RACE AGAINST FLAMES.

Putaruru Press, Volume IV, Issue 118, 28 January 1926, Page 1

RACE AGAINST FLAMES.

FIERCE FIGHT ON STEAMER. After a gruelling 30-mile race for the shore with her hold ablaze from stem to stern the Clyde Line steamer Lenape, bound from New York to Florida, was beached in Delaware Bay on November 18 in the nick of time to save the lives of those on board. Of the 368 passengers and crew, only one was lost, an elderly man named Robert Leverton, of Williamsefrt, Massachusetts, being drowned as he attempted to swim ashore.

Passengers were loud in their praises of the heroism of the crew, when, in spite of fierce heat and bursts of flame, officers and men stuck to their posts on deck or in the engine room and brought the vessel to land. As the fire at last gained control life-boats were hurriedly lowered and all on board made their way over the side. Many with lifebelts jumped into the water and were picked up by coastguard cutters and other boats cruising in the vicinity. The steamer was abandoned, and was soon nothing but a smoking hulk, the loss being estimated at £600,000. Fire was first noticed at 10.55 p.m., and 20 minutes later, when it was seen that the crew could not keep the flames in check an S.O.S. call was sent out. Radio broadcasting along the shore was instantly stopped, and out of the silence 20 ships answered the Lenape. All were a long way off, and Captain Charles Devereaux decided to head for the shore and trust to the ve. ;el's speed. Passengers were mustered, and waited on the heated decks throughout the grim race, but there was no panic. Some tried to joke and sing, but soon these half-hearted attempts were stilled and, tensely watching the lights on shore, the passengers waited for the expected order to enter the boats. Meanwhile the crew fought the flames, while firemen and engineers remained in an inferno of smoko and heat, and forced the fire-racked vessel to her utmost.

Nearing the land the blaze was got temporarily under control, but just as the steamer grounded inside the breakwater the flames burst out afresh. Those n board lost practically -everything in—the fire, the cause of which is a mystery. Many of the Lenape’s crew were on the Comanche, of the same line, which was burned off the coast of Florida a month earlier, while one man was also on the Mohawk, burned last New Year’s Day under similar circumstances to those surrounding the Lenape ’a fire.