TRAGEDY ON STEAMER

Taranaki Daily News, 18 October 1927, Page 9

TRAGEDY ON STEAMER

THREE OF CREW PERISH. GALLANT EFFORTS AT RESCUE. Ablaze at dawn at the pier of Oban, Scotland, recently, her crew trapped in a fiery forecastle, one of the chief officers and two of the men burned to death, the steamer Grenadier soon lay submerged in the bay. The victims were Captain Archibald McArthur, Tighnabruaich, who sailed as advisory officer; Kenneth Macrae, a pantry boy; a steward named Albert Hoisburgh, of Dover Street, Glasgow. Captain McArthur was found almost unrecognisable lying on the red-hot deck. Axes were used to smash the portholes by townspeople clad in night attire in desperate efforts to rescue the remainder of the crew. Although seen by the rescuers, the cabin boy and the steward had to be left to perish, as rescue was impossible in the raging flames. Four other members of the crew, believed to belong to Glasgow, were saved, but all suffered from serious burns.

The Grenadier, which belongs to Messrs David Macßrayne, Limited, is a paddle steamer of 357 tons, and is one of the oldest vessels running on the Scottish coast. She is one of the bestknown boats in the West Highland service, and is familiar at every port between Glasgow and the Butt of Lewis. At night, after her ueual daily run to lona and Staffa, she was moored to the north pier at Oban. All Oban in the early morning was startled in the murky dawn by the shrieking of the ship’s siren, followed by the sounds of the fire brigade signal, rocket. The awakened population found the town illuminated by the towering flames from the pier. When the fire occurred the entire erew were on board in their bunks, and as the Grenadier was in dock there was no watch on the look-out. The men were trapped in the small forecastle. The poisonous fumes and the scorching flames prevented their exit, and at one moment it was believed by onlookers that hardly a sailor would j scape.

Attempts to rescue the unfortunate sailors were fraught with peril and beset with peculiar difficulties. No effort was spared and no risk deemed too great by the fire brigade and the crowds of voluntary workers who applied themselves to the task. By means of a rowing boat which approached the ship from the seaward side, four members of the crew were taken off the blazing deck. A terrible sight confronted the rescuers on the pier. Through the fireillumined portholes they saw the young cabin boy Macrae and the steward battling desperately for their lives. The portholes were smashed, but rescue that way was impossible. Undaunted, a rescue party armed with axes and hatchets boarded the vessel and braved the heat and smoke. One rescuer,even penetrated to the blazing forecastle, but had to abandon the attempt to succour the man ami boy.

Th skipper escaped by diving overboard and swimming to the quay. Captain McArthur, the advisory captain, was found dead on the deck in a position which made it clear that he attempted to make hi? way from the doomed ship, but had succumbed to the effort. Captain McArthur was 75 years of age. retired two years ago, and was one of the oldest servants of the eomprinv.