LOSS OF POET KEMBLA

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 3, 28 September 1917, Page 6

LOSS OF POET KEMBLA

NAUTICAL INQUIRY

WAS THE EXPLOSION INTERNAL?

Au inquiry iiito tho sinking of the s.s. Port Kombla (by an.■explosion which occurred oif Capo Farewell shortly after midnight on September 18) was opened yesterday morning. Mr. W. G. ltiddell, S.M., presided, and with him en tho Bench as assessors were JJr. MacLauriu, Government Analyst, and Captain Neville. Mr. P. S. IC. Macassey appear, ed 'for tho Marino Department, and Mr. G. G. G. Watson for' Captain Jack and the owners of the Port Kembla (tho Cunard Company).

Mr. Macassey in opening said:—"Oil Wednesday, September 12, at G. 15 p.m.', the s.s. Port Kembla, left Breakwater Pier at Williamstown, Victoria, bound for London, via Wellington and Panama, with a orew of 59 hands all told. Tho vessel was fully laden with frozen produce, wool, skins, tallow, jams, lead,' and general cargo. , Thero was also cn board a mail for New Zealand consisting of 270 packages. The draught of water leaving Williamstown was 22ft. 2in. forward and 24ft. llin. aft. Pino weather was experienced, with moderate westerly winds and moderate seas. At 2 p.m. on

'Friday, September 14, wireless instructions wore received from Sydney to proceed on the voyago to Wellington. On Monday night, September 17, ICaurangi Light was picked up and passed at a distance! of 19 miles at 11.55 p.m. The course was then set for Farewell Spit Light, to pass about four mile 3 off. Captain Jack was on and off the bridgo until 0.50 a.m. on September 18, when he saw the loom of Farewell Spit Light. Ho then came down and entered the chart-room and )aft«rwards ihia cabin. He was just about to sit down when ho heard a terrific explosion. He immediately rushed to the bridge, where ho met Mr. Churton, the second officer, who was on watch. William Donald, A.8., waa at tho wheel, and John Rogers was on the look-out on the crow's-nest en tho foremast. Mr. Gard was in charge of the wireless. The captain rushed to the bridge, where he met Mr. Churton, who said, 'A bomb has 'exploded forward.' Tho captain gave orders for the helm to be put' hard to port and head S.S. for the land. The captain then ran down to the wireless room and l ordered the operator to send out the S.O.S. signal. At the same time orders were given for the lifeboats to be swung out. The captain went on the bridge again, when Mr. Churton informed him that the compass was shattered by the force of the explosion. The engines were then .stopped and everyone ordered to stations to swing out and lower the lifeboats. Mr. Gard, the wireless operator on watch, and Mr. Haalem, senior operator, was also there, and tried to eond c-fl tho message, but they could not do so as the aerials had been, carried l away by the force of the explosion. The carpenter was ordered to sound forward, and Mr. Fletcher, chief- officer, met him at' No. 2 hatch, and he reported 8 feet of water in No. 1 hold; No. 2 was dry. Mr. Fletcher reported that No. 1 hatches were blown off and cargo strewn around the decks. The ship had' now listed heavily to starboard, and tho foredeck waß awash. "Both lifeboats were now in the water, and all the crew as far as could be ascertained were on board the boats. The capitain gave orders for tho §econd officer to go into the starboard boat, and the boats to pnll awajy from the ship, and stand by at a sate distance. The captain then went aft as the water came along the decks. The starboard side was

