This is the sad story of a disaster that never should have happened. When the steamship Vestris pulled away from her Hoboken pier on a sunny day in November 1928, headed for Buenos Aires, carrying almost 8,000 tons of cargo, 128 civilian passengers, and 197 crew members, all seemed well. In truth, she was a decrepit old ship, not seaworthy in anything but the best of weather. The weather on this trip would prove too severe for this tired vessel. Even so, the Vestris might have survived had it not been for a series of blunders by both the ship's crew and her officers. These errors, combined...