I've thought some more about Betty's notes. If the father reported to the Coast Guard, when did he do it? A day later? A week? If he reported it expeditiously, he should have remembered it was two days ago, or last Thursday or whatever. The story almost makes it sound like he waited a good while. And it doesn't seem like he told the C.G. "I heard it, too". Of course maybe the account from 75 years ago left a lot of details out. Betty could have been listening to a hoax, although apparently no one else reported it. I just read some of the Caroline Dow material, and that speaks of a yacht race nearby where a boat sank. If Betty was fabricating her notebook account, I can certainly see her father humoring her and telling her, "I will pass this on to the Coast Guard." That they apparently disregarded this story may have been because they genuinely felt the story was not valid, not because they were careless. Besides, it gave no pertinent information for them to act on. If Betty's Notes were a fabrication, then that solves all the mysteries of her account in one fell swoop.