LADY DUFF-GORDON’S EXPERIENCES.
Says it was as if Giant Hand had Pushed Ship Down--Realistic Picture
of Titanic’s Death Plunge--The Long, Dreary Wait--Man at Wheel Tells
of Crash--Told by Phone “Iceberg Ahead” Just as Ship Struck--Saw
Captain on Bridge.
Almost frenzied by the memory of the disaster through which they had
passed many of the survivors were unable for days even to discuss all
the details of the Titanic horror.
One of the best accounts was given by Lady Duff-Gordon, wife of Sir
Cosmo Duff-Gordon, who dictated it. Her tale shows that the Titanic was
near icebergs before she went to bed on the night of the disaster.
Here is her story, as well as that of others:
“I was asleep. The night was perfectly clear. We had watched for some
time the fields of ice. There was one just before I went below to
retire. I noticed among the fields of ice a number of large bergs.
“There was one which one of the officers pointed out to me. He said
that it must have been 100 feet high and seemed to be miles long. It
was away off in the distance. I went to my bedroom and retired.
“I was awakened by a long grinding sort of shock. It was not a
tremendous crash, but more as though some one had drawn a giant finger
all along the side of the boat.
“I awakened my husband and told him that I thought we had struck
something. There was no excitement that I could hear, but my husband
went up on deck. He returned and told me that we had hit some ice,
apparently a big berg, but that there seemed to be no danger. We went
on deck.
“No one, apparently, thought there was any danger. We watched a number
of women and children and some men going into the lifeboats. At last
one of the officers came to me and said, ‘Lady Gordon, you had better
go in one of the boats.’
“I said to my husband: ‘Well, we might as well take the boat, although
I think it will be only a little pleasure excursion until morning.’
“The boat was the twelfth or thirteenth to be launched. It was the
captain’s special boat. There was still no excitement. Five stokers got
in and two Americans--A. L. Solomon, of New York, and L. Stengel, of
Newark. Besides these there were two of the crew, Sir Cosmo, myself and
a Miss Frank, an English girl.
“There were a number of other passengers, mostly men, standing near by
and they joked with us because we were going out on the ocean. “The
ship can’t sink,” said one of them. “You will get your death of cold
out there in the ice.”
CRUISED AMONG ICE FOR TWO HOURS.
“We were slung off and the stokers began to row us away. We cruised
around among the ice for two hours. Sir Cosmo had looked at his watch
when we went off. It was exactly 12.15 A. M., and I should think
fifteen minutes after the boat struck. It did not seem to be very cold.
There was no excitement aboard the Titanic.
“Suddenly I had seen the Titanic give a curious shiver. The night was
perfectly clear. There was no fog, and I think we were a thousand feet
away. Everything could be clearly seen. There were no lights on the
boats except a few lanterns which had been lighted by those on board.
“Almost immediately after the boat gave this shiver we heard several
pistol shots and a great screaming arose from the decks.
“Then the boat’s stern lifted in the air and there was a tremendous
explosion. Then the Titanic dropped back again. The awful screaming
continued. Ten minutes after this there was another explosion. The
whole forward part of the great liner dropped down under the waves.
The stern rose a hundred feet, almost perpendicularly. The boat stood
up like an enormous black finger against the sky. The screaming was
agonizing. I never heard such a continued chorus of utter despair and
agony.
“Then there was another great explosion and the great stern of the
Titanic sank as though a great hand was pushing it gently down under
the waves. As it went, the screaming of the poor souls left on board
seemed to grow louder. It took the Titanic but a short time to sink
after that last explosion. It went down slowly without a ripple.
“We had heard the danger of suction when one of these great liners
sink. There was no such thing about the sinking of the Titanic. The
amazing part of it all to me as I sat there in the boat, looking at
this monster being, was that it all could be accomplished so gently.
“Then began the real agonies of the night. Up to that time no one in
our boat, and I imagine no one in any of the other boats, had really
thought that the Titanic was going to sink. For a moment a silence
seemed to hang over everything, and then from the water about where the
Titanic had been arose a bedlam of shrieks and cries. There were women
and men clinging to the bits of wreckage in the icy water.
