HOW SURVIVORS ESCAPED.
Managing Director Accused--Stoker Makes Direct Charge--Supported
by Many Survivors--Tells about It--“Please Don’t Knock”--Demanded
Food--Brave Lot of Women--First Officer Shot Himself.
One man stands out in a most unenviable light amid the narratives of
heroism and suffering attending the great Titanic sea tragedy. This
man is J. Bruce Ismay, managing director of the White Star Line, who,
according to accounts of survivors, made himself the exception to the
rule of the sea, “Women first,” in the struggle for life.
Some of these survivors say he jumped into the first life boat, others
that he got into the third or fourth. However that may be, he is among
the comparatively few men saved, and the manner of his escape aroused
the wrath and criticism of many.
A woman with a baby was pushed to the side of the third boat, says one
survivor. Ismay got out; he then climbed into the fourth boat. “I will
man this boat,” he said, and there was no one who said him nay.
“Mr. Ismay was in the first lifeboat that left the Titanic,” declared
William Jones, an eighteen-year-old stoker, who was called to man one
of the lifeboats. Jones comes from Southampton, England, and this was
his first ocean voyage. He left the Carpathia tottering. “There were
three firemen in each boat,” he said. “I don’t know how many were
killed in the boiler explosion which occurred after the last lifeboat
had put off. I saw four boats, filled with first cabin passengers,
sink. In the boat I was in, two women died from exposure. We were
picked up about 8 o’clock.”
Mrs. Lucien P. Smith, of Huntingdon, W. Va., daughter of Representative
James Hughes, West Virginia, was in the third boat that was launched,
and in that boat was Mrs. John Jacob Astor. “My niece saw Mr. Ismay
leaving the boat. He was attended by several of the crew and every
assistance was given him to get into the boat,” says Mrs. Smith. “And
when the Carpathia finally came along and rescued the shipwrecked
passengers, some of the crew of the Carpathia, together with men of the
Titanic, actually carried Mr. Ismay to spacious rooms that had been set
aside for him. As soon as Mr. Ismay had been placed in this stateroom a
sign was placed on the door: “Please don’t knock.”
MRS. W. J. CARDEZA’S NARRATIVE.
According to Mrs. W. J. Cardeza, of Philadelphia, who gave her
narrative after she had arrived at the Ritz-Carlton with T. D. M.
Cardeza, J. Bruce Ismay was not only safely seated in a lifeboat before
it was filled, but he also selected the crew that rowed the boat.
According to Mrs. Cardeza, Mr. Ismay knew that Mr. Cardeza was an
expert oarsman and he beckoned him into the boat. Mr. Cardeza manned an
oar until Mr. Ismay’s boat was picked up about two hours later.
The White Star Line, through Ismay, disclaimed responsibility, saying
that it was “an act of God.” Ismay defended his action in taking to the
lifeboat. He said that he took the last boat that left the ship. “Were
there any women and children left on the Titanic when you entered the
boat?” he was asked. The reply was, “I am sure I cannot say.”
J. Bruce Ismay described to a reporter how the catastrophe occurred.
“I was asleep in my cabin,” said Mr. Ismay, “when the crash came. It
woke me instantly. I experienced a sensation as if the big liner were
sliding up on something.
“We struck a glancing blow, not head on, as some persons have supposed.
The iceberg, so great was the force of the blow, tore the ship’s plates
half way back, I think, although I cannot say definitely. There was
absolutely no disorder.
“I left in the last boat. I did not see the Titanic sink. I cannot
remember how far away the lifeboat in which I was had been rowed from
the ship when she sank.”
Mr. Ismay began his interview by reading a prepared statement, to this
effect:
“In the presence and under the shadow of so overwhelming a tragedy
I am overcome with feelings too deep for words. The White Star Line
will do everything humanly possible to alleviate the sufferings of the
survivors and the relatives of those who were lost.
“The Titanic was the last word in ship building. Every British
regulation had been complied with and her masters, officers and crew
were the most experienced and skillful in the British service.
WELCOMES EXHAUSTIVE INQUIRY.
“I am informed that a committee of the United States Senate has been
appointed to investigate the accident. I heartily welcome a most
complete and exhaustive inquiry as the company has absolutely nothing
to conceal and any aid that my associates or myself, our ship builders
or navigators can render will be at the service of both the United
States and the British Governments.”
