Patrol Boat Burns

Article taken from The Lima News, August 24, 1932


THREE REACH SAFETY

PORTSMOUTH. Ohio, Aug. 24 --(AP)--A government patrol yacht burned on the Ohio river, near here today, but her crew of three men escaped with slight injuries in a lifeboat. The yacht was valued at $18,000.


The yacht caught fire from a backfire of its motor into carburetor. Unable to halt the blaze, Captain Ben Harrison, of Cincinnati and Ira De Hart and Hershel Stewart, both of Rising Sun Ind., fled in a lifeboat to the Kentucky shore.


A boat equipped with an outboard motor was hooked onto the flaming yacht and towed it to the Ohio shore where the fire was extinguished by the Portsmouth fire department but not before the hull had been razed.