Shipwrecks -- North Atlantic Ocean; Titanic (Steamship)
"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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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