Seawise University

1972

Hong Kong harbour, arson suspected, RMS Queen Elizabeth Location: Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong · Coordinates: 22.30°N 114.16°E · Casualties: 1 · Survivors: ~900 · Depth: 14 m (scrapped) · Cause: fire · possible arson — Caught fire simultaneously in multiple locations at anchor in Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour on 9 January 1972 while being converted to a floating university by C.Y. Tung. The pattern of the fires indicated arson; the colony's arson squad identified evidence of accelerants at five separate locations aboard the ship. She burned out of control and capsized the next morning. · Fate: scrapped in situ · 1972-74 · Type: former ocean liner · RMS Queen Elizabeth · Tonnage: 83,673 tons · Crew: 1238 · Flag: Hong Kong · C.Y. Tung · Launched: 1938 Formerly RMS Queen Elizabeth, Cunard's 83,000-ton flagship and for twenty-seven years the largest ocean liner in the world. Sold in 1970 to C.Y. Tung, renamed Seawise University, and converted in Hong Kong to a floating university. Fires broke out at five separate points on 9 January 1972 while she sat at anchor in Victoria Harbour. The pattern indicated arson; she burned through the night, capsized the next morning, and was scrapped where she lay over the following two years. One crew member died fighting the fire. The Vessel The Seawise University was a British-built, Hong Kong-operated passenger liner that had originally been commissioned as the RMS Queen Elizabeth for the Cunard Line transatlantic service. She was built at the John Brown & Company yard at Clydebank, Scotland between 1936 and 1938 and launched on 27 September 1938. She was 314 metres long, 83,673 gross tons, and powered by four steam turbines producing approximately 200,000 horsepower. Her original transatlantic accommodation was approximately 823 first-class, 662 tourist-class, and 798 third-class passengers, plus a crew of 1,200. Her original peacetime service was on the Cunard North Atlantic route: the Southampton to Cherbourg to New York service. She served as a troop transport during the Second World War (transporting approximately 750,000 Allied personnel between 1940 and 1946) before resuming her peacetime Atlantic service in 1946. Through the 1950s, she was one of the most profitable and popular transatlantic liners; through the 1960s, she was progressively replaced on the Atlantic route by the 1969-commissioned RMS Queen Elizabeth 2. The specific end of her transatlantic service in 1968 was followed by a complex ownership history. She was sold by Cunard in 1968 for use as a tourist attraction at Long Beach, California; the Long Beach project was commercially unsuccessful. In 1970, she was purchased by the Hong Kong shipping magnate C. Y. Tung for conversion to a floating university-and-luxury-cruise ship, the Seawise Un The Disaster The fires spread with catastrophic rapidity through the partially-converted Seawise University. The specific combination of: (i) extensive paint and varnish application (fresh materials with high flammability); (ii) substantial accumulation of construction debris and packaging materials; (iii) partial disconnection of the ship's fire-detection and fire-suppression systems during the conversion work; and (iv) the multiple separate ignition points produced conditions that were catastrophically conducive to uncontrollable fire spread. Within approximately 30 minutes of the initial fire detection, the fires had spread through the upper decks of the ship; within 60 minutes, fires had reached the ship's structural supports; within 90 minutes, the ship's internal structural integrity was being progressively compromised. The specific evacuation of the approximately 360 personnel aboard was largely successful; the ship was at anchor, and evacuation by shore boats was substantially easier than would have been the case at sea. The Hong Kong Fire Services Department deployed multiple fire-boats to the ship; the Hong Kong Marine Department coordinated the evacuation. However, the fire-fighting efforts were substantially unable to control the fire. The specific scale of the ship (314 metres, 83,673 gross tons) and the extensive interior spaces made comprehensive fire-fighting impractical with the available resources. Seawise University burned for approximately 24 hours before her structura