LOSS OF THE THEOPHANE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIII, Issue 102, 30 April 1892, Page 4

LOSS OF THE THEOPHANE.

VENTILATION OF SHIPS' HOLDS AND COAL CARGOES.

In our shipping columns yesterday we published a cablegram from London announcing that tho ship Theophane, which left Newcastle for Mullendo (Peru), South America, in December last with a cargo of coals, has been posted ab Lloyd's na lost. It is supposed in London thab sho has been burnt) ac sea, tho fire having originated in spontaneous combustion. It is nob stated how such a supposition has bean arrived ab, for it haa always been a strong point in favour of tho New South Walos coal, as compared with Welsh, Scotch, or other old country coal, that it contains so small a percentage of pyrites that spontaneous combustion ig impossible, or nearly so, and that no wellnuthenticatod instance of the destruction of a ship ladoti with tho coal from this colony haa happened. In connection with this subject of spontaneous combustion, Professor Vivian P>. Lewis of Sydney in a uapfir on " Tho Spontaneous Ignition of Goal," road before the Society of Arts at Sydney, on the 2nd inst., gave somo new facts bearing upon the ventilation of ships' holds, and an article dealin" , with the professor's views says : "The so"called ventilation which has from time to time been introduced into coal ships i< undoubtedly ono of bho most prolific causes of spontaneous ignition, ,: also thab " tho ordinary method of vontilabion supplies just about the right amount of air to create tho maximum amount of heating." The professor instanced tho caso of the four colliora Euxine, Oliver Cromwell, Calcutta, and Corah, all loaded together at Newcastle, England, undor tho same tips and from tho same seam of coal. The first three wore bound to Aden, wore all ventilated, and wore all lost through the spontaneous combustion of their cargoes. The Corah, bound to Bombay, was unvenbilated, and reached hor destination in perfect safety. Tho whole paper is, in etlect, a condemnation of the disastrous intermeddling of tho Board of Trado with coal ship?. With regard to the ship Thoophane, tho following appears in an English exchange of tho 11th insb.:—"Tho Theophane, 1,519 tons roaster, iron ship, sailed from Nowcastlo, Now South Wales, on tho 11th December, for Mollcndo, with a cargo of coal ; and reinsurances are oll'ered at 6.1 to 70 guineas par cent. Tho ship was thoroughly overhauled and painted at Adelaide just boforo sailing, aftor being aground there. Sho is owned by the Australasian Shipping Company, of Livorpool."