I saw the wake of the first torpedo the moment before the _Lusitania_
was struck. I was on the upper deck. Looking out to sea, I saw all at
once the wash of a torpedo, indicated by the snakelike churn on the
surface of the water. It was about thirty feet away. Then came the thud
as it struck the ship. Mr. Berth and his wife, of New York, first class
passengers, were the last persons I spoke to on the ship. About this
time all the passengers in the dining saloon had come up on deck. The
upper deck was crowded, and the passengers were wondering what was the
matter, few really believing that the ship had been torpedoed. They
began to lower boats. I saw Berth help his wife into a boat. I fell
into the same boat and we were shipped down into the water.
About a minute after the boat struck the water, I looked up and cried
out: "My God! The _Lusitania_ is gone!" We saw her entire bulk, which
had been almost upright just a few seconds before, suddenly lurch over
away from us. Then she seemed to stand upright in the water and the
next instant the keel of the vessel caught the keel of our boat and we
were thrown into the water. There were only about thirty people in the
boat and I should say that all were stokers or third class passengers.
When the boat was overturned I sank fifteen or twenty feet and I
thought I was a goner. However, I had my lifebelt around me and I
managed to rise again to the surface. There I floated for possibly
ten or fifteen minutes, when I made a grab at a collapsible lifeboat,
to which other passengers were clinging. We managed to get it
shipshape and clamber in. There were eight or nine in the boat. It
was partly filled with water, and in the scramble which occurred the
boat overturned, and once more we were pitched into the water. This
occurred, I should say, eight times, the boat righting itself each
time. Before we were picked up by the _Bluebell_ six of the party of
eight or nine were lying drowned in the bilge water in the bottom of
the boat. It was cold-blooded, deliberate murder and nothing else--the
greatest murder the world has ever known.