SHIPWRECKS

Grey River Argus, 21 March 1947, Page 6

SHIPWRECKS

LONDON, March IS. Two mon were killed and four injured when a lifeboat was smashed as it was being lowered from the British tanker, Diloma, after the ship hit a submerged wreck off Sunderland (Durham), says the Evening News. It is understood that the 35 men in the lifeboat were thrown into the sea. A lifeboat from the shore landed the dead and injured. Lloyds earlier stated, that an S.O.S. from the Diloma indicated that the ship needed immediate assistance HONOLULU, March 18. In a radiophone interview with the two survivors now aboard a rescue craft, of the wrecked tanker, Fort Dearborn, the Associated Press learned how the disaster came without warning a few minutes past midnight when most of the crew were asleep. Suddenly there came a mighty crack of rending steel, rising above the raging storm. This was the first warning that the Fort Dearborn was breaking up. Panic swept the crew. Chief engineer Dobbins raced to the engine-room for a quick check and then climbed to the deck. He found the crew abandoning the ship in utter confusion. One lifeboat had already been lowered and men were leaping over the tanker’s side to reach it. Others tugged at the ropes of a second lifeboat. Dobbins ordered these operations halted while he and the boatswain surveyed the damage and saw that the ship had lost her bow. Dobbins said that although the lifeboat, carrying twelve men had cleared ship, there was no certainty that it got away. It was never seen again. Dobbins added that the engineroom was not flooded, otherwise the stern section would have sunk.