STEAMER'S CLOSE CALL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18296, 12 January 1923, Page 7

STEAMER'S CLOSE CALL.

FIRE SUBDUED AT SEA. . LARGE KEROSENE CARGO. The crew of. the steamer Skipsea,. which ;;'.':': reached Newcastle recently from Portland, United States, brought j first-hand information of the remarkable escape; : the" " vessel had last August from appalling' aster. ' '.'■'""' :'■. '''■;-:-' : :.' ''■•!"'■ ''■'-.■ The ship had been built only "a' &sw'' ; ' months when it started on a voyage from New York to Korea, with 340,000 .gallons-; V of case kerosene. When seven days .one from Honolulu .was noticed issuing ; ' from a cross bunker. The pumps* -were Set to .Work to extinguish th;e• fire,, But volumes of water : pumped :on jfjlie •burn-; 7 ing material failed r to have , '^ ; desired effect'; Captain W, H. Rea, disci that the only course was to open out the coal in the bunker to get, directly at the fire. ■■ The crew -of 32 men had.to contend for ■- 10 days and nights;-; against fumes and j smoke coming up from the -bunker hold. The formidable work of removing 1 600'.,■'.■' tons of coaj from the cross 'bunker was carried on with a continuous : flow of watcp from,* the pumps on the burning mass. " ;° ."■" ■: The outbreak ; Was v'tappareytly-' extin- .'■'••'.; guished, but it was necessary io remove mare coal before the fires were completely subdued. ' . "% , With all danger over, the crew, saw how narrowly they had escaped a terrible , . death,'for the burning mass of coal was ; only, separated, from •> the: *afgo_ of" case kerosene by, a wooijen bulkhead, .3m.; thick. Three planks- were actually ? ,burnt';.'",■. ; through, .': ,-some .of, the > solder in the v r I tins'; of kerosene 'was, melting when tbo I crew '■ got the upper . hand of the fire. ■ Coal in ■ a .space of 7ft. high, 24ft. wide, and 14ft. long (between 50 arid: 60 .-■;, tons) had been consumed, and the crew had to dig down 23ft. into, the bunkers before the burning matier was disposed f.f. .In getting at the lire the coal was thrown anywhere, and ♦he decks were littered with it. _•", / ' , \ . Three hundred _ cases of kerosene were damaged by smo'<e and 'five, and 4000 cases by the water poured into the vessel in the effort to cope with. the fire.