AID FOR THE SUFFERING AND HYSTERICAL--BURYING THE DEAD--VOTE OF
THANKS TO CAPTAIN ROSTRON OF THE CARPATHIA--IDENTIFYING THOSE
SAVED--COMMUNICATING WITH LAND--THE PASSAGE TO NEW YORK.
IF the scenes in the life-boats were tear-bringing, hardly less so
was the arrival of the boats at the Carpathia with their bands of
terror-stricken, grief-ridden survivors, many of them too exhausted to
know that safety was at hand. Watchers on the Carpathia were moved to
tears.
"The first life-boat reached the Carpathia about half-past five o'clock
in the morning," recorded one of the passengers on the Carpathia. "And
the last of the sixteen boats was unloaded before nine o'clock. Some of
the life-boats 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."
After the Carpathia had made certain that there were no more passengers
of the Titanic to be picked up, she threaded her way out of the ice
fields for fifty miles. It was dangerous work, but it was managed
without trouble.
AID FOR THE SUFFERING AND HYSTERICAL
The shrieks and cries of the women and men picked up in life-boats by
the Carpathia were horrible. The women were clothed only in night robes
and wrappers. The men were in their night garments. One was lifted on
board entirely nude. All the passengers who could bear nourishment were
taken into the dining rooms and cabins by Captain Rostron and given food
and stimulants. Passengers of the Carpathia gave up their berths and
staterooms to the survivors.
As soon as they were landed on the Carpathia many of the women became
hysterical, but on the whole they behaved splendidly. 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 filled with brandy and hot coffee, the 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 they began flooding
the wireless rooms with messages. It was almost certain that those who
were not on board the Carpathia had gone down to death.
One of the most seriously injured was a woman who had lost both her
children. Her limbs had been severely torn; but she was very patient.
WOMEN SEEKING NEWS
In the first cabin library women of wealth and refinement mingled their
grief and asked eagerly for news of the possible arrival of a belated
boat, or a message from other steamers telling of the safety of their
husbands. Mrs. Henry B. Harris, wife of a New York theatrical manager,
checked her tears long enough to beg that some message of hope be sent
to her father-in-law. Mrs. G. Thorne, Miss Marie Young, Mrs Emil Taussig
and her daughter, Ruth, Mrs. Martin Rothschild, Mrs. William Augustus
Spencer, Mrs. J. Stewart White and Mrs. Walter M. Clark were a few
of those who lay back, exhausted, on the leather cushions and told in
shuddering sentences of their experiences.
Mrs. John Jacob Astor and the Countess of Rothes had been taken to
staterooms soon after their arrival on shipboard.
Before noon, at the captain's request, the first cabin passengers of the
Titanic gathered in the saloon and the passengers of other classes in
corresponding places on the rescue ship. Then the collecting of names
was begun by the purser and the stewards. A second table was served in
both cabins for the new guests, and the Carpathia's second cabin, being
better filled than its first, the second class arrivals had to be sent
to the steerage.
TEARS THEIR ONLY RELIEF
Mrs. Jacques Futrelle, wife of the novelist, herself a writer of note,
sat dry eyed in the saloon, telling her friends that she had given up
hope for her husband. She joined with the rest in inquiries as to the
chances of rescue by another ship, and no one told her what soon came
to be the fixed opinion of the men--that all those saved were on the
Carpathia.
"I feel better," Mrs. Futrelle said hours afterward, "for I can cry
now."
Among the men conversation centered on the accident and the
responsibility for it. Many expressed the belief that the Titanic, in
common with other vessels, had had warning of the ice packs, but that in
the effort to establish a record on the maiden run sufficient heed had
not been paid to the warnings.
"God knows I'm not proud to be here," said a rich New York man. "I got
on a boat when they were about to lower it and when, from delays below,
there was no woman to take the vacant place. I don't think any man who
was saved is deserving of censure, but I realize that, in contrast with
those who went down, we may be viewed unfavorably." He showed a picture
of his baby boy as he spoke.
PITIFUL SCENES OF GRIEF
As the day passed the fore part of the ship assumed some degree of order
and comfort, but the crowded second sabin and rear decks gave forth the
incessant sound of lamentation. A bride of two months sat on the floor
and moaned her widowhood. An Italian mother shrieked the name of her
lost son.
A girl of seven wept over the loss of her Teddy bear and two dolls,
while her mother, with streaming eyes, dared not tell the child that her
father was lost too, and that the money for which their home in England
had been sold had gone down with him. Other children clung to the necks
of the fathers who, because carrying them, had been permitted to take
the boats.
