THE GIRL PAT CASE

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 56, 3 September 1936, Page 10

THE GIRL PAT CASE

ORSBORNE BROTHERS IN LONDON

CHARGE AND REMAND

(Received September 3, 2.35 p.m.)

LONDON, September 2.

Captain Orsborne and his brothers, of the trawler Girl Pat, which was missing for some time in the Atlantic till she turned up at Georgetown, arrived and were handed over to Scotland Yard officers.

Later, they were remanded until September 10 on £500 bail each.

The charge is of complicity in stealing the Girl Pat, the property of the Marstrand Shipping Company,, from British waters.

Last May 15 it was reported that Lloyd's agents throughout the world had been asked to keep watch for the trawler Girl Pat, and the Admiralty declared' that the ship would be declared a pirate if it were proved that her captain and crew of four had seized her.. The ship, equipped with the latest Diesel engines, , left Dover on April 4 and put into Corcubion, Spain, on April 12. She left nine days later after extensive repairs and without stating her destination. The owners, the Marstrand Fishing Company, notified the underwriters on April 27 that the ship was considered to be a total loss. They explained that they had chosen the captain, but he had picked his own crew. On May .18 the vessel Avoceta reported sighting the Girl Pat off the Salvage Islands, and next it was reported that the ship had arrived at Dakar unexpectedly on May 23 and left on May 26 without officially clearing the port. Quantities of food and water were said not to have been paid for. An interview with the mate resulted in the opinion that the Salvage Islands were the goal and that treasure was being sought. At sea, 250 miles south of Dakar, the trawler was reported off the Bissagos Islands about June 1. After that the master of an American ship stated that he had sighted her off Cayenne flying a distress signal. Towards the end of the month she was captured at Georgetown, British Guiana. The crew declared that they had not stolen her and that they did not want to return to England. They declined to make statements to the Press, and a director of the Marstrand Fishing Company declared that when the ship's adventures wera fully known they would create a sensation. Later, the "Daily Mail" reported that the captain had learned that the ship was going out of commission- and determined to sail for a foreign port and sell the vessel, intending to proceed to South America. The Colonial Secretary stated that a warrant issued for the arrest of Captain Orsborne at the request of Lloyd's was withdrawn when the vessel came quietly into port.