I fired off the rockets and then she got so close I could see her side lights and starboard light. Just white stars, bright. I do not know whether they were stars or bright balls. I think they were balls. They were the regulation distress signals.
Some companies have private night signals.
These rockets were not throwing stars, they were throwing balls, I remember, and then they burst. I am hardly in a position to state that, because it is the first time I have seen distress rockets sent off, and I could not very well judge what they would be like, standing as I was, underneath them, firing them myself. I do not know what they would look like in the distance. Ships passing in the night, signaling to one another. We did not have any time to use any of those things.