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THE HONG KONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, NOVEMBER 19, 1937.
COLONIAL SECRETARY's Department.
No. 849.-The following Finding of the Marine Court of Inquiry held on the 9th. November, 1937, to inquire into the loss of the S.S. Kaitangata, is published for general information.
19th November, 1937.
FINDING.
N. L. SMITH,
Colonial Secretary.
The S.S. Kaitangata Official Number 125625 was on a voyage from Hong Kong to Haiphong with a cargo of 25,312 cases of aviation spirit and 995 cases of lubricating oil.
The ship left Hong Kong at 5:47 a.m. on 24th October, 1937, and experienced light North Easterly winds and a slight swell.
On 25th October, 1937, when in a position Lat. 21° 40′ North, Long. 112° 0′ East, a violent explosion occurred in No. 2 Hold at a few minutes after midnight.
The flames spread rapidly and explosions occurred in other holds and the ship was eventually abandoned and sank with a loss of 18 Chinese members of the crew; another member of the crew subsequently died from injuries received.
The cargo appears to have been well stowed, hatches were covered with tarpaulins and ventilators plugged.
We are of the opinion that gasolene vapour found its way from No. 2 Hold to the stokehold and was ignited when the fires were being cleaned.
We are unable to say definitely how the vapour arrived in the stokehold but there is a reasonable supposition that it leaked through the wooden fore bulkhead of the cross bunker, thence through the cross bunker and the water-tight doors in the stokehold bulkhead.
In these circumstances we consider that a flash-back to the source from which the vapour originated may have taken place resulting in the first explosion in No. 2 Hold.
We make the following recommendation :----
That when low flash inflammable liquids are stowed under hatches, they should only be carried in compartments, the bulkheads of which are gas tight and without openings and such cargo should not be adjacent to the boiler room.
Given under our hands at Victoria, in the Colony of Hong Kong, this 10th day of November, 1937.
(Signed)
J. B. NEWILL,
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Stipendiary Magistrate and President of the Court
M. V. KEOGH,
Lieut.-Comdr., H.M. Dockyard.
W. O. LAMBERT,
C. ASQUITH,
Government Marine Surveyor.
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Master, S.S. Scalaria.
N. HARDIE,
91
Master, S.S. King Yuan,
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