A BOILER EXPLOSION AT SEA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6123, 9 March 1898, Page 4

A BOILER EXPLOSION AT SEA.

Some time ago information was published of the sad death of Mr Richard M. Clark, son of Captain J. TT. Clark, Har-bour-master at Lyttelton. The accident by which Mr Clark lost his life, a boiler explosion on board the steamship Southern Cross, occurred on Dec. 19. No particulars were sent to New Zealand at the time, but Captain Clark has just received a Liverpool paper containing details of the arrival of the steamer in the Mersey and a few particulars respecting the accident. The report explains that owing to the fact that the causes of the disaster were to form the subject for a Board of Trade inquiry but few details could be gathered. It seems, however, that the steamer left Buenos Ayres with a heavy cargo of cattle, sheep and frozen meat, and on the night of Dec. 19, when she was about a hundred miles to the westward of Madeira, a terrible noise was heard, and a mass of steam ascended from the stokehole and engine-room through the "fiddles" and' ventilators. Captain Clark's son was fourth engineer on board, and it was his watch in charge of the engine-room. Besides Mr Clark, there were three stokers and a greaser below. It was some considerable time before the chief engineer could get beiow owing to the rush of steam, andwhen an entrance was at last obtained, the four men were found lying about the stokehold frightfully scalded and dead. They were buried at sea. The report states : — " We understand that the fourth engineer (Clark) met his death in rushing to the assistance of the stokers, whose shouts he heard at the time of the explosion." From the fact that their son lost his life in pluckily attempting to rescue others, the bereaved parents may derive some consolation.