AN AWFUL CHORUS OF SHRIEKS.
“It was at least an hour before the last shrieks died out. I remember
next the very last cry was that of a man who had been calling loudly:
‘My God! My God!’ He cried monotonously, in a dull, hopeless way. For
an entire hour there had been an awful chorus of shrieks gradually
dying into a hopeless moan until this last cry that I spoke of. Then
all was silent. When the awful silence came we waited gloomily in the
boats throughout the rest of the night.
“At last morning came. On one side of us was the ice floes and the
big bergs, and on the other side we were horrified to see a school of
tremendous whales. Then, as the mist lifted, we caught sight of the
Carpathia looming up in the distance and headed straight for us.
“We were too numbed by the cold and horror of that awful night to
cheer or even utter a sound. We just gazed at one another and remained
speechless. Indeed, there seemed to be no one among us who cared much
what happened.
“Those in the other boats seemed to have suffered more than we had. We,
it seemed, had been miraculously lucky. In one of the boats was a woman
whose clothing was frozen to her body.
“The men on the Carpathia had to chop it off before she could be taken
to a warm room. Several of the stokers and sailors who had manned the
boats had been frozen to death, and they lay stiff and lifeless in the
bottom of the boats, while the women and children were lifted to the
Carpathia.
“I did not see Captain Smith after I was put into the small boat, but
others told me that when the Titanic went down Captain Smith was seen
swimming in the icy water. He picked up a baby that was floating on a
mass of wreckage and swam with it to one of the small boats. He lifted
the baby into the boat, but the child was dead.
“The women in the boat, according to the story told me, wanted the
captain to get into the boat with them, but he refused, saying: ‘No,
there is a big piece of wreckage over here, and I shall stick to that.
We are bound to be rescued soon.’ Nothing more was seen of Captain
Smith.
FIFTEEN BRIDES LOSE THEIR HUSBANDS.
“There was an absolute calm and silence on the Carpathia. There were
hundreds of women who had lost their husbands, and among them fifteen
brides. Few of these had been married more than five or six months. No
one cared to talk. The gloom was awful. I buried myself in my cabin and
did not come on deck again.”
From Robert Hichens, quartermaster at the wheel of the Titanic when
the great vessel crashed into the iceberg, and then in command of one
of the boats which left the steamship before it went down, have come
details of the terrible sight at sea which could have been known to
perhaps no other person.
And standing out in memory of this young Cornishman are shrieks and
groans that went up from the dark hulk of the giant steamship before
she sank.
Hichens, a type of young Englishman who follows the sea, had for years
been on the troopship Dongolo, running to Bombay, and thought himself
fortunate when he obtained his berth as quartermaster of the Titanic,
the greatest and largest of all steamships. He told in their sequence
the events of the night and morning of April 14 and 15.
It was in his boat that Mrs. John Jacob Astor took her place, after
Col. Astor had kissed her good-by, and handed her a flask of brandy,
then taking his place in the line of men, some of whom realized even
then that the steamship was doomed. And his last sight as his boat was
lowered was of Captain Smith, standing on the bridge, giving his orders
as calmly as if he were directing her entrance into a harbor.
He told of how the officers stood with revolvers drawn, to enforce, if
the emergency should arise, that rule of the sea of women first; but
the emergency did not arise, and the men stood back or helped the women
to their seats.
A SEAMAN’S NARRATIVE.
In the way of a seaman, he told the narrative of the night spent in the
little boat, comforting as best he could the women who did not realize
as he did that some of them had looked upon their loved ones for the
last time.
“My watch was from 8 to 12 o’clock,” said Hichens. “From 8 to 10
o’clock I was the stand-by man, and from 10 to 11 o’clock I had the
wheel. When I was at the stand-by it was very dark, and, while it was
not dark, there was a haze. I cannot say about the weather conditions
after 10 o’clock, for I went into the wheelhouse, which is enclosed.
“The second officer was the junior watch officer from 8 to 10 o’clock,
and at 8 o’clock he sent me to the carpenter with orders for him to
look after the fresh water, as it was going to freeze.