“How soon did she sink after she struck?” Mr. Ismay was asked. “Let me
see, it was two hours and twenty-five minutes, I think. Yes, that is
right.”
“In other words, there would have been ample time to have taken
everybody off if there had been enough lifeboats?” he was asked. “I do
not want to talk about that now,” was the reply.
“Did you go off in the first boat?” some one asked. “What do you mean?”
“Were you in the first boat that left the ship?” “No,” he replied,
slowly and firmly, “I was not. I was in the last boat. It was one of
the forward boats.”
“Did the captain tell you to get in the boat?” “No.”
“What was the captain doing when you last saw him?” “He was standing on
the bridge.”
“It is not true that he committed suicide?” “No. I heard nothing of it.”
Mr. Ismay was asked to explain the delay in the sending of the news of
the wreck from the Carpathia. He said:
“I can’t say anything about that now except that I sent the first
telegram announcing what had happened to Mr. Franklin about 11 o’clock
on the morning that we were picked up. I am told that that telegram did
not reach its destination here until yesterday.”
In response to requests for more details Mr. Ismay said: “I must refuse
to say more until to-morrow, when I appear before the Congressional
Committee.”
“For God’s sake, get me something to eat. I’m starved. I don’t care
what it costs or what it is. Bring it to me.”
AN OFFICER’S COMPLETE ACCOUNT.
This was the first statement made by Ismay, a few minutes after he was
landed on board the Carpathia. It is vouched for by an officer of the
Carpathia. This officer gave one of the most complete accounts of what
happened aboard the Carpathia from the time she received the Titanic’s
appeal for assistance until she landed the survivors at the Cunard line
pier.
“Mr. Ismay reached the Carpathia in about the tenth lifeboat,” said the
officer. “I didn’t know who he was, but afterward I heard the others
of the crew discussing his desire to get something to eat the minute
he put his foot on deck. The steward who waited on him, McGuire, from
London, says Mr. Ismay came dashing into the dining room, and, throwing
himself in a chair, said, ‘Hurry, for God’s sake, and get me something
to eat; I’m starved. I don’t care what it costs or what it is; bring it
to me.’
“McGuire brought Mr. Ismay a load of stuff, and when he had finished
it he handed McGuire a two-dollar bill. ‘Your money is no good on this
ship.’ McGuire told him. ‘Take it,’ insisted Mr. Ismay, shoving the
bill in McGuire’s hand. ‘I am well able to afford it. I will see to
it that the boys of the Carpathia are well rewarded for this night’s
work.’ This promise started McGuire making inquires as to the identity
of the man he had waited on. Then we learned that he was Mr. Ismay. I
did not see Mr. Ismay after the first few hours. He must have kept to
his cabin.
“The Carpathia received her first appeal from the Titanic about
midnight, According to an officer of the Titanic, that vessel struck
the iceberg at twenty minutes to 12 o’clock and went down for keeps at
nineteen minutes after 2 o’clock. I turned in on Sunday night a few
minutes after 12 o’clock. I hadn’t closed my eyes before a friend of
the chief steward told me that Captain Rostron had ordered the chief
steward to get out 3,000 blankets and to make preparations to care for
that many extra persons. I jumped into my clothes and was informed of
the Titanic. By that time the Carpathia was going at full speed in the
direction of the Titanic.
THE CREW TOLD WHAT IS EXPECTED OF THEM.
“The entire crew of the Carpathia was assembled on deck and were told
of what had happened. The chief steward, Harry Hughes, told them what
was expected of them.
“‘Every man to his post and let him do his full duty like a true
Englishman,’ he said. ‘If the situation calls for it, let us add
another glorious page to British history.’
“After that every man saluted and went to his post. There was no
confusion. Everything was in readiness for the reception of the
survivors before 2 o’clock. Only one or two of the passengers were on
deck, one of them, Mr. Beachler, having been awakened by a friend,
and the other because of inability to sleep. Many of the Carpathia’s
passengers slept all through the morning up to 10 o’clock, and had no
idea of what was going on.
“We reached the scene of the collision about 4 o’clock. All was black
and still but the mountain of ice just ahead told the story. A flare
from one of the lifeboats some distance away was the first sign of
life. We answered with a rocket, and then there was nothing to do but
wait for daylight.
