Imperial Valley press., 1928-11-14
Number of Vestris
Dead Unknown
Continued From Page ~

watched. Sharks were in the water,
, swarming around the struggling
/, swimmers, several passengers said.
I The tragedy of the disaster was
/ lightcned by several stories of hero
ism, notably that of Michael
| OLoughlin, chief operator and
/ Archibald Banistcr, negro boat
swain s mate OLoughlin stuck to
! his post, sending out radio calls to
the last and was believed to have
! gone down with the ship. Banistcr
swan to a lifeboat that had broken
! loose, and maneuvercd it while %
men jumped overheard from the Yes
iris and made their way to it.
Captain Believed Lost
! Captain William J. Carey ap-
+ parcntly also went down with the
ship.
I One of the last persons to see
Carey alive was George Fantana, a
third class passenger from New
/ York, who was standing with the
captain on the sinking hull of the
Vcstris as the ship finally went
down. Fantana, who cannot swim,
was thrown into the water and
sucked under When he emerged
i.hc cried to three lifeboat crews to
pick him up, but all of them, he
said. shouted back:
! "Wc'rc too crowded.
Only a piece Of wrcckagc, which
he seized, saved his life he said.
After floating for an hour he final
1,- tnl init pf thn 1ifn-
boats.
Chief Surgeon John J. Bowlcn of
the American Shipper said he had
treated virtually all of the 125 sur
vivors on that ship for exposure or
shock. and that 40 of them had been
injured, 20 seriously. He amputated
the hand of one man passenger and
finger of another. Most of the
women, he said, were suffering from
extreme shock or exposure.
Racing Drivers Lost
Mrs. Earl Devore and her husband
were sailing for Buenos Aires with
Mr.. and Mrs. Norman X. Baton.
Both Baton and Dcvore are racing
drivers.
Mrs. Dcvore said they were stand
ing on the deck when the rescue
started
"Thrcc negro members of the
crew commandeered one of the life
boats and started to make away
with it, she said. 81 shouted to
them for God S sake, take some of
US in the boat :"
"They finally admitted me to the
boat. AS soon as l stepped over the
side, believing Earl would follow, |!
held out my hands and took my fox
terrier in my arm.
Earl started to step in, but the
negroes showed away. My husband
and Mr.. and Mrs. Batton were on
the sinking liner screaming for
help.
"Thc water was full of drowning
men. | begged the crew to 60 back
to their assistance but they refused.
The last time | saw Earl, he was
standing on the edge of the ship
screaming for aid. =
Mrs. Devorc, a slight, blonde, at
tractive woman, was almost in a
state of collapse. She was extremely
happy to hear Mrs. Batton-who
lad fought against leaving her hus-
band S side-had been picked up by
lifchoat and saved by the Berlin.
But Mrs. Devore s happiness at her
friend s rescue was dimmed by re-
ports of her husband s tragic death.
Charges Neglect
Captain Frederick Sorenson an
other passenger brought in by the
American Shipper charged that the
large loss of life was due to "crim-
inal neglect -
"'The loss of life from the sink
ing ship was due to criminal neg
lect,' Capt. Sorcnson said. "The
cnginerOom was flooded, as well as
the boiler room and many of the
cabins. That condition prevailed
from early Sunday morning until
Monday when the captain sent out
the first distress signals. When we
asked him to call assistance earlier,
he replied there is no trouble"
Sorcnson said he took charge of
a boat containing chiefly women and
children.
While we were drifting, we
went past another boat Sorcnson
said ''In that boat was a woman
who, ! later learned, was Mrs. Earl
S. Dcvore of Los Angeles.
"She later told me the members
of the crew with her refused to heed
hcr pleas that she pick up her hus-
band
"Those men could have picked up
Devorc. They could have picked up
others whom they passed by.
"It was in the Gulf Stream and
there were sharks in the water. |
saw one man whose arm had been
bitten off by a shark. .
NEW YORK, Nov. 1.-THE
tragic story of the sinking of the
S. S. Vestris, with a possible loss
of life of 123 persons, will become
known today.
A home port and final safety
reached out to the survivors who are
being brought into New York and
to Norfolk, Va, by various of the
rescue boats. There was a gladsome
welcome awaiting here.
/ But out in the Atlantic some 210
miles off the Virginia shore, boats
| patrollcd today. They sought ad-
Gitional survivors. They sought to
/ find the bodies that thp T. 8.