LIFEBOATS BUNGLINGLY HANDLED.
Widow of College Founder Scores Management for Lack of Drill--First
Thought Damage was Slight--Aid May Have Been Near--No Oil in Life
Lamps--Hudson, N. Y., Woman’s Pathetic Recital--A. A. Dick, of New
York, Talks.
The urgent need of lifeboat drills on the trans-Atlantic liners was
touched upon by Mrs. William R. Bucknell, widow of the founder of
Bucknell University, and herself one of the survivors of the disaster,
in the course of a graphic account of the wreck of the Titanic given by
her at the home of her son-in-law, Samuel P. Wetherill, Jr., at 23d and
Spruce sts., Philadelphia.
Mrs. Bucknell said that not only were the passengers on the Titanic
absolutely unfamiliar with the life saving equipment of the vessel, but
that the equipment was inadequate and even faulty.
The lifeboats were bunglingly fastened to their davits, she said, and
many of the collapsibles were too stiff to open and thus useless for
service.
To her the greatest crime was the “unpreparedness” of the lifeboat
equipment. Mrs. Bucknell declared one of the boats was launched
with the plug out of the bottom, and afterwards sank, the occupants
fortunately being rescued by the Titanic’s fifth officer.
The lifeboat in which she was placed by Captain Smith, she declared,
was manned only by a steward and three ordinary seamen. And none of the
men, she declared, knew how to row.
Mrs. Bucknell also said that she had not seen a lifeboat drill while
she was aboard the Titanic, and diligent inquiry among those rescued,
after they were safely aboard the Carpathia, failed to develop any
knowledge on their part of such drills ever having been held.
Mrs. Bucknell said that the only provisions aboard her lifeboat was
a basket full of bread. She saw no water, although she said that two
small casks beneath one of the seats may have contained water.
“The lifeboats were so bunglingly fastened to the davits in the first
place that it was hard work to get them free,” said Mrs. Bucknell.
“Half the collapsible boats were so stiff that they could not be opened
and were useless. Those that were not already opened and ready for use
were unavailable, also, for none on board seemed to understand how they
worked. Hundreds more could have been saved if these collapsible boats
had worked properly.
LIFEBOAT BEGINS TO FILL.
“One of the lifeboats had a big hole in the bottom. A plug had fallen
out, I believe. When it was loaded and lowered over the side into the
sea it began to fill at once. At this point the fifth officer proved
himself a hero. Women in the leaking boat were screaming with fright
and tearing off their clothing in wild and fruitless efforts to plug up
the hole.
“The boat filled to the gunwhales before any were saved. The brave
fifth officer to my knowledge rescued nineteen of the women in this
boat, some of whom had fallen over the side into the sea. It was
finally hauled alongside and replugged, loaded and relaunched.
“I was asleep in my cabin when the crash came,” said Mrs. Bucknell,
beginning her account of the disaster. “I cannot explain just what the
noise was like, except that it was horrible and sounded like a mixture
of thunder and explosions.
“In a moment there was a roaring sound and I knew that something
serious was the matter. The corridors filled rapidly with frightened
passengers and then the stewards and officers came, reassuring us with
the announcement that everything was all right and that only a small
hole had been stove in the bow.
“As I stepped out of my stateroom I saw lying before me on the floor a
number of fragments of ice as big as my fists. More was crumbled about
the porthole, and it flashed over me at once just what had happened.
“‘We have hit an iceberg,’ I said to my maid, ‘get dressed at once.’
“We hurried into our clothes, and I took the precaution to get fully
dressed. So did my maid. I even thought to wrap myself in my warm fur
coat, for even then I felt sure we would have to take to the boats.
Something told me the damage was greater than we had been told.
“My fears were realized a few minutes later when a steward walked
briskly down the corridor, calling to the passengers who had retired
again to hurry into their clothes and get on deck at once. I could
see by this man’s drawn and haggard face that something dreadful had
happened.
WOULD NOT BE SEPARATED.
“There was very little confusion on the deck. Once a group of men
shouted that they would not be separated from their wives if it became
necessary to take to the boats and made a rush to find accommodations
for themselves. The captain seemed to straighten out his shoulders and
his face was set with determination.
“‘Get back there, you cowards,’ he roared. ‘Behave yourself like men.
Look at these women. Can you not be as brave as they?’
“The men fell back, and from that moment there seemed to be a spirit of
resignation all over the ship. Husbands and wives clasped each other
and burst into tears. Then a few minutes later came the order for the
women and children to take to the boats.
“I did not hear an outcry from the women or the men. Wives left their
husbands’ side and without a word were led to the boats. One little
Spanish girl, a bride, was the only exception. She wept bitterly, and
it was almost necessary to drag her into the boat. Her husband went
down with the ship.
