The Delaware, built in 1880, was a wooden-hulled, coal-fired steam freighter.  She was owned by W.P. Clyde & Company out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the time of sinking.  <P>A raging fire began spreading below the decks when the Delaware was about 10 miles east of Barnegat, New Jersey.  Crew members quickly determined there was no hope of containment and launched distress rockets as the wooden steamer headed westward toward land.  About two miles offshore, the fire broke through the decks and lit up the night sky.  An orderly evacuation into four lifeboats saved all aboard. <P>The tugboat W.S. Chapman was dispatched in hopes of salvage.  She arrived to find the Delaware still afloat, even though the entire hull had burned to the water line.  The Delaware finally sank near Bayhead, New Jersey, during the tow northward.