Transport: Cruise

Month ago, the Cunard White Star liner Laurentic suffered a minor collision as she left England on a Mediterranean cruise, had to transfer her passengers to the Doric of the same line. Last week, this 16,484-ton vessel was churning blithely back from Gibraltar in a woolly fog 36 miles off Portugal. Since it was 3:15 a. m., most of her crew and passengers were asleep. Suddenly, they were jolted wide awake as the squat French freighter Formigny plowed into the Doric, dealt her an 18-ft. gash at the waterline below the bridge. Speedily, Captain Grieg issued an SOS, ordered his 520 passengers & some crew members into the lifeboats, whence they were soon picked up by the Orion and the Viceroy of India, carried on toward England. The Doric and the Formigny limped to Vigo and Lisbon for repairs.