Museum marks ship’s end

Press, 9 February 1983, Page 6

Museum marks ship’s end

The fatal fire and spectacular end of the small Tongan freighter Kemphaan off Banks Peninsula in 1978 is the theme of a new display at the Lyttelton Historical Museum. Some items were salvaged from the burnt-out Kemphaan before she was sent to the bottom by bombs and rockets from Royal New Zealand Air Force Skyhawks. The display includes anchor lights with melted glass, compass fittings, and other relics all showing the effects of searing heat from the fire which killed two Tongan crewmen. Also featured are a lifejacket and the pieces of

timber which three survivors used to paddle a dinghy 20km to Le Bons Bay to get help for their shipmates. The centrepiece of the display is a painting of the burnt-out vessel by Mr Ron Warburton, of Sumner. The 499-ton Kemphaan had sailed from Timaru at 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 10, 1978, bound for Apia with a full cargo of frozen meat and a crew of 12 men. all Tongans. Fire broke out in the engine room about 3 a.m. the next day when the ship was less than 20km north-east of Le Bons Bay, and spread so fast that there was no chance to send a distress message. One crewman was burnt to

death in his cabin and another died later from burns, but the rest of the crew safely abandoned ship. Using pieces of timber and other debris as oars, the chief officer and two men paddled through calm seas for 10 hours to reach Le Bons Bay, where they climbed a steep hill to a farmhouse. The rest of the crew were plucked from a liferaft by helicopter, and the Kemphaan, still blazing fiercely, was towed into Port Levy with a fire party aboard. The fire was finally put out 24 hours after it had started, leaving the Kemphaan and her cargo to be

declared a total constructive loss. The Receiver of Wrecks got no satisfactory offers for the ship and so it was decided to tow her out and sink her at sea, providing target practice for the R.N.Z.A.F. in the process. On June 17, 1978, about 90 kilometres north-east of Lyttelton, eight Skyhawk jets from No. 75 Squadron at Ohakea riddled the Kemphaan with a low-level rocket strike, followed up by a bombing run in which four bombs were seen to hit her, both forward and aft. The Kemphaan rolled over and sank quickly by the stern.