Oil-rig ship survivors spotted

Press, 31 October 1983, Page 1

Oil-rig ship survivors spotted

NZPA Peking Chinese rescue ships were rushing yesterday to a spot in the Gulf of Tonkin where distress signals were picked up from possible survivors of an American oil-drilling ship reported sunk in a tropical storm. The Xinhua News Agency said four ships from a Chin-ese-United States naval and air search were approaching the area in the gulf after United States planes had spotted a lifeboat radioing distress signals and flashing lights. The 5930-ton Glomar Java Sea, carrying 79 Americans and Chinese, was first reported missing early on Wednesday after a tropical storm hit’the area. The owners of the missing ship said on Saturday that United States planes had sighted three possible survivors about 95km north-west of her original drilling site. At least two were wearing life-jackets. Only one appeared to be moving. No survivors or bodies have been found. Vietnamese Foreign Ministry officials told British diplomats in Hanoi that the vessel had sunk near the port of Dong Hoi in northern central Vietnam, while industry sources in Peking said she had gone down close to her drilling position.

The company which owns the Glomar Java Sea said it had no confirmed know-

ledge of the ship’s fate. But debris, including an empty lifeboat and two fenders believed to be from the 133 m-long vessel, has been retrieved from the surrounding area. A boat from a Singapore salvage company was unable to locate a lifeboat, with lights flashing, sighted earlier from the air. . Xinhua said at the weekend that a sonar-equipped Chinese ship was sent to investigate a big metallic structure on the seabed near the drilling site which had dimensions similar to the Glomar.

The news agency quoted petroleum officials as saying that an oil slick had been found near where the Glomar Java Sea had been drilling but that the oil needed to be analysed.