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| Seawise University ablaze |
The Seawise University was the renamed former Cunard liner RMS Queen Elizabeth, which at the end of her cruising life was sold to the Hong Kong shipowner (and father of the Chief Executive of Hong Kong CH Tung) CY Tung whose dream it was to convert her into a floating international university.
Sadly, just before the conversion work was completed in January 1972, the ship caught fire, burned, and sank in Hong Kong harbour. There she was an obstruction to the container berths and a danger to shipping and the Marine Department ordered her to be removed. As she was entered in the UK P&I Club, the task of removing her fell to the Club, and the then senior partner, Sidney Fowler, found a salvor in Australia, Sir John Williams*, who was contracted to do so. He employed a team of Korean divers, led by salvage master Jock Anderson, who worked on the enormously complicated hulk in the dark waters of the South China Sea for almost four years, cutting her down for scrap. They were proud of the fact that none of the divers died during the difficult and dangerous work.
The cost of the removal was $10m, then the largest claim ever paid by any of the P&I Clubs, and settled under the 'Wreck Removal' Rule and contributed to by the London Group of Clubs through the Pooling Agreement and reinsuring underwriters at Lloyd's.
The case was handled by Terence Coghlin and Francis Frost, and investigated by Bob Crawford of Ince & Co, and Richard Sayer supported by consulting engineers Binnie and Partners, fire experts Dr. Bougoyne and Partners and Dr. RF Milton. The investigation was able to show that the fire had been started deliberately, probably by the conversion crew who may have wanted to prolong their work. Fires had been set in a number of different places and the fire doors jammed open - a typical sign of arson.
As a consequence, we argued that the whole loss fell on the ship's war risk underwriters (at Lloyd's) as 'malicious damage' and they eventually agreed to contribute $7.5m towards the settlement of the claim.
Francis Frost had worked particularly assiduously on the case and was rewarded by the partners by being sent on a cruise to New York on the QEII with his wife Lies, one of the rare cases of anyone in the firm receiving a 'bonus'.
*Sir John Williams had worked with Sidney Fowler on the removal of the New Zealand ferry 'Wahine', which sank in Wellington Harbor in 1968.
See also 'Memories of Seawise University'
