PROUD LINER’S END

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 88, 7 January 1933, Page 11

PROUD LINER’S END

Fire-ravaged Hull Drifts Near English Coast NOW SECURED BY TUGS Official WireleM. Rugby, Jan. 5. The still burning hull of the French liner L’Atlantique, carried by wind and current, drifted slowly along the English Channel to-day. She appeared through the mist a few miles off Portland Bill this morning and crowds watched her slow progress as, wreathed In steam and smoke and surrounded by tugs and other vessels, she proceeded eastward. This afternoon tugs succeeded in taking her in tow, but it is not yet certain whether she will be put ashore, whether she ill sink herself, or whether a French warship, whicli is standing by, will send her to the bottom. It is understood that the last-mentioned course will be adopted if the liner threatens to become a danger to shipThis evening the L’Atlantique was 15 miles south of the Needles and moving westward with the turning tide, while the fire seemed almost to have burnt itself out. Airmen who have flown over her say that her funnels are intact, but the foremast has broken and droops over the water, while the rest of her is mainly a tangle of burnt or burning debris. Her owners state that 21 men are missing, although it is still hoped that some of them may have been picked up by vessels of different nationalities which came to the liner’s aid. It is understood that Lloyd’s underwriters were preparing to meet their commitments on the French liner today. It is stated that the sum involved. so far as the English insurance market is concerned, is about £1,200,000, but, although the loss is one of the largest in recent years, the underwriters are facing it quite calmly, the risk having been so widely spread as not seriously to discommode any firms. SHIP MAY BE SUNK France Roused by Disaster Paris, Jan. 5. . Because the salvage law entitles Britain to a quarter of the L’Atlantique’s value if beached in England, British, Dutch, and three French tugs are towing the remains of the vessel to Le Havre, where she may be sunk. Captain Scholls, the chief officer, and fifteen men have departed to meet the convoy. The whole of France is asking what is the mysterious hand behind the Mack series of disasters to France’s proudest merchantmen. The Minister of Marine, M. Meyer, has ordered a stringent inquiry, and he has personally bidden the crew to hide nothing, "in the interests of humanity. The inquiry will open at Cherbourg.