LOSS OF TWO TANKERS

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26662, 22 February 1952, Page 7

LOSS OF TWO TANKERS

EVIDENCE GIVEN AT INQUIRY

(Rec. 11 p.m.) NEW YORK, Feb. 20. At a Coast Guard investigation in Boston into the breaking in two of the tanker Pendleton, James Young, chief pumpman, said the tanker had “a bad three-way fracture in the bulkhead between the starboard and centre tanks" when he inspected her in dry-dock last month. He said the fracture had not been repaired. Young also testified that the Pendleton went aground in the Hudson river last July and “got a bad jolt.” Eighteen survivors of the Fort Mercer, the other tanker which broke in two, reached Boston to-day aboard a Coast Guard cutter. Revised figures show that six men are known to have been drowned after the Fort Mercer and the Pendleton broke in two. Eight are missing, presumed dead. Fifty-seven have been rescued and 13 remain on the stern section of the Fort Mercer.

Two tugs began towing the stern section of the Fort Mercer towards the land late to-day. The hulk is under tow off Cape Cod by the tugs Foundation Josephine and M. Moran. A third tug, the Ocean Prince, is standing by and the Coast Guard cutter East Wind is escorting the convoy. The Foundation Josephine got a line aboard the stern section this ’afternoon and soon after the M. Moran transferred medical supplies from the cutter to the stern of the hulk. Two of the 13 seamen are ill, one with pneumonia.