FRIDAYS UNLUCKY, SEAMEN DECLARE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18393, 20 February 1928, Page 10

FRIDAYS UNLUCKY, SEAMEN DECLARE.

OIL TANKER ASHORE, AFTER MANY MISHAPS. By Telegraph.—Prec» Assn.—Copyright. Aus. and N.Z. Cable Association. LONDON, February 18. The large oil tanker Varand, constructed by Armstrong, Whitworth’s last year, returning from her maiden voyage to New Orleans, loaded with 7400 tons of benzine, is aground at the mouth of the Mersey. It is feared that she will break up, releasing the petrol, which will be carried up to Liverpool on the rising tide. The disaster is the climax of three weeks’ buffeting. The vessel lost her propeller and rudder after striking a submerged wreck in the Atlantic. An S.O.S. signal brought the assistance of a powerful tug, and she was under tow when a fierce squall broke the towrope. She then drifted helplessly. The crew point out that they left New Orleans on a Friday. They encountered the first gale on a Friday, struck the wreckage on a Friday, on two subsequent Fridays they saved the ship by the barest margin, and finally she grounded in sight of home on a Friday.

STEAMER EXPLODES AND SINKS; SURVIVORS REACH YOKOHAMA

TOKie. February 17. Twenty-one survivors of the tanker Chukv arrived at Yokohama. They told how the steamer exploded and sank on Wednesday, 100 miles from the entrance of Tokio Bay. Captain Hermes, three officers, and ten of the crew were lost. The engineers were saved by a lifeboat after being 29 hours adrift. They were rescued by a Japanese fishing launch.