CALL FOR HELP.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 192, 16 August 1939, Page 10

CALL FOR HELP.

ILLNESS IN TAMPA.

SECOND ENGINEER SICK.

MOTOR TANKER STANDS BY. "Man very ill. Can you come to meet me? My position at noon, 34.39 S., 177.41 W."

This message, crackling through the ether from the American Pioneer Line motor ship Tampa, bound from Sydney to New York, brought the British motor tanker Edward F. Johnson, en route from San Francisco to Auckland, racing to her aid through stormy seas early on Sunday morning.

Later advice received while the two ships were approaching a rendezvous nearly 400 miles north-east of Auckland in the Pacific Ocean, revealed that the sick man was the assistant first engineer of the American ship—equivalent to the second engineer of British boats.

Owing to the terrific seas in a heavy storm which lasted four days, it was found impossible to transfer the engineer, and the nearest the two ships approached each other was five miles, when the Edward F. Johnson passed the Tampa about four o'clock yesterday morning.

The captain of the American ship had decided to divert his vessel to Auckland and she will arrive here late this afternoon.

The Tampa, of 5959 tons gross, is running in the service between Australia and the United States under the management of the United States Maritime Commission. After loading cargo at Australian ports, the ship cleared Sydney ten days ago for New York, Boston, Montreal and other American and Canadian ports.

The Tampa will be met on arrival in the stream by a doctor and a St. John Ambulance man. The patient will be taken to the Queen's wharf steps and thence to hospital.