“The thermometer then read 31½ degrees, but so far as could be seen
there was no ice in sight. The next order was from the second officer
for the deck engineer to turn the steam on in the wheelhouse, as it was
getting much colder. Then the second officer, Mr. Loteheller, told me
to telephone the lookout in the crow’s nest.
“‘Tell them,’ he said, ‘to keep a sharp and strict lookout for small
ice until daylight and to pass the word along to the other lookout men.’
“I took the wheel at 10 o’clock, and Mr. Murdock, the first officer,
took the watch. It was 20 minutes to 12 and I was steering when there
were the three gongs from the lookout, which indicated that some object
was ahead.
“Almost instantly, it could not have been more than four or five
seconds, when the lookout men called down on the telephone, ‘Iceberg
ahead!’ Hardly had the words come to me when there was a crash.
“I ain’t likely to forget, sir, how the crash came. There was a light
grating on the port bow, then a heavy crash on the port bow, then a
heavy crash on the starboard side. I could hear the engines stop, and
the lever closing the watertight emergency doors.
TITANIC SETTLES IN THE WATER.
“Mr. Murdock was the senior officer of the watch, and with him on the
bridge were Mr. Buxtell, the fourth officer, and Mr. Moody, the sixth
officer. The Titanic listed, perhaps, five degrees, to the starboard,
and then began to settle in the water. I stood attention at the wheel
from the time of the crash until 20 minutes after 12, and had no chance
to see what the captain did.”
Mrs. Potter, Mrs. Earnshaw and Mrs. Stephenson had spoken freely of the
accident to the conductor of the train which took them home.
“From the descriptions of the scene that followed the accident given
to me by the three ladies,” said the conductor, “it seems utterly
impossible to tell adequately of the suffering and hardship brought
about by the catastrophe. It all happened so suddenly, without a moment
to make the least preparation.
“Most of the passengers had gone to bed. The day had been clear, and
nearly everybody spent the afternoon and evening on the decks and
between 10 and 10.30 o’clock the steamer chairs, smoking rooms and
cafes were gradually vacated. The sea was perfectly calm, and least
expected was the crash which was the sounding note of the Titanic’s
doom.
“‘I was in the first lifeboat that was lowered,’ Mrs. Potter told me.
‘The jar, which tumbled nearly everyone from his berth, was followed by
a wild scramble to the decks. Women in night clothes, over which were
thrown coats, ran distractedly in all directions. Men almost crazed
with excitement, tore madly about trying to gather together families
and relatives, and the confusion was increased by the orders shouted by
the ship’s officers to the crew to make ready the lifeboats.
“‘Colonel and Mrs. John Jacob Astor were standing near me when I got
into the boat. They did not attempt to leave the ship, and the last
time I saw them together was when they, embracing each other, watched
the first boat lowered.
“‘I was placed in the boat with Mrs. Thayer. From the boat we could see
‘Jack’ Thayer jump from the ship. His mother saw him struggling in the
water. We cried to him to swim to our boat. He tried twice to get into
a lifeboat near him, and both times he was pushed away by persons in
it. We saw him swim to an icecake on which were thirty men. Only ten of
them were saved.
SUFFERED FROM EXPOSURE.
“‘In our boat were about twenty persons, most of them women, who
suffered intensely from the exposure. Their scanty clothes were no
protection from the water and ice. Mrs. Thayer rowed us for more than
two hours. She battled with the waves which threatened to overturn us,
and worked as valiantly as any experienced seaman could have done. To
her, for the most part, we owe our lives.
“‘We did not meet with Mrs. Thayer’s son until we had been on the
Carpathia for twenty-four hours. He had been picked up from a raft and
placed in the ship’s hospital. As soon as he was able to get about he
ran hurriedly through the Carpathia, and there was a happy meeting when
he there saw his mother.
“‘While the accommodations on the Carpathia were not very comfortable,
the passengers of the Titanic who were rescued by that vessel were well
treated, and feel grateful to the officers and passengers.’”
The eight musicians who went down in the Titanic and who were playing
“Nearer My God to Thee” when all the boats had gone, were under
the leadership of Bandmaster Hartley, who was transferred from the
Mauretania to take up his duties on the largest steamer of the White
Star Line. Under his direction were John Hume, violinist; Herbert
Taylor, pianist; Fred Clark, bass viol; George Woodward, cellist, and
Messrs. Brailey, Krins and Breicoux, who played when the others were
off duty.
