Liner crippled by fire at sea
A 24,000 TONNE Greek cruise liner, Patris, limped into Suva Harbour on New Year’s Day 1974 after a fire which left her drifting in the New Hebrides group without power for 29 hours.
The story was reported in Times of January 3, 1974.
The fire knocked out two of Patris’ four generators and the third failed as she berthed at Suva wharf on Tuesday night.
The 960 Australian and New Zealand passengers in the liner had New Year meals of partly stale food because the generator damage cut off most of the liner’s air conditioning and refrigeration systems.
Two passengers complained in Suva of bad food and one said some cabins were filthy because toilets and washbasins had overflowed.
The Chandris Line, the owner of the cruise ship, flew engineers from Greece to Suva to help local engineers with temporary repairs.
Chandris resident manager Australia, Captain John Arlaud, said he hoped Patris would resume her Pacific Islands cruise.
He said the fire broke out in the main generator room. None of the passengers or 450 crew members was hurt.
Captain Arlaud said that in an attempt to repair the generators, the main engine was shut down and the liner was allowed to drift at sea for 29 hours while ship engineers worked tirelessly to rectify the problem.
From Vila, Patris had been due to visit Samoa and Tonga before spending two and a half days in Suva.
But because there were no repair facilities in Vila, the captain decided to head straight for Suva.
“The ship had all facilities except for air-conditioning which made things pretty unpleasant for the passengers,” Captain Arlaud said.
Passengers generally were “very good and understanding about their discomfort,” he said.
Engineers switched on one usable
The Fiji generator for lighting and the other to supply the small propulsion engines.
Captain Arlaud said that because the difficulty in feeding passengers properly, they were sent ashore to eat in hotels after Patris arrived in Suva.
Lloyd’s surveyor in Suva, Mr Bill Billett, said one of the liner’s generators was badly damaged while another was badly soaked with water used by firefighters to put out the blaze.
“After the two soaked ones have been dried out there should be no problems, except with the one Bish is repairing,” he said.
A spokesman for Bish Ltd said electrical repairs to the main generator could take 24-28 hours.
Some passengers said that despite discomforts caused by the fire, they were enjoying the trip. They said the crew did everything possible to make life comfortable.