The Captain’s Story

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31753, 9 August 1968, Page 20

The Captain’s Story

(N Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, August 8. The captain of the Gothic told today of the “phenomenal speed” with which flames engulfed part of the superstructure of his ship during the fire which claimed seven lives.

The 35-year-old mariner, Captain B. Agnew, of Dorset, told his first press conference since the ship reached port on Wednesday night that at one stage the fire was so intense that he dcubted the ship could be saved. "Three of the lifeboats were lowered ready for disembarkation with some of the officers’ wives already in them,” he said. He said the fire broke out just after midnight on Friday, when the ship was 1800 miles east of Bluff, which it left for Liverpool on July 28. Speaking in a smoke-black-ened aft saloon of the 15,911ton ship. Captain Agnew said It was his first experience of an emergency in 18 years at sea.

Yesterday his crew described him as a “100 per cent hero.”

“There could have been considerably more lives lost, and also the ship, if it had not been for the crew’s coolness and efforts,” said Captain Agnew. Captain Agnew said when

he was roused he heard that the Staokeroom two decks below the bridge was ablaze; when he reached the bridge smoke was already pouring into it His first action was to turn the ship out of the Force 8 north-easterly gale it was heading into and shut off the engines to try and confine the fire forward. That done, he tried to make his way to the radio room and send a Mayday, but was driven back by smoke and flames which had already reached bridge deck level. “The fire was expanding at a phenomenal speed between decks and I couldn’t understand why it was spreading so fast. Of course, as the windows shattered the increased draught made it worse.” Heat And Smoke Captain Agnew said he was unable to get back to the bridge because of the heat and smoke; and at that stage his cabin behind the bridge was ablaze.

“1 was very concerned about the fire at an early stage and thought the ship might have to be abandoned.” He then organised the firefighting; and using 12 hoses the crew had the fire under control by about 6 a.m. The crew were smashing windows to help people trapped in their cabins, and it was during the initial stages that Edward Skelly, the electrician, from Liverpool, lost his life. "He was holding a hose, helped by two others. It was

getting too hot and they called out to him to move back. He was last seen standing rigidly with the hose in front of him as if he couldn’t move.”

Earlier reports quoted seamen saying that Skelly was blasted overboard by a jet of flame and smoke. Roll Call

When a roll call was taken after the fire Skelly was found to be missing. Captain Agnew said the bodies of the other three sailors and the four passengers, including two children, who died in the fire were sewn in canvas and buried at sea on the Sunday. Using the emergency steering at the stern and a chart from one of the lifeboats he sailed the ship towards New Zealand.

They were transmitting Mayday calls on an emergency morse set all the time but it was not until they had sailed 1000 miles towards New Zealand that they heard their calls had been received by a station early Monday morning.