Fewer ships were lost last year than...

Fewer ships were lost last year than in 1986, the Institute of London Underwriters reported. The ILU said 1987 losses declined to 139 merchant ships, totaling 1,178,900 gross tons, down from 156 ships totaling 1,207,422 tons the previous year. The report noted, however, that 1987 saw the world’s worst peacetime shipping disaster--the sinking of the Manila-bound ferry Dona Paz last month. Only 26 of the 1,600 people known to be aboard survived.