S.S. CITY OF SINGAPORE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 25 August 1925, Page 9

S.S. CITY OF SINGAPORE.

A TOW OF 13,090 MILES. RECORD DRAG OF HISTORY. LONDON, Aug. 10. Gradually the cripp.ed ship City of Singapore, which is being towed round the world for repairs by two Dutch tugs, is nearing her destination—the drv dock at Rotterdam, Holland. When she gets there, the world’s record tow of 13,000 miles will have been established. She reached Algiers on August 11. All are well on board. The City of Singapore, with a cargo of petroleum, caught fire at Port Adelaide last year,. She was badly damaged ov the flames, and was blown practicably. in two by. an, explosion. She was purchased by Mr W. J. Russell, marine architect and surveyor, of London, and he engaged the two Dutch tugs, which had just completed towing a floating deck to Sabang, Singapore, to take the patched-up vessel'to Europe. ‘‘When the vessel left,” said. Mr Russell in an interview, “she was coinlie lied, owing to delays in repairs at Adelaide, to face the monsoon season. Therefore she took a roundabout course to Fremantle, then to Diego Garcia. Island, in the Cliapos Archipelago, in the Indian Ocean; and then to the Somaliland coast. Thus the vessel avoided Colombo. “She weathered the monsoon success- . thanks to. the skill of the tugmasters and my son, Samuel Russell, :vho is in charge of the runners aboard the steamer, and is supervising the navigating lights, attending to the towropes, and carrying out the pumping operations necessitated by the presence of leaks.

“He tells me she did everything but overturn. Although she is safe now, it was a liair-breadth escape, which would have been avoided if we could have eft Adelaide earlier. ” I pointed o.ut to officials of the Adelaide Trades Hall that thi s delay was due to the ca-canny action of certain of the repairers employed, especially in the early stages. This necessitated my conferring with tlie' union. Work was allowed to start afte r 20 days’ negotiations. After that we got very good fellows, though even they included a few who. caused delay. For this neither the Boilermakers’ Society nor the Shipbuilders’ Union was responsible.

“Subsequently I went to the Trades Hal! and met the good fellows and a few of the had ones face to face. I pointed out that they should realise that the delay entailed encountering the monsoon. Therefore it might he responsible for the ship’s loss and men’s deaths. As it was, we left 50 davs too late.”