THE STEAMER HEATHDENE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11824, 29 November 1901, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE STEAMER HEATHDENE.

A FIRE ON BOARD

A SEA MONSTER SIGHTED

Wellington, November 22. THE steamer Heathdene, which arrived today from New York and the South, had an unique experience on the voyage out.

A fire broke out in a part of the vessel close to where 18,000 cases of petroleum were stored. After great efforts on the part of the officers and crew, the flames were suppressed, but not before the steamer had been in imminent peril, for a wooden partition separating the petroleum from the spot where the fire was raging had been actually burned through. Whilst the captain and his men were below fighting the flames, the captain's wife (Mrs. Milburn) and her daughter steered the vessel, one keeping the lookout whilst the other controlled the helm. Miss Milbum (the captain's daughter), who is only 16 years of age, is said to be able to steer a ship as capably as any sailor. The Hethdene put into Albany after the fire, as announced in the cable messages at the time. As if the fire on board did not comprise sensational incidents sufficient for one voyage, the crew of the steamer report also that when she was 10 miles off Natal an extraordinary sea monster was discovered, presumably the sea serpent again. This creature, which was of abnormal size, had a white fin, rising 10ft high from the water, and a long white streak running the whole length of its body, which otherwise was black in colour. An officer of the steamer, who has a fairly extensive knowledge of the varied species of fish in the ocean, declares that he has never seen anything like this monster.