FIRE AT SEA.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19198, 3 January 1928, Page 11

FIRE AT SEA.

AUXILIARY SCHOONER DESTROYED. CREW RESCUED BY NIAGARA. ',?a»3S 4SSOCUTIOX liLIOaAM.I AUCKLAND. January 2. Graphic details of the rescue by the Royal mail steamer Niagara of the crew of the Dons Crane, which was burned 350 miles north of Hawaii on December -oth were given by passengers on the Niagara when the steamer reached Auckland to-day. When the Doris Crane, an auxiliary schooner of London, loaded with copra, was 10 days out from Fanning Island to San Francisco fire broke out in the engine-room through the overturning of a tin of benzine early in the morning on December 19th. Her crew of 15, five Americans and 10 Gilbert Island native*, fought the flames throughout almost one day. One of the islanders on duty in the engineroom at the time of tho outbreak was severely burned before he could be rescued, and he died from his injuries later in the day, while another man was seriously burned. The ship was finally abandoned early on December 20th. The reflection of the burniug wreck was sighted from tho Niagara, which was en route from Vancouver to Honolulu, shortly after 4 a.m. on December 20th. The Niagara was then 20 miles from the burning schooner, and she altered her course to go to the rescue, arriving alongside the derelict at 5.50 a.m.

A boat containing six survivors was picked up, and later a second boat containing eight men, the master. Captain Davidson, being in one of tho boats. By 7 a.m. the schooner had butned to the water's edge and the masts fell. The derelict was still smouldering when the Niagara left. The survivors wore taken to rxonolulu on the Niagara. Tho experiences of the crew in fighting the flames were terrifying. The first they knew of the outbreak was when Rerei, the Gilbert Island engineer, dashed from the en-gine-room a living torch of flames. The rest of the crew concentrated in atteiapting to confine the outbreak to the engine-room with fire extinguishers and water. Finally, after 18 hours' continuous fire fighting, it was decided to abandon the ship when it was a mass of flames fore and aft. When the survivors reached the Niagnra all were scorched or blackened.