WRECKED VESSELS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22941, 20 January 1938, Page 11

WRECKED VESSELS

HEAVY INSURANCE £1,150,000 PAID OUT (Received January 19, 6.5 p.m.) Times Cable LONDON. Jan. 10 The Times says London marine underwriters are paying out £1,000,000 regarding the President Hoover and £150,000 in respect of the Stuart Star, makiug the last two months the most expensive for many years.

The Dollar Line vessel President Hoover, of 21,936 tons gross register, is a 21-knot liner engaged on the service between California and the Orient. She was built in and is one of the best-known ships in the north Pacific trade. On December 11 she was wrecked on a reef at Hoishoto Island, off Formosa. There were 500 passengers on board at the time the vessel went aground, but all were saved. The JBlue Star Line steamer Stuart Star, was a twin screw turbine steamer of 11,901 tons, built in 1926. She went ashore on December 18, on the rocky coast of the Cape of Good Hone Province, near the Hood Point lighthouse, and was abandoned as a total loss, 'lhe crew and passengers were all rescued.

CASE OF THE SAROS CAPTAIN CENSORED PRAISE FOR SAVING CREW (Received January 19, 10.55 p.m.) MELBOURNE, Jan. 19 A Court of Marine Inquiry to-day censured Captain John Aitken, master of the wrecked steamer Saros for failure in his duty to take all reasonable precautions and for making insufficient allowanco in his course to counteract the effect of the current setting strongly toward the land. The Court, however, commended Captain Aitken for "tho manner in which he had performed his duty after the ship was stranded and for his seamanship in saving all tho crew without mishap.

The Court attention to the lack of wireless direction finding stations on the Australian coast.

Tho steamer Saros. Jof 3304 tons, owned by Australian Steamships, Limited, went ashore at Cape Everard, Eastern Victoria, 300 miles from Melbourne, in a dense fog on tho night of December 25. The accident happened 600 yards west of the Cape Everard lighthouse.