ALL WHO READ
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THE NEWS-TIMES
NEWS-TIMES
60th YEAR, NO. 78.
THREE SECTIONS TWENTY PAGES
REHEAD
CffY
AND BEAUFORT, NORTH CAROLINA
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1961
PUBLISHED TUESDAYS AND FRIDAYS
o'. i
Official USMC Photo
The Military Sea Transport Service tanker, USNS Potomac, still blazes brightly almost 14 boars after it exploded and started burning at
6:45 Tuesday night. The tanker was loaded with lour-and-a-half million gallons of aviation fuel. At the time of the firtjf the fuel was being
pumped from the ship into fuel storage tanks, alao containing aviation fuel, located about 550 feet from the sbip. While the shl|Tcontinues fo
burn, -firemen keep a spray
Photos by Reginald Lewis
The Potomac blaze silhouettes two harbor tugs which have just helped berth the Pallium, Shell tanker, left. Barely discernible in the
right foreground is a Coast Guard boat.
Agencies Discuss
.Disaster Plan
A county disaster plan was dis
cussed Monday night when repre
sentatives of agencies involved in
disasters met at the home agent’s
office in Beaufort. The meeting
was called by Garland Scruggs,
chairman of the Red Cross chap
ter.
Present were personnel from the
Red Cross, civil defense, rescue
squads, medical association and
the welfare department. The group
talked about the possibility of for
mulating a county disaster plan,
learning what supplies, equipment
and personnel are available and
where to get them if they are need
ed.
Mr. Scruggs reported that activi
ties during the hurricane alert
were discussed as well as ways of
improving them. He said the or
ganizations will have meetings to
discuss the plans made at the joint
meeting, after which another joint
session will be called.
Dr. John Gainey, Morehead City,
was one of the speakers, and men
tioned the danger that could be
created if there were an oil fire at
the port. The next night the Po
tomac blew up.
Congressman to Visit
Carteret Next Week
Congressman David N. Hender
son of 'Wallace will be in the coun
ty Tuesday and Wednesday of next
week, according to a telegram re
ceived from him this week by THE
NEWS-TIMES.
The congressman said, “I plan
to be in the courthouse at 1 p.m.
Wednesday at which time 1 will
be delighted to talk with any con
stitutent having a particular mat
ter he wishes to bring to my at
- «
i
caution
Oil is floating away from the
Potomac and will continue to do
so for some time.
Walter Friederichs, state port
operations manager, warns peo
ple that the tide will carry this
oil into all inlets and streams
and against all shorelines in the
area, creating a fire hazard.
Persons, for their own safety,
should be extremely careful
with matches, cigarettes and
flames of any sort around water
fronts for the next few weeks.
Morehead City Hospital
Staff Chief Says Thanks
Letters of thanks have been writ
ten by Dr. John Gainey, chief of
staff of the Morehead City hos
pital, to hospital personnel and
the chief medical officer at Cherry
Point air base.
They express appreciation for
the help given during Tuesday
night’s emergency when the tank
er, Potomac, burned in Morehead
City harbor.
If space permits, both letters
will be published in Tuesday’s pa
per.
Tide Table
Tides at the Beaufort Bar
HIGH
12:06 a
12:34 a
12:58 p
1:27 a
1:51 p
2:23 a.
2:46 p.
3:22 a.
t»#
LOW
Friday, Sept. 29
.m. 5:32 a.m.
6:18 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 38
.m. 6:27 a.m.
,m. 7:22 p.m.
Saaday, Oct 1
m. 7:35 a.m.
m. 8:29 p.m.
Nouday, Oct. 2
m. 8:44 a.m.
m. 9:29 p.m.
Tuesday, Oct. 3
m. 9:45 a.m.
Ml.
A crewman, wrapped in a blanket, walks by Captain Bill's Water
front restaurant, toward Evans street and an ambulance. Behind
him is A. N. Willis, Morehead City. (More pictures in this section
and section 3.)
■■niiiaWiiiiiniaMilBMBiB iiin»r»mi >i nnirmmmrMirrrir—.n -r iiwiiiiiii"iiiiiwii'iiiMiiiiiii'iii|li 'ill—i——ii —
Bert Forman, Brooklyn, N. Y., left, second mate aboard the Po
tomac, was at the movies in More he ad City when the fire broke out.
