TAINUI DISASTER.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 221, 17 September 1919, Page 9

TAINUI DISASTER.

BENZINE EXPLOSION. LIFEBOAT SWAMPED. STORY OF SURVIVOR. TERHIBIJE TIME IN BREAKERS. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) CT3U.STCHURCH, Tuesday. ■Further details have been received of the disaster to the coastal steamer Tainui, which went ashore on Sxe at Gore Bay. off the 'Waiau River, show that th<? Tainui. which is owned by the •New Zealand Refrigerating Company, loaded a cargo of benzine at Lyttelton

yesterday for Wanganui. The vessel went ashore about four miles north of'viore'Bay. the spot being marked by c!o;ids of black smoke. She is lying broadside on the beach, and was a mass of flames all day. while overhead dense smoke blackened the sky. The explosion of benzine must have been terriac. for heavy timber and wreckage, splintered and twisted, strews the shore.

Tire bodies have been washed ashore and three have been identified as these of Greenwood. Townsend and Fuller. There were no mark? on the bodies to indicate that they had been injured by ■we explosion. Captain Cowan's body has not yet been recovexed.

HATCHES BLOWX OFF. ! A graphic story is told l>y the sole survivor, the cook, William Farrand. lie iras awakened at 2.30 a.m. by the sound fif an explosion. He got out of ais bunk and went 'forward to see what: iad happened. He found all the for- 1 ward hatches thrown off. and the whole of the forward part of the vessel on S/e. i He awakened all hands. The lifeioat- wao then launched, and all the members of the crew, with the exception of the mat*, Stevens, and Farrand himself, got into the 'boat. There was a very heavy tea running,! and the lifeboat drifted away from the vessel before Stevens and Farrand could get into it. A moment or two later tie lifeboat -was swamped, and all the • occupants were swent into the water. ATTEMPT TO KEAOH LIFEBOAT. Farrand dived from the vessel, and a 1 couple of moments later was followed, by Stevens. Those who had got into; the lifeboat were hanging- en to the cap-; sized boat. The lifeboat was turning ] over and over in the heavy seas, and. the first man to let go and drift awayj •was the engineer. He soon disap-.-peared. The seaman, Williams, struck out from the lifeboat, and called out to the others, 4i Come on, boys, follow mc." The captain immediately followed Williams, land then the others struck out from the lifeboat. Farrand and Stevens held on to the Jifeboat, and the others gradually disappeared. Stevens was vcashed off, and also disappeared. Farrand held on Tvith one hand, and was badly battered about the legs. DRIFIIXa THROIXtH THE : ©BEAKERS. Eventually the 'boat, with Farrand hanging on to *t, drifted on to the heatch. He was in a semi-conscious condition, after laving been in the water for some three hours. He laid iown on! the beach for several hours before he was found by two brothers named Win-! skill, from Gore Bay. 1 Farrand said the men who were on l the lifeboat hung on in the hope that they might be picked up by the Maori on her way to Lyttelton. Farrand, although severely nervestrained hy his terrible night's experience, is slowly recovering. He says, that immediately after the explosion the! Sre broke out among the 1300 cases or benzine stored forward. He does not know whether the explosion stopped; the engines or whether the captain j immediately ordered them to be stopped. (He had ■a. terrible time in the breakers before he landed. On reaching the shore he struggled up a steep bank and fell exhausted into some, flax 'bushes. When found hewwa r on horseback and taken over the: Kits to Cheviot. C. Williams, one of the Tainui's sea-1 men, -who lost his life, was an ex-nava! man, who took part in the Zeebrugge and Ostend raids. An inquest will be opened to-morrow. The South British Insurance Company's risk of £4000 on the Tamui k; reinsured with several other ~companies.' The South British Office also has thej insurance on the lives of the crew. r . i