BOY’S DESPERATE FIGHT FOR LIFE.
Plunged Into Icy Sea--Did Not See Berg--Parted From Parents--Saw Many
Jump Overboard--Leaped Into Ocean--Eight Year Old Boy’s Narrative--Was
“Very Quiet After He Was In Boat”--Another Lad Tells How He Saw His
Uncle Die.
John B. Thayer, the seventeen-year-old son of Mrs. John B. Thayer, gave
a thrilling account of the sinking of the Titanic in which his father
lost his life.
Mrs. Thayer was saved in one of the lifeboats, while her son was
rescued after a most exciting experience on an upturned boat, upon
which he clambered after struggling on the icy water for some time.
According to Thayer’s account there was an explosion as the Titanic
sank, this explosion forcing him a considerable distance and probably
saving him from being drawn in by the suction as the steamer went down.
His statement follows:
“Father was in bed and mother and myself were about to get into bed.
There was no great shock. I was on my feet at the time, and I do not
think it was enough to throw anyone down.
“I put on an overcoat and rushed up on ‘A’ deck on the port side. I saw
nothing there. I then went forward to the bow to see if I could see any
signs of ice. The only ice I saw was on the well deck.
“I could not see very far ahead, having just come out of a brilliantly
lighted room. I then went down to our room and my father and mother
came on deck with me, to the starboard side of ‘A’ deck. We could not
see anything there. Father thought he saw small pieces of ice floating
around, but I could not see any myself. There was no big berg.
“We walked around to the port side and the ship had then a fair list
to port. We stayed there looking over the side for about five minutes.
The list seemed very slowly to be increasing. We then went down to
our rooms on ‘C’ deck, all of us dressed quickly, putting on all our
clothes.
“We all put on life preservers, including the maid, and over these
we put our overcoats. Then we hurried up on deck and walked around,
looking out at different places until the women were all ordered to
collect on the port side. Father and I said good-bye to mother at the
top of the stairs on ‘A’ deck on the port side and we went to the
starboard side.
“As at this time we had no idea the boat would sink, we walked around
‘A’ deck and then went to ‘B’ deck. Then we thought we would go back to
see if mother had gotten off safely, and went to the port side of ‘A’
deck. We met the chief of the main dining saloon and he told us that
mother had not yet taken a boat and he took us to her.
FATHER LOST SIGHT OF FOREVER.
“Father and mother went ahead and I followed. They went down to ‘B’
deck, and a crowd got in front of me and I was not able to catch them,
and lost sight of them. As soon as I could get through the crowd I
tried to find them on ‘B’ deck, but without success. That is the last
time I saw my father.
“This was about one-half hour before she sank. I then went to the
starboard side, thinking that father and mother must have gotten off in
a boat. All of this time I was with a fellow named Milton C. Long, of
New York, whom I had just met that evening.
“On the starboard side the boats were getting away quickly. Some boats
were already off in a distance. We thought of getting into one of the
boats, the last boat to go on the forward part of the starboard side,
but there seemed to be such a crowd around I thought it unwise to make
any attempt to get into it.
“He and I stood by the davits of one of the boats that had left. I did
not notice anybody that I knew, except Mr. Lindley, whom I had also
just met that evening. I lost sight of him in a few minutes. Long and
I then stood by the rail just a little aft of the captain’s bridge.
“The list to the port had been growing greater all the time. About this
time the people began jumping from the stern.
“I thought of jumping myself, but was afraid of being stunned on
hitting the water. Three times I made up my mind to jump out and slide
down the davit ropes and try to make the boats that were lying off from
the ship, but each time Long got hold of me and told me to wait a while.
“He then sat down and I stood up waiting to see what would happen. Even
then we thought she might possibly stay afloat.
“I got a sight on a rope between the davits and a star and noticed
that she was gradually sinking. About this time she straightened up on
an even keel and started to go down fairly fast at an angle of about
thirty degrees.
SAYS GOOD-BYE TO EACH OTHER.
“As she started to sink we left the davits and went back and stood
by the rail about even with the second funnel. Long and myself said
good-bye to each other and jumped up on the rail. He put his legs over
and held on a minute and asked me if I was coming.
“I told him I would be with him in a minute. He did not jump clear, but
slid down the side of the ship. I never saw him again.
“About five seconds after he jumped I jumped out, feet first. I was
clear of the ship, bent down, and as I came up I was pushed away from
the ship by some force. I came up facing the ship, and one of the
funnels seemed to be lifted off and fell towards me, about 15 yards
away, with a mass of sparks and steam coming out of it.
