STARTLING EXPLOSION ON A STEAMER.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 3333, 7 December 1883, Page 2

STARTLING EXPLOSION ON A STEAMER.

It is fortunate indeed for the travelling public that it seldom falls to the lot of the journalist so singular, and in all its respects so suggestive, a disaster as that which recently befell the passenger steamer Empress. This vessel left the Humber one Friday morning in October, bound to Hamburg, with about fifty passengers on board. She was an iron screw steamer of 1,080 tons gross, and was owned or managed by Messrs Bailey and Leetham, of Hull. Very shortly after she had left the river, a small leak was discovered, to which, apparently, at the outset, but little attention was paid. In proportion, however, as she became advanced on her course the rougher the sea became, and her rolling and tossing caused the leak to increase. The captain consulted with the engineer and decided upon heading for the Humber again. The

vessel was accordingly put round, and her engines started nt full speed. It seems that amongst the top portion of the steamer’s cargo, which was stowed in her forward part, was a quantity of sulphate of ammonia. High as the sulphate was placed the water penetrated at a point above it, and consequently drained through the stuff on its way to the bottom of the hold. The vessel continued to steam at full speed all through the night, and by working the pumps constantly the water was kept under. It was within a couple of hours of daylight when the Empress entered the Humber, the Spurn lighthouse being at that time distant about one mile. The order was passed to open the fore hatch that the hold below it might be examined. No sooner was the hatch cover raised than one of the crew of the vessel lowered a lighted lantern. It had scarcely sunk a few feet when a fearful explosion happened. The sound, it is stated, was like a furious burst of thunder ; the adjacent deck was rent and torn into shreds, and four men, who were near the hatchway at the moment were blown to pieces, “ None of them,” says the account, “ being seen again." A fifth man was tossed to a great height, and fell on a portion of the deck cargo, but by a miracle escaped with his life. Immediately after the explosion the steamer took fire, and in a very short time the whole of her forward interior was full of flame. To save life there was nothing that her commander (Captain Barron) could do but run the Empress ashore. Providentially the land was close, and the vessel was easily beached at a spot about balf-a-mile off from the Spurn lighthouse. The boats were lowered, and the passengers safely put ashore upon Spurn Point. The survivors of the crew stuck to the burning ship and strove to extinguish the flames, but the fire mastered them, and before long all the plates of the vessel above the water became red hot. Later on a shift of the wind drove the stifling fumes of the sulphate of ammonia aft, and the seamen abandoned the hopeless lask of saving the steamer. She blazed fiercely, lighting up the scene for miles, and all that now remains of her is her iron shell.