About 4 p.m. the head of the pier took fire, caused by a lighter full of matches or lumber which had in turn been set ablaze by the heat from ashore. By this time the heat from Yokohama was tertific, and with the wharf taking fire the Australia seemed in great danger. The Steel Navigator, the vessel astern of the Empress, still did not seem to realize the imminence of the danger, and dia not move, so there was nothing to do but to back the Australia close up to her. The Steel Navigator had two anchors down, and the starboard propeller of the Autralia got foul of her port chain and! thus created a new predicament.
The Steel Navigator is a ship of about 4,000 tons net I should think so she carried a pretty heavy cable, and for such a thing to be foul of a propeller is about the next worse calamity to actual wreck.
All the time the fire was creeping nearer, mostly helped by
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.