BOTTLED UP.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 235, 3 October 1936, Page 19

BOTTLED UP.

fire in ships hold. ACTION ON THE WINGATIii.I VESSEL DISCHARGING CARGO. -•. • .. i There were few indications aboard,-the Union Company's Steamer Wingatui, when she arrived from Napier yesterday afternoon, of the close call slie experi enced earlier in the week, when lire broke out amongst the general cargo in >f O . 3 hold. The only signs of damage visible when the hatch was opened were that a parcel of blankets was scorched a t one end and some wooden crates containing bottles were charred. Not even the paint on the inside of the coamings was charred. Though they make light of the incident, members of the ship's company admit to having had, as one of them, put it, "a vei,y sick feeling under the belt buckle" wjiojl'th'e fire was discovered at 4 a.m. last- Tuesday. A strong smell of burning .>vas the first indication of the fire. It .was traced by. keen noses to a ventilator" 1 opening ■ into Nb.;3 hold, on the after *teckv - Faint wisps, of smoke curled out of the ventilator." Although it had been located, the seat of the fire was still beyond reach, for tlie ship was rolling along'in a .strong'soutlfrcrlv «rale, which had raised shell a", sea that the decks - were fieqireiltly flooded. Were the hatch opened, ,the hold would quickly fill. Fortunately, .as one pf the officers remarked, there ai-e other.-,ways of putting out a fire iif the -paijgo, besides sinking the ship to do it. Captain T. W. Evans ordered the ventilator leading to No. 3 hold to be blocked up, so as to shut off, as far as possible, all air from the fire, and then turned his shW'towards Napier, the' nearest port, at full speed. There was a cVowd- of about 400 people on the foreshore wheii-the Winga-, tui reached Napier' at 8.40 that evening 400 people whose expectations of seeino- the thrilling spectacle of a ship afire were disappointed, for not even so much as a wisp of smoke -from the hold li'ad been seen since the ventilator was blocked. The Wingatui berthed at 1 a.m. on Wednesday. When the bold, was opened it. was found, as had been expected, that the fire had-probably been started bv the overheating of a 'consignment of iime that had got damp. -The baerg were smouldering, as alsfi, wpre a few parcels of blankets and the -straw packing in some crates of bottles. ;The contents of a few patent. extinguishers were sufficient to" put oiit evdry trace of fire. The Wingatui was able to resume, her voyage to Auckland on Wednesday and is now discharging-her cargo, which- eon-: sists of general merchandise from southern port's, at the Prince's wharf.