“I saw the ship in a sort of a red glare, and it seemed to me that
she broke in two just in front of the third funnel. At this time I
was sucked down, and as I came up I was pushed out again and twisted
around by a large wave, coming up in the midst of a great deal of small
wreckage.
“As I pushed it from around my head my hand touched the cork fender of
an overturned lifeboat. I looked up, saw some men on the top and asked
them to give me a hand. One of them, who was a stoker, helped me up. In
a short time the bottom was covered with about 25 or 30 men.
“When I got on this I was facing the ship. The stern then seemed to
rise in the air and stopped at about an angle of 60 degrees. It seemed
to hold there for a time and then, with a hissing sound, it shot right
down out of sight with people jumping from the stern.
“The stern either pivoted around towards our boat or we were sucked
towards it, and as we only had one oar we could not keep away. There
did not seem to be very much suction and most of us managed to stay on
the bottom of our boat.
“We were then right in the midst of fairly large wreckage, with people
swimming all around us. The sea was very calm and we kept the boat
pretty steady, but every now and then a wave would wash over it.
SANG A HYMN AND SAID THE LORD’S PRAYER.
“The assistant wireless operator was right next to me, holding on to
me and kneeling in the water. We all sang a hymn and said the Lord’s
prayer, and then waited for dawn to come.
“As often as we saw the other boats in a distance we would yell ‘Ship
ahoy!’ but they could not distinguish our cries from any others so
we all gave it up, thinking it useless. It was very cold and none of
us were able to move around to keep warm, the water washing over her
almost all the time.
“Towards dawn the wind sprang up roughing up the water and making it
difficult to keep the boat balanced. The wireless man raised our hopes
a great deal by telling us that the Carpathia would be up in about
three hours. About three thirty or four o’clock some men on our boat on
the bow sighted her mast lights.
“I could not see them as I was sitting down with a man kneeling on my
leg. He finally got up and I stood up. We had the second officer, Mr.
Lightholler, on board. We had an officer’s whistle and whistled for the
boats in the distance to come up and take us off.
“It took about an hour and a half for the boats to draw near. Two boats
came up. The first took half and the other took the balance, including
myself.
“We had great difficulty about this time in balancing the boat, as the
men would lean too far, but were all taken aboard the already crowded
boat and in about a half or three-quarters of an hour later we were
picked up by the Carpathia.
“I have noticed second officer Lightholler’s statement that ‘J. B.
Thayer was on our overturned boat,’ which would give the impression
that it was father, when he really meant it was I, as he only learned
my name in subsequent conversation on the Carpathia and did not know I
was ‘Junior.’”
Little Arthur Olsen, eight years old, said that America was a pretty
good place, and that he was going to like it.
TOOK CARE OF HIM IN THE LIFEBOAT.
Arthur came to that conclusion because so many people had been good to
him. First there was Fritzjof Madsen, one of the survivors, who took
care of him in the lifeboat.
Then Miss Jean Campbell gave him hot coffee and sandwiches and propped
him comfortably against some clothing while she busied herself with
others.
Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt, Jr., next appeared with two nice, big men,
put him in a taxi with Miss Campbell and sent him to a hot bath and bed
at the Lisa Day Nursery, No. 458 West Twentieth street, New York. And
the next morning Miss Florence Hayden taught him kindergarten songs and
dances with her class.
Later Arthur’s stepmother, Mrs. Esther Olson of No. 978 Hart street,
Brooklyn, appeared and clasped him in her arms. Her husband, Arthur’s
father, Charlie Olsen, perished in the wreck.
Mrs. Olsen had never seen Arthur, because after Charlie Oslen’s first
wife died in Trondhjem, Norway, leaving the little baby Arthur, he had
come to America, where he married again.
A while ago Olsen crossed to see about the settlement of an estate
and to bring his son home. He and the boy were in the steerage of the
Titanic.
Arthur is a sturdy, quiet-faced little chap with red hair, freckles and
a ready smile. He speaks only Norwegian, but Mrs. Olsen translated for
him when he told his story.
“I was with papa on the boat,” said the youngster timidly, “and then
something was the matter. Papa said I should hurry up and go into the
boat and be a good boy. We had a friend, Fritzjof Madsen, with us from
our town, and he told me to go too.
“The ship was kind of shivering and everybody was running around. We
kept getting quite close down to the water, and the water was quiet,
like a lake.
THE LAST BOY SAW OF PAPA.
“Then I got into a boat and that was all I saw of papa. I saw a lot of
people floating around drowning or trying to snatch at our boat. Then
all of a sudden I saw Mr. Madsen swimming next to the boat and he was
pulled in. He took good care of me.