On the Celtic were John S. Carr and Louis Cross, cellist and bass viol
of the orchestra on that steamship. When they got shore leave they told
something about the men on the Titanic, with whom they had made many
voyages. They also were acquainted with the conditions under which the
men lived on the Titanic, and gave a graphic idea of the manner in
which they must have responded when the call of duty came.
A MAN WITH A HIGH SENSE OF DUTY.
“Some were already in bed and some were probably smoking when the
ship hit the iceberg,” said John S. Carr. “The Titanic had a special
lounging and smoking room, with the sleeping rooms opening off it. It
was so late that they all must have been there when the first shock
came. Bandmaster Hartley was a man with the highest sort of a sense of
duty.
“I don’t suppose he waited to be sent for, but after finding how
dangerous the situation was he probably called his men together and
began playing. I know that he often said that music was a bigger weapon
for stopping disorder than anything on earth. He knew the value of the
weapon he had, and I think he proved his point.”
“The thing that hits me hardest,” said Louis Cross, “is the loss of
Happy Jock Hume, who was one of the violinists. Hume was the life of
every ship he ever played on and was beloved by every one from cabin
boys to captains on the White Star Line. He was a young Scotchman, not
over 21, and came of a musical family.
“His father and his grandfather before him had been violinists and
makers of musical instruments. The name is well known in Scotland
because of it. His real first name was John, but the Scotch nickname
stuck to him, and it was as Jock Hume that he was known to every one
on the White Star Line, even when he sailed as bandmaster.
“Over in Dumfries, Scotland, I happen to know there’s a sweet young
girl hoping against hope. Jock was to have been married the next
time that he made the trip across the ocean. He was a young man of
exceptional musical ability. If he had lived, I believe he would not
long have remained a member of a ship’s orchestra. He studied a great
deal, although he could pick up without trouble difficult composition
which would have taken others long to learn.
“The odd part of it is that Jock Hume’s mother had a premonition that
something would happen to him on this trip. He was on the sister ship
Olympic a few months ago when, on her maiden voyage, she collided with
the warship Hawk. There was a rent torn in the side of the Olympic at
that time and she had to be towed back to Belfast.
A MOTHER’S FATEFUL DREAM.
“Young Hume went back to his home in Dumfries to spend the time until
she should be repaired, and when his mother heard of the accident
she begged him not to go back to life on the sea. He told numbers of
persons in Liverpool about it. Mrs. Hume had a dream of some sort, and
said she was sure no good would come of it if he went back.
“Jock had his eye on going in for concert music sooner or later, but he
laughed at his mother’s fears and took the chance to go on the Titanic.
He was known on many ships and had friends in New York. Last winter he
got to know Americans who were wintering at the Constant Springs Hotel
in Kingston, Jamaica.
“He had been bandmaster on the Carmania, of the Cunard Line, and had
played with the orchestra of the Majestic, the California, of the
Anchor Line, and the Megantic, of the White Star Company, which plies
between Liverpool and Montreal.
“Hume was a light hearted, fine tempered young fellow with curly blond
hair, a light complexion and a pleasant smile. He was the life of every
ship he ever sailed on and was full of fun. He is mourned by every man
who knew him.
“Another thing of which we are all talking is that Fred Clark, the bass
viol of the Titanic, should have gone down on his first trip across the
Atlantic. Clark was well known in concert in Scotland, and had never
shipped before. The White Star people were particularly anxious to
have good music on the first trip of the Titanic, and offered him good
pay to make just one trip. As the winter concert season had closed, he
finally accepted.
“He was 34 years of age and was not married, but had a widowed mother.
He was a well set-up man of a little over medium height, with black
hair, dark complexion, and a high forehead. Clark was jolly company and
of optimistic temperament. Just before he sailed a number of persons
were joking with him about his finally going to sea, and he said:
“‘Well, you know it would be just my luck to go down with the ship.
