Shipwrecks -- North Atlantic Ocean; Titanic (Steamship)
Less than 24 hours after the Cunard Line steamship Carpathia came in as
a rescue ship with survivors of the Titanic disaster, she sailed again
for the Mediterranean cruise which she originally started upon last
week. Just before the liner sailed, H. S. Bride, the second Marconi
wireless operator of the Titanic, who had both of his legs crushed on
a life-boat, was carried off on the shoulders of the ship's officers to
St. Vincent's Hospital.
Captain A. H. Rostron, of the Carpathia, addressed an official report,
giving his account of the Carpathia's rescue work, to the general
manager of the Cunard Line, Liverpool. The report read: "I beg to report
that at 12.35 A. M. Monday 18th inst. I was informed of urgent message
from Titanic with her position. I immediately ordered ship turned around
and put her in course for that position, we being then 58 miles S.
52--E. 'T' from her; had heads of all departments called and issued
what I considered the necessary orders, to be in preparation for any
emergency.
"At 2.40 A. M. saw flare half a point on port bow. Taking this for
granted to be ship, shortly after we sighted our first iceberg. I had
previously had lookouts doubled, knowing that Titanic had struck ice,
and so took every care and precaution. We soon found ourselves in a
field of bergs, and had to alter course several times to clear bergs;
weather fine, and clear, light air on sea, beautifully clear night,
though dark.
"We stopped at 4 A. M., thus doing distance in three hours and a half,
picking up the first boat at 4.10 A. M.; boat in charge of officer, and
he reported that Titanic had foundered. At 8.30 A. M. last boat picked
up. All survivors aboard and all boats accounted for, viz., fifteen
life-boats, one boat abandoned, two Berthon boats alongside (saw one
floating upwards among wreckage), and according to second officer
(senior officer saved) one Berthon boat had not been launched, it having
got jammed, making sixteen life-boats and four Berthon boats accounted
for. By the time we had cleared first boat it was breaking day, and
I could see all within area of four miles. We also saw that we were
surrounded by icebergs, large and small, huge field of drift ice with
large and small bergs in it, the ice field trending from N. W. round W.
and S. to S. E., as far as we could see either way.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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