VALVERDA AND ZWARTE ZEE

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 128, 1 June 1935, Page 26

VALVERDA AND ZWARTE ZEE

The-Clyde-built oil tanker Valverda, which was disabled by fire in midAtlantic last January, arrived at Greenock last month, in. tow of the Dutch tug Zwarte Zee, after. being towed nearly 5000 miles. H.M.S. Frobisher, which was one of the first vessels to answer the Valverda's distress calls, undertook the task of taking the vessel in. tow, Before jthis

task was completed a dozen hawsers were snapped, and it was not until the third day that the warship had the Valverda securely in tow. The tanker was towed to Bermuda by H.M.S. Frobisher, and from there the Dutch tug Zwarte Zee, the world's most powerful ocean-going tug, towed the disabled vessel to Hamburg and Rouen, at which ports oil was discharged, and from there she proceeded to Greenock. The Zwarte Zee is the first large ocean-going salvage tug to be fitted with twin oil-driven engines geared by a hydraulic coupling to a single propeller. Her engines consist of two continuously supercharged Werkspoor 4-cycle units, each rated for 2100 i.h.p at 275 r.p.m.