Sinking of the "Titanic" : $b most appalling ocean horror; with graphic descriptions of hundreds swept to eternity beneath the waves ...Mowbray, Jay Henry
History
Sinking of the "Titanic" : $b most appalling ocean horror; with graphic descriptions of hundreds swept to eternity beneath the waves ...
Mowbray, Jay Henry
Shipwrecks -- North Atlantic Ocean -- History -- 20th century; Titanic (Steamship)
She said that there seemed to be nearly seventy-five persons in the
boat and that it was very much crowded. In the meantime a panic had
started among those who remained on board the Titanic.
An Italian jumped from the steerage deck and fell into a lifeboat,
landing upon a woman who had a baby in her arms.
Miss Rugg saw the Titanic go down and declares but for the horror of it
all, it might have been termed one of the grandest sights she ever saw.
SHIP TAKES ITS FINAL PLUNGE.
The boat seemed to have broken in half, and with all the lights burning
brightly, the stern arose into the air, the lights being extinguished
as it did so. A moment later the ship plunged beneath the surface.
Karl H. Behr, the well known tennis player, who went to Australia in
1910 with the American team, was one of the Titanic survivors.
He was graduated from Yale in 1906 and later from Columbia, where he
took a law degree. This is his statement of his experiences on the
night of the disaster.
“We were a party of four, Mr. and Mrs. R. L. Beckwith, Mrs. Beckwith’s
daughter, Miss Helen W. Newsom, and myself. Mr. Beckwith and I had
stayed up in the smoking room. We left just before it closed for the
night.
“I went to my stateroom and only partly undressed when I felt a
distinct jar run through the whole vessel, which quivered all over. It
was distinct enough for me to be certain that we had hit something. I
dressed again immediately, my first thought and purpose being to reach
my party at once.”
Mr. Behr told of assembling his party and added:
“I knew exactly where the lifeboats were, so Miss Newsom and I and Mr.
and Mrs. Beckwith went to the top deck. We waited quietly while the
first boat filled and was lowered. It appeared to me to be quite full.
“We then went to the second boat, which was quite full. Mr. Ismay was
directing its launching. When Mrs. Beckwith came to the edge of the
lifeboat, which was hanging over the sides, she asked Mr. Ismay before
attempting to get in whether her men could go with her, and I heard him
reply quietly, ‘Why certainly, madam.’ We then got into the boat.
“After we were in the boat we heard Mr. Ismay calling out and asking if
there were any more passengers to go in the boat.
THE LAST PASSENGERS ON TOP DECK.
“There were none, and we must have waited at least three minutes or
more before he ordered an officer into the boat and two or three more
of the crew who were alone on deck and under perfect control. We were
evidently the last passengers on the top deck, as we could see no
others.
“Most fortunately for us, when we left the ship everything was
handled in perfect discipline, Mr. Ismay launching our lifeboat in a
most splendid fashion, with absolute coolness, making sure that all
passengers were on board and that our crew was complete. What happened
later we know little about.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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