BIG LINER BURNED

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 11 February 1933, Page 7

BIG LINER BURNED

DISASTER IN CHANNEL . - KV--SWIFT RUSH OF FLAMES THRILLING RESCUE WORK The beautiful and almost new 42,000ton French liner L’Atlantique, owned by the Compugnie de Navigation SudAtlantique, of Bordeaux, was .destroyed by lire in the English Channel on 4th January. Her position at the time was off the Casquets —which have seen other tragic catastrophes —and betwAn Guernsey and Alderney, tlie Channel Islands, about 75 miles from Cherbourg. She was on her way from Pauillac, near Bordeaux, to Havre, for overhaul and repair. There were 110 passengers, on hoard, but she carried a complement of 228, including three women—a saleswoman, a manicurist and a masseuse. These were all saved, but 12 male members of the crew lost their lives. The liner’s Commander, Captain Sclioofs, and 210 officers and otli££ members of the crew were landed, by rescue ships at Cherbourg. Twentyseven of them were slightly injured. A dramatic narrative of tlie disaster was given by Captain Sclioofs on landing. He said that the wireless operater’s room was quickly enveloped and became a deathtrap, making it impossible to send ' out more than one S.O.S. message." One of the liner's boats overturned as it was being lowered, resulting in loss of life. . “We were off Guernsey at 3.30 a.m.,” Captain Sclioofs said, “when it was reported by a night-watchman that a fire had broken out iii a first-class Cabin — just as in tlie case of tlie. Georges Pliilippar last May. We lost no time in trying to master “the outbreak; There was not a moment before every one o't tlie 225 officers and men were at their posts. I thought we had succeeded in getting the fire under, but we were beaten by tlie very inflammable varnish, which acted like fuel to the. fire. I was horrified at the speed with' which the flames spread along tlie electric cables from cabin to cabin) Soon the whole ship was ablaze from stem to stern. .

WIRELESS OPERATOR’S MESSAGE

“The wireless operator tried to give the alarm, hut liis room was almost immediately a mass .of flame and smoke. He managed to send out ontf 5.0.5., which was picked up feebly only by Bleville, near Havre, Which relayed it to other ships in tlie vicinity. Then the operator had to make his escape. “At 0 o’clock we had to abandon all hope of saving the ship. I ordered the - crew to take to the boats. Unfortunately in one case the hawser broke or was burned, and the boat overturned, throwing the occ'upants into the sea. Other members of the crew .were penned up in the boiler-room, where they died,: of suffocation.” Captain Sclioofs added that he jumped into tlie sea with seven or eight other men last of all, and was picked up by the Achilles. He paid a high tribute to the help rendered by tlie various ships which rushed to the resr cue; Captain Schoofs did not speak much of* what he did himself, but other officers and members of the crew were high in their praise of his bravery and tenacity. “We thought he was dead on three ocasions,” said the.thiM officer, “but lie appeared out of the flames with his clothes burning, and liis Alihauiite hoy following him with a.. bucket of water like a shadow. '“After tlie captain gave the signal to abandon ship, he stood by the rails, watching the men launch the boats and row away, and it was only when tlie last boat had left that he, with two other officers and five men, jumped overboard from the how and swam out to the Achilles.” BRAVERY OF THE CABIN BOY Tlie captain’s cabin boy, the first officer said, twice saved -liis master’s life by dragging him from tlie flaming corridors when lie was collapsing halfasphyxiated as he tried to make his way to the heart of the fire. “I saw the little cabin boy with liis half-burned clothes and singed hair - as lie landed at Cherbourg,” ji newspaper correspondent said. . “He was. clutching closely a packet wrapped up. in water-soaked rags. I asked him what it was, and he told me that it was his master’s personal papers and money which lie had gone hack to fetch from his cabin. ' ”” “It was a dramatic scene when, by the light of the red columns of flames . mounting to the sky, tlie crew>of the* giant liner took to the boats. Rai ely lias any great liner in danger had such a concourse of ships and tugs rush to her assistance. When the great hulk was blazing there were about 20 ships standing off or proceeding to her assistance.” The three women survivors told a thrilling story of the way in which they left the burning ship. They were in bed when tlie lire alarm sounded, and having entered a lifeboat found, that it could not he lowered owiiig to some fault in tlie davit gear. They were half-suffocated by smoke when one ot them seized a hatchet and cut tlie rope, so that the boat crashed down into the sea. One of the last sailors to leave the. ship had just gone to sleep at the end of his watch when the first alarm was given. He had 110 lifebelt, but swam for two hours and then picked up.

SCENE FROM ENGLISH CLIFFS A vivid description w r as given by another writer of the view of the burning liner which was obtained from the cliffs at Weymouth on the English shore. He said: — “At one time the liner, red with rust caused by the intense heat, was only two miles from the dreaded Portland Race —where Channel currents meet—and if she had been driven into this by the strong tide she would probably have sunk. As darkness approached the derelict shell of the liner was seenon the horizon high in the water. She was still surrounded by the tugs continuing their feverish battle to get her under control. “It was a spectacle such as those who saw it are never likely to witness again, and until the clouds of night rang down the curtain on the tragedy telescopes and binoculars were directed toward where the smouldering liner, a Veritable sepulchre of fire, was disappearing below the horizon. Long afterward the watchers stayed on the., shore • following in their thoughts the heroic efforts of those on board tlietugs in their desperate efforts to get the great vessel in tow.”