TWELVE LIVES LOST IN CAPSIZE OF SHIP ON N.S.W. COAST

Grey River Argus, 25 February 1949, Page 5

TWELVE LIVES LOST IN CAPSIZE OF SHIP ON N.S.W. COAST

SYDNEY, Jan. 24

Hope that any other survivors of the coastal steamer, Bombo, will be found has been abandoned. Two men reached the shore after over 10 hours in the wild seas and two bodies have been recovered. Other bodies have been sighted close to the rocky shore, but the seas have been too rough to recover them. From yesterday morning an intensive search was made by air and sea. The pilot of a Catalina flying boat sighted two bodies in life-belts and two other objects which might have been bodies. In the wreck area there were many spars, barrels, planks and all kinds of driftwood, but no sign of the ship. Another Catalina directed a trawler to the bodies by dropping flares. One body, believed to be that of Captain A. R. Bell, was recovered by a man suspended perilously over the side of the trawler, but others were washed away.

A brown dog, covered with grease, made its way ashore at Bull! beach and is believed to have come from the ship.

OFFICER’S GALLANTRY A survivor, 'l'horvaid Thomsen, aged 5«, who is in the Bulli hospital in a serious condition, said that the first ofiicer, Henry Stringer, made a gallant attempt to swim ashore ano get help whan survivors were clinging to timber after the ship sank. The Bombo, of 539 tons, with .a crew of 14, capsized and sank in heavy seas off Wollongong late last night while on the 60-mile trip from Kiama to Sydney. The Bombo developed a bad list off Stanwell Park just before dark yesterday. The master, Captain A. R. Bell, decided to turn round and make for Port Keinbla, which was the nearest port. The ship had gone only a few miles' when the list became so dangerous that the seamen could not stand on her decks. The captain then issued the order, ‘‘every man for himself ” TRAPPED IN SHIP

The ship turned turtle and sank before all the crew could jump clear. Four men did not come up. They must have been trapped below and carried down with the ship. The two survivors saw a red light in the distance, about where Port Kembla would be, and swam towards it Everyone had a lifebelt. When the trouble occurred the ship was carrying a load of blue metal. She was rifted with a large mechanical loader for handling the metal, and when this was swung out it caused her list. She was sighted yesterday by the coastal collier, Bellambi, hove to in a rough sea and a strong south-east wind. The Bombo was buiit as a olue metal carrier, and was used exclusively in the carriage of • road metal. She ’served as a minesweeper during the war and cleared minefields off Western Australia. The 12 men missing all lived in Sydney.

Ten Stall MissingSix Bodies Seen

(Rec. 9.55) SYDNEY, Feb. 24 Driving rain and wind, combined with heavy seas, forced sea and air rescue parties, to abandon their searen for the ten missing members of the sunken coaster “Eombo.” . Six bodies have been sighted from the air, floating in the sea, and tour more are known to have gone down with the ship. . One seaman, T. Thomsen, is still ina critical condition ,but M. Fitzsimmons, a fireman, is fully recovered, and he says that he will be back at sea again within a fortnight.