^e^fveT—in which penalties have been indicted for similar 
offences. 
Penalty for Sending for Shipment 
wise dangerous nature, without due Notice. q. Katharine or Vic- 
a penalty of £20 attaches to all parties sending to e on o , erQU ’ nature) 
toria Docks, for shipment goods of a combustib e 0 . the packages containing 
without their description being distinctly marked on foe 
the same. Sufficient information as to the nature of ^ until the export 
in the shipping-note, and such articles will not be received at th» docks unt to 
vessel is ready to take them on board. Nitroglycerine or glonoine oil will not be re¬ 
ceived for shipment at the docks under any circumstances. 
