ON FIRE AT SEA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20627, 28 July 1930, Page 9

ON FIRE AT SEA.

LOST GERMAN VESSEL.

THRILLING STORY TOLD.

SCENE FROM RESCUE SHIP.

By Telegraph—Press Association-Copyright. (Received July 27, 5.55 p.in.) LONDON, July 26. A thrilling story was told when th«s New Zealand Shipping Company's steamer Rangitata. docked at Southampton with 10 passengers, including two women and two children, and £3 members of the crow of the. German steamer Targis. A New Zealand,r, Mr. W. Strict, in an interview, said that at 9 a.m. on July 19 what seemed like a cloud on the horizon was seen from the Later it was discovered to be a pall of white smoke enveloping the Targis. Flames were soon seen shooting 60ft. into the air and licking the masthead of the burning vessel. The Rangitata picked up the passengers and crew, some of whom had burned their hands as a result of sliding down ropes against the red hot hull.

The master of the German vessel, Captain Erasing, heroically returned to the Targis on a humane mission—that of shooting a pig which had been left in a deck-house.

Captain Munter, of the Rangitata, said he had never soon such a blaze. Tha heat was uncomfortable even at the distance at which the Rangitata was hoveto.

The Xorth-Qprman Lloyd Company., owners of the steamer Targis, were advised on July 19 that she was on fire in mid-Atlantic, east of Bermuda. The i?angitata had rescued the whole of the passengers and crew. The Rangitata was horneward-bound from New Zealand, having left Wellington on June 21, She sighted the German steamer, which waa on fire in three holds, the coal bunkers, engino room and boiler room. She hastened to the rescue, and stood by at. the captain's request nntil the Targis filled and sank.

The Targis, formerly named Rijperkerk, Netley Abbey nnd Wolfram, was ft vessel of 5952 tons, built in 1915 by J. Frericka and Company at EinswardeD.