Submarine Victims In Pacific, Indian Ocean? Atlantic

Northern Advocate, 11 June 1942, Page 3

Submarine Victims In Pacific, Indian Ocean? Atlantic

CAPETOWN. June 10.

Simonstown naval authorities have announced that three merchantmen were lost near the east coast of Southern Africa.

At Montreal it was officially announced • that a United States merchantman was torpedoed and sunk off the west coast. One seaman was lost through exposure after 38 hours at sea. It was the first of an American vessel on the Pacific Coast since last December. The United States Navy Department announced that a medium-sized Norwegian merchantman had been torpedoed and sunk in the Atlantic Forty-three survivors reached an East Coast port. Five of the crew are missing.

Insurance Losses

The American Institute of Marine Underwriters announced that insurance companies lost 46,000,000 dollars in marine losses in the _ first six months of 1942, but the debit balance for the three years ending June was only 1.453,000 dollars. The chairman explained that marine losses did not affect the standing of companies as they represented only 14 per cent of the total insurance

The three freighters sunk off South Africa were torpedoed in the Mozambique channel. They were British, Czech and Greek ships. A rescue plane sighted a submarine which was unidentified, but was presumed to be Japanese. Twenty survivors were picked up from the Czech boat, but there have been no survivors so far from the other ships.