BROUGHT TO PORT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 255, 28 October 1939, Page 3

BROUGHT TO PORT

OIL SHIP DIVERTED | ELEV EN BKiTONS v. Ml UNO! S CREW BUSINESS MAN S EXPERIENCE / (By Air Mail). LONDON. Sept 23. I How 5000 tons of oil destined for! Gcimany was brought salciy to an English port by 11 English holiday-; makers and business mon. who had to I ‘contend against a mutinous crew wa/ Hold this week by Mr. J. 11. Slater, a, Harrogate business man. With tiic; others he had been stranded at Bergen, Norway. “The British consul at B /.g/n toldi me that most cf the crew of ine 3471-1 ton Hcika, a Biitish ship then on for-! cign charter, wore mutinous and’ wanted to stay in a safe neutral port, i He asked me to raise a party ol 11' mon to take the ship to a British port. There were many Englishmen vail-' ing for a ship home, and the 10 I pic’.: -, ed included a medical student, a gol: , professional, a surveyor and a shippin;'' agent. “We signed on as members of tin [ I crew and introduced ourselves to t’.i'.'i master of the ship, a Latvian. The only Englishman in the original crew i was the radio operator. He was not; one of the mutineers. He had received a message diverting the ship; | from Memel, a German port, to Sta-i vanger, in Norway. I “Soon after sailing, six of lhe crew came alt. They had knives, and start-i ed shouting, demanding that we shoulw I put. back into port. 1 “When they became threatening v.e. showed them our three revolvers and grasped our lengths of gas piping. They became quiet when Tnc\ saw we were determined and went to their quarters. “We had to woi k in shifts in the stokehold to keep si earn up. Some of us acted as liremen, others as trimmers, as we steamed across the North Sea to Methil. the Fifeshire coal port.”