SEALING SHIP BLOWS UP

Stratford Evening Post, Volume I, Issue 83, 17 March 1931, Page 5

SEALING SHIP BLOWS UP

TWENTY KILLED SOME GET ASHORE MEN ON ICE-FLOES Press Association. —Copyright. (Reed. 10.5 a.m.) NEW YORK, March 16. Bowring Bros., the owners of the sealer Viking, received word to-day that an explosion killed 20 persons, according to information brought by men who got ashore. All the crew have not landed yet. Steamers with doctors and nurses have been dispatched. Information is meagre. (Reed. 9.30 a.m.) ST. JOHNS (Newfoundland), March 16. The Premier, Sir Richard Squires, read in the Assembly a message from Horse Island stating that portion of the crew of the Viking had arrived, the remainder were lying on ice-floes which had broken up. The Assembly then adjourned. FILM DIRECTOR ON BOARD UNCONFIRMED REPORTS Press Association.—Copyright. (Reed. 11.5 a.m.) ST. JOHNS (Newfoundland), March 16. An unconfirmed report to-day said the sealing ship Viking (captain Abraham Kean), with Vartck Frissell, film director, and a crew of 40, exploded at sea near White Bay on the north coast of Newfoundland. The report stated the blast was heard on Saturday night and the ship seemed to be burning. The Viking was the only sealer in the neighbourhood. Three vessels are making a search.

SHIP NOT IDENTIFIED CREW DRIFTING OUT TO SEA Press Association.—Copyright. (Reed. 1.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, March 6. Varick Prissell is a Yale graduate and Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He conducted explorations along the Labrador coast for several years and headed an expedition in 1930, returning in March with photographic and sound records of Labrador sealers at work capturing seals on the ice. It is believed in motion picture circles that Prissell is now in Labrador making another picture. • Later message from St. Johns state the messages reaching the Government from White Bay reported the surviving members of a crew not identified from a vessel which was burned to the water's edge, and believed to be the Viking, are marooned on a loose ice pack in North Atlantic. The pack is drifting seawards.