EXPLOSION AT SEA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 250, 21 October 1937, Page 11

EXPLOSION AT SEA

SYDNEY STAR’S MISHAP WITNESS’ ACCOUNT A graphic account of the terrific explosion on the liner Sydney Star a few hours out from Las Palmas on September 6, is contained in a letter received by a relative of Mr. Harold Preddy, formerly of Gisborne, who, with Mr. Jack White, are employed as engineers on the vessel. In the explosion one man was killed and four others injured. “You may have heard of the accident on this ship, but I hope you have not or you might worry if I am all right. As it is, I am very lucky to be alive and I will explain to you what happened. We had been to Las Palmas to refuel and left there at 1 a.m. on September T>. “Everything seemed all right when Mr. McNab and I came on watch at 4 a.m., but at 4.15 a.m. an enclosed bearing on the camshaft ran hot and burst into flames, burning inside the chaincase. I called the chief and the two engineers we had just relieved and we stopped the engines. I then ran up the ladder (and running is what saved me) and was going to stop the fans and reverse them to take the smoke away as it was becoming unbearable. I had just reached the top platform when there was a terrific explosion that shook the ship from stem to stern.

“I cannot explain what the explosion was like as I did not remember anything and was carried out on deck. When it was possible to get below the whole place seemed to be on fire and one engineer was found to be dead and four others badly burned. Everyone was ordered out as it was thought that the ship had gone but the flames were eventually subdued and we carried on with one engine. Mr. McNab was badly burnt about the face and is suffering from severe shock and Jack White is burnt about his face and hands, one ear being badly charred. The senior third engineer got it worse for his face and arms are in a terrible mess. The fourth man, a greaser, is not so bail but was severely shocked. The man who was killed had his neck broken and fractured his skull, his body being blown through a doorway.

Nobody can understand how I missed it, for I was in a direct line of it all; the skylights above my head were torn up and buckled. The plates I was standing on were thrown up and the door beside me was torn off the hinges and thrown along the aleyway. All I got were a few cuts on my face and leg and a sprained wrist I must have fallen on. The shock shook me up a bit but I was all right in a couple of days. The caps Mr. McNab and I were wearing saved our hair although my cap was blown off. Force of Explosion “The mess down below is impossible to Imagine. Everything was so clean with its different colours, but now it is all one colour—black. The port engine is completely out of order as there is not a door left on the crankcase, all being blown off and wrapped around everything that was in the way. Oil pipes are burst, handrails twisted, steps blown off ladders, and the footplates, those that are not lifted, are buckled. The switchboard is ruined and half the machinery is out of order while white asbestos lagging was strewn everywhere when it was blown off the exhaust pipes. The force of the bang cannot be realised and has shaken things all over the ship. It went through the refrigerating engineroom and blew the hatch off No. 3 hold forward. It went down the tunnels in the tunnel escape and blew off a door in the greaser’s quarters, emptying their electric boiler and throwing two of across their mess-room. One of the funny parts about it all is that Jj ? l u , s t ma de some tea and toast and the lot was blown out of the engine skylights. The toast landed on the deck down aft. Ventilators were Mown off their fittings on the boat

“The supposed cause of the exw.as a piece of red-hot brass broke off the bearing, which was alight and fell into the crankcase, Igniting the gas there.” Mr. Preddy concludes by saving that an inquiry will be held in England to ascerlain positively the cause mishap. He also mentioned that the mishap would delay the arrival of the Sydney Star in London as the ship was running on one engine and was making only about 9.5 knots.