The situation did deteriorate, just as USS General A W Greely arrived mid-afternoon and both ships sent lifeboats to pick up passengers and crew.

[5] The following day, the tug Turmoil arrived, guided by the searchlights from USS John W Weeks,[9] but found it impossible to take the Flying Enterprise in tow.

The tug's mate, Kenneth Dancy, was then transferred to the Flying Enterprise on 4 January, by which time the list had increased to 60 degrees.

[5] On 6 January, USS Willard Keith relieved the John W Weeks and the French tug Abeille 25 also joined the rescue effort.

Carlsen was buried at sea at the Flying Enterprise's final resting place on 8 February 1990 after a journey to Japan in a safety box on SS Jutlandia.

Later Bishop worked with US divers John Chatterton and Richie Kohler to film the wreck for a 2005 episode of the History Channel's Deep Sea Detectives.

[14] The wreck now lies resting on her port side in a depth of 84 metres (276 ft) on the seabed of the western approaches to the English Channel.

Speculations about a shipment of zirconium, intended for use in the first nuclear submarine USS Nautilus (SSN-571), but registered as pig iron, were discussed in a 2002 Danish television documentary Det Skæve skib (English title: The Mystery of Flying Enterprise).

On the other hand, there appears to have been no secret that the US Atomic Energy Commission was acquiring zirconium,[16] so it is not clear why any of these organizations should actually have information related to the Flying Enterprise.

[16] Hammond Innes fictionalized the story with "The Wreck of the Mary Deare" published in 1956, about a decrepit and drifting freighter found by a salvager.

The passengers on board Flying Enterprise were Nicolai Bunjakowski, Nina Dannheiser, Maria Duttenhofer, Rolf Kastenholz, Leonore von Klenau, Curt and Elsa Müller and their children Liane and Lothar, and Frederick Niederbrüning.

[18] Captain Carlsen was awarded a Lloyd's Silver Medal for Meritorious Service in recognition of his efforts to save Flying Enterprise,[5] and received a ticker-tape parade in New York City on January 17, 1952.

Kenneth Dancy was awarded the Order of Industrial Heroism medal by the Daily Herald newspaper and an illuminated citation from the American Institute of Marine Underwriters.