TERRIBLE EXPERIENCES.
NEGROES TAKE LIFEBOAT.
REFUSAL TO ADMIT OTHERS. WIVES PARTED FROM HUSBANDS DROWNING MEN IN WATER. Australian and N.Z. Press Association. (Received November 13, 5.5 p.m.) NKW YORK. Nov. 1-1. Terrible stories are told by survivors from the lost liner Vestris. Among them was Mrs. Karl Pcvorc. She and her husband were on their way to Buenos Aires with Mr. and Mrs. -Norman Bat ton. Messrs. Devoro and Batton were racing motorists. Mrs. Devoro said three negro members of the crow commandeered a lifoboat and started to leave the liner with it.. Sho pleaded with them to take some passengers. They finally admitted her to (ho boat. Her husband was about, to step in also, but the negroes pushed lum away. Her husband and t!ie Battons were left on the sinking liner. She heard them screaming for help. The water was full of drowning men. Sho urged the crow of the boat to go hack, but they refused. The last time she saw her husband ho was standing at the sido of tlio screaming for aid. Another passenger, Mr. Edwin Wilson, said he saw a man he believed to bo Mr. Devoro jump into tho waves and riso again with one arm torn from his body, apparently by a shark. He disappeared and never came up again. Mrs. Batton was saved but her husband is missing. Heroism of a Barbadoes Negro. Mr. Frederick Sorcnson, a passenger, who is a master mariner, declared that tho loss of life was due to " criminal neglect." He said the engine-room was flooded, also the boiler-room and many of the cabins " This state of affairs continued from early on Sunday morning until Monday, when the captain sent out the first distress signals," said Mr. Sorenson. " Wo had asked him to call for assistance earlier, but lie replied that there was no trouble."
One of the greatest heroes of thp tragedy a-as a Barbadoes negro, Lionel Licorish. An expert swimmer, he dived and rescued 18 passengers. Vestris Not Loaded Properly.
When the American Shipper reached the scene the survivors were so exhausted that many had to be hoisted on board. Several women were placed in cargo nets and drawn up the side of the vessel. Several of tho officers on tho American Shipper, who refused to give their names, said they were convinced that the Vestris had been improperly loaded with coal and that the disaster was due to that fact. They said t lie force of the gale probably shifted the coal cargo, with the result that it pierced tho outside deck door leading to the coal hunkers.
Several eye-witnesses among the survivors say Captain Carey, who went down with the ship, made not tho slightest effort to save himself. They say ho wore a marine overcoat, in which it would have been impossible to swim, and that he refused to don a lifebelt though one passenger implored him to do so. Official Investigation Ordered. Mr. Charles 11. Tuttle, United States Attornev for New York South, has ordered an immediate investigation to bo made into the disaster. He claims that although the Vestris was a British ship he has authority to deal with the case under a Federal statute which prohibits tho sending of an unseaworthy vessel out of a port.
Mr. Tuttle said to-day: At least \vo can investigate into the circumstances of the disaster before the witnesses are scattered By so doing we shall lend considerable aid to (he British authorities. Mr. Tuttle has appoined two of his assistants, and instructed them to begin hearing evidence as soon as possible before Mr. O'Neill, a United States commissioner. The first sitting of the commission of inquiry will bo held to-morrow. The Department of Justice has despatched agents to the wharves where the survivors were landed to subpoena them so as to secure (heir stories. CAUSE OF TRAGEDY. OPINION OF THE OWNERS. VESSEL RECENTLY OVERHAULED. Austmliii" nnrl N.Z. Prens Association. (Received November 15. 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 14. The owners of the Vestris, Lamport and Ilolt, Limited, state that Captain Carey was to have left the ship at Buenos Aires, and to have taken over the Voltaire, the largest vessel of the line, as commodore.
Officials of the firm informed the Liverpool correspondent of tho .Morning Post, that tho lust liner carried 15 ordinary lifeboats and one motor lifeboat. I hencapacity was about 1000 people—mure than enough for all the passengers and crew. She also carried rafts and liiesaving apparatus, which complied with the Board of Trade regulations. The vessel was overhauled when she was in duck recently. There should have been enough accommodation m tho boats even if it, was only possible to launch them at one. side owing to the steamer's li.>t
He.forring to the suggestion that the Vestris had developed thn list owing to tho shifting of her cargo, thn owners did not. agree. They said the nature of the cargo hail enabled it to he packed in the holds tightly, and in such a way as to prevent it shifting. They ex pressed the opinion that tho liner either struck a submerged object or shipped abnormally heavy sens which broke in the hatches and partly flooded her.
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New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20105, 16 November 1928, Page 13
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867TERRIBLE EXPERIENCES. New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20105, 16 November 1928, Page 13
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