The search-and-rescue force kept up their efforts for seventy-two hours. The vessels spread out in a broad scouting line, destroyers on the flanks, and scanned the sea ahead with searchlights at night. The fleet diary noted, “numerous empty life rafts, cork rafts, and floating debris were sighted and investigated for personnel during the search.”106 Many whistles were heard. Life rafts were dropped into the ships’ wakes. On December 21, the destroyer escort Tabberer (which had suffered badly in the storm) discovered a raft with ten survivors of the Spence
