INSOLENT NEGROES REFUSE TO ROW OR BAIL BOAT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18614, 16 November 1928, Page 6

INSOLENT NEGROES REFUSE TO ROW OR BAIL BOAT.

MR DAVIES TELLS STORY OF HIS RESCUE AFTER WRECK IN ATLANTIC. (United Press Assn.— By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) NEW YORK, November 14. It is now feared that Mr Davies, the Australian Pressman, is in danger of pneumonia as a result of long hours of immersion in the water. The. mental strain has left him badly shaken. _ Describing being picked up after the Vestris sank, Mr Davies said: “ I understand that it was the captain’s pinnace. There was one lady aboard, Mrs Devore. The rest were of the crew, possibly three or four being negroes. The latter declined to row and bail the boat. They simply became insolent and had to be kept in order by alternate threats and tact. The penetrating wind was frightfully cold. The experiences of that night were awful.” Speaking of the leap into the waves, he said: “ I clung to the rail, my feet dangling. When the water seemed about 12 feet away I let mj’self go. The noise was terrific. I momentarily expected that the vessel would blow up. As I was sucked down the thought occurred that perhaps floating timber might strike my head. I felt suffocated. When I came up the water was strew-n with wreckage, but I could see nothing of the liner. I managed to catch hold of part of a floating hatch cover. I found an upturned boat, and had a vivid picture of a negro nearby with a knife in his hand, wanting to prevent anyone from seeking to occupy the small raft to which he clung.”— Australian Press Association. DOES NOT BLAME OFFICERS OR CREW. NEW YORK, November 15. Shock and the nervous strain of his experiences showed clearly oi> s Mr Davies’s face when he was reunited with his wife and three children here to-day. Mr Davies, replying to inquiries, said: 44 I will be quite all right with three days’ rest. A week should see me back in the office.” He wanted to get away from everything to obtain some rest, but he went to a hotel, although his home is in a local suburb, and locked himself in with a stenographer, to whom he began dictation setting forth his experiences. This he continued all day long. He, unlike any other passenger aboard the ill-starred Vestris, is not inclined to blame the crew, the officers or the master. He believes that the passengers, who have been made hysterical by untold suffering, are inclined to stress the sins of omission and commission of those manning the vessel. He describes the events from the abandonment of the Vestris until his rescue as follows:—He and Mr Koppe stood at the ship’s rail, viewing the disordered efforts to fill and lower the lifeboats. He saw two boats, loaded with women and children, capsize before reaching the water, and every moment the confusion grew greater, with helpless persons floundering about in the sea. He w 7 as fully dressed, including an overcoat, and had a life preserver on. When it seemed that all the passengers were off, and the vessel was settling, with indications that it might founder at any moment, he and Koppe went over the rail and leaped into the sea. That was the last he saw of his companion. Mr Davies swam about to an overturned lifeboat, to which he clung for possibly three-quarters of an hour, and was then picked up by a lifeboat. The rain, darkness and wind made the discomfort intense. The occupants of his could see the American Shipper’s searchlights comb the waters, and they sent up flares and shouted in frantic efforts to draw attention, all of which failed. They rowed about all night, and between five and six next morning the American Shipper saw them and took them aboard. Speaking of the voyage on the ship, Mr Davies said: “It began in a quiet sea, with every prospect of a successful conclusion, but trouble began when the storm arose during the night. The ship took a definite list, which the passengers cheerfully refused to regard as serious. They got fun out of trying to keep their feet and some of the officers told them that all would be w 7 ell within an hour. On Sunday night the officers still maintained that the list was temporary. Some of the passengers felt that it would be safer to stay up all night. When I awoke on Monday morning I felt that the crisis was at hand.”

Of Captain Carey’s last moments Mr Davies said: “He was standing on the boat deck, looking haggard from lack of sleep. He could see many clinging to the rails. Just before the ship went under he cried: ‘Good-bye all/”—Australian Press Association.

PLENTY LIFEBOATS ABOARD, COMPANY OFFICIALS DECLARE.

LONDON, November 14. Lamport and Holt informed the Liverpool correspondent of the “ Morning Post” that the Vestris carried fifteen ordinary lifeboats and one motor lifeboat, with a capacitv in the region of 1000, which was more than enough for all passengers and crew. There were also rafts and life-saving apparatus. They complied with the Board of Trade regulations and were overhauled when the vessel was in dock recently.

There should have been enough accommodation. even if it was only possible to launch the boats on one side, owing to the list.

In reference to the suggestion that the Vestris listed owing to shifting of the cargo, Lamport and Holt do not agree, and point out that the nature of the cargo enabled it to be packed in the holds tightly and unshiftably. They express the opinion that the vessfel either struck something submerged or shipped an abnormally heavy sea which broke in the hatches, partly flooding the vessel.—Australian Press Association. JAPANESE CONSULS BODY IDENTIFIED. NEW YORK, November 15. Fifty-seven survivors of the Vestris landed from the rescue tanker Myriam, The destroyer Shaw is on the way with thirteen bodies of victims. One has been identified as Major Inouye, Japanese Consul at Buenos Aires.— Australian Press Association. Tt — ST