FIGHT ON THE IONIC.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19195, 8 December 1925, Page 8

FIGHT ON THE IONIC.

FIREMAN'S DEATH FOLLOWS COLLAPSE IN FORECASTLE, THEORY OF HEART FAILURE. POLICE MAKE AN ARREST. A brawl on the liner lonic lust, evening ended tragically in the death of a fireman, James Kelly, aged about 35, a native of Swansea, Wales. The circumstances under which he received his injuries were investigated for several hours last night by detectives, and Philip Sullivan, aged 20, a trimmer, was arrested on a charge of assaulting Kelly. The lonic arrived from Wellington yesterday morning, and Kelly was among a number of firemen who went ashore at noon. Ho returned to the ship early in the afternoon, but, on arrival after 6 o'clock of another party of the ship's firsmen he became involved in a quarrel on the vessel's deck and was badly knocked about in a fight. Apparently the combat was confined to fisticuffs, and Kelly's injuries did not appear to anyone to be of a very serious nature. He sustained a shallow cut about half an inch in length just below the right eye and was bleeding profusely from the nose and month. The fourth officer, who was on watch, dressed the wound and protected it with plaster, after which Kelly went below to the forecastle galley. It is stated another fight occurred there. It was about 7 o'clock that the second engineer went into the forecastle to find a man to attend to the donkey boiler. Ho saw Kelly leaning against a stanchion in the firemen's quarters. Beyond the fact that the plasters were on his face, he did not appear to be in a very grave condition. Half an hour afterwards, his companions declare, he exclaimed, "I'm done!" and dropped to the floor. He was lifted into his bunk and the chief officer was notified that the man was seriously ill. Attempts to revive him failed, and the waterfront police, who had been summoned, arrived just as he expired. The body was removed to the Auckland Hospital, where an examination showed that deceased had not received any additional injuries from those first observed by the fourth officer. The theory advanced by his companions is that he died from heart failure. Several other firemen were more or less cut about in the melee and the corridor leading to the firemen's quarters was bespattered with blood. The lonic is not one of the vessels affected by the recent British seamen's strike, and she carried no " free " labour. She arrived at Wellington from London on November 18, and after disembarking her passengers and putting out her cargo at that port and later at Lyttelton she came North, via Napier, to load cargo for England. She will return to Wellington to fill up. Kelly had spent the early part of his life on trawlers on the English coast, and this was his first deep-sea voyage. He joined the ship at London on October 8. The voyage just completed by the lonic seems to have been a curiously trag'j one, as this is the third death to occur on board since the vessel left London. A day after leaving Colon a lady passenger, Mrs. E. Brown, died following an attack of sea sickness and asthma. The other death was that of an able seaman, D. McDonald, who was found dead in his bunk the night before the vessel reached Wellington.