I’ve kept away from it so long it might finish me on this trip.’ Then
he laughed cheerily and all his friends joined in. They all considered
the Titanic as safe as a hotel.
THE BOAT’S MUSICIANS.
“Herbert Taylor, the pianist, was considered a master of his
instrument. He was a man of an intellectual turn of mind, with a thin
studious face. He was married, and his home was in London. About
Woodward, the ’cello, I can tell you but little. His home was in Leeds.
The other three men--Brailey, Krins and Breicoux--made up the trio
which played in the second cabin and in the restaurant. They had been
playing together for some time, but neither Carr nor myself shipped
with them on any voyage.
“It’s a mistake from the technical point of view to call a steamer’s
orchestra a band,” said Carr. “The term is a survival of the days
when they really had a brass band on board. On all the big steamships
now the music is given by men who are thorough masters of their
instruments. The Titanic orchestra was considered one of the finest
which was ever boated when the ship put out from the other side, and I
think the way the men finished up showed that they had about as good
stuff inside as any who went down in the Atlantic.”
H. E. Steffanson, of New York, another survivor who leaped into the
sea and was picked up, declared that he saw the iceberg before the
collision.
“It seemed to me that the berg, a mile away, I should say, was about 80
feet out of the water. The ice that showed clear of the water was not
what we struck. After the collision I saw ice all over the sea. When we
hit the berg we seemed to slide up on it. I could feel the boat jumping
and pounding, and I realized that we were on the ice, but I thought we
would weather it. I saw the captain only once after the collision. He
was telling the men to get the women and children into the boats. I
thought then that it was only for precaution, and it was long after the
boats had left that I felt the steamer sinking.
“I waited on the upper deck until about 2 o’clock. I took a look below
and saw that the Titanic was doomed. Then I jumped into the ocean and
within five minutes I was picked up.”
DISCIPLINE DESCRIBED AS PERFECT.
Steffanson also described the discipline upon the boat as perfect.
Many women, as well as men, he said, declined to leave the Titanic,
believing she was safe.
Miss Cornelia Andrews, of Hudson, N. Y., was one of the first to be put
into a lifeboat.
“I saw the Titanic sink,” she said. “I saw her blow up. Our little boat
was a mile away when the end came, but the night was clear and the ship
loomed up plainly, even at that distance. As our boat put off I saw
Mr. and Mrs. Astor standing on the deck. As we pulled away they waved
their hands and smiled at us. We were in the open boat about four hours
before we were picked up.”
E. W. Beans, a second-cabin passenger, was picked up after swimming in
the icy water for twenty minutes. He, too, jumped into the sea after
the boats were lowered.
“I heard a shot fired,” said Beans, “just before I jumped. Afterward I
was told a steerage passenger had been shot while trying to leap into a
lifeboat filled with women and children.”
How the wireless operator on the Carpathia, by putting in an extra ten
minutes on duty, was a means of saving 745 lives was told by Dr. J. F.
Kemp, the Carpathia’s physician.
“Our wireless operator,” said Dr. Kemp, “was about to retire Sunday
night when he said, jokingly: ‘I guess I’ll wait just ten minutes, then
turn in.’
“It was in the next ten minutes that the Titanic’s call for help came.
Had the wireless man not waited, there would have been no survivors.”
“The iceberg that sank the Titanic looked to be as big as the Rock of
Gibraltar,” said Thomas Brown, one of the stewards of the Carpathia,
in describing what he saw when the crew of his ship picked up the
survivors from the Titanic. Brown left the Carpathia a few minutes
after she was docked and he gave a vivid description of the work of the
rescue.
“There were 2,341 persons aboard the Titanic, counting officers and
crew,” said the steward. “Seven hundred and ten persons were saved; so
the list of those who drowned numbers 1,631 persons.
A CLEAR S. O. S. SIGNAL.
“I had turned in for the night when Main, our wireless operator, caught
the ‘S. O. S.’ signal of distress. He told me it was the clearest
signal of any sort he ever received. The minute he got the message he
hastened to Captain Rostrom and said, ‘Captain, the Titanic is sinking;
she struck an iceberg.’ Captain Rostrom did not believe it. ‘Here it
comes again, Captain,’ said the operator.
