FAMOUS LINER

Hokitika Guardian, 5 February 1931, Page 1

FAMOUS LINER

FIRE ON EMPRESS OF SCOTLAND. HEROIC ENGINEER. LONDON. December 11. 'Pile Empress of Scotland, the 23,000 ton liner for which the shipbreaking firm of Hughes. Molckow and Co., Ltd. are stated to have paid the Canadian Pacific Railway Company COO,OOO, was destroyed hy fire here yesterday. The fire—the biggest Blytli has ever seen—broke out at lour o’clock in the morning. Now all that is left of the great vessel is a twisted mass of iron and steel. To-day the palatial fittings of the liner were to have been sold hy auction Since she arrived at the breaking-up yard of Hughes. Bolekow and C<>. Ltd., last Thursday thousands of people have inspected her. Eight men who were on hoard escaped unhurt, hut lost all (heir belongings During the day .Mr John Southern, chief of the Harbour Commission firebrigade, was injured while directing the fire-fighting operations from a fire float, and was detained in hospital.

Dash to Engine-Room. Two of the doiikevmen left oil hoard were changing watches at four a.m.. when one of them, .J. Cutler, saw smoke pouring from the tourists shaving saloon on the forward deck. While ho was warning his companions a ferryman on the high ferry saw a burst of flame and gave the alarm signal on the ferry buzzer. Before leaving the vessel Engineer J. Meldrum. of Liverpool, who was in charge, and two other men dashed down to the engine-room to turn oil' the oil circulation of (he boilers, while the carpenter turned on all the hydrants available. When they attempted to get hack on deck' they found the way harred by dense clouds of smoke, and had to make a long detour, reaching the deck from another part of the ship. All the men escaped down the lifeboat ladder on to the jetty. .Most were in their night clothes- - the engineer had dressed on deck and all lost their belongings. As the fire became more fierce brigades arrived from Ashingfon Colliery. Whitley Bay. and Newcastle, hut the difficulty of approaching the jetty and of getting water from the river with the tide falling greatly hampered their efforts. Explosion Danger. Although 100 tons of luol oil in the liner’s tanks might Jjave exploded ally minute, the firemen, some wearing gas masks, carried their host’s on hoard. In spite of their efforts, however, the flames spread from the ajltor part of the ship to the various decks, devouring magnificent suites <>t rooms, which had housed Royalty, and sweeping to the fore part of the vessel with hardly a cheek. Their progress was marked by minor explosions, and tlm vessel began to take a list. In the darkness the blazing ship made a magnificent spectacle, with flaems leaping through the port-holes, plates red lmt. and huge clouds of smoke lit up with the glare of the flaming interior. Blvth is deploring the loss of the biggest job ever brought to its shipbreaking yards. The breaking no <n the vessel would have taken twelve months.

Former German Boat. The Empress of Scotland was one of the German vessels surrendered to Britain under the Versailles Treaty. Formerly the Tvaisoiin Auguste Victoria. she was built at Stettin in 1903 for the Hamburg-American Line, and was a favourite vessel of the ex-Kaiser. For many years she was the pride ol the Canadian Pacific fleet, and was the largest liner entering Canada.