“The last person I remember seeing was Colonel Astor. When he had been
told by the captain that it would be impossible for the husbands to
take to the boats with their wives, he took Mrs. Astor by the arm and
they walked quietly away to the other side of the vessel. As we pulled
away I saw him leaning tenderly over her, evidently whispering words of
comfort.
“There were thirty-five persons in the boats in which the captain
placed me. Three of these were ordinary seamen, supposed to manage the
boat, and a steward.
“One of these men seemed to think that we should not start from the
sinking ship until it could be learned whether the other boats would
accommodate the rest of the women. He seemed to think that more could
be crowded into ours, if necessary.
“‘I would rather go back and go down with the ship than leave under
these circumstances,’ he cried.
ORDERED TO PULL FOR THE LIGHT.
“The captain shouted to him to obey orders and to pull for a little
light that could be just discerned miles in the distance. I do not know
what this little light was. It may have been a passing fishing vessel,
which, of course, could not know our predicament. Anyway, we never
reached it.
“We rowed all night. I took an oar and sat beside the Countess de
Rothes. Her maid had an oar and so did mine. The air was freezing cold,
and it was not long before the only man that appeared to know anything
about rowing commenced to complain that his hands were freezing.
“A woman back of him handed him a shawl from about her shoulders.
“As we rowed we looked back at the lights of the Titanic. There was not
a sound from her, only the lights began to get lower and lower, and
finally she sank. Then we heard a muffled explosion and a dull roar
caused by the great suction of water.
“There was not a drop of water on our boat. The last minute before our
boat was launched Captain Smith threw a bag of bread aboard. I took
the precaution of taking a good drink of water before we started, so I
suffered no inconvenience from thirst.
“Another thing that I must not forget to mention, it is but additional
proof of my charge that the Titanic was poorly equipped. The lamp on
our boat was nearly devoid of oil.
“‘For God’s sake, keep that wick turned down low, or you will be in
complete darkness,’ we were told on leaving. It wasn’t long before
these words proved true, and before daylight we were dependent on
a cane one of the women had brought along, which contained a tiny
electric lamp.
FOUGHT THEIR WAY THROUGH THE DARKNESS.
“With this little glow worm we fought our way through the darkness. I
rowed for an hour straight ahead. Then I rested and some one else took
my place. Then I grasped the oars again. I have had lots of experience
in this form of exercise, and at my place in the Adirondacks am at it
continually, so, contrary to stories that have been written, I did not
blister my hands.
“I want to say right here that I did not manage the boat. I helped row
it and that’s all.
“We had rowed about ten miles when looking over Countess Rothe’s oar I
spied a faint light to the rear.
“‘What’s that light?’ I almost screamed.
“One of the sailors looked where I indicated and said: ‘It’s a ship--I
can tell by the lights on her masthead.’
“As we passed over the spot where the Titanic had gone down we saw
nothing but a sheet of yellow scum and a solitary log. There was not a
body, not a thing to indicate that there had been a wreck. The sun was
shining brightly then, and we were near to the Carpathia.”
Mrs. K. T. Andrews, of Hudson, N. Y., a first class passenger on the
Titanic, said:
“When our boat was away from the Titanic there was an explosion and the
Titanic seemed to break in two. Then she sank, bow first. Just before
this, I saw Mr. Astor, Mr. Thayer and Mr. Case standing on deck. They
were smiling and as we went off they waved their hands.”
Thomas Whitley, a waiter on the Titanic, who was sent to a hospital
with a fractured leg, was asleep five decks below the main saloon deck.
He ran upstairs and saw the iceberg towering high above the forward
deck of the Titanic.
“It looked like a giant mountain of glass,” said Whitley. “I saw that
we were in for it. Almost immediately I heard that stokehold No. 11
was filling with water and that the ship was doomed. The water-tight
doors had been closed, but the officers, fearing that there might be an
explosion below decks, called for volunteers to go below to draw the
fires.
COULD ALMOST FEEL THE WATER RUSHING IN.
“Twenty men stepped forward almost immediately and started down. To
permit them to enter the hold it was necessary for the doors to be
opened again, and after that one could almost feel the water rushing
in. It was but a few minutes later when all hands were ordered on deck
with lifebelts. It was then known for a certain fact that the ship was
doomed.”
Charles Williams, the racquet coach at Harrow, Eng., who is the
professional champion of the world and was coming to New York to defend
his title, said he was in the smoking-room when the boat struck. He
rushed out, saw the iceberg, which seemed to loom above the deck over a
hundred feet. It broke up amidship and floated away.
He jumped from the boat deck on the starboard side as far away from
the steamer as possible. He was nine hours in the small boat, standing
in water to his knees. He said “the sailors conducted themselves
admirably.”
