Photographs taken during the fire onboard Manxman on the 18th May 1970. The incident took place in Plymouth Sound.

The Photographs are in the Photographic Collection at The Plymouth and West Devon Records Office (see link page) catalogue ref 2606/227 - 229. and are copyright.

Hi,  I served on the Manxman at the end of her life, and was onboard during the fire which finally finished her.  I was an ERA/2, during the period when we were day running out of Plymouth with the trainee Engineer Officers from Manadon.

Hoses from Dockyard tug cool the blistered side of HMS Manxman.
The fire was in the after officers cabin flat, the actual cause was a radiant electric heater (ships fixture on the bulkhead) of one of the cabins. The heater had been switched on (switch on that ship was up for on) but since the switchboard after heating breaker was off, it did not come on, presumably someone at some previous time feeling cold had tried to turn on the heater, but the main breaker being off, the heater had not come on, and the heater switch was left in what ashore would be the off position but onboard was actually on. A chair had subsequently been pushed up against the heater





 Firemen tackle blaze aboard HMS Manxman in Plymouth Sound.

When we sailed that day (actually going for a workup at Portland ), the Chief Electrical Officer, who normally made up the switchboard, was off for some reason, so the Electrical Officer made up the switchboard, not being the one normally doing that job, closed the after heating breaker as well. The cabin radiant heater came on, the occupants being Special sea duty-men, the cabin was empty, the inevitable happened, the chair pushed up against the heater caught fire.

Dockyard tugs deal with fire aboard HMS Manxman.

 In actual fact after the fire was extinguished – it was a good one – we re-berthed in Plymouth – I cannot remember if it was with tugs or under our own steam, but we did continue day-running for a short time (a few weeks), (the engine room was undamaged) with that cabin flat just boarded up.

Her final end came when we hit the quay rather hard, and more repairs were required. The incident was quite well reported in the press (Western Morning News) as I remember.

 Best regards, Geoff Wincott.

---

The Ships logs were written in pencil and can be difficult to read so I have transcribed a section see below. Click  here  for the original document 200k PDF format. The log is Crown © and can be seen at the Nation Archive at Kew, document No ADM 53/172819

The Board of enquiry into the incident commenced On the 21st May 1970 at 0930 and sat until the 23rd.