Rescue
As soon as it was realised at Port Washington that Cavalier was going to land in the sea, Port Washington requested a Pan American World Airways Sikorsky S-42 flying boat from Hamilton, Bermuda, to go to her assistance. The United States Coast Guard sent a flying boat from Long Island to Cavalier's last known position but it did not find her. A United States Army Air Corps Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber made a sortie from Langley Field in Virginia to search for Cavalier but had to return before midnight without success.. Other aircraft also tried in vain to find the Cavalier.
The U.S. Coast Guard also despatched two cutters and two patrol boats to the scene; one was only 70 nautical miles (130 km) away but the other three had to come from Cape Cod, Massachusetts; New York; and Norfolk, Virginia. The commercial tanker Esso Baytown was the first to arrive at the scene of the accident and reported at 23:25 that she had sighted wreckage and had lowered her lifeboats. By listening for the sound of their cries – they were in fact singing – Esso Baytown rescued six passengers and four members of the crew who had clung together on the water for ten hours. The United States Navy gunboat USS Erie (PG-50) transferred a doctor to Esso Baytown but because of the high seas and darkness had to discontinue the search for any other survivors. The ten survivors were taken to New York, arriving on 23 January 1939; the other three people aboard were lost.
Read more about this topic: 1939 Atlantic Ocean Imperial Airways Short Empire Flying Boat Sinking
Famous quotes containing the word rescue:
“When in the sea-light every early game
Was played with love and, if death’s waters came,
You’d rescue me. How I would take you from,
Now, if I could, its whirling vacuum.”
—Howard Moss (b. 1922)
“To rescue our children we will have to let them save us from the power we embody: we will have to trust the very difference that they forever personify. And we will have to allow them the choice, without fear of death: that they may come and do likewise or that they may come and that we will follow them, that a little child will lead us back to the child we will always be, vulnerable and wanting and hurting for love and for beauty.”
—June Jordan (b. 1939)
“The personal touch between the people and the man to whom they temporarily delegated power of course conduces to a better understanding between them. Moreover, I ought not to omit to mention as a useful result of my journeying that I am to visit a great many expositions and fairs, and that the curiosity to see the President will certainly increase the box receipts and tend to rescue many commendable enterprises from financial disaster.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)