ARMS FROM U.S.A.

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 5, 9 March 1937, Page 10

ARMS FROM U.S.A.

SPANISH VESSEL SUNK

THE CREW TAKEN CAPTIVE

RELIEF IN BRITAIN

United Truss AssuulnUoii —By Electric Teloerupli -CopjrishD . (Received March 9, 2.20 p.m.) LONDON, March 3. The vessel which was reported to have been bombarded and set on fire in the Bay of Biscay has now been identified as the Spanish motor vessel Mar Cantabrico (6632 tons), which, laden with arms for the Spanish Government, slipped out from New York on January 6 just in time to beat the United States Neutrality Act. Fears that she was a British vessel which were roused by early messages were allayed shortly before midnight by a British Admiralty announcement of a report received from the destroyer Echo:—"We have been in communicawith the Spanish cruiser Canarias, which states that the Mar Cantabrico was sunk and that her crew are aboard the Canarias." While destroyers and many other vessels hurried to the scene, conflicting messages from French and Spanish sources all the evening deepened the fear that a British liner had been the victim of the rebel cruiser. The confusion apparently arose from mutilation of the SOS messages. The Mar Cantabrico was owned by a Bilbao company.