SCUTTLING A STEAMER.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5303, 23 July 1928, Page 3

SCUTTLING A STEAMER.

REMARKABLE FRAUD STORY. £15,000 FOR £l5. An extraordinary story "of how a S;teamer was bought and filled with a worthless cargo, highly insured, and then deliberately sunk off the Mediterranean coast was told >n a confession to tlie) Marseilles; police a few weeks ago by M- Angevlin, a member of a prominent family, who. was arrested and charged with barratry (ship sinking with ev'.l intent). Angelin said : “I was down and out, and I decided to make a la,st desperate effoji’t to recoup my fortunes'. After considering, various plaits an associate and I bSuglit a '5OO-tons steamer which a, Genoese shipowner owned, but which was .lying at Marseilles. Tlie cargo consisted of two old boilers worth at the most £ll> and some scrap-iron, but we injured it for £15,000.

After describing how it had been agreed that the master and the first mate would each receive- £BOO and the engineer £BO, Apgelvia said that they .were much perturbed as to what was the best way of sinking the ship. He continued : “We met at a cafe and discUiSsQd various methods. The engineer proposed cutting a. hole in the hull with a blow-pipe, but. the. first mate said it would be better to kncck the cement, from between plates which had been repaired and at thq sapie time open the searocks, and this, plan was agreed to. Finally the ship made her way to sea, where the. plan to sink her was carried out.”

As the result of- thisi confession several warrants were issued by the Marseilles judicial authorities, .and M. Robert Angelvin, a well’-known Marseilles, business man, was; arrested and charged with complicity.