The Fiery End of the Bark 'Hark Hope'

Port Gamble, November 11th. The bark Hark Hope, which took fire yesterday morning and was scuttled, was towed on the beach by the tug Cyrus Walker, where at low water the holes that were made in her will be plugged and the water pumped out. The damage done to hull and cargo must necessarily be considerable. The cause of the accident is not known. It appears that about 2 a.m. one of the crew asleep in the forecastle was awakened by the smell of fire. Upon his coming on deck he discovered smoke issuing from the fore hatch. The alarm was immediately given, the watchman at the mill tooted the large steam whistle in quick succession, which aroused everyone, and in a short time two streams of water were let from the steam pumps in the mill into the lower hold of the bark. Captain Pennhallow had the previous day gone to Seattle on business connected with the vessel, and the mate was in charge, who, together with the crew, the mill hands, the masters of the Chilian ship Margarita and schooner Peerless, Captains Libbey, Hall, Goptil and the longshoremen did all in their power to locate and extinguish the fire, but it was impossible to do so, and as a last resort, after saving everything movable from the vessel, including stores, cabin furniture and clothing, the bark was unmoored from the wharf and scuttled by boring holes in her bow ports. Fortunately there was lumber enough in the lower hold to counteract the weight of the ballast, and as the crew and all interested watched the sinking of the vessel with anxiety, fearing that the hull would go out of sight, as the depth of water near the wharf is about forty feet, it meant destruction, but she stopped when the water reached the deck. Early in the forenoon the tug Cyrus Walker, with her namesake and respected owner, arrived from Port Gamble and beached the bark opposite the mill. The lumber in the vessel is about 400,000 feet. She is a fine vessel, owned in Honolulu.