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Ship Collision Blast Toll Feared 12 Men Crew Members Trapped As flaming Oil Sprays Deck and Blast Follows By WABREN BALDWIN Morrisburg, Sept. 24 (Staff). — Ten men are missing tonight and two are known dead from the crew of the steamer Milverton, which collided with the tanker Translake four miles up the St. Lawrence River from here early today. The collision, cause of which was still unexplained tonight, was fol- lowed by an explosion on the Mil-* into flames. There were 50,000 gal-verton, which threw an umbrella Ions of crude oil in the tanks of the of smoke high in the air and turned Translake. the ship into a holocaust from which only 12 men escaped. Ten of the 23 men aboard the Milverton were known to be safe in hospitals and Ogdensburg and Massena, N.Y., with carying. degrees of burns and injury, and an 11th man was fae and uninjured. Her master, Capt. L. E. Pain of Montreal, was critically injured. Second Mate William Robertson of Toronto and Sarnia was dead on arrival at hospital in Ogdensburg, and Third Mate William ,Qo,lds-worthy of Montreal died later in Massena Hospital. Tonight, officials of the Department of Transport and of the New york State police were opening investigations into the crash,"which took place in international waters in a 1,400-foot channel—one of the narrowest places in the river. * The Milverton was travelling downstream towards Montreal and the Translake headed up river when they collided shortly before 7 a.m. The bow of the Milverton stove in one of the tanks of crude oil amid-ship on the Translake and sprayed oil over the Milverton's decks and surrounding water. Providentially, the ships broke apart and the Milverton was swept downstream by the current almost a quarter of a mile before she broke Men on deck of the coal carrier and a few who may have been able to reach the deck jumped into the water, where flaming oil was spreading over an area of about 400 square feet. Two were rescued and brought to the Canadian side and 10 others were taken to the American side of the river. Under, a pall of smoke which shut out the early morning light the officers' arid' men of the tanker stood by helplessly, in danger of having their own ship blow up any minute, and helpless to render aid to the swimming men. Some attempts were made to launch a lifeboat, but Captain Chatel of the Translake gave orders against any such move as too dangerous to the men and to his ship. AU those rescued from the Milverton had jumped from the flaming ship within a minute or two of the explosion and out of control, the flaming mass swept downward with the current, crossing the river and finally ending up on a reef in Rapid de Plaut, where the vessed. is still stuck fast tonight. Smoke is still rising from the charred hulk and occasionally a spurt of flame can be seen, but less than an hour after the explosion no sign of life could be seen on her decks. ^ Eyewitnesses among the crew of the tanker said tonight there ha.d been a full 15 minutes between the collision and explosion. Decks fore and alt appealed to burst into flame simultaneously, but for a few minutes at least the decks amidship were covered only with a dense' cloud of smoke. It was probably this brief interval which accounted for the rescue of any of the officers and crew. A fire tug is en route here from Kingston and no attempt to remove bodies on board the vessel will be made until tomorrow. Until late i tonight, police were turning all cars off the river road, still in fear of another explosion from the smouldering hull. When the explosion came, flames immediately licked the oil pouring from the side of the wounded tanker and spreading over the river. The flaming surface spread and started threateningly upstream, following a deadly trail to the tanker's stern. Men on the Translake said they could feel the heat from the approaching river of fire before a mercifully swift curent counteracted the spread and doused the near-by flames with their threat of horrible death to the waiting men. The tanker by this time was resting at an angle of 15 degrees as a result of the gaping hole in No. 3 tank. Pumps were thrown Into' action and the list corrected sufficiently to get the ship underway and beach her as near safety as possible on the American side of the river. It was an hour and a quarter, however, before she was declared out of danger. Gerald Blanchette, Montreal, and Rene Moquin, Chambly, were off duty and below deck when .the order came from the quarter deck. They said it was less than a minute between the signal bell and the crash which shook the ship. They rushed on deck in time to see the ships drifting apart. About 15 minutes later, as they were standing by their stations, they heard the explosion about a quarter mile downstream and saw a great sheet of flame and smoke shoot into the sky. They watched men jump from the sides and saw two heads bobbing in the water on the north j side of the ship. Most of the survivors jumped from the other side and a few clambered down a ladder. Any attempt to go to the rescue would have swept the Trans-lake's lifeboats to certain death in a whirlpool of fire which lay between them and the burning ship, they said. fjj& w*k ^ K