"Wake of the Vestris"

Dickerson N. Hoover,* supervising inspector general of the U. S. Steamboat Inspection Service, gravely put his name last week at the end of a long document. It was a review of all the evidence given at the inquiry which he conducted into the sinking of the Lamport & Holt liner Vestris off the Virginia Capes on Nov. 12, with a loss of in. It blamed the man whose death, clinging to the bridge of the doomed ship, has been called another saga of the sea: Captain Carey.

In the emergency, Inspector Hoover stated, loss of life was caused by the "absence of a strong directing hand."

Inspector Hoover's conclusions were in agreement with those given in U.S. District Court before Commissioner Francis A. O'Neill, by two government experts assigned to the independent investigation there.

In his report, which was forwarded to the Department of Commerce, Inspector Hoover denied the prevailing story that the Vestris shipped water first through an illsealed coalport. He declared that it was much more likely that water first entered the vessel through a broken scupper or sanitary pipe. Not until she had a list of 13 degrees or more would the coal ports be submerged.

Then, when obviously the ship was in grave peril, Captain Carey should have sent out his SOS. He delayed this too long. The lifeboats were in good condition, but were lowered with difficulty on account of the extreme list of the vessel. "No systematic effort was made to get the passengers into these boats."

When Captain Carey failed, none of his officers took charge. "The officers of this ship do not seem to measure up to the standard that we would expect in a British ship." And from the whole disaster Inspector Hoover stated there was one great lesson to be learned. Mechanically, nothing went wrong. Humanly, almost everything went wrong. "We must hereafter stress men more than things."

Twelve recommendations were appended by Inspector Hoover to his report. Three of them were that ways should be studied to improve the construction of life-preservers, lifeboats, and lifeboat-tackle.

Especially significant was Inspector Hoover's recommendation that admiralty laws be amended reducing the amount of salvage that may be claimed by masters of ships which answer another's SOS. Inspector Hoover pictured the reluctance of a captain in time of peril to incur the expense of salvage. "If the amount was reduced, the master of a ship in distress would not hesitate too long before asking for help."

Then, considering the possibility that with smaller salvage fees other captains would ignore an S 0 S, Inspector Hoover declared: "It would be easy to place the responsibility upon a shipmaster who refused to respond, and who, refusing, should have visited upon him the severest penalty."

Across the ocean, Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister, President of the British Board of Trade, assured the House of Commons last week that his organization would begin an investigation of the Vestris disaster as soon as arrangements could be made.

Among the famed Hoovers of the U. S., in addition to the President-elect, are the following:

Theodore Jesse Hoover, dean of engineering, Stanford University; brother of Herbert Clark Hoover.

Charles Lewis Hoover, consul-general at Amsterdam, botanist, linguist.

Charles Ruglas Hoover of Middletown, Conn., professor of chemistry at Wesleyan University, specializing in gas.

Harvey Daniel Hoover, professor of practical theology at the Lutheran Theological Seminary, Gettysburg, Pa.

Simon Robert Hoover, minister of the Christian (Disciples) Church; author, Bookkeeping and Accounting Practice, etc.; Cleveland.

William D. Hoover, Washington banker.

Herbert W. Hoover, President of the Hoover Co., which makes vacuum cleaners at Canton, O.