Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-06-12
Captain Tells Investigators
Rate Was Not moderate"
at Time of Crash That
Took Toll of As Lives.
CUTTERS PROFFERED AID
REPORTED TURNED DOWN
Third Officer of Passenger Vessel
Testifes Tanker Appeared to
Have Right of Way Over Liner
When Sighted Few Minutes Be-
fore Disaster.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
BOSTON, Mass, June 12.-Capt.
Archibald Brooks of the Mer-
chants and Miners Line Steam
ship Fairfax, which collided with
the Fall River tanker PinthiS off
Scituate last Tuesday night with
loss of 46 lives, admitted today
that his ship had been travelling
at II knots through the dense fog
and that this was not moderate
speed.
He was testifying before Fed
eral steamboat inspectors as the
first witness in the Governments
inquiry into the disaster.
Brooks insisted he had verbally
ordered the radio operator to send
a general S o S, and that the op-
orator had tried vainly to do so
over apparatus which had been
disabled by fire which followed
the collision almost instantly.
Both Capt. Brooks and First Of
ficer James Hunley, who succeed
ed him on the stand, denied any
knowledge of scenes of panic such
as related by survivors and both
said the fire was under control be-
tween 20 and 80 minutes after the
crash.
Capt. Brooks estimated that the
tanker was 300 feet away when first
sighted, but Hunley said it was only $50
A. j. Powell, third officer, who appeared
with a heavy bandage across his upper
lip and who had been quoted in local
newspapers by having said that if he
told the whole story, lit would cause
a sensation said 1t appeared to him
that the tanker had the right of way
when seen.
Engines Going ASterD.
All three officers agreed that every
thing possible was done that could be
done and denied that any passengers
had assisted other than voluntarily and
then not of necessity. All asserted that
the engines were going at full speed
astern for nearly a minute before the
impact. Powell estimated that the ship
should have been nearly at dead stop
in that time had it been travelling at
about knots an hour.
An offer of assistance from the Coast
Guard cutter Tampa, 20-minutes-run
away from the scene of the Fairfax
Pinttis disaster, was declined by the
Fairfax, Comdr. S. V. Parker of the
Tampa reported today.
In his report to Coast Guard head
quarters, Comdr Parker revealed that
he had intercepted messages between
the Fairfax and Gloucester Tuesday
night soon after the crash. The mes
sage told of the necessity of transferring
passengers.
Fearing an accident, Comdr. Parker
ordered a query flashed to the Fairfax
asking if assistance was needed. The
reply that came back, he reported, was
IAN o. K"
officers at Coast Guard headquarters
said that the Tampa was equipped with
an excellent hospital bay and an able
medical staff. The Tampa could have
made much faster time than the
Gloucester IN getting the injured to
Boston for treatment, they said.
Toll of Disaster.
The list of dead or missing comprised:
Passengers on Fairfax, Is.
Crew of Pinthis, 19 every man
aboard.
Crew of Fairfax. IA.
With the possibility of finding any of
these missing still alive given up today
and the probability that no more bodies
would be found, IL bodies had been re-
covered and brought here. They were
picked up by the fishing schooner Rain
bow yesterday.
Most of the bodies were identified by
friends, although some were badly
burned. Many persons continued today
to come to the Northern mortuary in
search of loved ones.
Charges of gross negligence made by
Capt. Charles M. Lyons, Federal steam
CONTINUED on Page 2, Column g.