W. F. Craig, Augusta, Tex., second engineer, escaped from the ship.
They an chatting in the lobby of the Hotel Fort Macon, Mocohead
Oil Continues to Bum in Hold; Coast
Guard to Let Fire Burn Itself Out
Cdr. George Philbrick,'
USCG,-> in charge of fire
fighting operations at More
head City port, said yester
day that no effort will be
made to extinguish present
flames. They will be allowed
to burn out.
This is the safest thing to do.
the commander said. If the fire
were extinguished there would be
a possibility that gasses would col
lect which could cause explosions.
No prediction was made on how
long the fire would continue to
burn. The ship, broken in two,
was pretty well awash yesterday.
By yesterday one crewman was
still unaccounted for, Peter Salop
ek, radio operator. D. C. New
ton, purser, said 10 minutes before
the fire he stopped by the radio
shack and asked Salopek to go
ashore with him.
Salopek declined. Newton said
that Salopek was on tne upper part
of the ship where he should have
had no trouble getting off. Dead
is a crewman, Clyde V. Leonard.
The other 42 aboard survived.
Arthur Lewis, partyboatman who
runs the Bunny II, picked up seven 1
survivors shortly aftert the ship
started to burn. He ran the Bun
ny under the stern of the tanker,
put out two lines and seven men
who went oft the stern of the Po
tomac, grabbed the lines.
Lewis towed them away from
See FIRE CONTINUES, Page 8 J
Chief Mate Says
Fire Worsts
Has Ever Seen
"This isn’t the flrat tanker I’ve
seen go up but I’ve never seen one
afire as bad as this.” TUs is how
chief mate W. L. Maholland, Run
nymeade, Va., summed up the dis
astrous explosion and fire that
rocked the Navy tanker Potomac
Tuesday night in the Morehead
City harbor.
Maholland was aboard the tank
er when it was first ripped by ex
plosion at 6:50 p.m. Following the
blast, he went over the stern and
swam to safety on Radio island.
Seaman Robert Bradfield, At
lanta, Ga., was also aboard when
the tragedy struck. “We saw the
fire coming and were trying to get
the ship away from the dock but
we didn’t have time to get the
lines free before she blew. The
fire came up the gangplank and
the first explosion was right at
midship,” said Bradfield Wednes
day.
Bradfield said that the explosion
knocked him flat and then he got
out of there, going over the stern
of the ship. Bradfield said that
there was fire in the water near
the gang plank and on the other
side of the ship but none where he
went in.
Not all of the ship’s crew were
on board at the time of the explo
sion. Second mate B. Forman of
Brooklyn was at the movies in
Morehead City and seaman Fran
cis Lydon was downtown having a
prescription filled. <
Lydon said Wednesday that he
and another seaman had been
■prayed with fuel Sunday night
when a gasket blew on the ship
while it was docked at Savannah,
Ga. The pair had been sent to the
Morehead City hospital for exami
nation as soon as the Potomac
docked Tuesday afternoon.
Living quarters on the Potomac
are divided into two sections. One
section is located at approximately
midship, below the pilot bouse and
the other is near the stern on the
first two decks. Approximately 11
men were in the forward quarters
at the time of disaster and all have
now been accounted for with the
exception of a radio operator.
The first concern Wednesday
morning of seaman Willie Thomas
was to telephone his wife and fam
ily in Portsmouth, Va. Thomas
was aboard the ship when it ex
ploded. His wife said that she had
beard of the disaster over tele
vision Tuesday night but was un
able to learn the name of the ship
until Wednesday morning.
Thomas and the ether crew
members of the Potomac had noth
ing but words of praise for the
women on duty at the emergency
dime set up at the Morehead City
hospital Tuesday night. “These
ladies were really on the ball and
should be given credit for the tre
mendous Job they did," said Thom
Potomac's Purser Was One
Of Few Who Walked Away
Port Reopens
To Traffic
# Coast Guard Keeps
Close Watch
# Precautions Prevail As
Long as Fire Burns
At 6:30 yesterday morning, 36
hours after the tanker Potomac
blazed up, the Morehead City port
area was reopened to traffic by
tjie Coast Guard.
The Shell tanker, Pallium, which
had just docked Tuesday night as
the fire broke out, was not per
mitted to pump asphalt to Trum
bull until yesterday morning. This
wets one of many precautions tak
en to prevent the fire from spread
ing.
Standing offshore Wednesday
morning, barred from docking be
cause of the fire, were Navy ves
sels and the Holland-America ship,
Kamperdyk. The ships started
moving into the port yesterday.
Navy ships were reportedly on
routine maneuvers in cooperation
with the Marine Corps.