A. A. Dick, of New York, said:
“Everybody in the first and second cabin behaved splendidly. The
members of the crew also behaved magnificently. But some men in the
third class, presumably passengers, were shot by some of the officers.
Who these men were we do not know. There was a rush for the lifeboats.
“It was fully an hour after the boat struck that the lifeboats were
launched. This was due to the fact that those aboard had not the
slightest idea that the ship would sink.”
George Rheims, of 417 Fifth avenue, New York, was on the Titanic with
his brother-in-law, Joseph Holland Loring, of London. He said no one
seemed to know for twenty minutes after the boat struck that anything
had happened. Many of the passengers stood round for an hour with their
life belts on, he said, and saw people getting in the boats.
When all the boats had gone, he added, he shook hands with his
brother-in-law, who would not jump, and leaped over the side of the
boat.
BOAT HALF UNDER WATER.
He swam for a quarter of an hour and reached a boat and climbed in. He
found the boat, with eighteen occupants, half under water. The people
were in water up to their knees. Seven of them, he said, died during
the night.
The sufferings of the Titanic’s passengers when taken off the lifeboats
by the Carpathia were told by John Kuhl, of Omaha, Neb., who was a
passenger on the latter vessel. Many of the women, he said, were
scantily clad and all were suffering from the cold. Four died on the
Carpathia as a result of the exposure.
“In spite of the suffering and the crowded condition of the boats,”
said Mr. Kuhl, “the utmost heroism was displayed by all of the
unfortunates. When they were lifted to the deck of the Carpathia many
of the women broke down completely, and there were many touching
scenes. Many of the women were incoherent and several were almost
insane.”
Of all the heroes who went to their death when the Titanic dived to its
ocean grave, none, in the opinion of Miss Hilda Slater, a passenger in
the last boat to put off, deserved greater credit that the members of
the vessel’s orchestra.
According to Miss Slater, the orchestra played until the last. When
the vessel took its final plunge the strains of a lively air mingled
gruesomely with the cries of those who realized that they were face to
face with death.
Mrs. Edgar J. Meyer, of New York, said:
“It was a clear and star-lit night. When the ship struck we were in our
cabin. I was afraid and made my husband promise if there was trouble he
would not make me leave him. We walked around the deck a while.
“An officer came up and cried: ‘All women into the lifeboats.’ My
husband and I discussed it--and the officer said: ‘You must obey
orders.’ We went down into the cabin and we decided on account of our
baby to part. He helped me put on warm things.
“I got into a boat, but there were no sailors aboard. An English girl
and I rowed for four hours and a half. Then we were picked up at 6
o’clock in the morning.”
THERE WERE TWO EXPLOSIONS.
Hugh Wellner, a son of Thomas Wellner, R. A., of London, says there
were two explosions before the Titanic made her dive into the sea.
Wellner believes he was the last person to leave the Titanic.
Mrs. Alexander T. Compton and her daughter, Miss Alice Compton, of New
Orleans, two of the Titanic’s rescued, reached New York completely
prostrated over the loss of Mrs. Compton’s son, Alexander, who went
down with the big liner.
“When we waved good-bye to my son,” said Mrs. Compton, “we did not
realize the great danger, but thought we were only being sent out in
the boats as a precautionary measure. When Captain Smith handed us
life preservers he said cheerily: ‘They will keep you warm if you do
not have to use them.’ Then the crew began clearing the boats and
putting the women into them. My daughter and I were lifted in the boat
commanded by the fifth officer. There was a moan of agony and anguish
from those in our boat when the Titanic sank, and we insisted that the
officer head back for the place where the Titanic had disappeared.
“We found one man with a life preserver on him struggling in the cold
water, and for a moment I thought that he was my son.”
That all possible means were taken to prevent the male passengers
on board the Titanic from going away in lifeboats and allowing the
women and children to perish is the tale told by Miss Lily Bentham,
of Rochester, N. Y., a second class passenger, who said she saw shots
fired at men who endeavored to get away.
Miss Bentham was in a hysterical condition when the Carpathia landed,
and was unable to give a full account of what happened, but Mrs. W. J.
Douton, a fellow passenger, who also comes from Rochester, and who lost
her husband, told about what took place.
PACKED LIKE SARDINES IN THE BOAT.
“I had not been in bed half an hour,” said Mrs. Douton, “when the
steward rushed down to our cabin and told us to put on our clothes and
come upon deck. We were thrown into lifeboats and packed like sardines.
As soon as the men passengers tried to get to the boats they were shot
at.
“I don’t know who did the shooting. We rowed frantically away from
the ship and were tied to four other boats. I arose and saw the ship
sinking.
“The band was playing ‘Nearer, My God, to Thee.’ There was a baby in
the boat with one of the women. The baby’s hands had been cut off. I
think it was still alive. The mother did not give it up. During the
night, when waiting for the Carpathia, four of the crew died in the
boat and were thrown overboard.
