SPECTACULAR FIRE
MATCHES DESTROY SHIP. BRAVERY OF THE CREWS, LONDON, Oct. 25. The British steamer Falcon, a vessel o£ 675 tons, with a cargo of matches, caught fire off the North Xi'orcland, and the cargo blazed furiously, cases of matches exploding like bombs. A Ramsgate lifeboat rescued the crew of 16, and a Dover tug look in tow the Falcon, which was red-hot from stem to stern, with the flames mast-high. Off Dover the tow-rope burned through, and the vessel slowly drifted to her doom. Although the decks of the steamer were buckling, and the whole ship was filled with choking smoke, the engineers and stokers stuck grimly to their jobs of driving the ship into the teeth of a gale in an effort to beach her before she was gutted. Among the crew was Robert Edlin, an ex-colonel of the Welsh Fusiliers, who took to the sea following financial losses. The populations of five Kent resorts watched the fire all night. The Falcon, which drifted out to sea, when the tow-rope was burned through, was afterwards' beached at Deal.
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Bibliographic details
Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 3497, 5 November 1926, Page 8
Word Count
180SPECTACULAR FIRE Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 3497, 5 November 1926, Page 8
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