“In our boat everybody was crying and sighing. I kept very quiet. One
man got very crazy, then cried just like a little baby. Another man
jumped right into the sea and he was gone.
“It was awful cold in the boat, but I was dressed warm, like we dress
in Norway. I had to put on my clothes, when my papa told me to on the
big ship. I couldn’t talk to anybody, because I don’t understand the
language. Only Mr. Madsen talked to me and told me not to be afraid,
and I wasn’t afraid. Mr. Madsen was shivering in his wet clothes, but
he got all right after the Carpathia came.”
A bright-faced boy of eight walked up and down in front of Blake’s Star
Hotel at No. 57 Clarkson street, New York, the day after the Carpathia
arrived. He was Marshall Drew of Greenport, L. I., one of the survivors
of the Titanic.
“It all seems just like the bad dreams that I used to have,” he
confided. “I never want to go to England again. I went over there with
my uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. James Drew, to Visit my grandpa. We had
a good time in England and started back on the Titanic.
“The night of the wreck my aunt woke me and said she was going to dress
me and take me out on deck. I was sleepy and didn’t want to get up. I
could hear funny noises all over the ship and sometimes a woman talking
loud out in the corridor. My aunt didn’t pay any attention to what I
said but hurried me into my clothes and rushed me with her up to the
deck.
“There every one was running about. Some of the men were laughing and
saying there was no danger. They were taking all the women and hurrying
them into the boats along with the children. We could not see what for.
I thought at first that we had got home.
WAS HURRIED INTO A BOAT.
“Aunt Lulu put me into the boat and then stood back with Uncle James,
and in a moment some one had hurried her into the boat, too, and we
went down the side, Uncle James waving his hand at us and Aunt Lulu
standing up and looking at him.
“Then the boat pulled away from the ship and there was a lot of talk
and screaming. We were a long time on the water and were finally picked
up by the Carpathia.”
Marshall and his aunt were saved. They were met at the pier by his
grandfather, Mr. Henry P. Christian, of Greenport, and with his aunt
were taken to the hotel along with other survivors of the second cabin.
Miss Emily Rugg, 20 years old, of the Isle of Guernsey, England, told a
graphic story of the sinking.
Miss Rugg, who was one of the second class passengers, was met in New
York by her uncle, F. W. Queripel, a grocer. The young woman was on her
way to visit relatives.
She was asleep when the ship struck the berg, and the jar aroused her.
Looking out she saw a mass of ice. Throwing a coat about her, she went
on deck and saw lifeboats being lowered.
Returning to the cabin, she dressed, and then went to an adjoining
cabin and aroused two women friends.
Following this Miss Rugg ran up on deck and was taken in charge by some
of the crew, who dragged her toward a lifeboat. She was lifted into the
third from the last which left the ship.
She said that there seemed to be nearly seventy-five persons in the
boat and that it was very much crowded. In the meantime a panic had
started among those who remained on board the Titanic.
An Italian jumped from the steerage deck and fell into a lifeboat,
landing upon a woman who had a baby in her arms.
Miss Rugg saw the Titanic go down and declares but for the horror of it
all, it might have been termed one of the grandest sights she ever saw.
SHIP TAKES ITS FINAL PLUNGE.
The boat seemed to have broken in half, and with all the lights burning
brightly, the stern arose into the air, the lights being extinguished
as it did so. A moment later the ship plunged beneath the surface.
Karl H. Behr, the well known tennis player, who went to Australia in
1910 with the American team, was one of the Titanic survivors.
He was graduated from Yale in 1906 and later from Columbia, where he
took a law degree. This is his statement of his experiences on the
night of the disaster.
“We were a party of four, Mr. and Mrs. R. L. Beckwith, Mrs. Beckwith’s
daughter, Miss Helen W. Newsom, and myself. Mr. Beckwith and I had
stayed up in the smoking room. We left just before it closed for the
night.
“I went to my stateroom and only partly undressed when I felt a
distinct jar run through the whole vessel, which quivered all over. It
was distinct enough for me to be certain that we had hit something. I
dressed again immediately, my first thought and purpose being to reach
my party at once.”
Mr. Behr told of assembling his party and added:
“I knew exactly where the lifeboats were, so Miss Newsom and I and Mr.
and Mrs. Beckwith went to the top deck. We waited quietly while the
first boat filled and was lowered. It appeared to me to be quite full.
“We then went to the second boat, which was quite full. Mr. Ismay was
directing its launching. When Mrs. Beckwith came to the edge of the
lifeboat, which was hanging over the sides, she asked Mr. Ismay before
attempting to get in whether her men could go with her, and I heard him
reply quietly, ‘Why certainly, madam.’ We then got into the boat.
