RUM-RUNNING SCHEME

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21529, 29 December 1931, Page 7

RUM-RUNNING SCHEME

THE ILL-FATED VENUS LONDON December 18. The adventures of Captain Kettle disclose nothing more thrilling than the full story of the career of the alleged rurti-running steamer Venus, which was lost off the coast of Norway, with the loss of all but two of her crew of 14. The Evening News discloses that the captain of the Venus, Karl Visnagrotsky, placed before a London syndicate in July a proposal for rum-running into Norway. Financiers, including a gentleman, a contractor, and a retired army officer, provided £50,000 capital. The money was placed with trustees, namely, a solicitor and an advertising agent, who arranged to purchase a seaworthy trawler at Emden for £2OOO and 2500 tins containing 10 litres of alcohol each from Dutch distillers aG5s apiece, delivered in Antwerp. The first voyage was unsuccessful, the vessel failing to find the rendezvous for transhipment. It therefore took the cargo to Lerwick (Shetland Isles). The second voyage ended with the arrest of a supercargo, who was sentenced to five months in a Norwegian gaol. The army officer and other members'of the synd/icate, learning of this dissociated themselves from the enterprise, and the remainder arranged for the final and luckless voyage.