"CRIMINAL NEGLECT"

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 109, 15 November 1928, Page 11

"CRIMINAL NEGLECT"

SURVIVORS' STORIES swimming' among sharks Australian Press Association. (Received 15th November, 10 a.m.) ( NEW YORK, 14th November. Tho Vestris survivors who arrived aboard the American Shipper and tho Berlin denounced the sacrilice oi! lives J and blamed the ship's officers for delaying tho distress call and for confusion and lack of discipline when tho ship was sinking. They allege that the lifeboats were unseaworthy. They declared that the reason why most of tho rescued were men, the majority of whom were members of the crew, was that the women and children were loaded into the first two lifeboats, which broke from the davits while being loaded, throwing their human cargo into tho water. Some of the survivors alleged that the negro members of the crew, heedless of discipline, seiz«d the lifeboats to save themselves, and were unwilling to take passengers aboard. I Others said that, while drifting in the lifeboats in a stormy sea for fourteen hours, they saw many persons swimming who gave up exhausted and sank as they watched; also that sharks were in the water swarming around the struggling swimmers. CAPTAIN SINKS WITH SHIP. Captain Carey apparently went down with tho ship. Chief Surgeon Bowlon, of the American Shipper, said that he I treated virtually all the survivors whom his vessel rescued for exposure or shock, and that forty had been injurod, twenty seriously. Ho amputated the hand of one male passenger and the finger of another. He stated that most of the women were suffering from extreme shock or exposure. Paul Dana, representative of tho Radio Corporation of America, floated eighteen hours with a woman he never saw before on a pieco of wreckage, after tholr lifeboat capsized, Dana said that there were thirty-two persons, including several women, in the boat when it was lowered, but almost immediately a leak was discovered, and the boat soon began breaking apart, finally, a great wave svramped it, throwing the occupants out. He saw only two other passengers after that. CONDUCT OF NEORO CREW. Mrs. Earl Dovore and husband were sailing for Buenos Aires with Mr. and Mrs. Norman Batton, both Devore and Batton being racing drivers. Mrs. Devore said that three negro membors of the crew commandeered a lifeboat and started to leave with it. She pleaded with them to take passengers, and "they finally admitted me to the boat. Earl started to step in, but the negroes shoved him away. My ■ husband and Mr. and Mrs. Batton were on the sinking liner, screaming for help. Tho water was full of drowning men. I nagged tho crew to go back, but they refused. The last I saw of Earl was when ho was standing on the edge of tho ship screaming for aid. 1' Another passenger, Edwin Wilson, said: "I saw a maa I believed was Do-

I yore jump into the waves and come up again with one arm torn from his body, apparently by a shark. The man disappeared, and never came up again." Mrs. Barton was saved, but her husband is missing. | S.O.S. DELAYED. Frederick Sorenson, a passenger, and himself a master mariner, declared that the lpss of life was due to -'crim ilia! iiegleot." Sorenson said: "The engine roam was flooded, also the boiler room and many cabins, and this continued from ea^ly on Sunday morning until Monday, when the captain sent out the first distress signals, but when we asked him to call assistance earlier, he replied, 'There is no trouble.' " One of the greatest, heroes of the tragedy w^s a Barbadoes negro, Lionel Licorish, an erxpert swimmer, who dived and rescued eighteen passengers. When the American Shipper reached the scene, ghe» found the survivors so exhausted th,at many had to be hoisted aboard. Several women were placed in cargo nets and drawn up the side of the ship. CASE OF MR. DA VIES. The "La Nation" office here has received a message from an Argentine passenger on board the Berlin who apparently made himself familiar with some details of the abandonment of the Vestris. Ho stated that Mr. W. W. Davies, of "La Nacion" was the last passenger to leave the ill-fated vessel, families were separated when the passengera got aboard the lifeboats, and the rescuing vessels picked up separate individuals. Mr. Davies shared a cabin wfth Mr. Sydney Koppe, advertising representative of the "La Naeioni" They were separated on leaving the VestiSis, and it is believed that Mr. Koppe has been lost. Mr. .Davies has sent a wireless message to the New York office for any news of Koppe. While it is now feared that Mr. Davies, is in danger of pneumonia as the result of his lang hours' immersion in the water,' the mental strain has left him badly shaken. It appears that after being pitched into the sea, he floated about for several hours in a dazed condition and^ when the occupants of a lifeboat saw him and went to his rescue, he tried to wave them away. It is now ascertained that the name of the Argentinian on the Berlin is Carlos Quiros, Counsellor of the Argentinian Consulate in New York, who was a passenger on Ixo&id the Vestris. LIST DEVELOPS. A message, partly gjarbled, indicates that the Vestris's firs.t slight at sea was extremely rough. Bedding was pitched from the berths and the dining-room was iv disorder. It is indicated that the ship's crew pumped water into the hold in order to right tine vessel, when a list developed, due tq> tyie shifting of cargo. The messago addjs. "Mr. Davies and myself stood at tjhe ship's side phlegmatically discussing the ineptitude with which the crew was manning the life-saving apparatus. We were the last of the passengers to enter the lifeboats and could see o«r brave captain still standing at the ship's side when the vessel was already deserted." HAEKOWINO EXPERIENCE. A survivor, Harry Schjiffcz, on board the Berlin, stated that the Vestris was listing slightly when srae left port. She struck rough weather, jmd the list increased. The crew threw cargo overboard, which helped a 12ttle. Tho j third-class passengers, with whom ho J was, were without food, exempt bread and cheese. The quarters ware flooded as tho list increased. Women and children were ordered to the top decks. Mr. Sehultz said he saw throe loaded lifeboats swamped and overturned with all their occupants. He and two negroes gained an empty boat, which filled as it drifted through tho wreckage. He saw no women swimming, but many men. Ho remained in tho boat all night and saw searchlights, but was unable to attract the attention of tho rescuers until daylight. He said that his entire experience was most harrowing- . COAL CARGO SHIFTING. Several officers aboard the American Shipper, who refuse to give their names said that they were convinced that im-properly-loaded coal caused the disaster. They declared that the forco of the gale probably shifted the coal cargo, causing it to pierce the outside deck door leading to the coal bunkers. Several oyo-witnesses among the survivors declare that Captain Carey went down with the ship without making the slightest effort to suve himself. They, stato that ho wore a marine overcoat, in which it was impossible to swim, and refused a lifo-belt though ono passenger implored him to put one on.