In the hospital and the public rooms lay, in blankets, several others
who had been benumbed by the water. Mrs. Rosa Abbott, who was in the
water for hours, was restored during the day. K. Whiteman, the Titanic's
barber, who declared he was blown off the ship by the second of the two
explosions after the crash, was treated for bruises. A passenger, who
was thoroughly ducked before being picked up, caused much amusement on
this ship, soon after the doctors were through with him, by demanding a
bath.
SURVIVORS AID THE DESTITUTE
Storekeeper Prentice, the last man off the Titanic to reach this ship,
was also soon over the effects of his long swim in the icy waters into
which he leaped from the poop deck.
The physicians of the Carpathia were praised, as was Chief Steward
Hughes, for work done in making the arrivals comfortable and averting
serious illness.
Monday night on the Carpathia was one of rest. The wailing and sobbing
of the day were hushed as widows and orphans slept. Tuesday, save for
the crowded condition of the ship, matters took somewhat their normal
appearance.
The second cabin dining room had been turned into a hospital to care
for the injured, and the first, second and third class dining rooms were
used for sleeping rooms at night for women, while the smoking rooms were
set aside for men. All available space was used, some sleeping in chairs
and some on the floor, while a few found rest in the bathrooms.
Every cabin had been filled, and women and children were sleeping on the
floors in the dining saloon, library and smoking rooms. The passengers
of the Carpathia had divided their clothes with the shipwrecked ones
until they had at least kept warm. It is true that many women had to
appear on deck in kimonos and some in underclothes with a coat thrown
over them, but their lives had been spared and they had not thought of
dress. Some children in the second cabin were entirely without clothes,
but the women had joined together, and with needles and thread they
could pick up from passenger to passenger, had made warm clothes out of
the blankets belonging to the Carpathia.
WOMEN BEFRIENDED ONE ANOTHER
The women aboard the Carpathia did what they could by word and act to
relieve the sufferings of the rescued. Most of the survivors were in
great need of clothing, and this the women of the Carpathia supplied to
them as long as their surplus stock held out.
J. A. Shuttleworth, of Louisville, Ky., befriended Mrs. Lucien Smith,
whose husband went down with the Titanic. Mrs. Smith was formerly Miss
Eloise Hughes, daughter of Representative and Mrs. James A. Hughes, of
Huntington, W. Va., and was on her wedding trip. Mr. Shuttleworth asked
her if there wasn't something he could do for her. She said that all the
money she had was lost on the Titanic, so Mr. Shuttleworth gave her $500
DEATHS ON THE CARPATHIA
Two of the rescued from the Titanic died from shock and exposure before
they reached the Carpathia, and another died a few minutes after being
taken on board. The dead were W. H. Hoyte, first cabin; Abraham Hormer,
third class, and S. C. Sirbert, steward, and they were buried at sea the
morning of April 15th, latitude 41.14 north, longitude 51.24 west. P.
Lyon, able seaman, died and was buried at sea the following morning.
An assistant steward lost his mind upon seeing one of the Titanic's
rescued firemen expire after being lifted to the deck of the Carpathia.
An Episcopal bishop and a Catholic priest from Montreal read services of
their respective churches over the dead.
The bodies were sewed up in sacks, heavily weighted at the feet, and
taken to an opening in the side of the ship on the lower deck not far
above the water line. A long plank tilted at one end served as the
incline down which the weighted sacks slid into the sea.
"After we got the Titanic's passengers on board our ship," said one of
the Carpathia's officers, "it was a question as to where we should take
them. Some said the Olympic would come out and meet us and take them on
to New York, but others said they would die if they had to be lowered
again into small boats to be taken up by another, so we finally turned
toward New York, delaying the Carpathia's passengers eight days in
reaching Gibraltar."
SURVIVORS WATCH NEW BOATS
There were several children on board, who had lost their parents--one
baby of eleven months with a nurse who, coming on board the Carpathia
with the first boat, watched with eagerness and sorrow for each incoming
boat, but to no avail. The parents had gone down.
There was a woman in the second cabin who lost seven children out of
ten, and there were many other losses quite as horrible.
MR. ISMY "PITIABLE SIGHT"
Among the rescued ones who came on board the Carpathia was the president
of the White Star Line.
"Mr. Ismay reached the Carpathia in about the tenth life-boat," said an
officer. "I didn't know who he was, but afterward 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.'
