TERRIBLE INFERNO AT SEA

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 996, 12 June 1930, Page 1

TERRIBLE INFERNO AT SEA

Collision in Fog STEAMER RAMS OIL-TANKER Forty-Five Lives Lost A FRIGHTFUL collision in heavy fog off the coast of Massachusetts was attended by a death-roll estimated to exceed 45 persins. The steamer Fairfax rammed the oil-tanker Pinthus. which became an inferno of blazing oil, and sank in 20 minutes with all hands. Many leaped into the sea.

United P.A.—By Telegraph —Copyright Reed. 9.5 a.m. BOSTON, Wed. ' Through the early hours of the , morning details came trickling in of 1 a collision and fire on the coastal 1 steamer Fairfax, which was carrying 70 passengers, and a tanker, believed j to be the Pinthis, which was carrying , a crew of 19, belonging to the Shell < Oil fleet, off Scituate. off the coast of Massachusetts, resulting in heavy lens i of life. i Both vessels were en route to Boston, and were in a thick fog when the j Fairfax rammed the Pinthis amidship ■ on the port side. Both vessels remained fixed. The tanker, which was carrying , many thousands of barrels of petrol, j immediately burst into flames. , The passengers of the Fairfax, in rushing forward to secure a better | view of the accident, were immediately , sprayed with the burning petrol. ] At least six, smd possibly ten, per- ( sons became biasing pyres and leaped into the sea, which also was covered - with blazing oil. , The tanker split and sank very ( quickly, while efforts to extinguish the ■ flames on the Fairfax were successful i only after several hours of fire-fight- ] ing. One passenger died from the effects of burns. The rescue of either the crew of the ( tanker or of those who leaped into ] the sea from the Fairfax was impos sible. \ The radio service was disabled after i the initial signals brought the sister | ship of the Fairfax, the steame’Gloucester, to the scene. The Fairfax arrived here this morning with a long list of passengers suffering from burns. These were taken to hospital. i The members of the crew and the ] passengers gave graphic accounts of ] a night of extreme horror. ' The officers of the Fairfax estl- 1 mated that 16 members of the vessel’s , crew, all of them believed to be t negroes, plunged over the ship's rail i during the fire and were drowned <

The dead are believed now to be over forty. The tanker disappeared in 20 minutes after the crash in a blaze of burning oil, which sprayed the Fairfax.

A message from Vancouver says most of the lives were lost when, in the first panic, many jumped into the sea. Five women, three men and 11 of the crew disappeared. A group of women knelt on the deck in prayer during the height of the excitement. An eye-witness told of seeing a man, his wife and child plunge overboard into the blazing sea. Everyone aboard the Fairfax believed their ship was doomed. Officers helped women and children into the lifeboats. These returned when the fire subsided. One woman was hurled into the air by the crash and fell across the deck-rail, limp and unconscious. Slowly her body sagged toward the burning, oil-covered sea. The flames played about her, and just as her weight drew her downward, a passenger named Walker ran and threw his arms about the woman’s legs. But the weight was too much, and the pair slid over the rail to death. Later. The tanker is believed to be tho Pinthus of Fall River (Mass.), bound for Portland, Maine, with 12,000 barrels of gasoline. It is calculated she would be at the place of the collision and she has failed to reply to radio messages since the disaster. The tanker Pinthus carried 19 men. The total death roll is now 45. The Pinthis was a steel motor-tanker of 1,111 tons gross register, owned by Lake Tankers Corporation, of the U.S.A. She was built in 1919 by the Tank Shipbuilding Corporation of Newburgh, New York. The Fairfax is a steel screw steamer of 5,469 ton 3 gross register. She was built in 1926 and is owned by the Merchant and Miners’ Transportation Company, of Baltimore.