OCEAN TRAGEDY

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 110, 5 November 1937, Page 4

OCEAN TRAGEDY

LOSS OF THE VESTRIS

A SHIP WHICH CAPSIZED

SOS TOO LATE

On Saturday, October 10, 1920, the Vestris, 10-,000-ton passenger liner, crack ship owned by Messrs. Lamport and Holt, of Liverpool, left Hoboken, New Jersey, bound for Barbados and South American ports with 129 passengers on board, writes Captain 11. D. Matthews in the "Sydney Morning Herald." She developed a slight list for some unknown reason as she ploughed her way southwards towards the West Indies and summer skies. The commander, Captain Carey, was called in the middle watch that night by the second.officer and informed that the wind was blowing stronger from the north-east. The ship held her course and speed, and Sunday dawned to find many of the passengers haggard and seasick. By noon it was blowing a whole gale, and the liner was labouring and straining heavily and shipping big seas fore and aft. Down in the stokehold the sweating coloured firemen, slithering about the slanting plates in front of the boileTs," muttered as the water mounted above the stokehold plates until it was ankle deep, and steadily increased. The.swirling black flood almost carried them oft their feet. The bilges were full, and the ash-ejector, damaged by the storm, became a deathtrap and shot huge columns of water through the pipe each time she rolled. Things looked black. But the firemen held their peace, and not a word of alarm reached the passengers from their domain. Yet, as the storm raged and the list increased, fear gripped the passengers. The officers put on a bold face and tried to reassure them that everything was all right, as the ship listed crazily to starboard and hung there, seeming too wearied, too heavily-laden to right herself. \ . A MOUNTAINOUS WAVE. The party in the gaily-lighted dining saloon, resplendent with spotless linen and sparkling silver, spoke in subdued tones. A few tried to crack jokes to ease the situation. The shrill peals of laughter were silenced as the diners gripped their swaying chairs and felt the ship slope at a dangerous angle for a few seconds and fall back with a sickening lurch. ~ . Suddenly, a heavy impact catapulted the passengers from their seats into a struggling heap, swept the tables clean, and smashed hundreds of pounds worth of crockery. This wave caused pandemonium—a veritable ■ green mountain that came over the port bow like a thunderclap, flooding the decks, tearing away many feet of the starboard rail, smashing two lifeboats, and sweeping everything in its path. It tore three motor-cars from their lashing in the shelter-deck and hurtled them through the bulkhead into the seamen's quarters. Officers moved about endeavouring to calm the passengers' fears. Many of them, convinced that the ship, now lying practically over on her beamends, was about to turn turtle and sink, went to their cabins and dressed themselves in warm clothes against the worst, and awaited the order to "Abandon ship." \- ~...■■ • But n o orders came—not until it was almost too late..;: For some unKnbwn reason t&e $OS rnessagewas- not. senj out until m^ny "more anxious hours had passed, and death' was liovenng over them with fevery lurch of. the doomed vessel. ' , . , . All night she rolled at alarming angles and hung over on her side like a wounded,' breathless thing. She took longer now to right herself. The gale shrieked loudly, and many tons of loose water in the bilges and tanks lurched with sickening force from side to side at every roll. The finger of the tell-tale clinometer moved to and fro . . .10 degrees, 14 degrees—2o, 30, and still more—to 40 degrees. And still no SOS was sent out, A few degrees more of list and nothing under the heavens could prevent her from rolling right over and foundering with her precious freight. Captain Carey, evidently still pinning the greatest faith in the seaworthiness of his staunch vessel, refrained from sending out a message for assistance. THE RISING FLOOD. But he admitted to his first officer, Mr. Johnson, that they were in a very serious plight indeed. None of the crew and few of the passengers slept that night. Stewards and firemen combined to form a balling party with buckets, and tried to assist the pumps in combating the rising flood in the holds. . •. ■ - George Prestwick, the fourth engineer, laboured for. several hours neck-deep in water repairing a damaged pump. At times his head had to be held above the water by the donkeyman grasping him by the hair. Still the water gained Quickly. Over and over the Vestris leaned with her decks awash. The coloured stokers, penned in the flooded stokehold and in danger of being trapped like rats if the ship turned turtle, downed .shovels, slices, and rakes, and rushed on.deck, where at least they had a sporting chance. . "Don't desert your post, boys, for God's sake—play, the man—we need every hand to see'us through. Please go below again." Reluctantly they went back, but not for long. Soon the engineers sweated at the furnaces in their stead. Five of these brave men perished at their posts. Meanwhile the passengers, huddled together in the smoking-toom, wondered whether an SOS had been sent out and if anyone was coming to their aid. Monday morning earner and it was evident that the gale had won. The captain had managed to receive a radio bearing from Tuckerton coastal station apprising him of his whereabouts, and now, worn out with anxiety and with defeat staring him in the face, he ordered the senior wireless operator to send out a message asking all ships to stand by for further calls. SOS . . SOS . . . SOS . , . s.s. Vestris . . . sinking. More than fifty ships received the call. The nearest was sixty miles away. A high sea was running, and the list ever increasing, until the .Vestris seemed to float miraculously on. ner side. ~ SOS . . . SOS . . . urgent. Decks all under water—lying on beam ends . . . please come at once. COMING OF SHARKS. The passengers slithered down on the steeply inclined decks, trying to maintain a footing as they advanced towards the boats. The- flrtt lifeboats to be lowered had the planking stove in by the rivet-heads of the ship's hull plating, and bailing had to be resorted to. The age-old traditions of the sea were observed, and "women and children first" was the order of the day. Children were lowered in blanket--slings. Seamen slid down ithe side with passengers in their arms. The operator still sat calmly at his instruments. ■ , SOS . . Going to abandon ship in a few moments A lifeboat was launched, but a wave smashed it inboard. Another was lowered, and turned a wild somersault. It floated bottom' tip, with a. tangle of spars and cordage alongside, and

