The Navy Vol_67_No_2 Apr 2005 - Navy League of Australia

The Harbour Master then gave corresponding directionsto all merchant vessels, and thereafter tugs were employedassisting in their removal.By daylight the next day the fire on the ship had then beenbrought under control and the immediate risk of its loss hadpassed.Tragically there was one fatality when a Royal NavyAble Seaman, Kenneth Shooter, fell down a hatchway on thePANAMANIAN while fighting a fire in a hold in which thecargo was ablaze.It was eventually seven days from the time of the outbreakof the fire until the last of the fire fighting equipment wasfinally withdrawn.Investigations concluded that the oil that ignited causingthe fire was a comparatively small quantity of furnace oilprobably recently discharged from the ship and had notdispersed being in the sheltered area between the ship and thewharf.Being an old ship, the MV PANAMANIAN had many oilleaks in the engine room which regularly pumped its bilgesout into the harbour.This, coupled with the surface oil present during the warthrough Allied submarines emptying and cleansing theirdiesoline tanks prior to receiving fresh supplies and thefurnace oil from the many visiting ships, left a continual filmof surface oil in the harbour.The Harbour commissioners had expressed concernwith this problem and tried unsuccessfully to alleviateit. Aggravating the problem was the fact that more than6,000 vessels a year were using the busy harbour duringthe war.There had been a smaller similar fire onboard themerchantman EDENDAL in Fremantle Harbour on November1, 1943 when a cutting plant onboard had ignited gas fromvolatile oil at No. 10 berth, North Wharf.In the case of EDENDAL the brief 30-minute fire hadcaused $110,000 damage.In 1946 the Eastern Asia Navigation Company Limitedlodged writs claiming $1,034,000 for damages to the MVPANAMANIAN and its cargo upon the Fremantle Trust. Thewrits were defended by the Fremantle Harbour trust and theCourt found in their favour.The cost had been high – one fatality, $50,000 to repairand restore the wharf, $1,000,000 damage to the MVPANAMANIAN and its cargo and the loss of valuable firefightingequipment.The Shanghai-registeredMV PANAMANIAN,seen prior to its fateful fire.28 VOL. 67 NO. 2 THE NAVY