LOSS OF SCOW

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 25 September 1924, Page 5

LOSS OF SCOW

MAGISTERIAL INQUIRY.

EXPLOSION OF BENZINE

iBY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION .) _ AUCKLAND, Sept. 24. The magisterial inquiry into the loss of the scow Onerahi, which took fire after an explosion of benzine off Tairaun on April 27, was held to-day. John Washburn, master of the vessel, said that at 5 p.m. he went to put benzine into the benzine tank. There was a hurricane lamp in the engine room three or four feet above the engine. He went on deck to get the benzine, and when he returned he saw the lamp in flames. He seized the lamp but as he passed the tank there was an explosion. He dropped the lamp and backed into the engine room. In a couple of minutes the whole place wns in flames, and .the sails caught fire and the engine stopped. The heat was intense. Alb hands got ashore in a dinghy. There was no filling pipe to convey the benzine from the deck to the engine room.

'Ronald Campbell, who installed the engine, said .that evidently a filling pipe was provided for in the contract ana was paid for by the owners. It was put in when the engine was installed.

> H. G. Lawrence Noy, senior, surveyor ot ships, said lie inspected the Onerahi for 1923, when the Onerahi was~ln excess of the requirements for the prevention of fire. He would liot have passed the vessel unless she was provided with a filling pipe. Edivard Brown, A. 8., said he had filled the tank many times, and he would have noticed had a deck fitting been attached. Benzine was always poured in through the pipe in the engine room. Campbell, when asked if there was any danger in filling the tank by the light of a hurricane lamp, replied that there was-a risk only if a naked light was used. John Parker Kasper, ship overseer for J J. Craig, Ltd.,, said the master had asked if an electric light would be installed on the seow, and on consulting Campbell witness was told that no danger existed if naked lights were avoided. Campbell said an electric installation would not prove serviceable, but he said he would evoive a scheme for the equipment of all the company’s vessels. This had been carried out. He had always 1 received satisfactory treatment from the owners in respect to requests for equipment. The court’s finding was that the casualty was caused by the cortibination of an inflammable mixture of benzine, vapour and air, the outbreak originating through the hurricane lamp being left in ,the engine room by the master. The casualty would have been avoided if the Onerahi had been filled by the aid of an electric light or if the deck filling pipe originally fitted had not been removed by some person unknown. The court added: ‘/We cannot find that the ignition was due to any neglect or wrongful act by any person on the vessel.” The master’s certificate was returned. No order as to costs was made.