DIED AT THEIR POSTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 242, 3 January 1928, Page 1

DIED AT THEIR POSTS

TRAGEDY ON BURNING SHIP Alone on the bridge, and with his ship in flames beneath him, Captain W. Thompson, master of the steamer Clan McWilliam, steered the vessel from the wharf at Vavau, Tonga, on December 24, and when the back broke and she sank, the brave skipper perished in the wreck. The chief engineer, named Jackson, shared the heroism of his skipper, and alone manned the engines on the ship's fateful manoeuvre. This inspiring story of two lives nobly given in the cause of duty was told on the air to the Royal Mail steamer Niagara, while she was on her way from Honolulu to Suva. The wireless messages gathered by the Niagara revealed that the Clan McWilliam was taking in copra at Vavau for the Continent, and had about 3,000 tons of concentrates in the holds, and a large quantity of coal on deck for the journey. While the ship was at the wharf the copra caught fire and ignited the coal, the flames becoming uncontrollable. The officers and crew refused the request of the captain to man the vessel and remove it from the wharf, and he, together with the chief engineer, moved the ship out into the stream, where the back broke and she plunged to the bottom of the harbour, carrying with her the two officers who remained at their posts till the fatal plunge. The wreck is not expected to affect the shipping in the Vavau harbour.