FRENCH LINER ON FIRE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21647, 18 May 1932, Page 9

FRENCH LINER ON FIRE

PASSENGERS ABANDON SHIP VESSELS HURRY TO RESCUE LOSS OF LIFE UNKNOWN (United Press Association.) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) ADEN, May 16. The latest Mossagerics Maritimes liner, launched in 1930, the 21,000 touner, Georges Philippar, bound for Marseilles from China, is afire five miles from Cape. Guardafui, at tho mouth of the Gulf of Aden. The 600 passengers have abandoned the ship. Three were, badly burnt. The Hakono Maru, hurrying to tho scene, passed an empty lifeboat. The loss of life is not yet known. The Otranto and the Kaisar-I-Hind are racing to pick up the passengers. The Liverpool vessels, Mahsud and Contractor, and the Russian naptha ship, Sovietskaia, have already arrived. BURNING HULK ADRIFT BRITISH STEAMERS PICK UP SURVIVORS. LONDON, May 16. The abandoned hulk of the Georges Philippar had, by sundown, drifted 20 miles north of Cape Guardafui, the water hissing in steam from the blistering sides. It cannot yot be said whether the entire, company was saved, though it is hoped that they are distributed amongst tho rescuing vessels. Two British steamers, the Contractor and the Mahsud, are hastening to port with 129 and 134 survivors aboard. The Philippar’s commander, Captain Vicq, and 400 others are believed to be aboard the Russian tanker Sovietskaia, whose wireless operators are tongue-tied by the difference in language, and are unable to communicate details. A DESPERATE SITUATION RAPID SPREAD OF FLAMES. LONDON, May 16. The steamer Mahsud has wirelessed that a woman passenger succumbed to burns and was buried at sea. The steamer Hakone Maru encountered an empty lifeboat, indicating that the Philippar’s company had taken to the boats before the arrival of the other ships, some of which are said to have picked up 300 people from lifeboats and rafts adrift on the calm sea, which facilitated the rescue work. The outbreak was discovered amidships on entering the Red Sea before daybreak, but distress signals were withheld because Captain Vicq believed that Aden could be reached before the flames got out of control. Their fierce headway, however, fed by the inflammable paintwork and fittings of the luxury liner, created a desperate situation. The first S-O.S. was sent out at 5.54. The Contractor, the Mahsud, and the Sovietskaia, which were all in the neighbourhood, exerted every ounce of power and used their wireless to announce their approach, which allayed any tendency to panic. They arrived on the scene at breakfast time, and at once devoted themselves to rescue work. The Philippar is a ship of 16,990 tons and cost £1,000,000 to build. She has been known as an unlucky liner ever since she took fire while- being built. This is her maiden voyage. She was built to replace the Paul Lecat, which was destroyed by fire in 1928. The disaster occurred almost at the same spot where the French liner Asia took fire while carrying pilgrims to Mecca in 1930, INCENDIARISM SUSPECTED VESSEL PROBABLY A TOTAL LOSS. v LONDON, May 16. The owners of the Philippar suspect incendiarism, as it had been threatened by Chinese Communists. A careful search for bombs was made at every port of call. The latest details give the number of passengers at 500, a large proportion being the wives and families of Frenchmen in the Par East returning on leave. The great stores of oil fuel on board were a terrible source of peril. The French Ministry of Marine has been informed that 675 of the passengers and crew were rescued, including Dr Sze, the Chinese delegate to the League of Nations, who was travelling from Shanghai. A director says that the vessel was .fully insured, but she will probably be a total loss. SERIOUS LOSS OF LIFE POSSIBLE OVER A HUNDRED NOT ACCOUNTED FOR. LONDON, May IT. (Received May 17, at 9.35 p.m.) A wireless message from the Kaisar-I-Hind states that all the passengers and the crew are being taken to Aden, thus suggesting that the casualties are not known. However, the Phillippar carried 500 passengers and a crew of about 300, and only CG3 were saved. RESCUER’S STORY PASSENGERS TRAPPED IN CABINS. LONDON, May 17. (Received May 18, at 0.39 a.m.) Further details disclose that the Philippar is still ablaze with a list to port of 15 degrees. The latest reports show that 698 of the passengers and crew were saved. The fate of the remaining 200 is a mystery, but possibly some are aboard the additional rescue ships. Captain Owen, of the Contractor, sent the following wireless message:—“l reached the Philippar three hours after seeing the fire on the horizon 35 miles distant. Hundreds of people were on the poop and forecastle head. I launched the boats and rescued 129 people. I learned that many first-class passengers had been trapped in their cabins. A French engineer told me that the fire began in an empty cabin de luxe through a short circuit and travelled rapidly through the staterooms. The survivors, who were in their nightclothes, lost everything.” The Contractor is due at Aden to-day. The search for the survivors continues.