AT SEA ONCE MORE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26967, 30 December 1948, Page 5

AT SEA ONCE MORE

LEICESTER SAILS FOR AUCKLAND RECONDITIONED AFTER RUN OF BAD LUCK NZPA —Copyright NEW YORK, Dec. 28. After being abandoned \in midAtlantic, blown ashore in Bermuda, and towed to Baltimore for repairs, the British cargo ship, the 7000-ton New Zealand Shipping Company’s Leicester, will sail for Auckland this afternoon. “ She is now a flrst'-rate ship again,” the New York agents said to-day. “ She has been reconditioned from truck to keel. She has been drydocked, and has an almost completely new bottom. Most of her superstructure had to be renewed, and her engine room pumps and boilers either repaired or replaced The repairs cost about 400,000 dollars. Her crew is much the same as when she was abandoned. She has the same master. Captain li. N. Lawson. She should reach Auckland on February 3.” The Leicester’s run of bad luck began in September, when she was abandoned in a sinking condition after her ballast shifted during an Atlantic hurricane. The ship stayed afloat, and tugs managed to get her to Bermuda, where they were greeted by another hurricane. The Leicester was wrenched adrift from the tugs, and 90-mile-an-hour winds blasted her ashore, where giant seas gave her a terrific pounding. The ship again refused to sink, however, and tugs pulled her to Baltimore, where she was repaired. From there she sailed to New York to load general cargo for New Zealand.