The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Ship of the Month - cont'd. GEORGE as 1 3 0 . 2 x 2 0 . 1 x 7. 8, 243 Gross and 80 Net, with a survey having been done in April of 1932 at Greenock, Scotland, apparently just before she started out for Canada. Her fully-topgallant forecastle was 25 feet in length, her raised quarterdeck was 42 feet long, and her trunk was 58 feet in length. JOHN GEORGE was powered by a 5-cylinder diesel engine, 11 1/2 1 3 1/2", producing 116 Nominal Horsepower, which was built for the ship in 1931 by H. Widdop & Company Ltd., of "Keighly" (actually Keighley), West York­ shire. B-A Oil purchased the ship early in 1932 and decided to sail her across the North Atlantic to Canada. She had only a rudimentary after cabin topped with an open navigation bridge, which hardly made her suitable for an early spring trans-Atlantic journey. Indeed, her westward passage proved very difficult, as noted in this item from "The Star", Toronto, from the Ivan Brookes clipping collection. It was headlined: "Eight Hardy Seamen Pilot Frail Tanker Through Fire, Gale. " "Montreal, May 7 - Joseph Conrad, even in his most vivid moments, could hardly visualize a story which terminated here this week with the arrival of the motor vessel JOHN GEORGE, an oil tanker... after a 26-day voyage from Scotland, during which the crew of seven men and the captain extinguished a fire, hand steered the vessel the whole way across the Atlantic, and navi­ gated their frail craft by the aid of lifeboat compasses when their own com­ pass went out of commission. "The story was told in typical sailor fashion by Captain Arthur Storey, master of the vessel, who made it quite clear that the credit for bringing the ship across belongs to the men, who face difficulties that landsmen could hardly appreciate. "This motor vessel, probably the smallest oil tanker which ever crossed the Atlantic, came to Montreal en route to Toronto for the British American Oil Co., to whom she had been sold. She left Greenock on April 7 and landed here on Monday (May 2). The story told by Captain Storey taxes the imagination, but all his facts were borne out by the entries in the abstract log. "The ship, which is nothing more than a glorified row boat, is steered by hand; it has hardly any bridge as sailors know the bridge. From the water mark to the top of the deck is a distance of only eighteen inches and there­ fore it did not require any stretch of imagination to believe Captain Storey when he described how the ship was buffeted about from the beginning of the voyage until the end. "Their troubles started as soon as they left the Clyde. The compass went out of commission and it was necessary to rig up a lifeboat compass by which to steer. Gales which lasted for ten days without interruption added to their troubles, but these appeared small when the silencer caught fire and the flames burst through the smoke stack and caused it to expand to a dange­ rous extent. "Their supply of fresh water ran out and they had to lay out the lifeboat canvas to catch rain water. Their stove broke down under the battering of the storms and they lived on ship's biscuits for practically half the trip. The generator broke and they had to find their way around with the aid of oil lamps for several days. It seemed that the last straw was the shortage of lubricating oil, which caused them to run for St. John's, Newfoundland, where they found a haven of peace. "The narrator of the story, Captain Storey, Associate of the Institute of Naval Architects, is only 29 years old and more than half of his life has been spent at sea. He is, in fact, a seafaring nomad, who welcomes adven­ tures but, as he explained today, he and his crew had adventures enough on this last trip to last them for a long time. "'The start of our trip was not propitious because there was a heavy rain and a stiff wind blowing up the Clyde and a low barometer of 29. 12", which