DIED AT THEIR POSTS.

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

DIED AT THEIR POSTS.

BRAVE SHIP'S OFFICERS. CLAN LINE STEAMER ON FIRE. v rBB«3 ASSOUiTIOS TBLIUBAM.) AUCKLAND, January 2. How the captain and chief engineer of tho Clan Line steamer, Clan MrWilliam, lost their lives when tho vessel was burned and sunk at Vavau, Tonga, on December 24th, was lonniod from wireless messages intercepted by the Niagara while- on her way from Honolulu to Suva. Captain W. Thomson and the chief engineer, whose name is believed to be Jackson, were the only persons aboard when they met their fate. They had taken tno burning vessel into the stream, one on the brut go and the other in the engine-room, in order to save the wharf from being destroyed. According to the officers of the Niagara, which arrived here to-day. wireless messages showed that the Clan MeWilliam was a ve.«el of 6000 tons, which had come from Singapore to lend copra for tho Continent of Kurope. She had a part-cargo of concentrates in the bottom of her holds and had niled tip a deck cargo of coal for a long voyage.

Possibly through spontaneous combustion, or through the Lascar crew smoking in the holds, the copra, of which about 3000 tons'had been taken aboard, caught fire and burned fiercely and ignited the coal on tho deck. There were no fire-fighting appliances on the wharf at which she was berthed. The officers and crow did what they could with the p;imps and hoses available aboard ship, but the fire got out of control.

The vessel's sides became so hot that, the wharf wns endangered, and the port authorities ordered Captain Thompson to take his nppnrontly doomed vessel into the stream. He appealed to the white offioers and Lnscnr crew to man the ship, but they refused, saying she wns unsafe. Thero wns sufficient steam in the. boilers to take her a short distance from the wharf, and accordingly the captain went on to tho bridge and took the, wheel, while the chief enginocr, singlo handed, manned the engines. Tho crew let go the lines and tho Clan McWilliam moved slowly away. When she had cone some distance her b;ick broke, nno| in a few minutes, .«-ho sank, taking the two bravo men with her;

It is believed that.Captain Thompson met his end through becoming entangled in the wreckage. What happened to the engineer is not known, but presumably he was Rtill nt his post in the engine-room when tho 'hip took her last plunge. • Tho remaining officers and crew lire to leave Vavau by the Tofua, and should reach Auckland on January 23rd. The harbour of Vavau is very deep, and it is possible that the wreck will not bo a grave menace to navigation.