“That was all the captain needed to get our crew into action: he
sounded the bell for the watchman, and sent him to order all hands on
deck.
“I doubt if any passengers on the Carpathia knew of the tragedy until
Jones, the first mate, sounded the emergency gong after the watchman
had summoned the crew.
“A few minutes after we got the signal for help we were ready for
action. The ‘S. O. S.’ reached us shortly after midnight. We were then
56 miles away from the Titanic. Our engineer turned about and put
on full speed, and we reached the Titanic about 3.30 o’clock Monday
morning.
“While the Carpathia was speeding toward the doomed ship Captain
Rostrom summoned the higher officers together, and said he would hold
every man responsible for the work assigned to him.
“He told Main to answer the Titanic and tell Captain Smith that we were
making for his ship, full steam ahead.
“Phillips, the operators of the Titanic, evidently did not get our
reply, or, if he did receive it, he could not answer us in any way.
Captain Rostrom told Mrs. Smith, the stewardess, to prepare for any
emergency. He told me to get coffee, sandwiches and other food ready
for the survivors.
“On our way to the Titanic the captain went below and told the engineer
that he must get to the Titanic before she sank. I doubt if Captain
Rostrom ever got as much speed out of the Carpathia as he did on the
way to the Titanic.
“Long before the Carpathia got near the scene of the wreck our boats
were ready to be lowered into the water.
PROMPTNESS IN HANDLING LIFEBOATS.
“Two men were stationed at each boat, and I and Thomas McKenna, seaman,
were in charge of boat No. 1. We have sixteen boats on the ship, and
they were hanging suspended from the davits within fifteen minutes
after we received the ‘S. O. S.’ call for help.
“I must not forget the women who were on the Carpathia. They were the
most self-sacrificing women I ever saw. Their fortitude under the
distressing circumstances was so remarkable that each one ought to be
rewarded for the work she did after the survivors were lifted aboard
the Carpathia.
“As we got near the scene of the wreck the barometer dropped
considerably. It became cold--bitter cold. We did not see the icebergs
then, but Captain Rostrom said that we were nearing them. Suddenly, as
the iceberg loomed up ahead of our ship, Captain Rostrom ran to the
pilot house and took charge of the helm.
“The night was clear and starlight, but we did not see an iceberg until
the Carpathia was within a half mile of it. Of course, we had ample
time to steer clear of the floes.
“At 3.30 o’clock our vessel plunged into a sea of open ice. I believe
there must have been thirty or forty icebergs in the water around the
Carpathia. Captain Rostrom took his ship safely through the floe and
suddenly we heard a shriek. It was faint at first and then it became
louder.
“‘The women and children, get them first,’ Captain Rostrom shouted to
the crew on the boat deck who were awaiting the signal to cut loose
lifeboats. Our searchlight was trained on the sea ahead and the boats
filled with the shipwrecked passengers stood out in bold relief.
“I shall never forget the sight. There were many boats from the Titanic
loaded with women and children wedged among the ice. Even before we got
up to the first boat from the Titanic we could see the iceberg which
sank her. It looked to be as big as the Rock of Gibraltar. It towered
high in the air and it moved very slowly.
AVOIDS CRASHING INTO SHIPWRECKED PASSENGERS.
“I believe it was over 500 feet high, and we can judge by its size by
recalling that seven-eighths of an iceberg is submerged. Within fifty
yards of the boats in the water Captain Rostrom gave the signal to
reverse the engines so our ship would not crash into the shipwrecked
passengers.
“‘Ready men--go,’ shouted the captain to me, and McKenna loosened the
rope and our boat dropped into the water. We tugged away at the oars
with all our strength. We shoved our boat alongside of boat No. 13 from
the Titanic. It was filled with passengers. I believe there were about
fifteen children in it.
“Poor little things! Some were benumbed with cold; others were
apparently lifeless, and several moaned piteously. The women in the
boat were scantily clad. Their clothing was grotesque. They had on
wraps, night robes, silk shawls over their heads and men’s coats around
them. Many had no shoes, and all of them suffered from the cold.