“It was bitter cold, and we had to wait until 8 o’clock in the morning
before being taken off by the lifeboats of the Carpathia.”
John R. Joyce, a banker of Carslbad, N. M., a passenger on the
Carpathia, said: “When the Carpathia reached the scene of the wreck we
saw eighteen boats and one raft on the water. The Carpathia picked them
all up. Four persons on the raft were dead. They were buried at sea on
our way back to New York. A survivor told me that some of the Titanic’s
passengers jumped for the lifeboats, missed them and were drowned. I
heard nothing of Major Butt.”
Mrs. Dickinson Bishop, of Detroit, declared that she was the first
woman in the first boat. “We floated around a half mile or so from the
scene of the disaster for four hours before we were picked up by the
Carpathia,” she said.
“I was in bed when the crash came. I was not much alarmed, but decided
to dress and go on deck. By the time I was dressed everything seemed
quiet, and I lay down in my berth again, assured that there was no
danger. I rose again at the summons of a stewardess. There were very
few passengers on the deck when I reached there.
DISCIPLINE WAS PERFECT.
“There was no panic and the discipline of the Titanic’s crew was
perfect. My husband joined me on the Carpathia, and we knelt together
and thanked God for our preservation.”
That the stokers of the Titanic were the first to realize the
seriousness of the accident and came rushing pell mell to the upper
decks for safety was the tale related by one of the survivors to John
R. Joyce, a passenger aboard the Carpathia, who hails from Carlsbad, N.
M.
“Soon after the crash,” said Mr. Joyce, “I was told that about a dozen
stokers came scrambling to the upper decks. They were whispering
excitedly and edging their way cautiously toward one of the lifeboats.
Suddenly and without consulting any of the officers of the ship they
climbed into the lifeboat and were off before any others of the crew
were the wiser.”
George Biorden, of California, had this to say:
“I was beside Henry B. Harris, the theatrical manager, when he bade
his wife good-bye. Both started toward the side of the boat where a
lifeboat was being lowered.
“Mr. Harris was told it was the rule for women to leave the boat first.
‘Yes, I know, I will stay,’ Harris said. Shortly after the lifeboats
left a man jumped overboard. Other men followed. It was like sheep
following a leader.
“Captain Smith was washed from the bridge into the ocean. He swam to
where a baby was drowning and carried it in his arms while he swam to a
lifeboat, which was manned by officers of the Titanic. He surrendered
the baby to them and swam back to the steamer.
“About the time Captain Smith got back there was an explosion. The
entire ship trembled. I had secured a life preserver and jumped over. I
struck a piece of ice but was not injured.
“I swam about sixty yards from the steamer when there was a series
of explosions. I looked back and saw the Titanic go down, bow first.
Hundreds of persons were in the water at the time. When the great
steamer went down they shrieked hysterically.”
MRS. PAUL SCHABERT’S STORY.
Mrs. Paul Schabert, of Derby, Conn., said:
“I was in stateroom No. 28, on the port side and was asleep at the time
of the collision. The shock awoke me, but there seemed no excitement
and people were walking about in orderly fashion, many stateroom doors
being opened simply to permit inquiries as to the cause of the shock.
“Then in the midst of all this quiet, came the startling cry of ‘Ladies
first,’ and it was the first intimation of danger that we had. Many
of us, however, went back to our staterooms to dress, and did it in
rather leisurely fashion, until the order was passed that women must
leave their husbands, brothers and other male relations and take to the
lifeboats.
“By this time the ship’s orchestra had been ordered to play as the
lifeboats were sent away from the Titanic’s side. I refused to leave
unless my brother also was permitted to go with me.
“I stood aside and saw about a dozen boats rowed away and several
times officers of the boat tried to persuade me to go along. When the
next to the last lifeboat was ready to leave, there was not another
woman in sight and the word was passed that I might take Philip with me.
“The Titanic sank about 1.50 o’clock Monday morning, and it was 6
o’clock the same morning that the Carpathia put in an appearance and we
were picked up. We were probably a mile from the Titanic’s grave when
taken aboard the Carpathia.”
C. H. Romaine, Georgetown, Ky., tells his story as follows:
“I had just retired for the night when the Titanic crashed to its doom.
The jar was so slight that not much attention was paid to it. Before
going on deck I was told that there was not the slightest danger.
“Forty-five minutes afterwards we were told that the vessel was
sinking. Men, women and children were gathered together on deck. Men
stood aside to let the women and children take their places in the
boats. The men who remained behind were confident that the Titanic
would float for hours. I was commanded to row in one of the first boats
that left the ship.
“We passed out of sight of the Titanic before she sank, but distinctly
heard the explosion.”