LAUNCH DESTROYED

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 17, 21 January 1938, Page 16

LAUNCH DESTROYED

EXPLOSION AND FIRE

BIG GAME FISH TRIP ENDED

(From The'"Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, January 14. Trapped on a blazing launch, the Sangarite, after a mysterious explosion on board, three men had narrow escapes from the flames at Pittwater (Broken Bay). They were John Clarence Folkard, bank manager and big-game fisherman, Harold Arnott, owner of the launch, and Walter Goddard, . boathouse proprietor. The launch, valued at £1500, was destroyed, as well as fishing gear worth £150.

The men were making ready for a big-game fishing expedition when the explosion occurred. The launch had given a satisfactory trial run round the bay earlier in the morning, and the engine appeared then to be in perfect order. A backfire when it was being started again was believed to be the cause of the explosion. When the main petrol tank exploded the launch became a mass of flames, which shot high into the air. The launch was towed away from other boats near the wharf and beached.

The explosion occurred immediately Goddard switched on the engine. It blew the cabin top ten feet in the air. "Goddard was flung from the steps leading to the cabin, over a fishing chair, on top of Folkard and myself," said Arnott. "The roof, weighing about half a ton, after somersaulting, fell "on the three of us. Folkard was knocked unconscious, and the three of us were pinned under the roof, as the boat burst into flames. Men on the wharf helped us out, but Folkard had to be lifted out 01 the blazing boat. We were lucky it did not happen outside. How it occurred is a mystery, as there was no smell of benzine, and previously the engine had been running sweetly."