The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1902-06-10

Captain Gibbons and the entire crew
of the British ship Fannie Kerr which
was deserted at sea on May 20 on ac-
count of fire, arrived this morning on
the steamer Mkahala from Kauai.
With them came the details of the fire
aboard the vessel and the incidents
connected with their experience. While
Gibbons has little to say on the sub
Ject, the men are loud in their declara-
tion of charges against First Mate
David Longwill, who is accused by
them of having deserted the gig in
which were four men. The mate is al
legged to have left them with only four
pannikans of water, two cans of sar-
dimes and a can of lobster on the third
day after the men were driven to the
boats.
In the opinion of Captain Gibbons,
spontaneous combustion caused the
fire in the cargo of coal, and strange
to relate, there was not the slightest
animation of the impending danger
until twenty-four hours before the
hatch was blown Off the vessel Once
began to get in it's work. there was no
hope of saving the vessel. In fact, Cap
tain Gibbons realized that his vessel
was doomed at o'clock on the morning
OF May rs, when he felt the hull culver
with the explosion of gas that sent the
ventilators and after-hatch flying into
the air clear above the very top of
the jigger topmast.
Every effort was made however to
H..
but twenty-four hours soon showed
that the fire was beyond all possible
hope of control and no human power
could be found to cope with it. Timean
again Captain Gibbons and his men at
tempted to batten down the after
match but every attempt was followed
by the tarpaulins being blown off.
SMOKE BREAKS OUT.
The center of the rlre was in the af-
ter part of the vessel 1t first broke
out in hatch No. H. The first intimation
came at 2:3O a. m. of May 2S 1t was
reported to Captain Gibbons that smoke
was coming out of the after Nentila-
b. t@r. Captain Gibbons Immediately went
below and tried in every way to learn
the cause and see if his vessel was in
any danger. Although the gas and
smoke could be smelt, there was abso-
Iutely no signs of fire. The coal was
so loaded that it was impossible to dig
down and get at the center of COM
bustion, so after making a careful in
spectiOn without finding any evidences
of fire, it was decided by Captain Glib
bons to batten down the matches and
try to smother out the fire. He was
standing on the starbOard tack and he
decided to try and make Honolulu. No
particular signs of the fire were seen
nllrinp llrt y
2S, the entire crew was aroused by
hearing a terrific puff followed an in
slant later by brilliant glare of light. !
The pent up gasses had finally found |
an outlet through hatch No. and the |
VentilatOrs. The hatch was sent flying
high above the jigger mast, while the !
Ventilators were sent so high that no |
further trace of them was found. Then |
the flames began to shoot into the
heavens. The fire leaped high into the
rigging, going $50 feet into the air at
the first bound from the after-hatch.
The tongues of flames leaped also from
the VentilatOr openings For some
minutes the flames seemed to pOise in
midair and then the fire subsided some
what.
WATER OF NO AVAIL.
In addition to the after-hatch, the
fire was seen to be leaping from hatch .
No 3. Captain Gibbons and his crew
could scarcely make their way through /
the cloud of gas and smoke to the I
braces. An attempt was also made to
cope the flames. with water. Captain
Gibbons had the men put a line of wa
ter down the hatch, but within a few
minutes, he saw the utter futility of
such course, so this was stopped
without delay. The gas and flames and
smoke continued to made their way
from both after r-hatches and the ven
tilators. There was gas from the hatch
No. 2 and smoke coming from No. /.
The entire forward part of the vessel
was cool, for the fire had apparently
not worked it's way to that part of the
cargo Had the Gaelic or some other
vessel come along and given the cap