“The first lifeboat reached the Carpathia about half-past 5 o’clock
in the morning, and the last of the sixteen boats was unloaded before
9 o’clock. Some of the lifeboats were only half filled, the first one
having but two men and eleven women, when it had accommodations for
at least forty. There were few men in the boats. The women were the
gamest lot I have ever seen. Some of the men and women were in evening
clothes, and others among those saved had nothing on but night clothes
and raincoats.
IMAGINE THEIR HUSBANDS PICKED BY OTHER VESSELS.
“As soon as they were landed on the Carpathia many of the women became
hysterical, but on the whole they behaved splendid. Men and women
appeared to be stunned all day Monday, the full force of the disaster
not reaching them until Tuesday night. After being wrapped up in
blankets and given brandy and hot coffee, their first thoughts were
for their husbands and those at home. Most of them imagined that their
husbands had been picked up by other vessels and then began flooding
the wireless rooms with messages. We knew that those who were not
on board the Carpathia had gone down to death, and this belief was
confirmed Monday afternoon when we received a wire from Mr. Marconi
himself asking why no news had been sent.
“We knew that if any other vessel could by any chance have picked
them up it would have communicated with land. After a while, when
the survivors failed to get any answer to their queries, they grew
so restless that Captain Rostron posted a notice that all private
messages had been sent and that the wireless had not been used to
give information to the press, as had been charged. Little by little
it began to dawn on the women on board, and most of them guessed the
worst before they reached here. I saw Mrs. John Jacob Astor when she
was taken from the lifeboat. She was calm and collected. She kept to
her stateroom all the time, leaving it only to attend a meeting of the
survivors on Tuesday afternoon.”
J. R. Moody was a quartermaster on the bridge beside First Officer
Murdock when the Titanic struck the berg. “There is no way of telling
the approach of the berg, and, besides, I do not intend to go into
that now,” said Moody. “We struck, and we paid dearly for it, and
that is all there is to that now. We were running between twenty-two
and twenty-three knots an hour. It seemed incredible that much damage
had been done at first, we struck so lightly. There was a little jar.
Almost immediately, though, Captain Smith rushed to the bridge and took
charge. Afterward I saw Murdock, standing on the first deck. I saw him
raise his arm and shoot himself. He dropped where he stood.
[Illustration: WIRELESS TELEGRAPHIC APPARATUS.]
“As far as Mr. Bruce Ismay goes, he was in the second boat that left
the Titanic. The first boat swamped. I am sure of that, and Mr. Ismay
was bundled into the second boat, regardless of his protests, to take
charge of it in place of First Officer Murdock, who had shot himself.
“When the Titanic started to sink Captain Smith was on the bridge. I
saw him. The first lurch brought the bridge almost under water, and the
captain was washed off. He clambered back, and must have been there
another ten minutes. When the bridge sank slowly down and he was washed
off for the second time, a boat tried to make back to him, but he waved
for it to keep back. The last anybody saw of him he was fighting his
way back to the Titanic. He drowned fighting to reach her.”
“J. Bruce Ismay never showed himself once during the whole voyage and
on the voyage on the Carpathia. We never saw him from the time the
vessel took up the survivors until we reached the dock. Personally I do
not think that Captain Smith was responsible for the high rate of speed
at which the Titanic was traveling when the ship foundered. I kept
a record during the voyage. From noon of Saturday to noon of Sunday
the Titanic traveled 546 knots. I believe they were trying to break
records. When the crash came the boat was traveling at top speed.”
HENRY E. STENGEL’S STORY.
This was the statement which Henry E. Stengel gave early today at his
residence, 1075 Broad st., Newark, N. J. Shaken with the horrors of
the wreck and the nerve-racking voyage on the rescue ship Carpathia,
Mr. Stengel spoke in stern terms of the recklessness which made the
accident so appalling. Although it was near to midnight when he and his
wife reached Newark, there were a hundred friends waiting to receive
them, all of whom hung breathlessly on the recital of the perils which
the two escaped.
Mr. Stengel and his wife had one of the most remarkable reunions of
any persons on the ship. The two did not escape in the same boat. Mrs.
Stengel being in the first launched, while her husband was in the very
last boat from the starboard side. Mrs. Stengel looked many years older
than when she left the other side a few weeks ago, and was even more
emphatic than her husband in criticism of the shortcomings of the White
Star officials.
