 The 7,113 ton "Royston Grange", carrying 61 crew, 12 passengers (including six women and a five-year-old child), and an Argentinian harbour pilot, was bound from Buenos Aires to London with a cargo of chilled and frozen beef and butter.As she traversed the Punta Indio Channel, 35 miles from Montevideo, Uruguay, in dense fog at 5.40 a.m. she collided with the Liberian-registered tanker "Tien Chee", carrying 20,000 tons of crude oil.The "Tien Chee" immediately burst into flames and a series of explosions rapidly carried the flames to the "Royston Grange", which burned particularly hot due to the cargo of butter and the oil escaping from the "Tien Chee".