Chapter 2
The Fateful Voyage
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The West Point |
The 3,074 ton “West Point” left Glasgow
on the 18th August 1910, heading for Charlston, United States,
with a large cargo of fertilizer and other goods amounting to about 5000
tons. This was a familiar trip for the crew and all appeared well until
the 27th August. During the time since leaving Glasgow there had
been a small leak from the flange of a valve controlling a tank in the engine
room, in which 200 gallons of paraffin oil had been stowed. Early that morning
George Westlake, the ships second engineer, entered the dimly lit engine
room to try to stop the leak, observed by the young greaser, the only other
person on watch at the time. He arranged his hand lamp so he could
see the task ahead of him and endeavoured to close the valve to halt the
leak. As much as he tried he could not stop the trickle of oil. Not
wanting to fail at his task, he attempted again, with one last supreme effort. This
time the valve shifted in the required direction but then, to his dismay,
resistance ceased and it came away in his hands. The paraffin gushed
through the aperture, soaking the unfortunate engineer. The flammable
oil also came in contact with the hand lamp and the oil inevitably ignited. The
surrounding woodwork caught alight and very quickly the stores in the engine
room were engulfed in flames. There was little chance for George Westlake
to do anything to slow the spread of the fire. He just managed to reduce
the speed of the engines before the situation became far too dangerous and
within a minute he had to follow the greaser up the steps, out of the engine
room, to relative safety.
The shouts and cries from the two men
disturbed the rest of the crew who soon began to emerge from their slumber. Quickly
they became aware of the perilous situation that confronted them all. Following
orders issued by Captain Pinkham, the hands closed the skylight and ventilation
to the engine room. Grabbing buckets of water, some of the men attempted
to extinguish the flames, which were shooting up through the fiddley grating. The
fire had now taken strong hold of the cross-bunkers and stokehold.
The heat and fumes were so intense that
nothing could be done in the engine room to tackle the fire. Very quickly
a group of men attached the hose to the ashcock in the stokehold. The
water from the hose and buckets did little to slow the spread of the fire
and very soon the hose became useless due to the lack of steam to drive the
pumps. The main boiler had failed due to the heat breaking the glass
in the gauges. The fire extended to the galley and storeroom, and all
hands were now employed drawing water in buckets from over the side.
By this time the fire had partly burnt itself out in the engine room and with
great courage a small group of men were able to force their way in and
start a steam pump to bring life back to the hoses. In the mean time
the fire had extended its grip by spreading to the coalbunkers, cattle
deck and cargo holds at the stern of the vessel. The heat was incredibly
intense, causing the structure to buckle and groan. This heat, together
with the ammonia fumes from the burning fertilizer, fought back the valiant
efforts of the fire fighting crew. As a last ditched effort to conquer
the flames, some men closed all the ventilators to the holds, whilst others
cut holes into the deck through which steam was driven into the different
compartments. Even this proved ineffective, and the fire gained complete
mastery of the ship.
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