LOSS OF CLIPPER

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 46, 22 January 1938, Page 8

LOSS OF CLIPPER

COMMANDER’S HEROISM. IMPRESSION AT SAMOA. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, Jan. 21. The impression that Captain Edwin Musick, knowing that the Samoan Clipper would probably explode in landing, lierdically attempted to alight at sea rather than cause inestimable damage and greater loss of life by landing at Pago Pago, was gained by Bishop Kelley, of Oklahoma, who was a passenger on the Monterey, which arrived at Auckland to-day. Bishop Kelley, who will visit Australia before returning to the Dominion for the Catholic Centenary celebrations, saul he gathered the impression that Captain Musick had acted in such an heroic- manner,, when the Monterey called at Pago Pago. “Pago Pago was stirred to tears by the disaster,” said Bishop Kelley. “When the ship called there the gloom that the disaster had caused was manifest, and Captain Musick and his officers were deeply mourned by the population. “The Marist Fathers, who have a mission station at Pago Pago, saw the doomed ship coming back an though it was going to land there, he added. “Captain Musick had signalled that he was coming in, but when the Marist Fathers last saw.the clipper it was disappearing behind the mountains. They did not see the disaster, as any further view was obscured by the mountains. “It was suggested that Captain Musick must have feared an explosion would follow in landing, and to avoid greater disaster he performed such ail act of heroism.” Officers and passengers state that, while everyone in Pago Pago was profoundly shocked by the fate of tile Samoan Clipper, officers of Pan-Ame-rican Airways and the United States Navy were extremely reticent legarding investigations already made. An order had even been issued confiscating all photographs bearing on the disaster.