The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-11-20
|COMPAN FORCES GREEN PLEDGES
CREW OF VESTRIS A. F. |. SUPPORT
TO keep SILENT TO AMERlCANISM
No Law to Prevent Bad
Ships From Sailing

continued from rage One,
tremendous indictment of the ship
owners and government shipping au-
thorities.
Many seamen, experienced for
many years, are sure that the ac-
tons of the crew before the investi-
eating board are unnatural: that
there is reason behind their. silence
and that this reason lies in the CO. :
pany methods of intimidation. They
definitely charge that the company
threats have silenced the worker
witnesses. ~
"No ship" they said, when inter
viewed along the streets on South
ST., "at least, no ship nowadays,
should ever go down as the Vestris
did. There are so many safety de-
vices that it is criminal to send
vessel into a raging sea without them
installed. But the owners Of the
Vestris, knowing that it would cost
more money to install these devices,
let the ship sail without them.
Sand the Vestris is not the only
shin that is in danger of sinking in
midsea because of this. Thousands
of other companies prefer to send
unseaworthy boats out on voyages
rather than to undergo the expense
Of making these safety innovations.
The crime Of it is that the govern
ment shipping authorities allow thi~
to go on under their very eyes. But
they probably get a nice bit of graft
from it. ;"
Damn the Crew.
The Negro members of the crew,
who stood at their posts in TIE
flooded hold of the ship until less
than half hour before the Vestris
went down, yesterday made known
the attitude of captain Carey.
When the ship was rapidly filling
with water, just before it sunk, the
Negro firemen were working in
water up to their chests in the hold
waiting word from above deck
Augustus Parfitt, one of the Negro
firemen, yesterday declared that
when an officer asked the captain
what about the crew?", Carey
had answered Damn the crew.
This was only a short while before
the vessel sunk, when the Negro
workers were toiling unwarned in
the hold.
A. j. Costigan, of the Radio Cor
poration of America, who several
days ago told of the exchange OF
radio messages between the Vestris
and Lamport and Holt, was curl
ously silent on the stand yesterday
He too, had forgotten" about his
former testimony, and insisted that
he knew nothing about any such
messages.
Further testimony, however, re-
vealed that on 5:56 a. m. on the day
that the S. S. Vestris sunk, and
after the exchange of messages be-
tween the company and the ship had
taken place, Captain Carey had
radioed the S. S. Voltaire, another
lousy and hungry" liner, that he
had nothing to communicate. This
was elected at the hearing before U
S. Commissioner Francis A. O'Neill
yesterday.
There is no law, it was revealed
yesterday, in either Great Britain OF
the United States to compel any
ship owner to keep abreast of the
times in matters of security through
reconditioning an unsafe vessel
Once ship is launched there is nc
way of condemning the use of that
ship for transporting either pas.
scngers or crew. So long as the
ship complied with the rules of the
country at the time it was launched
nothing further can be done.
A Death Trap" Ship.
The Vestris, which was built il
1912, was a death trap of ship
In spite of the fact that no law
exists to keep it from sailing thu
seas, seamen pointed out that the
U. S. and British government ship
ping authorities were criminal.
negligent in allowing the Vestris tt
leave port after the examination, b!
competent inspector, had found i
to be corroded and unsafe. Their
can be only one Interpretation o.
this, experienced seamen declared
and that is, that the matter had beer
"fixed up" between the government
control board and the Lamport ant
Holt Company. They insisted tina
shipping graft of this kind is no un
usual occurrence.