FIRES IN BIG SHIPS

Taranaki Daily News, 13 September 1934, Page 2

FIRES IN BIG SHIPS

DISASTERS OF RECENT YEARS NOT MANY BRITISH VESSELS. FRENCH SUFFER SEVERELY. The tragedy of the Morro Castle adds yet another- fine ship to the growing list of serious fires in big liners. During the last five years, there have been at least 10 major disasters, though, fortunately, not attended with loss of life in every case. A feature of these serious shipping casualties is that the most extensive outbreaks of fire have occurred in large modern liners. Early in 1929, the Messageries Maritimes liner Paul Lecat, of 12,989 tons, was completely, gutted by fire while lying in the docks at Marseilles. An even more serious affair was the great fire that destroyed the whole of the passenger accommodation in the North German Lloyd express liner Europa, 46,000 tons, on March 26, 1929. The vessel was lying in the fitting-out basin of her builders, Blohm and Voss, at Hamburg, and the fire swept away practically everything above the main deck, the cost of the disaster to the underwriters being about .£900,000. The ship was ultimately repaired and joined her sister ship the Bremen in the trans-Atlantic service.

A British ship was the next big vessel to suffer, this being the Furness Line motor-liner Bermuda, built in 1928 for the luxury service between New York and Bermuda. On June 17, 1931, while lying at the pier at Hamilton, Bermuda, this fine ship was gutted by fire. She was taken to Belfast to be reconditioned, and while lying in her builders’ yard she was again burnt out, a series of explosions adding to the damage, which was so great that the Bermuda was Ultimately ecrapped. GEORGES PHILIPPAR FIRE. More serious, because it was attended with considerable loss of life, was the disaster to the Messageries Maritimes’ new motor-liner Georges Philippar, of 17,000 tons, which had been built to replace the Paul Lecat. The Georges Philippar caught fire in the Gulf of Aden, when homeward bound from the Far East to Marseilles with 870 passengers and crew on board. Nearly 100 lives were lost, and the ship drifted for days a burning wreck. The ship alone was insured for £1,250,000, and her loss was a heavy blow to the insurance market, especially in England. Six months later, on November 14, 1932, the big Dutch motor-liner Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, of 14,727 tons, belonging to the Nederland Steam Ship Company, was completely gutted by a fire which broke out on board while she was lying at a wharf in Amsterdam. The ship had arrived a week before from Batavia and had just been fumigated when the fire started. ‘

The Norwegian steamer Tricolour bound from the Continent to the Fat East with 12 passengers and a large cargo, was destroyed off Colombo early in 1931 by a fire and a series of explosions, several lives being lost. The Blue Star liner Oregon Star (formerly the Port Albany) took fire while lying at a shipbuilder’s yard in the River Tyne on November 14, 1932 . She was so badly damaged that she was not considered worth repairing and has only recently been scrapped. A serious American loss was that of the luxurious liner Segovia, which was completely destroyed by fire in her builder’s yard at Newport News, where she was being completed in December, 1931. An outstanding disaster was the burning of the great French luxury, liner L’Atlantique in the English Channel in January, 1933. This splendid ship of 42,500 tons, specially built for her owners’ express service between France and the Argentine, was on her way from Bordeaux to Havre for docking when she caught fire. Fortunately she had no passengers on board at the time, but 19 men of her crew of 230 were lost. The ship burned fiercely for two or three days while she drifted about the Channel. She was ultimately towed into Havre where she now lies, while the dispute about the payment of insurance is still unsettled. RECENT STATISTICS. The annual' report of the Liverpool Underwriters’ Association for 1931 showed that 377 fires in steamers and motorships occurred in that year, against 435 in 1930, the average number for the period 1921-31 being 503. They remarked that “very heavy claims for fires in passenger liners have been the special feature of the present year and this matter is regarded by underwriters with grave concern. Facts demonstrate that the risk of fire in these ships is not sufficiently safeguarded, and it is evident that concerted action will have to be taken to provide more adequate materials if underwriters are to continue their low insurance rates on these vessels.” Causes of fire at sea are manifold and include carelessness, electrical short circuits, dangerous commodities, spontaneous combustion, and, very rarely, incendiarism. In discussing the problem, a leading British shipping journal said that, having regard to “the imposing list of recent major fire casualties, the existing regulations governing the measures to be taken to render passenger ships immune from loss by fire are inadequate under present-day conditions.”