HEROIC OFFICERS

Gisborne Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 10475, 4 January 1928, Page 5

HEROIC OFFICERS

DIED AT THEIR POSTS

DEATH OF CAPTAIN! AND CHIEF * i, ENGINEER,. '

CREW. REFUSE, TO HELP

LOSS OF CLAN McWILLIAM

AUCKLAND, Jan. 3. How the captain and chief engineer of the- Clan Lino steamer Clan McWilliam lost their lives when the vessel was burned and su,nk at Vavau (Tonga.) on .December 24 was learned from wireless messages > by the Niagara while on her way from Honolulu to Suva.

Captain W, Thompson and the chief engineer, whose 'name is believed to have been Jackson, were the only persons aboard when they met their fate. They had taken the burning vessel into the- stream—one on the bridge and the other in the engine-room—in order to save the wharf from' being destroyed. ■ ’ According to the officers of the Niagara, which arrived here yesterday, wireless messages showed that the Clan McWilliam was a vesselj of 6000 tons, which had come from Singapore to load copra, for the Continent of Europe. She had a part cargo ot 6cpncrete in the bottom of . her holds and ppled' up on deck was a cargo of coal for the long voyage. Possibly, through spontaneous cqmbastion, or through the Lascar crew smoking in the holds the copra, of which about 3000 tons had been taken a Hoard, caught fire, burned fiercely and ignited the coal on deck. There were po fire-fighting appliances on the wharf at which she was berthed. •The officers and the crew did . what they could .with the pumps and hoses available on hoard the ship, but the fire got out of control and the vessel’s sides became so hot- that the wharf was endangered. The port authorities ordered Captain Thompson to take his apparently doomed vessel iqto the stream. He appealed to the white officers and Lascar crew to man the ship, hut they refused, saying that she was unsafe.. There was sufficient steam in the boilers to take her a short distance from the wharf and accordingly, the captain went on to the bridge and book the wheel while the chief engineer, single-handed, manned the engines. The crew let go the lines, and the Clfin McWilliam moved slowly away. When she had gone some distance her hack broke, and in a few minutes she sunk, taking the two brave men with lier.

It is - believed- Captain Thompson met- liis end through becoming entangled in the wreckage. AVhal happened to the engineer is not- known, but presumably lie was still ;it his post in the engine-room Mien the ship took her last plunge. The remaining officers and crew are to leavA Vavau by .the Tofua and should reach Auckland on January 53, The harbor of Vavau is very deep rnd it is possible that the wreck will not he a grave, menace to navigation.— P.A.