“After we were in the boat we heard Mr. Ismay calling out and asking if
there were any more passengers to go in the boat.
THE LAST PASSENGERS ON TOP DECK.
“There were none, and we must have waited at least three minutes or
more before he ordered an officer into the boat and two or three more
of the crew who were alone on deck and under perfect control. We were
evidently the last passengers on the top deck, as we could see no
others.
“Most fortunately for us, when we left the ship everything was
handled in perfect discipline, Mr. Ismay launching our lifeboat in a
most splendid fashion, with absolute coolness, making sure that all
passengers were on board and that our crew was complete. What happened
later we know little about.
“As far as I am concerned I saw no signs of a panic and not one person
in our boat lost his head, nor do I know of a single person being left
behind on the top deck.”
George A. Harder, of No. 117 Eighth avenue, Brooklyn, who with his
bride was saved from the Titanic, told at his home a graphic story of
his experience.
“When the crash came my wife and I were in our stateroom, about to
retire,” said Harder. “Suddenly there came what seemed like a low, long
groan at the ship’s bottom. It did not sound like a collision.
“Taking my wife by the arm, I rushed to the deck. Passengers were
already swarming there, asking what had happened.
“I heard an officer order a carpenter below to ascertain the damage. He
never returned. That the officers already knew the ship was likely to
founder was evident from the fact that one lifeboat containing among
others Karl M. Behr, the Brooklyn tennis player, had been launched.
Persons on our side of the boat--the starboard side--were climbing into
a second boat.
“It was a bitter cold night. The stars were bright and their rays were
reflected in the surrounding sea, which was as smooth as glass. Farther
and farther we drifted away in the lifeboat, leaving behind us the
doomed ship.
BLOWN TO SAFETY BY EXPLOSION.
“Suddenly there sounded from the Titanic the strains of ‘The
Star-Spangled Banner.’ As I glanced back at the mighty vessel in the
glare of her lights I saw Col. Archibald Gracie clinging to a brass
rail near one of the forward funnels. I afterward learned the explosion
of the boilers blew him out of the vortex of the sucked in water to
calmer water, where he was rescued.
“Gradually the distance between the Titanic and our lifeboat increased.
Her lights continued to gleam, her band to play. Two hours later, as
she loomed a dark mass on the horizon, her lights suddenly went out.
Then across the water, mingling with the strains of ‘Nearer, My God, to
Thee,’ came the distressing cries of those about to die.
“Out of the jumble of foreign tongues could be distinguished the
shrieks of steerage women who were grouped at the aft end of the boat.
And above all the sounds, like a benediction, sounded that hymn. It
was nameless anguish to us to sit in that open boat and realize our
helplessness to aid those about to die. We forgot our own losses, our
own sufferings. Only a few of us dared to look at the mighty ship as,
bow first, she plunged beneath the surface.”
Harder denied that many passengers were shot. He said he knows three
Italians were killed, but by whom he does not know.
Police Magistrate Robert C. Cornell, whose wife and her two sisters,
Mrs. Edward Appleton and Mrs. John Murray Brown, of Denver, were among
those rescued from the Titanic, told her story.
“Mrs. Cornell,” said the Magistrate, “is of the same opinion as many
others of the survivors, that many of the lifeboats left the side of
the Titanic before they had nearly their capacity.
“Mrs. Cornell, with Mrs. Appleton, was assigned a place in the second
boat. This boat when it was lowered contained twenty-three persons
and she says there was room for at least seventeen more without
overcrowding. In fact, all of the boats, my wife says, could have
carried many more passengers with safety.
“There were three oars in the boat in which my wife and Mrs. Appleton
were put, and no food or water or covering of any sort to keep out
the cold. The crew of this boat consisted of one sailor and one petty
officer.
“When the boat was lowered an Italian was seen struggling in the water
and he was picked up. The three men then each took an oar and did the
best they could.
“Mrs. Cornell and her sister, who have a slight knowledge of rowing,
took turns at the oars, as did the other women in the boat, and after
drifting about in the sea for about four hours were picked up by the
Carpathia.
“Miss Edith Evans, a niece of Mrs. Cornell and her sisters were
traveling with them, and she and Mrs. Brown were assigned to places in
one of the boats which left after the one in which Mrs. Cornell and
Mrs. Appleton were placed.
“When this boat was about to be lowered it was found that it contained
one more passenger than it could carry. Then the question came as to
who should leave.
“Miss Evans, a handsome girl of twenty-five, said to Mrs. Brown that
she had children at home and should be the one to remain. Miss Evans
left the boat saying she would take a chance of getting in a boat
later.