LOST BRITISH LINER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20113, 26 November 1928, Page 9

LOST BRITISH LINER.

INQUIRIES CONTINUED.

STORIES OF PASSENGERS.

EXCITEMENT AND FEAR.

FIREMEN LEAVE THEIR POSTS.

Australian and N.Z. Press Association. NEW YORK. Nov. 23

The main inquiry into the loss of tho British liner Yestris, off the -oast of Virginia, was continued to-day before Mr. Frank O'Neill, United States Commissioner. With him as advisers were the British and American nautical experts, Captains Henry McConkey and E. P. Jessup. Mr. Charles 11. Tuttlo, Attorney for New York South, again conducted tho proceedings. Tho affidavit of an English first-class passenger who was rescued, Mr. E. M. Walcott, was read. This stated that intense excitement and fear prevailed among the passengers for more than two hours before tho S.O.S. call was sent out. Some of tho passengers appeared on tho decks wearing lifebelts, but the stewards assured them there was no danger. Mr. Walcott also asserted that the late Captain Carey's voice was so hoarse that ho could not understand what ho was saying. On his last order it broke altogether. Ho corroborated tho evidence of other witnesses to tho effect that the captain went down with the ship still wearing a heavy overcoat but without a lifebelt.

The inquiry into the inspection of the Vestris instituted by tho Department of Commerce and conducted by Mr. Dickerson N. Hoover, supervising inspector-gene-ral of the Steamboat Inspection Service, was also continued to-day. Tho chief engineer of the lost liner, Mr. John Adams, said the firemen left their posts at 10.50 a.m. on the day she sank. The officers were compelled to replace them for the remaining half-hour before further work became impossible.