FIRE ON STEAMER.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17859, 3 August 1918, Page 8

FIRE ON STEAMER.

OUTBREAK ON DEFENDER. VESSEL DESTROYED. [Per Press Association.] WELLINGTON, August 2. Fire was discovered in the fore hold of the small coastal steamer Defender, lying at the King's Wharf, at eleven o'clock this morning. The vessel arrived from Lyttelton yesterday afternoon for a cargo of benzine. Efforts to subdue the outbreak were unsuccessful, and for the safety of other vessels it was deemed advisable to take her out into the harbour. Flames and dense volumes of smoke are coming up from below decks, and the steamer apparently is doomed. The Defender was built of wood at Kincumber, New South Wales, in 1901, and is owned by the Westland Shipping Company. She is a vessel of 185 tons.

About one o'clock the Defender drifted on the rocks at the north end of Somes Island, where she was burning furiously. At half-past one there was a big explosion. The Defender left Lyttelton on Tuesday night for Wellington.. It is believed that she started loading case oil early this morning, a transhipment destined for Lyttelton. Her master was Captain C. Green, the mate Mr Hart, and the engineer Mr M'Lean. She also carried two firemen, five seamen and a boatman. This was Captain Green's first trip as master. Captain Vasta, who was previously in charge, left the Defender at Greymouth to take over the Paraoa, a small steamer trading south of Hokitika. The Defender brought a general cargo from Lyttelton', and had loaded 1200 cases of benzine for that port when the fire broke out. It is reported that two members of the crew were rather hadly burned.