“Shortly after 6 o’clock,” the New York Herald reported, “splashing and rasping in the silence of the empty bay, the anchors came up to the bow, the Buford’s prow swung lazily eastward, a patch of foam slipped from the stern and 249 persons who didn’t like America left it.” For Hoover, it was a stunning public triumph, the peak moment of a year already filled with so much change, drama, and success.