“McKenna and I tied a hawser to the boat and then rowed back to the
Carpathia. Harris, the bos’n’s mate, and another member of the crew
helped us to lift the unfortunate ones from the boat. Some had to be
carried up the ladder to the boat deck of the Carpathia.
“A few could walk, but the majority were so benumbed that they could
neither speak nor walk.
“As fast as others of our crew could get the Titanic’s boats they were
dragged toward the side of the Carpathia. We rescued twenty boatloads
of passengers--710 in all. Our ship resembled a hospital on our way
back to New York, for a number of the women and children were ill.
“The three physicians on the Carpathia told me as we were going up the
bay that there were sixteen patients for the hospital as soon as the
Carpathia docked.”
From a little porthole on the side of the Carpathia a woman passenger
told how the wireless call from the wrecked Titanic sent the Cunard
liner racing to the rescue; how the fainting, hysterical survivors
were taken from the lifeboats, and of the nerve-wrecking scenes that
followed on board the rescue ship.
A NARRATIVE ON THE TUG BOAT REYNOLDS.
The narrative was told to persons on the tug boat Reynolds as the
latter sped side by side with the Carpathia as she moved up the North
river to her berth at the Cunard pier. The woman thrust her head
through the porthole of the liner in response to megaphone calls
shouted from the Reynolds.
“What’s the trouble now?” she asked.
“Tell us about the wreck of the Titanic. Who are you?”
“Miss Peterson, of Passaic, N. J.,” was the answer. She was a passenger
on the Carpathia.
The captain of the Reynolds, William Bennett, turned his craft closer
to the Carpathia, so those on the tug could get within speaking
distance.
“It’s almost too horrible to speak about,” began Miss Peterson. “It
seems like a dream. I was asleep in my berth. I had walked along the
promenade deck until about 10 o’clock and had gone to my room and
fallen asleep. Suddenly I heard a deep blast from the horns. I awoke
startled.
“Then came another blast. The lights were turned on all over the ship.
I heard the officers and crew running up and down the decks. I dressed
hurriedly, thinking something was wrong on the Carpathia. I hastened
to the deck. It was about 2 o’clock in the morning and the stars were
shining brightly overhead.
“I met Captain Rostrom and asked what was the trouble. ‘The Titanic has
struck an iceberg and is sinking. Great God, men,’ he shouted, turning
to his officers, ‘get ready to save these poor souls. There must be
2,500 on board.’
“Before the captain had told us of the wreck the Carpathia was being
turned around toward the Titanic. I went on the boat deck and met many
of our passengers. I heard the wireless buzz, and I knew the operator
was trying to talk to the Titanic. I tried to get below to see the
wireless instrument and operator, but I was told to go on deck again.
The operator was clad only in his trousers and undershirt.
“Captain Rostrom said: ‘Can’t you get her?’ ‘No,’ replied the operator,
‘she doesn’t answer.’
“‘She’s going down,’ said Captain Rostrom, and he ordered the engineer
to put on full speed.
SPEEDED FASTER THAN USUAL.
“I don’t know how fast we went, but the speed of the Carpathia at that
time was greater by far than the way we had been traveling on our way
across the ocean. You can imagine the excitement aboard the Carpathia.
Everyone was dressed and on deck before we got to the Titanic, or
rather what was left of her.
“I guess it was about 3.30 o’clock when we got near the boats of the
Titanic. The Carpathia had all her boats hanging on the davits and
Captain Rostrom was ready. I heard women scream as the Carpathia
approached the Titanic’s boats. I shrieked with them because every one
was saying, ‘Oh, oh, it’s awful, awful.’ I saw the first boat of the
Titanic taken from the water.
“I saw the icebergs all around the boats. I wonder now how they kept
afloat. Before the Carpathia had slackened speed much a lifeboat from
our ship was in the water and the men were pushing toward the other
boats.
“They tied a rope to the Titanic’s boats and then moved back to the
Carpathia and the first boatload of survivors were taken from the water
only a few minutes after we saw it.
“There were about fifty women and children in it; some had fainted and
lay motionless. Others were screaming and were hysterical. There were
no men in the boat and none of the survivors were dressed properly.
