FIRE

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 22, 31 December 1915, Page 2

FIRE

;U RGLARY OF SHIPS SURCLRY Pkk Phkss Association. Wellington December 30. While the steamer Corinthic was yingat King’s Wharf last night, nor nr gory was broken open. Valuable a.strumont.s were stolen, and the oom itself was set afire. Prompt icasures were taken and the lire was .oppressed, the damage to t lie room nd fittings being slight. A later message states; —Investiga.on to-night lifts, the edge of the veil 1 secrecy thrown over the Corinthic onsation by the police, ft appears hut petty thieving had been rife or. he vessel all the way out from Engind. and one or two of the crew bad leen under Suspicion. 'Last night, apparently. a couple of seamen thought hoy would make a good jjr.nl by ■leaning out the surgery and smuggling the instruments (wjiieh were valued at about £100) 'ashore and disposing of them. The first part of the programme was carried out. and the ion got into the surgery through the porthole. Practically everything of value was ronftved and secreted in mats and other plpces about the ship, but all was recovered to-day—all, that s to say, except a bottle of brandy. Having brought off their little coup, the sailor* burglars decided to celebrate it w,ith a bottle of brandy discovered among the medical comforts. They did so, and while drinkng and smoking, apparently, matches vere. dropped, igniting the Cotton vool and other inflammable stuff, .vhieh smouldered after the men’s departure, and finally blazed up, scorching and charring the- fittings. The smoke was observed by a watchman t three o’clock in the morning, and the suppression of the fire and discov--ry of the crime followed. Police 'aid vas invoked, and when the two men .topped ashore about seven this moiling they walked into the hands of waiting detectives. A rumor earlier o-night that three arrests had been nade proved incorrect.