They included a dozen steamships that the Kawasaki Dockyard in Kobe built, all to a standard design with identical dimensions.

[3] In June 1936 the United States Maritime Commission was founded to succeed the USSB, and became Eastern Planet's owner.

[10] In November 1937 Tzenny Chandris left Morehead City, North Carolina for Rotterdam[6] carrying a cargo of scrap iron and cattle.

They claimed that they implored the Master, Captain George Coufopandelis, to turn her back, but he said that her pumps would cope with the water.

Radiomarine Corporation of America (RMCA) in New York received the signal, but could not verify Tzenny Chandris's position.

[5] Survivors reported that the storm tore off one of the ship's ventilators, and that this allowed water washing over her deck to enter one of her bunkers.

From there it flooded the stoke hold and engine room, extinguished her furnaces, and shut down her electric lighting.

[6] The CD Mallory tanker Swiftsure, en route from Corpus Christi to Boston, was first to arrive, and just after 09:30 hrs rescued six survivors from a lifeboat.

[5] The cutters Dione and Modoc also joined the search,[13] and a total of eight Navy and Coast Guard aircraft took part.

A US Coastguard aircraft found a lifeboat about 90 nautical miles (170 km) off Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

It directed Mendota to the boat, from which the cutter rescued two survivors and recovered the bodies of three dead men.

One of the survivors told his rescuers that another crewman had died in the boat shortly after the sinking on 13 November, so they had thrown his body overboard.

[14] On 15 November one of the survivors, Third Engineer Kostas Palaskas, alleged that the wireless operator delayed transmitting the first SOS message for five hours because he was awaiting an order from Captain Coufopandelis.

[15] However, on 3 December 1937 Palaskas sued John Chandris for $7,300 in the Norfolk Division of the Federal District Court.

On 9 December four other survivors filed claims for injury, hospitalisation, loss of personal effects, and unpaid wages.

Deputy marshals attached another of John Chandris' ships, Rockport which the Norfolk Shipbuilding & Drydock Co was overhauling, for the four new claims.