Fire 1968

 

Another notable incident, there were 1968 off South Africa. As a result of an electrical malfunction, broke out in the engine room of a fire that spread through the chimney high above the chimney shaft. The machines were stopped and the ship slowed down in a sharp curve in order not to fan the fire by the wind. The fire alarm was triggered, fire doors closed and all passengers were instructed to gather on deck and not return to their cabins. Due to the unclear situation occurred sporadically to panic. Through the fire protection arrangements families and friends were separated and many passengers were worrying about their loved ones. The situation calm down a bit as it was announced that the P & O liner Canberra was near and the Australis could assist in case of an evacuation.

Many hallways were filled with smoke and closer to the fire source, the ceilings were black. The power went out and the air conditioning had to be turned off. The chimney was black-carbonated from the outside and the passengers gathered on deck watched in horror as deep black acrid smoke billowed from and adjacent to the chimney. After several hours, the fire could be extinguished under a lot of use of the Department and the available resources. There was one death among the crew.

 

Unpleasant were the effects on the conditions on board, as in many areas of the times listless drifting ship had been pulled through the smoke and heat affected and some cabins were damaged. The air conditioner was turned off and the power supply was switched off or collapsed. The ship was embroidering hot and dark. Many passengers spent the night with the windows open in the lounges on the promenade deck.

 

Also called the Australis arrived in Cape Town the next day, the situation remained tense.

The captain wanted to keep the trip interruption as short as possible and urged after some repairs to re-start. Subsequently, there was a mutiny among the officers, many of whom were insufficient for the repairs and refused to continue under these conditions.

Many passengers did not want to leave, and dodge to stay at hotels because they feared it would take without it the ship in this situation. So many slept in the corridors, lounges and some even unbearably hot in the cabins.

 

Following an agreement and completed repairs on site in Cape Town, flown by Greek specialists, put the Australis continued their journey.

 

John Newton's account of the fire on the Australis in 1968

Hi everyone my name is John Newton. I was fascinated to read the history of the Australis, she certainly was a grand lady. I had the pleasure of her company twice, once as a 15 year old boy travelling in March 1968 voyage 13 southbound, and then again in the Oct 1975 when I travelled on voyage 51 northbound. I have many fond memories of the people and events I experienced while sailing on her, but on the sea, as on the land, life is not always plain sailing and one quickly realises when life itself is threatened how vulnerable we are. Fortunately for all on board that day, the captain and crew who sailed on this voyage were very professional, disciplined and brave to the extent that every man, woman and child on board were delivered safely to their destination. Some were delivered not in the way they expected, others were better for their experience, and some I dare say vowing never to set foot on a ship again.

My mother, eldest sister Heather, younger brother David and Sister Angela were boarding the S. S. Australis at Southampton, we were going to join our father in Australia. En route our journey would be calling in at ports such as Dubrovnik and Greece to pick up immigrants who were going out to Australia to start a new life. It was then sailing on to Cape Town, South Africa, then across to Mauritius and finally Fremantle.

Comeback with me now onto the deck of SS Australis the year is 1968 the month the Thirteenth of March.

It was a glorious day on deck; as the ship cut her way through the South Atlantic Ocean to the next port of call, Cape Town. The familiar chime of the tannoy sounded throughout the ship, announcing lunch would be served in the Atlantic dining room.

I had arranged with my mother and sister that straight after lunch we would take in the first showing of the film, "The sons of Katie Elder" starring John Wayne. The cinema was situated towards the front of the ship on A Deck and it was here whilst leaving the cinema just before the interlude, that I sensed something was not quite right. Firstly there was the distinct smell of smoke and my first reaction, funny as it may seem now, is that the immigrants didn't like the food on board and must be cooking in their cabins.

 I turned left out of the cinema and travelled a short distance along the passageway and was surprised to see the heavy fire door closed, again. I thought maybe this was a prank; after all you only had to be tall enough to throw the manual switch situated just above the fire door to close it.. As I got closer to this door I could see smoke, and I could also hear the panic in raised voices. I returned to the cinema thinking we can't be on fire, yet knowing we were.

