to abandon ship was made. However, the presence of all but two of the ship's boats in the nearby debris field, plus indications that the davits for the two missing boats were shot away during the battle, led Mearns to believe that evacuation was attempted after the bow snapped off, but there was not enough time or seaworthy boats to do so. The battle damage would have forced any Australian survivors to use Carley floats and personal lifebelts, which were only intended as short-term life preservers. Based on survival rates for contemporary warship losses, Olson determined that anyone who survived the sinking would have died from wounds, exposure, or drowning before the search commenced, and corpses would not have floated to the surface until after the search had been terminated. The higher survival rate from Kormoran was because, unlike Sydney, the raider's boats and rafts were well equipped and mostly undamaged.Mearns, The Search for Sydney, pp. 200–1 Although Sydney is thought of as the only warship lost with all hands, the JCFADT report lists eight other surface warships of similar size lost during the World Wars where none survived, and another six where 95% or more aboard died. An alternative version of this theory is that authorities were aware of Sydney being attacked at the time of or shortly after the battle but deliberately delayed organising searches for survivors. There is no evidence that anybody ashore knew of the battle until Trocas found German survivors and informed the authorities. The Sydney Research Group allege that Sydney attempted to radio Darwin to report that the cruiser was on fire and being abandoned. Other individuals or groups have claimed that they heard or witnessed the receipt of messages (either voice or morse) from Sydney or saw transcripts of these messages. All claims state that transcripts and other evidence were later destroyed.Sydney was not fitted with voice transmission equipment, so it could not have sent any of the reported voice signals. Had the cruiser tried to send morse signals, they would have been jammed by Kormorans wireless operators. Several messages were identified as having come from other sources, while associates of the claimants have shown the evidence to be suspect for the rest.Cole, The Loss of HMAS Sydney II, vol. 3, p. 150 The 2009 inquiry concluded that no messages were sent by Sydney before, during, or after the engagement. Sydney not at