Thanks for a wonderful photo. According to a contemporary report below a similar photo in Marine News, it took five days to extinguish the fire, before the ship was towed to Kaohsiung to be broken up in October 1973. I am intrigued by the large number of what appear to be rolls of newsprint stacked on deck in the after part of the ship, even on the poop deckhouse! Have you any idea what they are?
Regards,
Warwick

Great photograph but a sad end to a fine blue funneller. By 1973 she was one of the last survivors of her class, so she would have been scrapped soon anyway, but it's sad that she went like this, as one of very few Blue Funnel peace-time casualties. The fire was caused by a fork lift truck falling into a hold. The photograph shows how typically well maintained she was even in her later life, with pristine paintwork aft of the fire damage. Calchas had been one of Blue Funnel's cadet training ships. She had also been captained by a master of comparatively short stature for whom a special window had been constructed at a low height in the bridge, which was popularly known as "Digby's window."

Regards

Barry