Ship Sinks After Channel Collision

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29716, 9 January 1962, Page 11

Ship Sinks After Channel Collision

(A Z J 3. A.-Reuter— Copyright)

DOVER (England), January 8. Nine crew members of the 2811-ton Jugoslav ship, Sabac, were killed and 18 others were still missing after their vessel sank in the Straits of Dover as a result of a collision just before midnight last night.

The Sabac collided in dense fog with the 6223-ton British steamer, Dorrington. The area was covered with wreckage. which hampered searchers.

Four bodies were recovered by the British cross-channel train ferry, Hampton Court, four by a lifeboat from Dover and one by a lifeboat from the nearby town of Walmer. Six survivors also re-e picked up from the foggy waters by rescue vessels. The searchers were helped by flares dropped from a Royal Air Force reconnaissance plane. Some of the men in the water, wearing life jackets, were seen being swept eastward in the current away from the English coast. “We can hear men crying for help but we don’t know t here they are." one ship reported. Cos.tguardsmen said the Jugoslav seamen apparently failed to lower any boats, the Associated Press reported. The British vessel, Hampton Ferry, rescued the Sabac *s captain, another officer and a mechanic, after they had spent more than two hours in the icy water. Three other stnvivors were taken on board the Dorrington which is making for Dover. The Sabac’s second nfttoei Radoven Zovavovic, told reporters: “1 was sleeping nmy qu ters when 1 was

awakened by a terrific collision.

“I rushed to the main deck where the captain and a second lieutenant were on duty. The portside forehold was flooded and the ship, listing heavily, sank in less than fi- e minutes.”