Fire on cargo ship kills two crewmen

By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer

Two civilian crew members were killed in an engine room fire early this morning on the U.S. Maritime Administration Ready Reserve Force ship MV Cape Horn 800 miles east of Honolulu, officials said.

A "roll on/roll off" ship under the control of the U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command, the 749-foot California-based Cape Horn was transporting cargo to Thailand for war games and was en route to Pearl Harbor when the fire occurred, command officials said.

Confined to the engine room, the fire was extinguished about two hours after the initial alarm sounded, officials said. Coast Guard officials said a distress call was received at 5:30 a.m. and a Matson freighter was diverted to respond before the sealift command ship USNS Shasta arrived to provide assistance.

The names of the dead crewmen were not released. The cause of the fire remained unknown and is under investigation.

The Cape Horn, with a crew of 28 merchant mariners and six U.S. Army cargo supervisors, was dead in the water, officials said. The commercial tug Hokukea was dispatched from Honolulu Tug and Barge and was en route to tow Cape Horn to Pearl Harbor.

Ready Reserve Force ships are government-owned and specifically configured to carry military cargo. All are crewed by civilian merchant mariners working for commercial companies under contract to the Maritime Administration.