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)
“No one, apparently, thought there was any danger. We watched a number
of women and children and some men going into the lifeboats. At last
one of the officers came to me and said, ‘Lady Gordon, you had better
go in one of the boats.’
“I said to my husband: ‘Well, we might as well take the boat, although
I think it will be only a little pleasure excursion until morning.’
“The boat was the twelfth or thirteenth to be launched. It was the
captain’s special boat. There was still no excitement. Five stokers got
in and two Americans--A. L. Solomon, of New York, and L. Stengel, of
Newark. Besides these there were two of the crew, Sir Cosmo, myself and
a Miss Frank, an English girl.
“There were a number of other passengers, mostly men, standing near by
and they joked with us because we were going out on the ocean. “The
ship can’t sink,” said one of them. “You will get your death of cold
out there in the ice.”
CRUISED AMONG ICE FOR TWO HOURS.
“We were slung off and the stokers began to row us away. We cruised
around among the ice for two hours. Sir Cosmo had looked at his watch
when we went off. It was exactly 12.15 A. M., and I should think
fifteen minutes after the boat struck. It did not seem to be very cold.
There was no excitement aboard the Titanic.
“Suddenly I had seen the Titanic give a curious shiver. The night was
perfectly clear. There was no fog, and I think we were a thousand feet
away. Everything could be clearly seen. There were no lights on the
boats except a few lanterns which had been lighted by those on board.
“Almost immediately after the boat gave this shiver we heard several
pistol shots and a great screaming arose from the decks.
“Then the boat’s stern lifted in the air and there was a tremendous
explosion. Then the Titanic dropped back again. The awful screaming
continued. Ten minutes after this there was another explosion. The
whole forward part of the great liner dropped down under the waves.
The stern rose a hundred feet, almost perpendicularly. The boat stood
up like an enormous black finger against the sky. The screaming was
agonizing. I never heard such a continued chorus of utter despair and
agony.
“Then there was another great explosion and the great stern of the
Titanic sank as though a great hand was pushing it gently down under
the waves. As it went, the screaming of the poor souls left on board
seemed to grow louder. It took the Titanic but a short time to sink
after that last explosion. It went down slowly without a ripple.
“We had heard the danger of suction when one of these great liners
sink. There was no such thing about the sinking of the Titanic. The
amazing part of it all to me as I sat there in the boat, looking at
this monster being, was that it all could be accomplished so gently.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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