As a young boy I had seen enough English films to know that an Englishman is always calm in situations like this, but at 15 years of age I could feel the panic rising. Nevertheless I made it back to where my mother and sister were sitting, and said to my mother in a low voice "we have to get out of here the ships on fire". She didn't have time to answer me as someone stuck their head around the door, and in a very loud voice screamed Fire, Fire! People got to their feet quickly and started to exit the cinema. Most of us were  standing when the helmsmen put the ship very hard to starboard, and I can tell you some thirty odd years later, I can still see and feel the extent of the roll, in fact I really thought we were going completely over. The emergency fire alarms deafeningly loud rang in our ears,  designed with their own sense of urgency they resounde in every corner of the ship.

By this time the fire had spread to the Upper Decks travelling through the concealed ceilings spaces, and into some of the public rooms, this is when I believe the Captain realised the imminent danger of the fire being fanned throughout the upper structures of the ship and took the evasive action to put her about, out of the wind and then stopped the ship.

Leaving the cinema, we made our way up the stairway in semi darkness, where we got caught up in a mass of panicking  people all with the one objective to get out as quickly as possible to the open decks. In the push and shove of things I lost contact with Mum and Heather.

I remember quite vividly finding myself beside an elderly gentlemen in his late 70's trying to make his way up the stairs among all the pushing and shoving, and my instinct, spurred on by panic, was to go on past him.

He looked so vulnerable there among all this chaos so I turned to him and asked if he was ok and did he need assistance to get up the stairs. In a very calm reassuring voice he said “I am alright, get yourself up topside son.” I believe he must have been the calmest person on those stairs that day.

All the ships alarm bells were still ringing, as we made our way on to the open deck. I managed to find my mother and sister, and to our despair my younger bother David (9 years old) and Sister Angela (7 years old) could not be found anywhere on the deck, so we assumed they must still be below decks in our cabin 170 on Upper Deck.

Try to imagine the scene that day, especially those of you who have sailed on the Australis, the aft decks are absolutely full of passengers and a few had completely lost their composure. I could see a man crying, an officer with his lifejacket on, and a spare one in his hand as he addressed us with a mega phone from the top of the Sports Deck and told us not to panic because on the horizon off to starboard the P&O liner Canberra was coming to our assistance.

 While frantically looking for my siblings i bumped into my friend Jack  and his father who was an ex-Royal Navy man, who told me that if we have to abandon ship to go for the inflatables as they are much safer.. This filled me with even more panic and an urgency to find my brother and sister but the crew on the Starboard side would not let me back into that part of the ship. The high pitched voices of the Greek crew ringing in my ears ,Too Dangerous, Too Dangerous. I then tried to gain entry on the Port Side of the ship and got the same response.

It was then in desperation I decided to pretend to walk away, before quickly turning around, i raced back, jumping over the fire hoses as I dodged the crew and entered the ship from the Promenade Deck.

With adrenaline pumping I was jumping the steps at two and three at time. I quickly reached the bottom of the second set of stairs on Upper Deck, it was eerily silent. To my surprise no one had followed me down below decks,  I looked at the long  passageway of Upper deck that was filled with acrid smoke which made me gag from thick phlegm gathering in my mouth and throat..

 Moving along the corridor i noticed the little red emergency lights fitted to the ceiling were dimly visible shrouded in smoke. There was complete silence and not a soul to be seen, the alarm bells had fallen silent, the thought passed through me fleetingly that the alarms had ceased because everyone had exited the ship to a safe area., This filled me with more anxiety.

 There was  not a soul to be seen as I made my way along the passage way to the cabin, you could have heard a pin drop..

I remember thinking to myself what if they are not here, where do I look for them, who can I get to help me find them in this huge ship and among all this  danger and chaos.

 I finally reached Cabin 170, and when I entered my sister and brother were sitting on the top bunk. I'm not sure why, but they didn't seem to be aware of the emergency and the cabin had relatively little smoke in it compared to the passageways.

I quickly scooped up all the lifejackets and all the warm coats for everyone and told my brother and sister we have to attend boat drill, I must have not been thinking clearly with that statement as it would become quite obvious once we went into the passageways that this was no drill. We made it safely up to the top decks, to my Mother’s immense relief. We stayed there for sometime not knowing our fate.

