On this day in Yorkshire 1948

Police are keeping a constant check on all trains and buses leaving the Barnard Castle area after the theft of £750 from a safe in the Paymaster’s office of 35 Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, R.A., at Humbledon Camp, near here.

The theft, which occurred during the luncheon, hour yesterday, deprived the authorities of the money needed pay the 400 men in the camp, and emergency alternative arrangements had to made to cope with the situation.

No Statement could be obtained from the military authorities at the camp or from Catterick district head quarters, which are responsible for the unit’s local administration.

Civilian and military police have conducted an extensive search of the camp, but so far no progress been reported.

Ship hits quay in gale: 30 eascape as derrick falls

SHORTLY atter her launching from Short Brothers’ Shipyard here tonight the 3,400-ton cargo ship Vinga was caught in midstream by a 70 m.p.h. gust and swept out of the control of her three tugs towards the opposite bank of the river.

The vessel twice bumped — first stern and then broadside — against the end of a disused quay. With her first bump she knocked away one of the supports of a 140 ft. high steel derrick, and then, as she hit the quay a second time, the 50-ton derrick collapsed and the jib fell across the beam of the vessel.

Thirty members of the “sailor gang” put aboard for the launch dashed for cover as the derrick collapsed.

None was hurt, but one man working in the masthouse under the winches emerged badly shaken after tons of steel had crashed a few feet above his head.

John McClury (50), Neale Street, Sunderland, said: “For a few seconds we thought our end had come.”

Late tonight a work gang with oxy-acetylene burners was cutting through the tangled wreckage of the jib which holds the Vinga fast to the end of the quay.

It is not expected that the vessel will be freed until tomorrow.

Still dressed overall with hundreds of launching flags, she is now festooned with the lattice steelwork of the derrick.

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