The Nation : Listing Soviet Ship Sinks

A listing Soviet freighter sank 210 miles off the New Jersey shore, leaving behind only an oil slick and some floating sacks of flour, while its 37 crew members got a taste of American hospitality ashore after a dramatic helicopter rescue by the Coast Guard. The group spent the night at a Philadelphia-area motel before traveling to a Soviet Embassy compound in Washington. The Komsomolets Kirgizii, which was carrying flour from Canada to Cuba, began listing in rough seas Saturday and was last detected before dawn Sunday by a Coast Guard cutter’s radar, the Coast Guard said. Officials did not know what caused the ship to list, but speculated that its cargo shifted after an engine malfunction.