UNLUCKY SHIP

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19834, 25 June 1934, Page 13

UNLUCKY SHIP

CHAPTER OF ACCIDENTS The discovery that a sealed box supposed to contain £6009 worth of gold bars shipped from South Africa to England was filled with cement provided the climax of an extraordinary series of incidents that were revealed recently. The mystery box was taken to Southampton in a consignment of £2.000.000 worth of bullion by the Union Castle ship Balmoral Castle. When its contents became known, it was disclosed that during the liner’s voyage out and home many remarkable things happened. A pilot fell into the sea; a stowaway was discovered mixing with the passengers, and after a violent scene, handcuffed by the ship’s police; a passenged died and was buried at sea; and an assistant purser disappeared overboard. The vessel had only just left Southampton on her outward trip when the pilot fell into the water as he was about to be dropped. The next incident was the finding of the stowaway a day out of Cape Town on the homeward voyage. The passenger’s death occurred the next day. A few days later, after the liner had left Madeira, it was found that Frederick Hamon, an assistant purser, 25 years old, was missing. The “man overboard” alarm was sounded, and the liner retraced her course and circled round. Searchlights swept the sea, but no trace of the man was found. As soon as the ship arrived at Southampton her precious cargo of gold was landed. There were 359 boxes, which had made the voyage in the specie room, inside the inailroom, just under the crew’s quarters and against the forward hatch, and one was found to be filled with cement.