HEROES OF THE SEA.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 24 February 1917, Page 2

HEROES OF THE SEA.

RESCUES FROM BURNING Oik SHIP. MAGNIFICENT WORK. "An Englishman" wrifes in the Times an account of a splendid act of heroism at sea. At 11 o'clock on the night of Thursday, December 7, the steamship Conch, carrying SOOO tons of benzine, was torpedoed and set on fire by a German submarine. About 3 a.m. a huge conflagration lurching througn the water at a speed or 8 knots was observed by one His Majesty's destroyers. She at once proceeded full speed in the direction of the blaze. A large steamer was discovered burning fore and aft, and to the horror of everyone there were some 3u men aboard huddled together and seemingly doomed. Three steamers, all larger and tougher than the the destroyer, were steaming along about a quarter of a mile away from the terrifying spectacle. They had been there for hours powerless to help.

The blazing Conch had been left with engines running and she was under no control. A nasty sea was getting up. More horrible still, her cargo of benzine was every moment welling out from her sides, causing lakes of fire all round her. ACROSS THE BOW.

The captain of the destroyer three times, by magnificent seamanship, placed his vessel across the bows of the doomed oil steamer, throwing over beard his rafts his lifebelts and buoys and finally his boats, and shouting to the crew to jump for their lives;. Many did so, to be saved by the destroyer's boats, but not all. After two hours' magnificent, seamanship there were still nine men left on board. The flames were now but a few feet off them, and the ship was going fast, but still stumbling along like some fearful live thing. But the captain of the destroyer found that there was no single life-saving apparatus left aboard the ship. The three other steamers waited, watching.

The destroyer's captain ordered boats, davits, and all overhanging gear to be turned in. Surely Tie was never going to put his ship alongside the burning Conch! That was at 6.42 a.m. After 4S minutes of the most nerve-wracking and magnificent seamanship and judgment that had ever been seen, the British destroyer was placed gently and superbly alongside the Conch, anc every single man of those doomed creatures was taken off. Two or three sharp orders, and the British man-of-wr.r was clear. Ten minutes later the Conch had disappeared. LEITH CAPTAIN'S DARING. The chief engineer of the oil ship states, also in the Times, that in the •hope of escaping the liquid fire the engineers kept the engines ""running while they waited for orders from the bridge. It was not until three hours after the explosion that they were able to reach the deck. The bridge was still burning, but the poop was nearly burnt out, the woodwork being almost completely consumed. The chief engineer and four of the crew managed to lower the one remaining boat and succeeded in getting clear of the ship, which was still ablaze. The engines, which were oil-fed and automatic, were still going. About half-past two, after drifting for an hour in the small boat, the chief engineer and the four members of the crew were picked up by the coasting steamer Rattray Head, of Leith. Captain Anderson, says the chief engineer, spared no effort to rescue men from the burning ship, and indeed brought the Rattray Head so near to her that Tie ran great risk of losing his own ship.

At the same time a patrol boat gave what help it could by throwing out rafts and lifebelts and putting off its boats. Towards 4 o'clock the second and third engineers managed to get away from the ship by making a raft with empty boat tanks and jumping overboard, and they were picked up by the patrol boat. About the same time five of the crew were rescued from the water by the Rattray Head. She stood by for three hours longer, but the Conch gradually outdistanced frer, and when the chief engineer last saw her, shortly before 7 o'clock on Friday morning, only the after part was still above water. A destroyer was then beside her. I know, added the chief engineer, that they took men off, but how or where I could not tell you.