The Navy vhs.seIs sent in nu
merous fire and rescue parties to
assist (tyr. George Philbrick, com
manding officer of the Coast Guard
cutter, Chilula, ill controlling the
fire. Commander Philbrick was
in charge of port fire fighting op
erations as soon as the Chilula
x'eturned from a logistics run.
The Chilula had been to Frying
Pan lightship to carry supplies and
was cn route to Lookout shoals
lightship when it got word of the
fire. The ship was 70 miles from
Morehead City at the time.
A Coast Guardsman said the
glow from the fire could be seen
from the Chilula when it got to
within 30 miles of Morehead City.
Until commander Philbrick ar
rived, port security was in charge
of Lt. John Riddell, commanding
officer of Fort Macon group.
The Chilula moved in on the
fire, using foam to fight fires above
the Potomac’s fuel compartments,
but after four hours withdrew from
an obviously hopeless task.
It was decided to let the fire
burn out since it was not creating
further danger. Fire companies
on shore were protecting nearby
fuel tanks.
The Chilula is equipped with
fire and salvage pumps that pro
vide a hundred to a hundred and
fifty pounds pressure on 2V4-inch
hoses. Nine hoses are aboard.
The Chilula had aboard suffi
cient foam to start fighting the
fire. Lt. Cdr. H. A. Cretella says
a three-gallon foam can is con
sumed in about 5 minutes. Cans
of foam were rushed here from
military bases by the van-load and
were shuttled to the Chilula.
Assisting the Chilula were two
Navy tugs, the Masopeleia, Acco
keek, the Navy landing ships Ter
rebonne Parish and Waukiakum
County, and fire and rescue par
ties from the aircraft carrier Val
ley Forge, and the assault trans
port, Oglethorpe. Both were lying
offshore.
Three LCM’s were standing by
yesterday morning and will con
tinue standing by until the fire
burns out. The Coast Guard was
not relinquishing its watch, because
as long as there is flame, there
is danger, commander Philbrick
said.
Motel Owner Phones Alarm; Island,
Causeway Residents Told to Get Out
Mrs. Julia Holt, owner and man
ager of the Bridgeview motel, Ra
dio island, turned in the alarm on
the little blaze that ended in the
devastating fire at Aviation Fuel
Terminal dock Tuesday night.
Mrs. Holt said she saw the
flames under Bunch’s fishing pier
by the bridge. She phoned the
Morehead City fire department and
said, “There’s a fire at Bunch’s
pier,” and before she had hung up,
she said the flames were zooming
toward the state port, then work
ing south toward the tanker.
I). C. Newton, purser aboard the
Potomac, Navy tanker which was
destroyed by fire in Morehead City
harbor, was one of three men who
got off the ship by way of the
gang plank Tuesday at 20 minutes
before 7.
Mr. Newton, interviewed Tues
day night at Morehead City hos
pital, said, “I was dressing to go
ashore when I heard the third mate
say, ’Something’s afire some
where.’
“I looked out and saw all the
back of the ship lit up and a wall
of fire coming at us from the
bridge (Morehead City highway
bridge).
•‘It's quite a stretch from the
bridge around the shoreline to the
ship. When I saw that sheet of
flame coming, 1 knew nothing
could help us. Three seconds later,
the fire was under the dock.”
Newton said he and Tom Lee,
seaman, and a colored crewman
ran down the gang plank. About
that time the first explosion oc
curred (aviation gas blowing up
in the hold) and Newton was
knocked to the ground, hurting his
left knee.
But he got up and the three ran
until a man from Aviation Fuel
Terminals, where the ship was dis
charging fuel, put them in a pick
up truck to take them off the is
land.
“A locomotive was trying to pull
tanC* ears out of the terminal and
the man in dbe truck wanted to
lock the gate,” the purser said. “I
told him to let the gate alone and
let's get out of there, but he went
back and locked the gate.”
The Potomac was at the dock,
bow headed north to the highway
bridge and had started discharging
jet fuel at 4:30 p.m. The ship,
baby super tank class, was com
missioned Jan. 30, 1957.
She came to Morehead City from
Savannah, Ga., where she had dis
charged 99,000 barrels of jet fuel.
She was scheduled to put ashore
101,000 barrels at Aviation Fuel
Terminal here. It is estimated that
about 10,000 barrels had been
pumped out when the fire occur
red.
After discharging fuel here, the
Potomac was scheduled to return
to Houston, Texas, The Potomac’s
previous visit to Morehead City
was on July 23.
