FOURTH SEA LOSS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23591, 27 February 1940, Page 7

FOURTH SEA LOSS

BRITISH COMPANY JEVINGTON COURT SUNK i ALL THE CREW SAVED By Tolegraph—Press Association —Copyright (Received February 20, 0.30 p.m.) LONDON. Feb. 20 The British steamship Jevington Court, of '4544 tons, struck a mine and sank. The crew were saved, but / three men are in hospital. The captain and chief engineer had both previously been in a ship which was mined and sunk. This is the fourth loss to the Court Line. The others were the Kensington Court, Arlington Court and Cedrington Court. A British ship has landed 33 survivors from the British vessel Endeavour, which has been sunk. Five of. the crew are missing. Hope has been abandoned for the Norwegian steamer Start, of 1168 tons, which has been missing since January 29, when she was proceeding to Norway. She had a crew of 16. Unofficial figures show that 308 British, Allied and neutral ships had been sunk up to February 20. The Nazis claim that Allied and neutral merchantmen, numbering 496, carrying 1,810,315 tons of contraband for Britain, had been sunk between the outbreak of war and February 20. NAZI LOVING-CUP GIFT TO DANISH CAPTAIN RESCUED TWO AIRMEN SHIP SUBSEQUENTLY SUNK (Received February 26, 5.5 p.m.) COPENHAGEN,f Feb. 25 The German Legation has sent a loving cup to Captain Meyer, the notAryan master of the sunken Danish ship Feddy and £25 to his crew because the Feddy rescued two German airmen in the North Sea on October 8. The Danish ship Feddy, of 955 tons, was one of three vessels sunk by German airmen off the east coast of Britain on January 10. Her second engineer died from injuries. A British patrol ship rescued the rest of the crew, of whom nine were sent to hospital.

DRIFTING MEN SAVED SEEN FROM THE AIR DESTROYER TO THE RESCUE British "Wireless LONDON, Feb. 25 Once again the crew of an aircraft of the coastal command have been able to save the" lives of shipwrecked seamen drifting 011 a raft in open seas. The pilot of a Royal Air Force patrol early this morning far out at sea saw, 111 the half-light, an object floating on the water. He descended to investigate and found a raft bearing six men. The seas were washing over them. The men heard the aircraft, looked up and waved. The pilot circled round the raft to let the men know they had been sighted, and flew off to find a destroyer, which he knew- would not be far away. The pilot soon made contact with the destroyer, and guided it to the raft. Less than 50 minutes after they had been seen, the six shipwrecked men were all safely on board the warship. FRENCH DEFENCES STRENGTHENING COMPLETED DITCH ON BELGIAN BORDER LONDON, Fob. 26 French engineers have completed well ahead of schedule the work of. strengthening the northern defences along the borders of Belgium and Luxembourg. Machine-gun posts have been established, and a huge ditch has been dug along the entire border to the sea. A first line of concrete pill-boxes has been armed with machine-guns and antiaircraft guns, covering the main defence works of the Maginot Line. CANADIAN AIRMEN L—i SQUADRON IN ENGLAND LONDON, Fob. 25 The first squadron of the Royal Canadian Air Force to undertake overseas service has arrived in England. It will take up Army co-operation work. Captain H. H. Balfour, UnderSecretary for Air, in welcoming the airmen, said: "We are quite sure of gaining mastery in the air as we did in the last war."