SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD SON OF PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD OFFICIAL TELLS
MOVING STORY OF HIS RESCUE--TOLD MOTHER TO BE BRAVE--SEPARATED FROM
PARENTS--JUMPED WHEN VESSEL SANK--DRIFTED ON OVERTURNED BOAT PICKED UP
BY CARPATHIA
ONE of the calmest of the passengers was: young Jack Thayer, the
seventeen-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. John B. Thayer. When his mother
was put into the life-boat he kissed her and told her to be brave,
saying that he and his father would be all right. He and Mr. Thayer
stood on the deck as the small boat in which Mrs. Thayer was a passenger
made off from the side of the Titanic over the smooth sea.
The boy's own account of his experience as told to one of his rescuers
is one of the most remarkable of all the wonderful ones that have come
from the tremendous catastrophe:
"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 brightly 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 dressing quickly,
putting on all our clothes. We all put on life-preservers, 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.
SEPARATED FROM PARENTS
"Father and I said good-bye to mother at the top of the stairs on A
deck. She and the maid went right out 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 steward of the main
dining saloon and he told us that mother had not yet taken a boat, and
he took us to her.
"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 an 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.
THOUGHT SHIP WOULD FLOAT
"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 30
degrees. 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; went 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.
"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 my hand from my head it touched the
cork fender of an over-
{illust. caption = READING ROOM OF THE TITANIC}
{illust. caption = Copyright, 1912. International News Service. THE
SENATORIAL INVESTIGATION--ISMAY ON THE GRILL
J. Bruce Ismay, Managing Director of the........}
turned life-boat. I looked up and 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 twenty-five or thirty men.
When I got on this I was facing the ship.
{illust. caption = SKETCHES OF THE TITANIC BY "JACK" THAYER
These sketches were outlined by John B. Thayer, Jr., on the day of the
disaster, and afterwards filled in by L. D. Skidmon, of Brooklyn.}
"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.
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 of the 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.
"Toward dawn the wind sprang up, roughening 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 3.30 or 4 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. Lightoller, 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 we 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 Lightoller'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
a subsequent conversation on the Carpathia, and did not know I was
'junior'."