1,500-Ton Tapioca pudding Nearly Sinks Ocean Liner -- The Capital Times, Madison WI, September 14,1972 CARDIFF, Wales-For a while today the biggest tapioca pudding in the world threatened to split the seams of a Swiss freighter, but a dock official said firemen and the ship's crew finally got things under control. The official said dock workers were unloading the 12,165-ton Cassarate, which a fire cheif had earlier called a "huge tapioca time bomb." Firemen earlier controlled the fire which started in timber stacked in the upper holds 25 days ago at sea. The crew kept the smoldering timber dampened until the ship docked here late Tuesday. But the water from the Cassarate's hoses seeped down to the lower holds where 1,500 tons of tapioca from Thailand were stored. The water swelled the tapioca. Then the heat from the flames started to cook the sticky mess. The swelling tapioca--enough to serve a million plates--could buckle the ship's steel plates fire chiefs warned. The plan is to load the gluey mess onto a fleet of trucks and dispose of it. One report said there was enough to fill 500 trucks. But where do you dump 500 truckloads of tapioca pudding?
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