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)
“We were put through the portholes into the boats, and the boat I was
in had a foot of water in it. As soon as we were in we were told to sit
down on the bottom. In that position we were so low that we could not
see out over the gunwale.
“Once the boat had started away some of the women stood up, and the
seamen, with their hands full with the oars, simply put their feet on
them and forced them back into the sitting position.
“We had not got far away by the time the ship went down, and after that
there were men floating in the water all around, and seven of them were
picked up by us in the hours that followed between that and daybreak.
MAD WITH EXPOSURE.
“Some of these seven were already mad with exposure, and babbled
gibberish, and kept trying to get up and overturn the boat. The other
men had to sit upon them to hold them down.
“Two of the men picked up were so overcome with the cold of the water
that they died before we reached the Carpathia, and their dead bodies
were taken aboard. One woman, who spoke a tongue none of us could
understand, was picked up by the boat and believed that her children
were lost.
“She was entirely mad. When her children were brought to her on the
Carpathia she was wild with joy, and lay down on the children on the
floor, trying to cover them with her body, like a wild beast protecting
its young, and they had to take her children away from her for the time
to save them from being suffocated.”
Miss Caroline Bonnell, of Youngstown, O., one of the survivors, said
that passengers who got into lifeboats were led to believe that a
steamship was near and that the lives of all would be saved.
Miss Bonnell and her aunt, Miss Lily Bonnell, of London, England,
were traveling with George D. Wick, an iron and steel manufacturer of
Youngstown, his wife and daughter, Mary Natalie Wick. The women were
saved. Mr. Wick went down with the ship. Like hundreds of others, he
stood aside to give the women and children first chance.
“Miss Wick and I occupied a stateroom together,” said Miss Bonnell. “We
were awakened shortly before midnight by a sudden shock, a grinding
concussion. Miss Wick arose and looked out of the stateroom window. She
saw some men playfully throwing particles of ice at one another, and
realized that we had struck an iceberg.
“She and I dressed, not hastily, for we were not greatly alarmed, and
went on deck.
“There we found a number of passengers. Naturally they were all
somewhat nervous, but there was nothing approaching a panic. The other
members of our party also had come on deck, and we formed a little
group by ourselves.
HAD NO IDEA THE SHIP WAS SINKING.
“We were told to put on life belts, and obeyed. Then the sailors began
to launch the lifeboats. Still we were not alarmed. We had no doubt
that all on board would be saved. In fact, we had no idea that the ship
was sinking and believed that the resort to the lifeboats was merely a
precaution.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account