CHINESE SEAMEN RESCUED Sundeiiand, Durham.—At 1.40 in the afternoon of the 18th of March, 1947, the Sunderland coastguard telephoned that the Seaham coastguard had re- ported that the motor vessel Diloma, a tanker, had struck submerged wreckage one mile south-east of Sunderland.

She asked that no coal-fired vessel should be sent to her help as she was leaking benzine. She was a vessel of over 8.000 tons, bound from Haifa to Jarrow. A light easterly- wind was blowing, with a rough sea, and the weather was foggy. The motor life- boat Edward and Isabella Irwin was launched at two o'clock, and found that the crew had abandoned the Diloma in two boats, and that a pilot cutter had taken them in tow. One of these two boats capsized, and British officers and members of the Chinese crew in her, to the number of thirty-two, were rescued by the life-boat, but two of the crew died later in hospital. The life-boat returned to her station at five o'clock and at 7.0 the same evening again put out with officers and engineers of the Diloma. They hoped to board her again, but gave it up owing to the danger from the gases from the leaking benzine. The life-boat returned at 9.0 that night.—-Rewards: First service, £10 17s. 6d.; second service, £9. A donation to the funds of the Institution was received from the owners..