STEAMSHIP BURNED AT PIER.

The Luckenbach, from West Indies, and Cargo of Sugar Destroyed.

Flames swept through the hold of the steamship Harry Luckenbach last night, and before they were under control the wessel had sunk at her pier in the Erie Basin and her cargo of sugar, valued at $175,000, was practically destroyed. The Luckenbach, which is owned by the Luckenbach Insular Line, was just in from West Indian ports, and had tied up at Beard's Stores, at the foot of Van Brunt Street, Brooklyn. A gang went to work yesterday morning unloading the sugar, 45,000 bags of which were in the hold.

At sunset the stevedores quit work, and several of the ship's officers and crew went ashore for the night, leaving a few members of the crew on board. Shortly after 7 o'clock one of the crew, upon leaving the galley forward, noticed a dull glare at the stern and smoke rising from an open hatch.

All hands turned out to fight the blaze. Hugh Plunkett, a watchman, was passing the gate of Beard's Stores when he heard one of the steamship crew shout the alarm. Plunkett had been fooled on a "fire" call a few weeks before, and, not caring to be fooled again, he walked to the ship's side before he turned in an alarm.

Half an hour elapsed before an engine arrived. Another fire was in progress in Tiffany Place, and most of the fire force in that section of Brooklyn was busy there. One engine, several miles away from Erie Basin, responded.

The fireboat New Yorker also reached the scene about the time the engine arrived. The crew of the Luckenbach had been doing what they could to check the flames. They dashed water down the hold, but it made little or no impression on the fire. By the time the firemen had streams of water trained down the hold the flames had spread from stem to stern and shortly afterward the vessel sank to the bottom. Her upper structure did not disappear, however, as the water is comparatively shallow where the Luckenbach lay.

Capt. John Dalton, who commands the Luckenbach, was on hand to direct the work of his crew. It was said last night that between the fire and the water the ship's cargo of sugar is practically worthless.

The New York Times, New York, NY 22 Dec 1909
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Transcribed by Tim Taugher. Thanks, Tim!