RACE FOR A 4,500,000' DOLLAR SALVAGE PRIZE

Greymouth Evening Star, 5 August 1946, Page 5

RACE FOR A 4,500,000' DOLLAR SALVAGE PRIZE

Exciting Drama of the Sea

Conflicting Reports on Disabled Ship

(Rec. 11 a.m.) LONDON, Aug. 4.

An exciting salvage race involving a 4,500,000-dollar prize, occurred in the Atlantic 800 miles from England after the United States freighter, American Farmer, collided with another American steamer on July 31. The crew abandoned the American Farmer, but a British freighter, the Elizabeth, and a United States freighter, the American Ranger, raced to the scene and found her stubbornly afloat.

The Ranger’s captain, observing the Elizabeth trying to get a line aboard the Farmer, asked for instructions from his company in New York, which immediately urged him to. board the Farmer first and determine her condition.

The company now reports that the Ranger got men aboard the stricken ship with steam up. A United States destroyer, salvage tug, and another vessel are standing by. While reports from New York say the American Ranger' has put men aboard the damaged American Farmer, the latest reports received in London say that the bearded 65-year-old Captain E. Millers, master of the 2039-ton British steamer Elizabeth, is towing the American Farmer to Cardiff. Captain Millers put a prize crew aboard the American Farmer and is warding off an American destroyer and American merchantmen, saying effectively: “Hands off. This prize is mine. “Real Old Seadog.”

A director of the Elizabeth’s owners, the Hudson Steam Ship Co., said that Captain Millers is a real old seadog. He will not let the prize go once he has her. He has a crew of 35. His son, aged 39, is his first officer. . The Elizabeth, which is only onefourth the size of the American Farmer, is a quaint old ship built in America in 1917. She did great work during the war bringing coal from the Tyne to London. An expert on sea law said, ine American ship and her cargo belong to Britain if Captain Millers succeeds in getting her to a British P °The United States Navy Department office in London said the legal position would have to be sorted ou . “We are leaving the towihg question to our destroyer on the spot. If Captain Millers refuses to pass over the American Farmer to the destroyer, the commander cannot force him to |d °A S °message from New York, restating that an American Range, crew is in charge of the American Farmer adds that British seamen from the Elizabeth boarded the damaged vessel before the American Ranger arrived, but the Ranger crew is now in charge of the ship, which is heading for Eire.