now under water from forward to about amidships. The captain worked his way aft. He met Mr. Fletcher, the chief officer, and Mr. Sams, the third officer, but, as the vessel had listed heavily to starboard and the wntpr was washing along the deck to No. i natch, it was decided to abandon the ship. The captain, Mr. Fletcher, and Mr. Sams, jumped overboard, and swam towards the boats. The_qaptain and officers wore taken into the brats, and it was decided to head, towards the loom of Kaurangi Light, which could be seen at times between the rain squalls. The seamen were pulling constantly .until 6.30 a.m. on September 18, when they were rescued by the s.s. Eegulus, and brought to Nelson. . "As to the cause of the explosion, I think it will be established beyond any doubt that the explosion was an internal one, and was not an external explosion, for the following reasons The explosion took place in tho No. 1 hatch, in which there were frozen rabbits in opon crates in the lower hold and between decks, and under the shelter-deck forward cases of jam,' wool, and skins. No. 1 hatch was blown off, and a seaman called Horsford, who was sitting on the hatch at the time, found himself lying on the starboard side of the ship, with cases of jam, which were blown up on deck out of No. 1 hold. The explosion was 'a very heavy report, and the shock caused the ship to shake from stem to stern. Several hatches blew off the starboard side of tho No. 1 hold, and several cases of cargo, jam, etc., blew out of tho hold on to the deck. A large quantity of smoke was coming out of the No. 1 hold, and also from the ventilators on the forward deck on tho starboard Bide. 'The second officer will say that on tFe bridge he smelt fumes, as he thought, of sulphur, which came up and affected him so much that he was sick when in the boat, and the men at the wheel will say that his mouth was all blistered witll these fumes. There is the following evidence against the theory that the explosion was caused externally:—Tho hatches on No. 1 hold were blown off; tho cargo in the hold was blown up through tho hatches on to the deck; smoke was seen, coming out of tho hatches and out of the ventilators; tho smell of sulphur camo straight up to tho bridge, and affected the second officor, and also (Rogers, tho look-out man in tho "crow's nost" on the forward mast; the wireless apparatus was affected, and the compass smashed; and there was no volume of water thrown up into the 'air, as one would expect if the explosion was due to a floating' mine or other external cause.

"I do not propose to lead evidence to show how or by whom the bomb was placed on board the Port Kembla; tho function of, this Court as a' Nautical Court is to a6fcortain and report as to the circumstances under which the vessel was lost."

Captain Jack, in the course of his evidence, said that when he left Williams*own he was under orders to proceed to Wellington, but he did not think that the crew knew the destination of the vessel. While in Williamstown at the Breakwater Pier, t|ie ship was guarded by twenty-four soldiers. No one was allowed to board without a pass, and no one was allowed to leave without a pass. Anyone carrying a hag had it searched by the military, and witness understood that the labourers about the vessel were daily searched. Thoro was a guard on the gangway, another on the / bridge,_ and another aft. After the explosion witness was in tho water swimming for half-an-hour or three-quarters of fan hour. On boarding the life-boat he was violently sick for about throe hours, and he thought that the sickness wns possibly due to the l :umes of tho explosion.

To Mr. Watsoris The ventilators on the Port Kembla were fitted with wire gauze to prevent-anyone from dropping anything into., the hold. Xo member of the crew succeeded in saving any of Mb personal belongings. The chief officer , (Frederick M. Fletcher), ill his evidence, said that the guard over the vessel at Williamstown numbered .18, including officers. Thomas Chnrton, (bird officer, stated that Nos. 1 and 4 hatches were partly, and Nos. 2 and 3 hatches wholly, loaded by volunteer labour. The chief engineer, George William Watt, said that a little while before the vessel leTt Melbourne the steering-gear was inspected. Tt was then all right, hut on tlio day of sailing it was found that a pin was missing. Witness was second engineer on the Port Adelaide when that vessel was torpedoed off the South Coast of Irelaid in February.

Other called were the third engineer, two able seamen who had been J '

011 board the Rotorua when she was torpedoed, the Port Kembla's gunner, and the wireless operator. All the. witnesses who gave an opinion on the point agreed, that the explosion appeared to be an internal one, rather than one due to a torpedo or a mine. Tho Court reserved its decision till 10 a.m. to-day. REWARD FUND STARTED IN SYDNEY CRec. September 27, 9 p.m.) Sydney September 27. Tho "Sun" nowspaper has opened a reward fund in connection with tho sinking of tho Port Kcmbla by an explosion. Several business houses are contributing to the fund.—Press Assn. .