FIRE ON STEAMER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19528, 10 July 1925, Page 10

FIRE ON STEAMER.

THE CANBERBA TRAGEDY. SUSPICIONS OF FIRE CHIEF. AN EFFECT OF SEAMEN'S STRIKE. (Fbom Oust Own Coeeespondent.) SYDNEY, July 3. If there had. been no seamon’s strike, it would bo no exaggeration to say that the Howard Smith steamer Canberra would still be tho pride of the Australian coastal services instead of a vessel badly damaged by fire, and one of her stewards would still De living, instead of a corpse with a halo of heroism attached to him. The Canberra was duo to sail for Melbourne on Saturday at noon, but at the last minute, by one of the irritating ruses by which the Seamen’s Union wages war on shipowners and tho public, the crew refused to sail. _ At half past two o’clock on Tuesday morning a fire mysteriously broke out on tho vessel —probably in a second-class galley—and seriously damaged the vessel amidships before tho flames were extinguished. In addition, she has a list to starboard. Many of the passengers and crew who were asleep when the fire started, had thrilling escapes from the raging furnace below decks. Those amidships had to fight their way through fumes and flames to the stairways. One young steward, Reginald Craythorne, brought a stewardess to safety, and returning escorted a first-class passenger, Miss Kitty Joseph, of Brisbane, out of danger. Then, despite warnings by well-equipped firemen, he dived back in search of other people possibly in danger. That was the last seen of him alive. Overcome by fumes in an inferno of smoke and flames, he perished. Tho question is now being asked whether a fiendish madman had anything to do with the outbreak. Investigations are proceeding in regard to proving if the outbreak was accidental. The chief of tho fire bridges, Mr F. Jackson, stated that he regarded tho fire as suspicious, and his impression was that, there was, more than one outbreak. A quantity of white substance was found in one of the saloons and submitted to the Government Analyst, who also visited the vessel. Mr Jackson made the assertion that within his 37 years as a ifixe-fightcr, ho had never experienced a similar ship fire. It was extraordinary, ho said that tho blaze should have got such a hold before it was discovered, when so many people were aboard. Tho woodwork of the ship was of a heavy type, but when the firemen arrived, the flames had a tremendous hold. But whether accidental or not, the fire caused damage estimated as high as £60,000, and a' splendid ship, recently reconditioned, is now largely a scarred hulk. But for the seamen's strike she would have been outward bound from Melbourne, with a complement of happy tourists aboard seeking the warmth of the Queensland winter.