“There was absolutely no water in our boat. We would have died of
thirst if rescue had not been near at hand,” she said. “I understand it
was the way in all the other lifeboats, few of which even had lanterns.
I have heard that a couple of them were provided with bread at the last
moment, but our boat was absolutely without any food.”
Mrs. Stengel was worn by the constant strain which had been pressing
upon her in the last five days. “This has been such a terrible worry
that I feel as though I could never sleep again,” she said. “Oh, it was
horrible, horrible. Sometimes I think that I would have been better
dead than to have so much to remember. You see when the crash first
came no one realized the awful seriousness of the situation. It was a
loud, grinding crash and it shook the boat like a leaf, but we had all
become so filled with the idea that the Titanic was a creation greater
than the seas that no one was terror-stricken. Some of the women
screamed and children cried, but they told us it was all right and that
nothing serious could happen.
DID NOT WANT TO LEAVE HER HUSBAND.
“I was just preparing for sleep when the crash came, and throwing on
some clothes, I rushed on deck with my husband. In a short time we
were told that the women would be sent in the boats. I did not want to
leave my husband, but he laughed and told me that the boating was only
temporary. There was very little confusion when we put off and the men
in the first and second cabins were absolutely calm. Mr. Stengel kissed
me and told me not to worry, that he would come in a later boat, unless
it was decided to bring us back on the ship.
“For some reason no attention was paid to the men who were put in our
boat. One of them was an undersized Chinaman and the other was an
Oriental of some kind. When the lifeboat struck the water they crawled
up in the bottom and began to moan and cry. They refused to take their
places at the oars and first class women passengers had to man many of
the rowlocks. Still none of us thought that the great Titanic would
sink. We rowed two hundred yards away, as they had told us, watching
the great ship. Then the lights began to go out and then came a
terrible crash like dynamite.
“I heard a woman in the bow scream and then came three more terrific
explosions. The boat gave a sudden lurch and then we saw the men
jumping from the decks. Some of us prayed and I heard women curse,
but the most terrible thing was the conduct of the Chinaman and the
Oriental. They threw themselves about the boat in absolute fits and
almost upset the boat. They were a menace during the whole night and in
the morning when the light began to come in the east and when the women
were exhausted from trying to man the oars, the two of them found some
cigarettes and lay in the bottom of the boat and smoked while we tried
to work the oars.”
There is no survivor better qualified to tell of the last incidents
aboard the vessel than Mr. Stengel is. He was one of the last three men
to leave the boat. He is a man of scientific turn of mind and is in
possession of some valuable data concerning the wreck.
LITTLE DISORDER ON BOARD.
“As my wife has told you, there was but little disorder on board after
the crash,” he said. “I realized the seriousness of the situation
immediately, because I saw Captain Smith come out of the cabin. He was
closely followed by Mr. and Mrs. George Widener, of Philadelphia.
“‘What is the outlook?’ I heard Mr. Widener inquire. ‘It is extremely
serious, gentlemen,’ he said. ‘Please keep cool and do what you can to
help us.’”
Deck stewards rushed through the corridors rapping frantically on
the doors of the occupied cabins. All were told that the danger was
imminent. Some heeded and grasping the first clothing they could find,
they rushed on deck. Others refused to come out. They would not believe
there was danger.
On deck the boat crews were all at their posts. The big lifeboats had
been shoved around ready to be put over the side. Women and children
were picked up bodily and thrown into them. The rule of the sea, women
and children first, was being enforced.
[Illustration]
One after the other the boats went over the side. Then a cry was set
up: “There are no more boats!” was the shout. Consternation seized
upon all that remained. They had believed there would be room for all.
Uncontrollable terror seized many. They fought for the life belts. Some
frantically tried to tear loose deck fittings hoping to make small
rafts that would sustain them until help would come. But everything was
bolted fast. Then, fearful that they would be dragged to death in the
swirling suction that would follow, the men began to leap into the ice
filled ocean.
They jumped in groups, seemingly to an agreed signal, according to the
stories of the survivors tonight. Some who jumped were saved, coming up
near lifeboats and being dragged into them by the occupants.
Slowly, steadily and majestically, the liner sank. One deck after the
other was submerged. Whether the boilers exploded is a question. Robert
W. Daniel, a Philadelphia banker, says that when the icy water poured
into the boiler room two separate explosions followed that tore the
interior out of the liner. Others say they did not hear any explosions.
