Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-28
Romance of Sea Emphasized
In Rescue of 800 From Tahiti

Drab incidents of modern seafaring
are forgotten by the world as romance
Is seen in the rescue of more than 800
persons from the liner Tahiti after the
radio had called other craft to the aid
of the vessel in distress. Added force Is
| given to the incident by the fact that
the rescue ship. the liner Ventura, was
bitter rival OF the doomed craft The
loss of the Tahiti occurred in one of
the loneliest parts of the Pacific Ocean.
Referring to the fact that "the man
ayers and the masters of the two ships
strove for every possible advantage" in
their competition for business, the Port
land oregon Journal continues: There
came day when the radio of the
Tahiti sounded from the waters of the
Southern sea q despairing note. A pro-
peller had slipped of, shaft had
broken, water was pouring In and by its
smashing impact breaking down one
supposedly water-tight compartment
after another. Capt. Meyer, on the
Ventura, ESQ miles or more away, heard
the 8 o 8. Instantly, regardless of des-
tination, inconvenience or loss, he put
about his ship. An epochal race began
the competitor ship against disaster.
The Tahiti rests upon the bot
tom of the Pacific. But her officers and
crew-all souls-are safe on the Ven
tura. Competition ends and brother
hood begins at the emergency call of
s o S."
at was another wireless victory in
life saving" says the Pasadena star
News, observing that radio prevented a
great disaster" and stating that ''in the
old days perhaps all the passengers and
the crew would have persisted, with no
means to summon help" The jackson
Citizen-Patriot remarks that "it Is Gus
tomary to say that modern inventions
have robbed the sea of its old romance"
but. pointing out that when the Tahiti
finally went under the water, all of her
people were safe on other boats" that
paper declares: THAT, I'm its own way,
Is quite as thrilling and glamorous as
anything that the old days of wooden
ships and square sails can offer. To
fight wind, wave and thirst in an open
boat over hundreds of miles of hostile
sea Is adventure, no doubt; but isn't it
also adventure to send a call for help
through the empty air and to hang 3l7
lives on the sputter of an electric
spark in the cabin of a sinking ship?
The wireless, any way you look at it,
Is q miracle. An age that can snatch
hundreds OF people from death in mid
ocean by means of miracle is an
age in which romance is far from be-
ing dead"
y &*
With q similar tribute to the power
of radio, the Charleston wv. va Daily
Mail describes the rescue as "a re-
ninder that while science and invention
have lessened, they have not eliminated
the. perils faced by those who 20 down
to the sea In ships" The Oakland Trib-
.une emphasizes the fact that the at
'tention of the country was turned from
some endurance exploits to the "en-
duranee and fortitude shown by men
and women who waited on a sinking
ship and to those others who fastened
crowding steam and engines, to tn res
cue. Even from one of the loneliest
parts of the broadest sea-" continues
the Tribune, word came of the plieht
OF the Tahiti. The world knew that for
time it looked as IL all passengers
must take to small boats; that the calls
for distress had been heard, and that
the Ventura and other craft were break
Ing all records 10 be there In time TO
help"
Material for modern saga of the
sea, OF heroism as great and adventure
as thrilling as any of which the an
clients sang AYERS the Los Angeles Ex-