Destruction By Fire
By 1894 Willamette Chief had come to the end of her useful life, and was moored at Albina, Oregon awaiting dismantling. By this time the steamer was owned by the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company which arranged to have its wheat dock located near the coal tipples for its steam locomotives. Moored at the wheat dock, as was often the case, was a ship loading wheat, and across the river from the ship was the Willamette Chief. Somehow a fire ignited at a coal tipple, perhaps caused by inflammable coal dust. The burning tipple ignited the wheat dock. Men on the dock desperately hacked at the ship's moorings to get her free before she could catch fire. Just as the wheat ship came free of the dock, the coal tipple collapsed in flames and fire leapt up into the ship's rigging. Drifting free, the burning ship crashed into Willamette Chief which herself was quickly consumed by the fire.
Read more about this topic: Willamette Chief (sternwheeler)
Famous quotes containing the words destruction and/or fire:
“Though castles topple on their warder’s heads,
Though palaces and pyramids do slope
Their heads to their foundations; though the treasure
Of nature’s germens tumble all together,
Even till destruction sicken—answer me
To what I ask you.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Man, became man through work, who stepped out of the animal kingdom as transformer of the natural into the artificial, who became therefore the magician, man the creator of social reality, will always stay the great magician, will always be Prometheus bringing fire from heaven to earth, will always be Orpheus enthralling nature with his music. Not until humanity itself dies will art die.”
—Ernst Fischer (1899–1972)