FLAMING SHIP DRAMA

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17526, 22 July 1931, Page 5

FLAMING SHIP DRAMA

CREW'S BATTLE FOR LIFE SUPERHUMAN EFFORTS VESSEL SUNK IN SHALLOW WATER DURBAN, June 6. A crew's grim and heroic battle for life in mid-ocean, with the decks beneath them red hot, was revealed on the arrival here of the Government, tramp Aloe, which vaught fire, and was forced to run for St. Louis, Mauritius, where she was beached. The story was hushed ui) there, and the burnt-out hulk was temporarily repairer!. She sailed from St. Louis' and reached here, having nearly perished in a heavy gale. Wiiilo on a voyage from Kiatu to Lourcneo Marques, one of her bunkers caught lire. She was then seven days from Mauritius. Attempts to confine the fire failed, and it suddenly blazed up very furiously, and the whole crew were called up for'lire duty. The deck timbers were smouldering, the. iron desks were hoi, and the vessel was enshrouded in a veil of smoke. The fire reached the cargo and the crew were apparently beaten. Nearly all had been burnt or overcome by fumes, and the lifeboats were prepared in case the attempt to make St. Louis, 180 miles away, failed. The. problem then was not'to check tho lire, but to get sufficient coal for the furnaces. The crew, in relays, worked in the bunkers in spells of four minutes. Many were gassed. but as they recovered they went hack to their light to save the abandonment of the vessel. ALIGHT FORM STEM TO STERN By superhuman efforts, a speed of 11 knots was coaxed out of the blazing vessel. A tug from Mauritius was hurrying out, but the St. Louis light was sighted before it reached the Aloe, which was Ihen alight: from stem lu stern, part of the bridge and most, of the lifeboats being reduced to ashes. As the tug drew op, Hie lire, which had gutted the captain's cabin, got hold of the wireless cabin and demolished thai. It was immediately decided to sink the vessel in shallow water, and this was done. Her decks was awash and five tugs and fire-fleets poured on water for live days and nights unceasingly. The lire was eventually extinguished. The ship was listing heavily, all her upper woodwork had' been burnt, and her framework was buckled by the heat. A thousand ions of rice were destroyed, and her valuable cargo of teak was in ashes.

Temporary repairs being effected, she set out for Durban last week, but met a 90 miles-an-hour gale, before which she ran for a night, when she. was put o;i her course again. It was noticed that the splits in her fire-weakened hull were growing, but she managed to make Durban, where ihe. provisional estimate of tho damage is £IOO.OOO. '"The crew throughout acted like [British seamen, calmly and efficiently in the face, of great danger," an officer told mo to-day. "They were heroes all." The Aloe, is now ill graving dock here for survey.