Sinking
On 10 November 1928, just before 16:00, Vestris left New York bound for the River Plate with 128 passengers and 198 crew. Her ballast tanks had not been pumped out, the hatches of her bunkers were buried under coal but had not been battened and secured, and she was overloaded below her load line marks. She may even have been listing slightly when she left port.
On 11 November she ran into a severe storm that flooded her boat deck and swept away two of her lifeboats. Part of her cargo and bunker coal shifted, causing the ship to list to starboard. About 19:30 that evening a heavy wave caused her to make a lurch further to starboard.
Overnight the water rose to the level of the floor-plates in the stokehold. Water was coming in through the ash ejector pipe and through some half-doors on her upper deck. The ship took on water faster than her pumps could remove it. By the morning of Monday 12 November she was rapidly taking on water and was almost on her beam ends.
At 09:56 Vestris sent an SOS message giving her position as latitude 37° 35' N. and longitude 71° 81' [sic] W., which was incorrect by about 37 mi. The SOS was repeated at 11:04.[14]
Between 11:00 and noon, while the ship was off the Virginia Capes, her master gave the order to abandon ship. With the ship listing to starboard and the weather battering her on her port side, he ordered the port lifeboats to be launched first. The passengers included 13 children and 37 women, and they were put in the first boats to be loaded.
But the boats were still in their falls as the ship sank. Number 4 boat was never released, and was dragged down with the ship. Number 6 boat was cut away from her falls but stove in and sank. Number 8 boat was damaged while being lowered, managed to get clear of the ship, but was swamped and sank. Another of the port boats was successfully launched, then a davit broke free from the ship's boat deck, fell onto the lifeboat, sank it and killed several of its occupants. All of the children and 29 of the women were killed.
At about 14:00 Vestris sank at lat. 37° 38' N, long. 70° 23' W.[14] There were still people on the ship. The master was last seen walking down the port side of his ship, not wearing a lifebelt, and saying "My God. My God. I am not to blame for this." His chief officer also perished.
The first ship to come to the rescue did not arrive until about 17:45. Other ships joined her that evening and early on the morning of 13 November. They were the steamships American Shipper, Myriam, and Berlin and battleship USS Wyoming (BB-32).[14][15]
Death toll
Time and The New York Times reported that from the complement of 128 passengers and 198 crew on board, 111 people were killed:[16][17] The same total was given at the official inquiry into the loss of Vestris.[18]
None of the 13 children and only ten of the 39 women [both stewardesses and eight passengers] aboard the ship survived. The captain of Vestris, William J Carey, went down with his ship. 22 bodies were recovered by rescue ships.
The father of future Major League Baseball pitcher Sam Nahem was among those who drowned when the ship sank.[19] Also two Indianapolis 500 starters in the 1928 race were among those dead. Norman Batten (finished 5th in 1928, his 3rd Indy 500 start) perished along with Earl Devore (18th in 1928, finished 2nd in 1927).
