ABLAZE AT MELBOURNE

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12622, 6 December 1926, Page 7

ABLAZE AT MELBOURNE

NEW BLUE FUNNEL MOTOR-SHIP IDOMENEUS IN DANGER FUMES OVERCOME FIRE-FIGHTERS HEROIC FIREMAN RESCUES THREE SUFFERING MEN AT GREAT RISK By Telegraph.—Press Association.—Copyright. (Received Dec emb’er 5, 5.6 p.m.) MELBOURNE, December 5.. The steamer Idoriieneus, while en route from Sydney to London, caught fire. The blaze was extinguished before she reached Melbourne, but while the vessel was being unloaded at Melbourne the fire broke out afresh in refrigerators packed with frozen mutton. Before the fire brigades arrived volunteers attempted to quell the outbreak. . Nine stevedores, working on the ship, and six firemen were overcome by ammonia fumes and taken to hospital. There were pathetic scenes w hen the victims were brought on deck. They wore seized by con vulsions, and rolled about in intense agony. Foreman Jorgensen went bel ow three times in stifling fumes, each time bringing up an uneonsc ious man. He returned a fourth time, was seized by convulsions as the result of the fumes, and fell from a ladder into th’e hold, wh ere he lay for half an hour before being rescued by firemen in smoke helm’ets. The ship’s hatches were seal ed, and steam turned on from the ship’s boilers in the hop’e of quelling the outbreak, the cause of which is unknown. Most of the cargo was removed from the vessel, the watersiders having agreed to work overtime in order to get the mutton gtored in refrigerating chambers on the wharf.

THE IDOMENEUS

A NEW MOTOR-SHIP The Tdomeneus was delivered at the olid of August by Messrs Workman, Clark ami Co., to Messrs Alfred Holt and Co., Liverpool, and is a sister ship to the Orestes. The following arc the lending particulars: Length, 459.60 ft. Beam, 58.48 ft. Depth, 32.60 ft. Gross tonnage, about 8000. Engine power, 6000 s.li.p. Speed, 15 knots. Two eight-cylinder Burmeister and Wain engines are installed, having cylinders 740 mm. bore with a piston stroke of 1500 mm., the speed being 110 r.p.m. Electrically driven supeicharging blowors are provided. Four

Diesel-driven generators are fitted in the engine-room, and there are 18 electric winches on deck, capable of lifting loads from 2 to 10 tons. When the superchargers are in operation the total output from the two engines is about 9000 i.li.p. at 110 r.p.m. There are two blowers, each motor developing 80 h.p., the capacity being 14,000 cub. ft per minute. She is a “Blue Funnel* 1 boat. The Idomeneus, which is on her maiden voyage, loaded at Glasgow and Liverpool for Fremantle, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, and sailed from Liverpool on September 18th, arriving at Fremantle on October 23rd. On completion at Brisbane the vessel commenced her loading there for Dunkirk, Hull, Antwerp and London, and left on November 19th for Sydney, arriv* ing there on November 20th.