Port City JC's
Back Port Bonds
Wilmington and Morehead City
Jaycees met at Jacksonville Wed
nesday night to form a committee
to promote votes in favor of the
forthcoming port bond issue.
The bond referendum will go be
fore the people Tuesday, Nov. 7.
It will be the only issue to be voted
on at the polls that day. The ref
erendum involves a total of $61,
665,000, and provides funds for nu
merous capital improvements
throughout the state as well as
ports.
Each issue will be voted on sep
arately. A detailed explanation
appears on page 4 section' 3 of to
day’s paper.
The cooperative committee of
Wilmington and Morehead City
Jaycees will promote the port is
sue by personal contact, by mail
and by contacting all civic organi
zations throughout the state, in
cluding 139 Jaycee clubs.
County Board to Meet
County commissioners will meet
at 10 o'clock Monday morning at
the courthouse, Beaufort.
She described the flame as
“purplish gold” that lit up the en
tire bow of the Potomac. She said
when the tanker started blowing Its
whistle to abandon ship, flames
were leaping high and she took one
of three fire extinguishers she had
at the motel and thought she would
lay protective fire repellant around
her yard.
“I laughed at myself when I sud
denly realized how hopeless that
would be, so I put my colored gifl
in my car and took her to Merri
mon. By the time I got back,
Cherry Point
Rushes Help
To Fire Scene
• Men, Equipment
Pour into Port Area
t Survivors Transferred
To Air Base
(Special to THE NEWS-TIMES)
Cherry Point — More than 250
Cherry Point Marines, seven
pieces of heavy fire-fighting and
other mobile equipment were rush
ed to Morehead City Tuesday night
to help fight the fire aboard the
tanker USNS Potomac.
Casualties reported from the
fire arc one known dead and 22
injured. Nineteen of the injured
were treated at the Station Hos
pital here.
News of the disaster first reach
ed Cherry Point at 7:10 p.m., and
approximately 50 Marines and a
foam crash truck were immediate
ly dispatched to the fire. Also
sent was a force of military police
to keep the highways to Morehead
City open and to control the flow
of traffic.
At the disaster site, Cherry Point
Marines were joined by four fire
fighting crews and their equipment
from Camp Lejeune. Helicopters
and crews were also alerted at
Cherry Point and New River for
the fire-fighting battle that was to
last all night.
By 9 p.m., the ship, with ap
proximately four million gallons
of fuel aboard, was completely
ablaze and the lira threatened to
spread to a 10-million gallon fuel
farm located approximately 500
feet away.
Flames carried by the rising
tide also threatened portions of
Morehead City bordering the har
bor.
In the meantime, state police,
National Guardsmen, Army and
Navy tugs, some as far away as
Wilmington, were dispatched to the
disaster scene. Coast Guardsmen
were also on hand.
Here at Cherry Point, the Sta
tion Disaster Control center was
activated to coordinate the sending
of additional men and equipment
to the Morehead City area.
At the station hospital, all doc
tors, corpsmen, and other hospital
personnel were alerted to take
care of the casualties.
The mess hall was busily pre-.
paring meals for the fire-fighters
and rescue workers. Additional
men here were put on a standby
basis for working parties.
At the station hospital, 18 mem
bers of the Potomac’s crew and
one relative of a crew member
were treated for injuries and burns.
Of this group, 10 were treated for
minor burns and released from the
hospital at 11:25 p.m., just a few
hours following the outbreak of
the fire.
Five of the not too seriously in
jured remained overnight at the
hospital and were released Wed
nesday. Three fishermen in the
vicinity of the blaze were held for
treatment here overnight and Wed
nesday were transferred to the
Johnson County hospital.
The remaining casualty, a mem
ber of the Air Force on leave and
visiting his father at the time of
the fire, was treated for second
degree burns. He was transfer
red to the Seymour Johnson hos
pital, Goldsboro, for further treat
ment.
Week Proclaimed
Morehead City mayor George
Dill and Beaufort mayor W. H. Pot
ter have proclaimed next week as
National Employ the Physically
Handicapped Week, according to
Mrs. Julia Tenney, manager of the
Morehead City Employment Secur
ity office.
they wouldn’t let me on the cause
way.” she related.
Everyone on the island and the
causeway between Beaufort and
Morehead City got out. They went
to Beaufort and watched the blaze
from there.
A man who reportedly was hap
pily drunk refused to leave one
of the places on the island and
was carried out bodily by service
men stationed on the island.
All who realised the danger left
Son EVACUEES, Flge 2