On Page Two, we outlined details of the surprising news concerning problems encountered on the North Atlantic by the Liberian tugs REMBERTITURM and OSA RAVENSTURM and their scrap tows, the former lakers THOMAS WILSON and ASHLAND, whilst bound for Taiwan. The full story has come via Lloyd's casualty reports. On December 30, 1987, at 10:15 G.M.T., OSA RAVENSTURM lost the towline to THOMAS WILSON in position 34.08 N., 61.36.2 W., roughly in line with Cape Hatteras and well northeast of Bermuda. The tug gave chase, suffering storm damage in the process, and was some seven miles from the WILSON when the latter disappeared from the radar screen. Never located thereafter, the WILSON is presumed lost at sea. The weather was so bad that, a short while later, ASHLAND also broke loose. She was blown a great distance before the wind but, on January 2, REMBERTITURM reported that she had picked up the tow of ASHLAND and that OSA RAVENSTURM was en route on her own to Bermuda for repairs.

ASHLAND was towed to Bermuda, and we have confirmed the details of her grounding on Pigeon Rocks, off Crawl Point in Bailey's Bay, after dragging her anchors from Murray's Anchorage on January 16. By coincidence, at that time, SALVAGEMAN, reputedly the world's most powerful tug (35,000 braking horsepower), happened to be at Bermuda, and on January 20, she and REMBERTITURM dragged ASHLAND bodily off the rocks. ASHLAND was returned to the anchorage, where efforts were made to stabilize her trim and assess the total extent of what undoubtedly is very extensive damage. At the time of this writing, it was not clear whether ASHLAND would ever be able to continue the scrap tow

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