THE BURNT LINER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22365, 12 September 1934, Page 9

THE BURNT LINER

ACTING CAPTAIN’S BELIEF INCENDIARIST RESPONSIBLE EVIDENCE AT THE INQUIRY (United Press Association.) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) ■ NEW YORK, September 10. Acting Cautain W. F. Warms, of the Morro Castle, told the United States Government Inquiry to-day that he suspected that the blaze was started by an incendiarist, basing his belief on the fact that .an incendiary attempt was on the boat on its previous voyage. The company’s formal report on that fire was produced at the hearing, and agreed- with the details of Acting Captain Warms’s story that he found charred paper in the cargo. He said that lightning did not hit the ship. The first word of the fire that he had was at -2.45 a.m., when the deck watch informed him., “I sounded the general alarm a few minutes before 3 o’clock ” he said.' Witness testified that a locker in the writing-room “.blew out” at the start of the,fatal. Hire,. “I believe that there was gasolene or kerosene in it.” He denied' the reports that lifeboats left the ship without orders, and said. that the panic was created by the passengers, many of whom refused to get into the lifeboats. WILD PARTIES ON BOARD . -—— • r NEW YORK, September 10. (Received'Sept. 11, at 8.30 p.m.) At the inquiry Acting Captain Warms told of many wild parties on the boat. He said he understood that six young girls, were so intoxicated that it was necessary to carry them from the staterooms.' ' He added that he was continually on- the bridge after the death of Captain. Willmott, as the weather was rough and visibility poor. He was informed about 2 a.ra. of a fire in the library, and sent the first mate to investigate. • He himself never left the bridge, during the entire episode, basing his judgment on the reports of subordinates. The alarm was withheld for a full hour in the, belief that the flames could be controlled. According to the first and second mates, the fire was in the library, and their efforts to extinguish it were futile. Then an explosion occurred in a locker which must have contained petrol, kerosene or other inflammables. At once the fire became completely out of control, and the crew proceeded with rescue work on their individual initiative, some handling themselves well, and, he was forced to admit, others poorly. SEARCHERS WITHDRAWN NEW YORK, September 10. An Asbury Park. (New Jersey) message states that two explosions in the wreck of the Morro Castle, to-day decided the officials to withdraw the searchers, for fear of further- blasts, feeling that the fire should be allowed to burn out before operations were continued. FIRE ON ANOTHER VESSEL BALBOA, September 10. , Several officers of the Grace liner Santa Rita, which made port under her own steam to-day. with a fire in the hold, declared: “The fire here and also on the Morro Castle was the work of an international radical organisation.” Carbon monoxid'* gas was rushed 50 miles out to the Pacific Ocean by the Canal Zone tug Favourite, and helped to cheek the fire, which was slowly working through the cargo. Captain Stevenson said the fire was under control. ii “ WORK OF COMMUNISTS ” HAVANA, September 10. Captain Oscar Hernandez, chief of the Havana port, declared to-day: “ The Morro Castle fire seems to have been the work of Communists, apparently of a passenger who boarded the ship with fire-making chemicals in his baggage.”