June Luncheon – Presentation by Chief Officer Michael Morgan SS Africa Fire

Thanks to Clyde Buttery who researched the history of the SS Africa ship fire at Port Adelaide and developed the presentation for our Patron, Chief Officer Michael Morgan to present to the the 8 June 2021, Seaton Hotel luncheon and the family of SF Cheminant.

The Cheminant family bought with them the photographs, medals, watch and gold chain presented for bravery to the Firefighters. The Chief presented the Bill and Jenny with a copy of “Muscle and Pluck”. Bill is the Grandson of SF Cheminant.

Re: Senior Fireman William Cheminant

At the Greenman Memorial Service we paid our respects to Albert Greenman who fearlessly attacked a fire aboard a ship, the ‘City of Singapore’, and lost his life. Today we pay our respect with relatives of another Firefighter, Senior Fireman Cheminant, who introduced themselves to us at the Greenman Service.

I am told that this was the first time the two families had come together. That’s wonderful and we would like to take this opportunity to welcome them into our Fire Brigade family.

On Sunday 21st August, 1910, a member of the public saw smoke billowing from the ‘South Africa’, anchored at the North Arm, down near Torrens Island, and notified the police. The police turned out the police launch and notified the ‘Ada’ at her Birkenhead berth.

The Brigade was informed and Foreman Cooper and the Port Adelaide crew, of which Senior Fireman William Cheminant was a member headed to the Fire Float ‘Ada’, and responded to the call.

In order to protect Port Adelaide from ships carrying explosives, these ships were restricted to the North Arm, so the ‘Ada’ crew had plenty of time to observe the smoke gushing from the ‘SS South Africa’, together with the knowledge that the ship was carrying about one hundred and eighty tons of explosives as they chugged towards the burning ship.

The fire was in a storage area, next to the ship’s Number 2 hold, where the explosives were stored. Some of the ‘South Africa’ crew had broken out fire hoses and were playing water onto the fire. The rest of the crew had lowered a boat and abandoned ship.

The Police launch had turned out before the Fire Service and, having arrived first, tied up at the rear of the ‘South Africa’.

There was a six man crew on the ‘Ada’. Foreman Cooper, Senior Firemen Murphy, Cheminant, and Valentine, First Class Fireman Mitchell, and Third Class Fireman Davies.

Foreman Cooper had a hurried consultation with the ship’s senior officer, who explained the danger in which they stood. Cooper could see the hatch-boards and tarpaulin hatch cover of number two hold burning fiercely, and the deck plates, near number two hold, were starting to glow red.

The explosives were being cooked slowly within a giant oven, and at any moment the temperature could reach the critical point, and explode, which would tear the ship apart, and kill everyone on board.

Being on moorings at the North Arm meant that there would be no supporting appliances, everything depended on Cooper and his men, and they did not hesitate. They hoisted three lines aboard the ‘South Africa’, donned smoke helmets, and plunged into the mass of thick smoke, with the hoses gushing water pumped up to them from the ‘Ada’.

They took their hoses down into the storeroom where the fire was believed to have started, and into number 2 hold where the timber bulkhead, separating them from the explosives, was burning, and fought the fire back little by little. They poured so much water into the ship that she developed a considerable list.

At last, after about a four hour fight, they were sure that every spark of the fire had been extinguished and the people of Port Adelaide could breathe easy again. (I bet they felt the same way, too.)

The police and firefighters were justifiably treated as heroes of the hour and the Government recommended them for the King’s Police Medal.

This decoration had been instituted by King Edward VII in 1909, to be awarded to ‘Members of the Constabulary Forces and Fire Brigades throughout His Majesty’s” Dominions and Territories, in recognition of special or exceptional service, heroism, or devotion to duty.

But the people of Port Adelaide did not want to wait for some home government to make up their minds. They raised a fund to strike special medals for the men who had risked their lives, and to present them with other tokens of appreciation.

The medals, cast from bronze and inscribed ‘For Bravery: s.s. South Africa’ were presented at a great ceremony in the Port Adelaide Town Hall on 15 November, 1910.

Port Adelaide Mayor, W.T. Rofe presented a medal and a gold watch and chain to each of the firefighters and policemen who had attended the fire.

Note. Senior Fireman Cheminant, by then a Foreman, received another medal for exemplary service at the ‘City of Singapore’ fire, some fourteen years later.

Senior Firemen Valentine and Murphy also attended the ‘City of Singapore’ fire as the Cockswain and Engineer of the ‘Ada’.

 Sir Day Bosanquet, Governor of South Australia and the head of the police and fire services sitting with the recipients of the King’s Police Medal; the medals were awarded to firemen and water police in a ceremony at Government House, Adelaide, South Australia as a result of a fire on the sailing vessel the ‘South Africa’