POSED AS BRITISH

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 58, 10 March 1937, Page 11

POSED AS BRITISH

THE MAR CANTABRICO

FRENCH STORY OF SINKING

(Received March 10, 11 a.m.) , BORDEAUX, March 9. The maritime authorities, in an official statement concerning the sinking of the Mar Cantabrico, say that the vessel impersonated a British ship. It flew the Spanish flag at the stern and the British flag at the bows, and bore the name Adda Newcastle, which was plainly marked. ' When ' the Spanish cruiser Canarias approached, Hhe Mar Cantabrico sent out the Adda Newcastle's wireless call, drawing British destroyers in the belief that a British ship was being attacked. The Mar Cantabrico was not set on fire. When the destroyers ' arrived the firing stopped and the Canarias made off.

A message published yesterday stated that the Spanish motor : vessel Mar Cantabrico (6632 tons), 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, and was shelled and set on fire, and sunk, in the Bay of Biscay by the Canarias. While destroyers and many other vessels hurried to the scene, conflicting messages from French and Spanish sources 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.