The vessel sank in four and a half minutes. Commander Ghent said:
The behavior of the naval personnel throughout was equal to the best traditions of the service. The two forward guns' crews, in charge of Lieutenant Tisdale, remained at their gun stations while the ship went down, and made no move to leave until ordered to save themselves. Radio Electrician C. L. Ausburne went down with the ship while at his station in the radio room. When the ship was struck Ausburne and McMahon were asleep in adjacent bunks opposite the radio room. Ausburne, realizing the seriousness of the situation, told McMahon to get his life preserver on, saying, as he left to take his station at the radio key, "Good-bye, Mac." McMahon, later finding the radio room locked and seeing the ship was sinking, tried to get Ausburne out, but failed.
Radio Electrician H. F. Watson was also lost. He remained with Commander Ghent on the bridge until the guns' crews were ordered to leave, and was on his way to a lifeboat when last seen.
The Alcedo rescued 117 and the Corsair 50 of the 234 persons who were on the Antilles. Sixty-seven were lost—4 men of the Navy, 16 of the Army; 45 of the ship's merchant crew; a civilian ambulance driver who had been serving with the French army, and a colored stevedore.
Rafts, set free by the blast of the explosion, were spread broadcast. Men who had been unable to get into the boats swam for them, and for boxes, planks or anything floating they could reach. As the Corsair was picking up the survivors, a sailor was seen calmly roosting on a box. As the yacht steamed for him, he stood up and, waving his arms, wigwagged:
"Don't come too close, box contains live ammunition!"
They rescued him with care, and with due respect for the explosive as well as for the gunner who considered the ship's welfare before he thought of his own safety.
Eleven days later the Finland was torpedoed, the explosion blowing in her side for 35 feet, the V-shaped hole running down to the bilge-keel. Three of the naval gun-crew, James W. Henry, Newton R. Head and Porter Hilton; two men of the Army, a colored transport worker, and six of the ship's merchant crew were lost. But the vessel, under the skilful direction of the senior naval officer, Captain S. V. Graham, made port under her own steam, was repaired and put back into service.
Repairing this ship was a striking example of the versatility of the American Army in France. The repairs were undertaken by the French naval arsenal, but man-power was scarce and the work was going slowly. A regiment of U. S. Army engineers, stationed at a point not far distant, offered assistance. Among them were a number of locomotive boiler riveters, and structural workers. It was these American "engineers" who came to the bat and actually repaired the Finland.
Neither the Antilles nor the Finland was a naval transport, both being chartered by the Army, and manned by civilian crews, the only Navy personnel aboard being the senior naval officer, the armed guard and the radio operators. It was the experience with these undisciplined crews which hastened the arrangement by which the Navy manned and operated, as well as escorted, all American troop-ships.