{illust. caption = DIAGRAM OF THE TITANIC'S ARRANGEMENT AND EQUIPMENT
The Titanic was far and away the largest and finest vessel ever built,
excepting only her sister-ship, the Olympic. Her dimensions were:
Length, 882 1/2 feet; Beam, 92 feet, Depth (from keel to tops of
funnels), 175 feet Tonnage, 45,000. Her huge hull, divided into thirty
watertight compartments, contained nine steel decks, and provided
accommodation for 2,500 passengers, besides a crew of 890.}
{illust. caption = UPPER DECK OF THE TITANIC, LOOKING FORWARD}
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
inquiries 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."
A passenger on the Carpathia said there was no wonder that none of the
wireless telegrams addressed to Mr. Ismay were answered until the one
that he sent yesterday afternoon to his line, the White Star.
"Mr. Ismay was beside himself," said this woman passenger, "and on
most of the voyage after we had picked him up he was being quieted with
opiates on orders of the ship's doctor.
FIVE DOGS AND ONE PIG SAVED
"Five women saved their pet dogs, carrying them in their arms. Another
woman saved a little pig, which she said was her mascot. Though her
husband is an Englishman and she lives in England she is an American and
was on her way to visit her folks here. How she cared for the pig aboard
ship I do not know, but she carried it up the side of the ship in a big
bag. I did not mind the dogs so much, but it seemed to me to be too much
when a pig was saved and human beings went to death.
"It was not until noon on Monday that we cleared the last of the ice,
and Monday night a dense fog came up and continued until the following
morning, then a strong wind, a heavy sea, a thunderstorm and a dense fog
Tuesday night, caused some uneasiness among the more unnerved, the fog
continuing all of Tuesday.
"A number of whales were sighted as the Carpathia was clearing the last
of the ice, one large one being close by, and all were spouting like
geysers."
VOTE OF THANKS TO CARPATHIA
"On Tuesday afternoon a meeting of the uninjured survivors was called in
the main saloon for the purpose of devising means of assisting the more
unfortunate, many of whom had lost relatives and all their personal
belongings, and thanking Divine Providence for their deliverance.
The meeting was called to order and Mr. Samuel Goldenberg was elected
chairman. Resolutions were then passed thanking the officers, surgeons,
passengers and crew of the Carpathia for their splendid services in
aiding the rescued and like resolutions for the admirable work done by
the officers, surgeons and crew of the Titanic.
"A committee was then appointed to raise funds on board the Carpathia to
relieve the immediate wants of the destitute and assist them in reaching
their destinations and also to present a loving cup to the officers of
the Carpathia and also a loving cup to the surviving officers of the
Titanic.
"Mr. T. G. Frauenthal, of New York, was made chairman of the Committee
on Subscriptions.
"A committee, consisting of Mrs. J. J. Brown, Mrs William Bucknell and
Mrs. George Stone, was appointed to look after the destitute. There
was a subscription taken up and up to Wednesday the amount contributed
totaled $15,000.
"The work of the crew on board the Carpathia in rescuing was most noble
and remarkable, and these four days that the ship has been overcrowded
with its 710 extra passengers could not have been better handled. The
stewards have worked with undying strength--although one was overcome
with so much work and died and was put to his grave at sea.
"I have never seen or felt the benefits of such royal treatment. I have
heard the captain criticised because he did not answer telegrams, but
all that I can say is that he showed us every possible courtesy, and if
we had been on our own boats, having paid our fares there, we could not
have had better food or better accommodations.
"Men who had paid for the best staterooms on the Carpathia left their
rooms so that we might have them. They fixed up beds in the smoking
rooms, and mattresses everywhere. All the women who were rescued
were given the best staterooms, which were surrendered by the regular
passengers. None of the regular passengers grumbled because their trip
to Europe was interrupted, nor did they complain that they were put to
the inconvenience of receiving hundreds of strangers.
"The women on board the Carpathia were particularly kind. It shows that
for every cruelty of nature there is a kindness, for every misfortune
there is some goodness. The men and women took up collections on board
for the rescued steerage passengers. Mrs. Astor, I believe, contributed
$2000, her check being cashed by the Carpathia. Altogether something
like $15,000 was collected and all the women were provided with
sufficient money to reach their destination after they were landed in
New York."
Under any other circumstances the suffering would have been intolerable.
But the Good Samaritans on the Carpathia gave many women heart's-ease.
The spectacle on board the Carpathia on the return trip to New York at
times was heartrending, while at other times those on board were quite
cheerful.