THE CLAN MACWILLIAM.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20315, 25 January 1928, Page 8

THE CLAN MACWILLIAM.

SINKING IN VAVAU HARBOUR GALLANT FIGHT WITH FLAMES DETAILED STORY OF TRAGEDY. (Special to Daily Times.) AUCKLAND. January 24. Full details are now available of the sinking of the steamer Clan Mac William in Vavau Harbour, Tonga, on Christmas morning. At about 2 a.m. on December 24, while the loading of copra was proceeding at Vavau, a fire broke out in No. 2 hold which is in the forepart of the ship. The Clan Mac William was at this time anchored just off Neiafu wharf, Neiafu being the chief town in the Vavau group, and situated some nine miles from the entrance, in one of the best harbours in the South Pacific. At great personal risk the officers at once descended into the hold, and with patent fire extinguishers and then with hoses tried to get the fire under, but owing to the intense heat generated by the burning copra—copra containing about 70 per cent, of oil —they were eventually driven out in a very exhausted condition. The fire soon spread to No. 1 hold, and in order to prevent any possibility of sparks being carried by the wind on to the wharf sheds or the business premises which are situated along the waterfront, the ship steamed further up the harbour immediately east of the town, where sne anchored in about 15 fathoms of water. In the course of the day an endeavour was made to find some suitable spot where the steamer could be beached, but owing to the length of the ship and the shelving nature of the coral reefs, no suitable place was to be found. Efforts were therefore concentrated on confining the fire to the fore part of th© ship, but No. 3 hold took fire and also a deck cargo of coal over No. 2 hold. The decks then collapsed hurling coal on to the burning copra and taking with it the blazing bridge and officers’ quarters. By this time there is little doubt that the general opinion on board was that 1 the ship was doomed—an opinion that does not, however, appear to have been 1 held by the captain, who almost, up to ; the end, seems to have believed that the , chip could be saved. ’There was just a • possible chance that the iron bulkhead between No. 3 hold and the engine room might be kept intact, and so prevent the fire from spreading aft. With this object in view the officers kept the hoses playing on the inside of this bulkhead, which was now red hot, and showing signs of opening up. Working continuously in water up to their waists and with the oil tanks below them only separated from the fire by the bulkhead they displayed that courage and devotion to duty which hm made the name of the British Merchant Service respected throughout the seven seas. They maintain the usual reticence, but burns and scalded limbs bear silent testimony to the heroic fight put up for 31 hours against unequal odds. In the end the odds proved too great. The ship buckled amidships, and at 8.45 on Christmas morning Captain Thompson gave orders to abandon the ship. The lifeboats were then manned, and all pulled off a short distance from the ship with the exception of the second officer’s, which was ordered to remain alongside and await further orders. The chief engineer, Mr J. G. Dishington, is believed to have gone back to his cabin to collect some of his effects, and probably not expecting the ship to sink so rapidly he was caught unawares. Those in the boats seeing that the ship was settling down—the water now being only 2ft from the deck—called to the captain to save himself, and he was actually in the act of descending the rope ladder, at the foot of which a boat was waiting, when at 9 a.m. the ship took her final plunge, the propeller pointing heavenwards. There was a loud report as the oil tanks exploded, followed hv the bursting of the boilers, and the Clan Mac William disappeared from view, sinking in 25 fathoms of water, and taking with her the captain and his chief engineer. An even worse disaster was narrowly averted by the fact that Mr J. Johnson, acting manager in Vavau of Messrs Morris, Hedstrom, Ltd., had brought his firm’s launch out to the ship, and was standing by with a rope tied to the lifeboat. This boat contained several officers, and had it not been for the promptness with which the launch was started up and its power there is little doubt that the lifeboat and its occupants would have been dragged under in the vortex created by the sinking ship. As it was one engineer who jumped from the ship at the last minute was only grabbed in the nick of time and dragged along in the water out of the danger zone. An inquiry into the loss of the Clan Mac William was held at the British Residency at Nukualofa on January 3. The court delivered its finding on January 9. It was unable to determine the origin of the fire, but found that the copra ap peared to have been properly stowed, and the hold adequately ventilated. It also held that every possible step was taken to save the ship, and that the conduct o! the master, officers, and crew was exemplary, no blame being attachable to anyone. Regarding Captain William Thompson and the chief engineer, Mr Dishington, the court stated that throughout the fire these two officers directed operations in a calm and collected manner, and the court, in placing on record its high opinion of their conduct, extended its sympathy to the relatives of the bereaved. The foregoing report shows that the earlier published account, which was obtained from the officers of the Niagara, who had intercepted wireless messages on the subject, was incorrect in some important particulars, especially in the statements that the vessel was alongside the wharf, that the port authorities ordered her into the stream, and that the white officers and Lascar crew refused to man her, declaring that she was unsafe