SMALL STEAMER CAPSIZES

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25737, 24 February 1949, Page 5

SMALL STEAMER CAPSIZES

12 MEN MISSING OFF PORT KEMBLA

SURVIVORS’ ACCOUNT (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 9 p.m.) SYDNEY, February 23. The coastal steamer Bombo, or 539 tons, with a crew of 14, capsized and sank in heavy seas off Wollongong late last night while on the 60-mile trip from Kiama to Sydney. Fears for the ship's safety arose after she had used her emergency radio last night to advise that she was hove to off Stanwell Park, 30 miles from Sydney, in stormy conditions. She did not answer radio signals from Sydney, and shortly before noon today a member of the crew. Mr Marsi all Fitzsimmons, of Sydney, was found wandering in a paddock near Wollongong. About noon, police posted on the cliffs near Bulli sighted a second man floating in the sea. The surfboat of the Bulli Life Saving Club was hastily manned, and after fighting through heavy seas it picked up Able Seaman Thoryald Thomsen. Though both were suffering from shock and exposure, the survivors were able to tell what had happened. The Bombo developed a bad list off Stanwell Park just before dark yesterday. The master, Captain A. R. Bell, decided to turn round and make for Port Kembla. which was the nearest port. The ship had gone only a few miles when the list became so dangerous that the seamen could not stand on her decks. The captain then issued the order, “every man for himself."

The ship turned turtle and sank before all the crew could jump clear. Four men did not come up. They must have been trapped below and carried down with the ship. The two survivors saw a red light in the distance, about where Port Kembla would be, and swam towards it. Everyone had a lifebelt. Fitzsimmons and others trod water without moving from where the ship went down, and all were alive at daybreak. They then decided to separate, and swam towards different parts or the coast, according to their ideas of the safest place to land. When the trouble occurred the shift was carrying a load of blue metal. She was fitted with a large mechanical loader for handling the metal, and when this was swung out it caused her list. She was sighted yesterday by the coastal collier Bellambi, hove to in a rough sea and a strong southeast wind.

The Bombo was built as a blue metal carrier, and was used exclusively m the carriage of road metal. She served as a minesweeper during the war and cleared minefields off Western Australia.

The 12 missing men all lived In Sydney.