HEROIC CAPTAIN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20454, 4 January 1930, Page 9

HEROIC CAPTAIN.

SINKING OF FORT VICTORIA*

, ALL ON BOARD RESCUED.

NEW YORK. Dec. 23,

How the captain nearly lost his life through his amazing fidelity to his fastsinking ship is revealed in the story of the foundering of the Fort Victoria, the former Australian interstate liner Willochra, during a thick fog in New York Harbour.

Shipping in the harbour had suffered three days' paralysis through fog, which was so thick that hardly any liners moved.

One steamer did go out, however, the liner Fort Victoria. She was lost, but there was not a single fatality. To-day Captain A. R. Francis, lately her jolly-looking British master, is America's hero of the hour. From the time the steamer Algonquin's sharp prow dealt a blow to the Fort Victoria until half a minute after the foundering vessel slid into the murky sea Captain Francis gave an exhibition that has no paraM in New York marine records.

. Nobody ever worked faster or more effectively in saving life. His prompt radio orders brought rescue tugs and more than 200 passengers were quickly transferred. Tug Master's Amazing Story. Then Captain Francis stuck to the bridge, trying to save hia ship, which the tugs, in the meantime, endeavoured to tow back to the harbour.

They could not make it. Deeper sank the old Fort Victoria, but Captain Francis just stood there on the bridge, and still stood until the ship slid from under his feet.

The master of the tug Columbine tells this amazing story: "After Captain Francis refused to leave his ship and sent his radio man, Robert Eustice, his skeleton crew to our deck on salvage ropes, we thought the captain and Fred Fendt, the pilot with him, would go down with the ship. But we did .what we could.-

"Wo threw lines to them and they fast' ened them around their waists. Captain Francis kept on his commandant's coat. Listing, the Fort Victoria wallowed horribly. I never want to see anything like it again. Captain Francis braced himself and Jield on as though he were holding the ship on the surface with his own hands. Dramatic Rescue Described.

"There was a terrible rush of water# and the Fort Victoria slid into the sea. Captain Francis and Fendt were under the water. We thought it was all over with them. Suddenly their heads bobbed up under our lights. The lines had held. We pulled them on board drenched and shivering, and gave them dry clothes.

While the story of his heroism was being reveale'd Captain Francis slumbered throughout the day at his home. Although the . Government will begin a thorough inquiry into the sinking of the Fort Victoria it becomes evident that the wreck probably will be called an "act of God."

All testimony to-day showed that the crash was as nearly unavoidable as any accident can be.