WHOSE IS THE SHIP?

Evening Star, Issue 23175, 26 January 1939, Page 7

WHOSE IS THE SHIP?

VICTIM OF THE SPANISH WAR A ship with two captains, her skeleton crew divided into two factions, who will neither speak to each other nor go ashore in the same boat, lies moored in the River Medway, above Sheerness. Her holds are empty. No coal is in her bunkers. Nailed to the mainmast is a tattered High Court writ placing her under arrest. This ghost ship is the 3,421-ton Bilbao registered Spanish freighter Sa. bina. Sixteen months ago, when she arrived at Rochester with wood pulp from the Baltic, she was boarded by an Admiralty marshal and arrested on behalf of the Spanish Government. Franco had entered Bilbao. Tjie Republican authorities feared that if she put to sea again she might be run into an insurgent port. After discharging her cargo she was moved to where she lies still. Her original captain sides with Franco. The owners, who are proGovemment, appointed the chief officer to_ be captain in his place, but the captain will not accept this.. He is recog- : nised by the Franco authorities, who also claim the ship, since she is registered _ in a port under their control. Siding with the old captain are the chief engineer and the steward. The new captain is supported by the second officer and three seamen. . . ■_ Of the original crew of 30 who arrived with the Sabina at Rochester the rest have left the ship, most of them to return to Spain to fight. The two factions aboard camp in different parts of the ship. Their food is cooked in the same galley—in silence. The only neutral aboard is the Admiralty marshal. To avoid an open breach the two sides have agreed on a truce. Government and insurgent flags are flown on alternate days. Each month the owners send the wages of their skipper and his men. The other side draws money through a firm of ship’s brokers in Sheerness.