OVERCOME BY FUMES

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29766, 8 March 1962, Page 12

OVERCOME BY FUMES

Two Men Die At Sea (NJZ Press Assn.—Co-pyrignt) BRISBANE, March 6. Two dead seamen were taken off the Norwegian tanker, “Belstar” when the ship berthed today. Police who boarded the ship were told that the men died after being overcome by fumes while the tanker was at sea off Townsville on Saturday. The dead men, both Norwegians, were Martin Wilhelmson, aged 20. and Gorgen Olsen, aged 21. Francisco Muniz, a Spaniard, told police through an interpreter that he and the two men were down near the ship’s bilges on a routine inspection when they lifted a manhole. Fumes immediately gushed from the manhole and all three began to climb up ladders to escape them. Muniz said he realised that Wilhelmson and Olsen had not followed him. He went back and saw them lying face-down in a few inches of bilge water. Muniz said he himself was then overcome by the fumes He was rescued by other seamen, who carried out the bodies of Wilhelmson and Olsen.

An official inquiry will be held on board tomorrow presided over by the Norwegian Consul, Mr E. W. Savage.

Champion Killed.—Libero Liberati, aged 34, Italian world motor-cycling champion in the 500 cc. class in 1957, was killed today when his machine skidded and crashed near Terni when practicing on wet roads, Associated Press reported.— Terni (Italy), Mar- 5.