ON December 28, 1947, the Sunday Times newspaper in Perth, Western Australia, reported: “Manilla, Saturday. Brilliant rescue work in typhoon-tormented seas was carried out by Norwegian mv Samuel Bakke after the Danish mv Kina sank in the Samar Sea yesterday.”

Which makes the picture of Middlesbrough Docks in last week’s From the Archive section even more fascinating, as Steve Guest, in Hurworth Place, Phil Lambell, in Darlington, and Bill Lawrence, in Whitley Bay, all pointed out.

Because in the centre of our docks picture is the Kina, and as the picture was taken in August 1947, it may be the last picture of it before it was wrecked in those typhoon-tormented seas.

The Kina was built in Denmark and entered service in early 1939. It was a fast cargo ship with 48 crew and 12 passengers.

Denmark was over-run by the Nazis in the Second World War, and Kina was taken over by the British. It carried 200,000 tons of explosives to British forces around the world, escaped a U-boat attack unscathed, and may have played a crucial role on D-Day before being handed back to the Danes.

In peacetime, the Kina – which means China in Danish – resumed its cargo runs to the Far East.

When it docked in Middlesbrough, it was on its outward leg to Shanghai.

On Christmas Day, it was returning via the Philippines laden with copra (for the extraction of coconut oil) when, amid the Philippine Islands, it got caught in a severe typhoon. Captain Aage Hjernum and the local pilots misread the weather forecast and turned into the hurricane-strength winds.

The Kina was driven aground and wrecked, the crew taking to lifeboats, liferafts and even lifebelts. The brilliant rescue work of Samuel Bakke, assisted by American spotter planes, saved 12 passengers (mostly American women) and 18 crew, but one passenger, 30 crew and three Filippino pilots all drowned.

Capt Hjernum was among the dead as he refused to leave his stricken ship.