SHIP ABLAZE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVII, Issue 29, 3 January 1927, Page 11

SHIP ABLAZE.

SINKING THE INCA. SCENE OFF SYDNEY HEADS. A determined effort was made the other day at Sydney to end the career of the schooner Inca. Shortly after daylight she was towed. down the harbour and when just inside South Head a lighted *orch was thrown on to her. Huge oil flames swept her fore and aft, and a party of camera men on the Kurrara had a busy time filming the scene. _ Not only was it arranged for inclusion in the film “For the Term of His Natural Life,” but also as a prelude to the sinking of the unwanted Inca, which had long been idle in Berry’s Bay. The tug Bustler had the Inca in tow. They cleared the Heads at 6.15 a.m., and with the Inca in flames made their way about three miles out to sea. The oil flames blazed for nearly two hours, and then subsided. Flames ate up the superstructure and gradually burned downwards. The hull had been devoured to within two feet of the water-line at 3 p.m. It lavas slow work, and the Bustler and the Kurrara stood by.

Although the Inca had been filled with several hundred tons of clay, doubt was expressed by shining men whether the hull would sink after the flames had done their worst. But in the late afternoon, the schooner sank, stem first. She had made a gallant fight against fire and water. For a few seconds her smouldering timbers turned the water into steam, then all was over.