DOOMED SHIP ABLAZE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 33, 29 June 1914, Page 4

DOOMED SHIP ABLAZE.

OIL VESSEL EXPLODES. EIGHTEEN CARRIED TO DEATH. A atoiy of the sea recalling, though happily not rivalling in horror, that of the Volturno, was told when the liner Limerick reached Liverpool. The Limerick, whilst returning to the Mersey port from Adelaide, picked up off Algiers five members of the crew of the ill-fated oil ship Koineta, which, following several violent explosions, sank. Eighteen of the crew, including the captain and all the officers were killed. The Kometa was bound Irom the. Black Sea to Mediterranean ports. She carried tanks of benzine. She was without a wireless installation, but, aa in the case of the Volturno, an international fleet raced to the doomed ship's assistance.

TWO TERRIFIC EXPLOSIONS. Soon after the liames were sighted, two terrific explosions took place, blowing part of the engines, most of the deck and bridge, with the captain and officers on it, high into the air, and, say the survivors, twisting the vessel into the shape of a barrel. It is probable that moat of the eighteen victims were killed in these explosions. The lifeboat of the Limerick picked up the last five men. All had been severely scorched. Although the sea was calm for miles on the lee side of the Kometa, it was aWaze with burning benzine.

■ The rescuers were faced with the greatest difficulty in approaching the doomed Bhip. Six naked men were seen gesticulating wildly on the burning fore«astlc to which they had been driven by the fierce flames, and before the;,' could be taken off, one of them threw himself into the sea.

Afterwards the Limerick's lifeboat approached, and the other five men, all of whom were Russians, jumped- into the water and were brought safely away. Only one of the men who had the good luck to be rescued by the Limerick had any knowledge of English, and this was so slight that he was unable to converse in the language, but one of the Limerick's crew happened to speak Russian. RUSHED ON DEC®. NAKED.

This man, from the lips of the terrified sailor, learned the story of the disaster. He could not tell how the explosions occurred. He knew only that the crew were awakened by the terJ'ific noise of the explosion, and rushed on decjc naked, or almost 30, to find the vessel on fire amidships. A thrilling story was told to a Daily Vews representative by third officer J. C. Watson. "The calamity occurred," he said, when we were off Cape Matifu, near Algiers, on Sundcy night, April 26. I was on the bridge of the Limerick about 10.30 when I saw a fire in the direction of Algiers. 1 told ouv wireless operator -to get in touch with the Algiers station and see what was burning.

"iWe were informed that there had beon a:i explosion on an oil tank steamer which was believed to be a British vessel from Liverpool which hall just left the port. "When we heard this, Captain Macfarlane, of the Limerick, gave orders for the men to stoke the (ires, and when the message was passed round that a Liverpool vessel was in danger the men worked like demons. We raced away to the Kometa, and ik was only after we had rescued some of the men that we knew that the vessel was a foreigner.

SEA OF FLAME. •'As we, made towards her, a terrific explosion occurred, and the flames appeared to shoot miles into the air, lighting the. vcew tor a dinner round. I saw what appeared to be a huge mass of molten metal shoot hundreds of feet into the air, and the oil spread far away on the lee side of the vessel, a floating sheet of blue flame.

| We could sye by the light of the flames half a dozen men dancing about half naked. They were shrieking in agonised tones, and the flames were rapidiy encroaching on the forecastle head, where they were sitfiated. The plates beneath them were red hot, and when we got them on board the Limerick, the soles of their fei;t were badly blistered. "As our lifeboat approached them, one of the men, the ship's carpenter, jumped into the water. He had gone raving mad from fain and fright. The other five were also half demented, and when they threw. themselves into the water, they were so exhausted that there was great difficulty in picking them up. ANOTHER EXPLOSION.

"Another explosion took place soon after we got them off the vessel, and the steamer was completely burned out, her hull being burniMl into the shape of a bitrrel. i "The flames were visible for 'more f.bnn twenty miles, and we watched them until suddenly they went out jUBt as a candle is sniffed."