SHIP ON FIRE

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 95, 23 April 1931, Page 12

SHIP ON FIRE

THE STEAMER OPIEI

EXCITING RACE TO PORT

CARGO DAMAGED

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.) CHRISTCHUFiCH, This.Day. The Union Company's coastal steamer Opihi, from Dunedin, via Thnaru- and Oamaru, with cargo for Wol. lington, Nelson, and New Plymouth, reached Lyttelton at 7, o'clock this morning, with her cargo, on fire. Smoke was seen issuing at 1. a.m. when oft Akaroa light. Full steam was put on, and the vessel raced for Lyttolton, the decks getting hotter all tho time and the smoke increasing. When she arrived the hatch covers were removed, and heavy black smoke issued. The Lyttelton Fire Brigade and a tug immediately sot to work j pumping water, and got the fire under control, but much damage was done to the cargo of furniture, bran, pollard, and flour. The total loss has not been estimated. The ship is not damaged. From statements made by members of the crew it was evident that the Opihi's race to'port was an exciting one. The master resolved to reach Lyttelton before the flames could eat their way through the hatch coverings. At times, with tho: heat growing more intense, the situation scorned precarious. Immediately on arrival the- tug Lyttelton came alongside, and.- after considerable effort by the .brigade the outbreak was~ discovered in tho after end of the hold, and by noon most of the cargo there,had been removed and the outbreak suppressed. It is believed the fire originated in a case of furniture loaded at Duncdin. The work of discharge was carried j out by the firemen, and watersiders,! basketful after', basketful of a sticky mixture of flour and pollard being lifted out and dumped in railway trucks. Most of the sacks were so badly charred that they would not1 hold their contents. This work- waß carried on for four hours amidst a cloud of smoke and flour.

The Opihi,- of 1117 tons gross register, ■ was formerly the Norwegian, barque Lilla, built in Eostock in 1886,: and has had an eventful career. After being a sailing ship for about 20 years, she became a hulk in Wellington harbour, under the ownership of the Union Company. As the result of a world-wide shortage \Of- tonnage during the war, sho was sold to Eeece Bros., of Christehureh, in 1917, and was converted to a steamer, the engines installed .being- from • the Apouri, which had been wrecked at Greymouth that year. In 1918 she made a reaV tramp voyage, leaving New Zealand for Cardiff; via Java, Singapore, the Ked Sea, and Genoa. She alsb took a cargo to Vancouver. She was purchased back by the Union Company in 1923. In 1926 she caught fire while en route from the South Island for New Plymouth. As on this occasion, the damage was confined to- % the cargo. .