Terrible Fire at Sea.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XX, Issue 6727, 18 July 1893, Page 4

Terrible Fire at Sea.

Interesting particulars are given in the Times of India «f the 13th of M;iy of the loss under sensational circumstances of the steamer Khiva, which left Bombay on the 12th April with 979 pilgrims for Mecca and eighty of a crew. The tire was first noticed on April 17, five days out from Bombay, and it had evidently been in progreßs then for at least 24 hours, if not longer. Smoke was found coming up from the coal bunkers on the orlop deck. Water was pumped on the coals, but it made no impression on the fire, and further investigation led to the discovery that the source of the smoke was a fire in the lower hold ; and on the hatches of the 'tween decks being opened dense volumes of smoke rolled upwards. The officers and crew, aided by Bokhar pilgrims (the only passengers who seemed to have kept their heads during that critical period), worked vigorously away shifting the cargo in order to get at the source of the tire and enable the ship's hose to play upon it. With great difficulty, and amid blinding and suffocating smoke, this was eventually done,|but the tire had too long a start to give the most unwearying efforts a chance of overtaking it. As the flumes rose higher and higher the men were gradually driven back, until at length they had to abandon all hope of paving the ship. Captain Schumaker then wisely resolved upon altering the ship's course and beaching her on the nearest point of land, 150 miles off. All through the night of the 17th the burning ship pushed on in the darkness at her topmost speed. The eneines were forced to their utmost capacity, for the lives of all on board depended on her speed being maintained. Meanwhile the fire was rapidly gaining ground. Below deck all was in flames, the rigging and woodwork had been consumed, and the foremast, burned completely through, had fallen with a crash over the side. Early on the morning of the 18th land was sighted ahead, and then for the first time the panicstricken pilgrims became calm, and knelt about the deck in groups, offering up thanks. Captain Schumaker, as may be imagined, had an anxious time among his terrified passengers, and when, at half- past nine in the morning, the ship was run aground three miles west of Ras Merbat, his relief could hardly have been greater than theirs. A melancholy incident marked the landing of the Khiva's passengers. In their desperate hurry to get ashore twenty of their number rushed f,,r one of the boats, capsized it, and were

drowned. This wns, however, the only casualty of tho royag*. It says much for the courage and resourcefulness of the onptsiin and his officers tha* in, such den perate circumstances only twenty were lost nut of upwards 1000 souls, and those only in thoir own frantic haste to escape. Dr. StenluHi.se, of Dunedin, strongly Maintains thiU du\ss is ft pastime which is entitled to tho support of the wealthy sind ttio inrttu-iitial in the community. Speaking at a meeting of the Otago Chess Club on S.UunUy, he dwelt at s.irae length upon the qmditiet which ho considered to be essential in a player. He said there was no doubf that chess was an intellectual pursuit, in which the moral as well as the mental side of the player was brought into prominence. Foresight, decision, courage, and caution ho mentioned as mental faculties which are required ; and, passing on to the moral side, temper, patience, modesty, generosity, honesty, and trustworthiness were cited as fruits of chess-playing. In reference to the last mentioned point, he seemed to imply that a person could not be at once a chess player and n swindler, for, although there had been, he said, an appalling number of defalcations in recent years, not one of the defaulters had been connected with tho Chess Club or been known to be a chess player- Having thus advanced his claim thai the club should receire the support of influential citizens, Dr. Stenhouse went a step further, and urged that temperance societies, social purity societies, and kindred organisations should foster the game of chess, is by so doing they would be furthering their own objects, because when a man was a good chess player ho was never a drunkard or a sensualist.