EXPLOSION AT SEA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 19 October 1937, Page 8

EXPLOSION AT SEA

SYDNEY STAR TRAGEDY MEN KILLED AND INJURED GISBORNE ENGINEER’S STORY A graphic account of how one man was killed and four others injured by a terrific explosion on the motor-ship Sydney Star when she was a few hours out from Las Palmas on fith September, is contained in a letter received by a relative of Mr Harold Preddy, formerly of Gisborne, who is an engineer on the vessel. He and another engineer, Mr Jack White, both served their time at the Gisborne branch of J. J. Niven and Company. ‘'You may have heard of the accident on this ship, but I hope you have not or you might worry if I am all right,” writes Mr Preddy. "As it is, I am very lucky to Ire alive and I will explain to you what happened. We had been to Las Palmas to refuel and left there at 1 a.nr. on the 6th of September. “Everything seemed ail right when Mr McNab and I came on watch at 4 a.m., but at 4.15 a.m. an enclosed bearing on the camshaft ran hot and burst into flames, burning inside the chaincasc. I called the chief and the two engineers wc had just relieved and we stopped the engines. I then ran up the ladder (and running is what saved me) and was going to stop the fans and reverse them to take the smoke away, as it was becoming unbearable. I had just reached the top platform when there was a terrific explosion that shook the ship from stem to stern. ONE ENGINEER KILLED “I cannot explain what the explosion was like as I did not remember anything and was carried out on deck. When it was possible to get below the whole place seemed to be on fire and one engineer was found to be dead and four others badly burned. Everyone was ordered out. as it was thought that the ship had gone, but the flames were eventually subdued and we carried on with one engine. Mr McNab was badly burned about the face and is suffering from severe shock and Jack White is burned about his face and hands, one ear being badly charred. The senior third engineer got it worse, for his face and arms are in a terrible mess. The fourth man, a greaser, is not so bad hut was severely shocked.

“The man who was killed had his neck broken and fractured his skull, his body being blown through a doorway.

“Nobody can understand how I missed it, for I was in a direct line of it all; the skylights above my head were torn up and buckled. The plates I was standing on were thrown up and the door beside mo was torn off the hinges and thrown along the alleyway. All I got were a few cuts on my face and leg and a sprained wrist I must have fallen on. The shock shook me up a bit but I was all right in a couple of days. The caps Mr McNab and I were wearing saved our hair although my cap was blown oil.

EFFECTS OF EXPLOSION “The mess down below is impossible to imagine. Everything was so clean with its different colours, but now it 'is all one colour—black. The port engine is completely out of order, as there is not a door left on the crankcase, all being blown off and wrapped around everything that was in the way. Oil pipes are burst, handrails twisted, steps blown off ladders, and the footplates, (hose that are not lifted, are buckled. The switchboard is ruined, and half the machinery is out of order, while white asbestos lagging was strewn everywhere, when it was blown off the exhaust pipes. “The force of the bang cannot be realised and has shaken things ail over the ship. It went through the refrigerating engineroom and blew the hatch off No. 3 hold forward. It went down the tunnels in the tunnel escape and blew off a door in the greasers’ quarters, emptying their electric boiler and throwing two of them across their mess-room. One of the funny parts about it all is that I had just made some tea and toast and the iot was blown out of the engine skylights. The toast landed on the deck down aft. Ventilators were blown off their fittings on tiio boat deck.

“The supposed cause of the explosion was that a piece or red-hot brass broke ofT the bearing, which was alight, and fell into the crank-case, igniting the gas there.”