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Mrs. Clara G. Ball, stewardess, and Paul A. Dana, a passenger, swam around together, jesting to keep awake. They were among the last picked up, at noon. As Dana was taken out of the water, a body floated by! Lazily mouthing one foot was a huge white shark. Chief pantryman Jean Gladianos was hauled out of the sea. Said he: "A girl about nine years old came up alongside of me. I grabbed the little head in the crook of my left arm. She smiled up at me. At last she died. She had black hair." Mme. Inouye and Mrs. Batten, widows, were taken on board the Wyoming. Safe at last in Manhattan, Hero Licorish made grinning appearances on Palace, Broadway, Hippodrome stages. Nathan Straus, philanthropist, proposed $20,000 fund to reward him, offered $250 subscription himself. Carey. The riddle remained, why was no SOS sent out hours earlier? The answer may be sealed behind the level eyes of Captain Carey. His memory today is dishonored by such epithets as murderer, fool, incompetent, even crook. He was 59 and his record was distinguished. He had been a master of transatlantic vessels since 1914, and was 40 years in the service of the Lamport & Holt Line. During the War he served on transports and supply ships, one of which, the Titian, was torpedoed. He was commodore of his line, and was to have taken command of the Voltaire on his next voyage. Passengers hint that he had orders from his superiors to avoid incurring large salvage fees entailed by S O S. A psychiatrist inferred he was bewildered, mentally paralyzed, in the crisis. A charitable supposition is that, relying on Chief Engineer Adams's statement that he could keep the Vestris afloat he judged an S O S unnecessary.
Investigations. First to investigate the disaster was the U. S. Department of Justice through District Attorney Tuttle in Manhattan. The first major witness was Chief Officer Frank W. Johnson of the drowned ship. Assigned to the Vestris just before she sailed, he had as part of his duty an inspection of her coal ports to see that they had been closed tight. He testified that he had. entrusted a ship's carpenter with this duty, not inspected himself.
Chief Engineer Adams testified that as late as eleven a. m. Monday he had reported to Captain Carey that the Vestris' pumps could keep her afloat another six hours, when Captain Carey expected the U. S. destroyers to arrive.
District Attorney Tuttle commandeered all radio messages exchanged between Captain Carey and his employers.
While the Tuttle inquiry proceeded, other investigations were planned by:
The U. S. Department of Commerce, into its steamship inspection service.
Sanderson & Son, the Lamport & Holt Lines agents.
The British Board of Trade.
The Commerce Committee of the U. S. Senate (Jones, of Washington, chairman).
The Board of New York Insurance Underwriters.
The Central Trades and Labor Council (Manhattan) on a resolution alleging that the Vestris crew was underpaid, incompetent.
The British Parliament.
Effects. Alongside the grisly news columns in the New York Times appeared an advertisement entitled: "The Song of the Sea." It rhapsodized: "Sail on your way while the sea is singing in liquid, low notes the song of the ages. . . . Listen to the music that mariners love."