Eventually the fire was put out and sadly we were informed a crew member had lost his life fighting the fire. I cannot remember how long we stood up on the deck, only to say it was a very long time.

Most people on the aft decks that day would certainly remember the large Albatross that circled above us, about the same time we were being informed the fire was under control.  The bird is known in legend as a mariner’s protector of souls,  it certainly was a sailors good omen on that day.

That night with limited emergency lighting and no air conditioning we drifted along. 

 Some of the ships public lounges were used for the passengers to sleep in. I remember walking into the very large public room known as the Smoking Room, situated at the front of the ship, it was in the early hours of the morning at about 1.30 am, there were people lying down, wherever they could in the dimly lit  room.

 As I walked to the front of this room I noticed a lot of the passengers were not yet asleep , but the strangest thing was the silence, nobody spoke or stirred, it was as if the whole room was suspended in time. As I reached the front of the room I could hear the wind gently moaning as it passed through the opened windows, pushing the heavy gold curtains aside. I stood there for some time listening only to the wind, even the reassuring gentle vibrations of the ship's engines was absent as we drifted along.

It was such a surreal experience that even today, some 35 years later, I can return to that room as if it was only yesterday and stand there on the portside listening to the wind and be aware of the complete silence of the room behind me.

 I'm not quite sure if we were one or two days out from Cape Town when the fire had taken hold, but I do remember seeing some of the damage the fire had caused to the ceilings in some of the public rooms.  Most of the paint had been burnt off Australis` large funnel, and there was a lot of damage on her lower decks, as the fire had initially started in her engine room. When you cast your eyes to her forward bow area, the deck here was stacked three feet high with every conceivable fire extinguisher, there seemed to be hundreds of them.

 My friend Danny who was a crew member, was busy painting the ships funnel the following day after the fire, and he told me he was very tired and had little sleep in the last twenty four hours because he had been firstly fighting the fire for many, many hours before we passengers became aware of the impending emergency, then doing some of the cleaning up, and now the funnel had to be ship shape before the Captain would take her into Cape town.

 We did reach Cape Town safely and received quite a welcome. An ambulance was stationed at the side of the ship to take off a lady who had gone into premature labour, this later turned out to be a joyous occasion for Mr & Mrs L.Iokimidis who gave birth to a healthy baby in a Cape Town hospital. They then rejoined the ship and sailed onto Australia.

 I remember eating with paper plates and plastic knifes and forks under make do spotlights in the Atlantic dining room.

 Many passengers were angry with these conditions, Chandris the ships owners flew some of these people on to their destination in Australia, we decided to stay on the Australis while she was being repaired. It took about 5 days, and in this time we had a bit of a mutiny of sorts, when all the stewards walked off the ship. This was because the Captain wanted to sail before they felt that adequate repairs had been done. We finally did set sail, but many of the passengers, especially those from the lower decks would not sleep below, they slept on deck chairs up on the Promenade Deck all the way to Australia and no coaxing could get them below decks.

 The circumstances I found myself in those ensuing hours of danger and the days that followed were and still are priceless to me. On that day I learned much, along with the knowledge that panic driven on by the will to live can be contagious and at times dangerous, Keep Calm at all costs.

 The will of others to protect life at all costs is a most marvellous uplifting human trait.

Never take a single day of life for granted, life can be short.

I settled in Australia, married my wife Allison and in the October of 1975 I introduced her to another fine lady the S. S. Australis.

We honeymooned on board the ship on voyage 51 northbound, Fremantle to England via the Panama Canal.

In closing this story I would like to say how fortunate I was to experience this fine ship, firstly as a young boy then as an adult. The ship, the people and the places are a part of my life; my father Garfield Newton sailed on her to the shores of Australia to forge out a new life for his family.

Allison and i started our life as newlyweds on Australis, seeing many wondrous parts of the world. Our son Clifton was conceived on her.

The good ship Australis brought so many people together and forged lifelong friendships and good will wherever she sailed.

                      Australis no longer sails the vast oceans of the world she lays

                      Peacefully on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean of the coast of

                       Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands.

                        SS Australis 31 / 08 /1939.   18 / 01/1994. 

         

Her oceans are now our mind her spirit sails on entwined.

John Newton.

29-03-03.

 

Thanks to John Newton for his above contribution.

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