“They had on night robes, furs, evening gowns, anything they could
find. Some were almost frozen. A little girl, they called her Emily,
was shrieking, ‘Oh, mama, mama, I’m sick. Oh, mama, mama!’
“Her mother could not comfort her, because she collapsed as soon as she
was lifted to the deck of the Carpathia. All the women on our boat got
their heavy clothing and threw it around the survivors. Captain Rostrom
told us to take them to our staterooms, and we did all we could to make
them comfortable.
NEARLY ALL BOATS TAKEN FROM WATER.
“I did not go on deck again until an hour or more had passed; by that
time the crew of the Carpathia had taken nearly all the boats from the
water. I saw three loads of passengers taken from the boats and the
mate of the Carpathia said there were about 800 saved. Captain Rostrom
had tears in his eyes while he was directing the work of rescue.
“We were here, there, everywhere it seemed all at once. We got a few
men aboard, but they were not taken from the lifeboats. It was women
and children first.
“Our ship was a hospital ship on April 15. All the women on our boat
offered to give up their staterooms and the captain ordered many of the
survivors placed in our berths.
“The doctors had more than they could do to care for the sick. Women
fainted one after the other. Mrs. Astor was unconscious at times. She
called for her husband time and again, and so we dared not tell her
that Colonel Astor was not aboard.”
A steward from the Carpathia told the following tale of the rescue of
the Titanic’s passengers and crew to a group of his mates:
“It was between quarter after and half after 1 o’clock, ship’s time,
Monday morning,” he said, “when all the stewards were mustered and
Chief Steward Highes told us that a wireless had just come in that the
Titanic had hit an iceberg and probably would need help. He urged us to
turn right in and get ready for a ship’s load of people. The Carpathia
turned in the direction the wireless had called from.
“We got hot coffee ready and laid out blankets and made sandwiches and
everything like that. It seemed as if every passenger on the boat knew
about the trouble and turned out. Captain Rostrom had shut off the hot
water all over the ship and turned every ounce of heat into steam, and
the old boat was as excited as any of us.
“After we got things ready we went out on deck. It was a glorious
morning--no swell in the sea, but bitter cold. The ship’s lights were
on full blaze and we were there in the middle of a sea of ice--the
finest sight I ever saw.
COMPARATIVELY EMPTY BOAT WITHOUT WOMEN.
“Just as it was about half day and dark we came upon a boat. There were
eighteen men in it and it was in charge of an officer. There were no
women in the boat, and it was not more than one-third filled. All of
the men were able to come up the Jacob’s ladder on the Carpathia, which
we threw over the port side. Every one of them was given some brandy or
hot black coffee. After they were all on board we pulled up their boat.
“It was bright morning by now and all around the Carpathia, here and
there, about a quarter mile apart, were more boats. These were fuller
than the first and there were women in all of them. The women were
hoisted up in bo’suns chairs, and the men who could do so climbed
the Jacob’s ladder. Some of the men, however, had to be hauled up,
especially the firemen. There was a whole batch of firemen saved. They
were nearly naked. They had jumped overboard and swam after the boats,
it turned out, and they were almost frozen stiff.
“The women were dressed, and the funny thing about it is only five of
them had to be taken to the hospital. Both the men’s hospitals were
filled--twenty-four beds in all. We got twelve boatloads, I think,
inside of a little more than an hour. Then, between quarter after and
half after 8 o’clock, we got the last two boats--crowded to the guards
and almost all women.
“After we got the last boatload aboard the Californian came alongside
and the captains arranged that we should make straight for New York and
the Californian would look around for more boats. We circled round and
round, though, and we saw all kinds of wreckage. There was not a person
on a stick of it and we did not get sight of another soul.
“While we were pulling in the boatloads of women we saved were quiet
enough and not making any trouble at all. But when it seemed sure we
would not find any more persons alive then bedlam came.
“I hope I never go through it again. The way those women took on for
the folks they had lost was awful and we could not do anything to quiet
them until they cried themselves out.
“There were five Chinamen in the boats and not a soul knew where
they came from. No one saw them get into the boats; but there they
were--wherever they came from.
“The fellows from the crew of the Titanic told us that lots more of
them could have got away, only no one would believe that their ship
could sink.”