half-drowned people clinging to the keel. People fought in the water, called out, and sank. Bodies floated limply on the wavetops.' One lifeboat fouled the falls, and a member of the crew cut the restraining ropes with his knife to let the boat fall into the sea. As it took the water, an iron boat davit broke adrift and crashed down on. the passengers, sinking the boat and killing several of them.

The captain became almost demented at the terriole scenes all around, and, lifting Jiis weatherbeaten face, deathly with agony, to Heaven, he cried out in a wild protest, "My God, I am not to blame for this!" People were perishing about him, but he was powerless to help. He refused the lifebelt proffered by one of. the crew. "No, no!" he cried. "Give it to someone who needs it, not me."

From the sea below him came wild shrieks as the sharks seized their prey and dragged it under. Still the operator worked away, faithful to the last:

Dot —dash —dot— So long Tuckerton, S.K. Farewell.

He dashed out on the canting decks and endeavoured, with some of the engineers, to launch'a lifeboat. While they were in the very act of so doing, the dying Vestris reared up for a brief second and rolled on top of them as it turned and plunged under, with Captain Carey still at his post, exclaiming, "My God, they can't blame me for this!"

From all directions, battling against the elements, came the rescuing ships —the U.S. battleship Wyoming, the San Juan, the American Shipper, the Berlin, and others. They saved many lives. No children were rescued, and only six or eight women out of the thirty-seven on board were picked up. In all, some 115 persons perished.

By the irony of fate, the American freighter Montoso docked at Boston a few days later. Only then her skipper learned of the tragedy. The Montoso had been within a few miles of the Vestris when the SOS appeals first went out. But she knew nothing of the occurrence as she rode out the storm. She had no wireless. She could not hear tlie frantic calls for aid. So far as the Montoso was concerned, the sinking Vestris might have been 10,000 miles away.