SENSATIONAL ESCAPE.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 November 1922, Page 7

SENSATIONAL ESCAPE.

SWIM THROUGH BURNING OIL. MAN, WIFE, AND TWO CHILDREN. How he and his family swam ashore from a wrecked steamer through a sea of blazing oil is described by Professor Edwin Kemmerer, of Princeton University, who returned from South America to New York on September 12.‘ The professor and bis family were on board a steamer descending the Panama River, udien the boilers exploded, splitting the vessel open. She was carrying five thousand gallons of fuel oil. This was ignited and spread over the surface of the river, setting fire to the ship. “We waited on board.” said Dr. Kemmerer. “until it was a question of being certainly burned to death in the ship or of possibly -succeeding in emimming through the oil-covered \vater to the shore, three hundred yards away. So my wife, and son aged thirteen, and daughter, who is sixteen, slipped overboard. We are. all good swimmers and swam under water until we reached a small space of clear water. Then another explosion covered ns with burning oil. and we were compelled to dive again afid. make for another clear spot. All around us people were clinging to burnin" wreckage. Eventually, bv alternate! v swimming on the surface and diving under the burning oil. wo reached the shore. We were all badly burned. Over a hundred people perished in the disaster.”