Shipwrecks -- North Atlantic Ocean; Titanic (Steamship)
"'We've struck an iceberg,' the captain said, 'and I'm having an
inspection made to tell what it has done for us. You better get ready to
send out a call for assistance. But don't send it until I tell you.'
"The captain went away and in ten minutes, I should estimate the time,
he came back. We could hear a terrific confusion outside, but there was
not the least thing to indicate that there was any trouble. The wireless
was working perfectly.
"'Send the call for assistance,' ordered the captain, barely putting
his head in the door.
"'What call shall I send?' Phillips asked.
"'The regulation international call for help. Just that.'
"Then the captain was gone Phillips began to send 'C. Q. D.' He flashed
away at it and we joked while he did so. All of us made light of the
disaster.
"The Carpathia answered our signal. We told her our position and said we
were sinking by the head. The operator went to tell the captain, and in
five minutes returned and told us that the captain of the Carpathia, was
putting about and heading for us
GREAT SCRAMBLE ON DECK
"Our captain had left us at this time and Phillips told me to run and
tell him what the Carpathia had answered. I did so, and I went through
an awful mass of people to his cabin. The decks were full of scrambling
men and women. I saw no fighting, but I heard tell of it.
"I came back and heard Phillips giving the Carpathia fuller directions.
Phillips told me to put on my clothes. Until that moment I forgot that I
was not dressed.
"I went to my cabin and dressed. I brought an overcoat to Phillips. It
was very cold. I slipped the overcoat upon him while he worked.
"Every few minutes Phillips would send me to the captain with little
messages. They were merely telling how the Carpathia was coming our way
and gave her speed.
"I noticed as I came back from one trip that they were putting off
women and children in life-boats. I noticed that the list forward was
increasing.
"Phillips told me the wireless was growing weaker. The captain came and
told us our engine rooms were taking water and that the dynamos might
not last much longer. We sent that word to the Carpathia.
"I went out on deck and looked around. The water was pretty close up
to the boat deck. There was a great scramble aft, and how poor Phillips
worked through it right to the end I don't know.
"He was a brave man. I learned to love him that night and I suddenly
felt for him a great reverence to see him standing there sticking to his
work while everybody else was raging about. I will never live to forget
the work of Phillips for the last awful fifteen minutes.
"I thought it was about time to look about and see if there was anything
detached that would float. I remembered that every member of the crew
had a special life-belt and ought to know where it was. I remembered
mine was under my bunk. I went and got it. Then I thought how cold the
water was.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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