DASH FROM MEXICO

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 18 November 1940, Page 6

DASH FROM MEXICO

GERMAN SHIPS INTERCEPTED ONE BELIEVED TO BE SCUTTLED FREIGHTER SUNK IN CARIBBEAN SEA [U.P.A.-By Electric Telegraph-Copyright] TAMPICO, 16th November. It is reported that a ship was burning in the Gulf of Mexico at the mouth of the Panuco River. Watchers on shore believe it is the freighter Phrygia (4137 tons), which is one of four German merchant ships which suddenly left Tampico to-night. The other three ships, the Orinoco (9660 tons), Rhein (6031 tons) and Idarwald (5033 tons), returned to the anchorage in the Panuco River after it was reported that a British warship had intercepted the Phrygia. Watchers on the Tampico rooftops saw the rays of powerful searchlights crossing each other on the horizon beyond the blazing ship. Since gunfire has not been heard it is believed the burning ship was set on fire by her own crew. Shipping circles in New York have received a report that the German freighter Helgoland (3664 tons) has been cornered and sunk in the Caribbean Sea by British warships. In Tampico later to-day two of the German captains, Heinrich Froemke, of the Idarwald, and Elmo Ullferf, of the Rhein, alleged under oath that four destroyers, presumably British or Canadian, pursued them inside Mexican territorial waters. Froemke said that a destroyer signalled demanding his surrender and then chased him within two miles of the coast. Ullferf asserted that a warship tried to intercept him, but the Mexican gunboat Queretaro interfered. The Mexican Government has ordered a gunboat to inspect the wreckage of the scuttled Phrygia.