PISTOL SHOTS FIRED.
Pistol shots were fired. Some survivors say they were fired at men who
tried to force women and children out of the way. No one who claimed to
be an eye-witness to the shooting could be located. One account related
in circumstantial detail that the captain and his first officer shot
themselves, but Daniel and other passengers positively say they saw the
white bearded, grizzled face of the veteran mariner over the top of the
bridge just before the railing disappeared. They say that not until
then did he jump into the ocean to drown in the suction that marked the
last plunge of the Titanic.
The plight of the survivors in the boats was pitiful in the extreme.
Few of the women or children had sufficient clothing, and they shivered
in the bitter cold blasts that came from the great field of ice which
surrounded them. The bergs and cakes of drift ice crashed and thundered
bringing stark terror to the helpless victims.
Frail women aided with the heavy oars tearing their tender hands until
the blood came. Few of the boats were fully manned, sailors had stood
aside deliberately, refusing life that the women might have a chance
for safety although their places were in the boats.
Daybreak found the little flotilla bobbing and tossing on the surface
of the ocean. It was not known whether help was coming. Panic seized
some of the occupants, some of the women tried to jump into the water,
and had to be forcibly restrained. The babies, little tots, just old
enough to realize their position, found themselves heroes. They set an
example which moved their elders to tears as they told of it to-night.
Some tried to comfort their stricken parents.
Finally, off in the distant horizon, a sailor in the leading boat,
discerned smoke. “We are saved,” went up the cry, and the rescue came
just in time, for before the Carpathia had taken aboard the occupants
of the last frail craft the waves were increasing in height, kicked up
by the wind that had increased with the rising of the sun.
All were tenderly cared for on the Cunard liner. The regular passengers
willingly gave up their cabins to their unfortunate refugees, medical
aid was forthcoming, and nothing left undone that could relieve the
distress.
DID NOT SEE ANY SHOTS FIRED.
“It was his face, more than anything else, which made me fearful,”
continued Mr. Stengel. “He looked like an old, old man. I heard him
give instructions to his officers, and they took their stations at the
boats. I did not see anyone shot during the whole wreck. They fired
three shots in the air to show the steerage men that the guns were
loaded, but I was on the boat almost to the last, and I didn’t see
anyone shot. The boat which saved me was not a regular lifeboat, but
a light emergency boat. There was a great rush for it. By the time it
was launched the first fear had subsided. It was the last to be lowered
from the starboard side.
“The Titanic seemed to be floating safely, and a lot of people
preferred it to the flimsy looking rowboats. A deckhand told me that
there was a vacant place in it. There I found Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon,
Lady Duff-Gordon and their maid, Miss Francatelli. Just as the boat was
being lowered Mr. A. L. Solomon jumped in. We had gone but a little way
from the ship when the first boiler explosion came. It was followed
in quick succession by three others, at intervals of about one second
apart.”
In the boat which harbored Mr. Stengel were three stokers and two
members of the steerage. Mr. Stengel told graphically of the last
plunges of the ship and its final sinking. He declared that there was
a little eddy and no whirlpool when it sank. Many of the men on the
Titanic jumped into sea before the decks were awash. In telling of the
long night on the sea Mr. Stengel gave great credit to a member of the
crew who had taken three green lanterns on board just as the small
lifeboat was manned.
He said that it was the only beacon which the other lifeboats had for
guidance, and said that without it many more would surely have been
lost.
Mrs. Stengel spoke particularly of the calmness of the night.
“When the sun rose there was not a ripple on the water,” she said.
“It was as calm as a little lake in Connecticut. Words cannot express
the wonderful terrible beauty of it all--but of course I couldn’t
appreciate it, because I thought my husband had gone down in the sea.
“The shout of ‘land’ ever uttered by an explorer was not half so joyful
as the shout of ‘ship!’ which went up when the Carpathia appeared
on the horizon that morning,” she said. “The first dim lights which
appeared were eagerly watched and when it was really identified as a
ship, men and women broke down and wept.”
The reunion of Mr. and Mrs. Stengel was on the Carpathia. Each was
mourning the other as lost for more than an hour after they had been on
the vessel, when they met on the promenade deck. Their separation and
subsequent reunion was generally considered one of the most remarkable
in the history of the wreck.