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)
“I believe it was over 500 feet high, and we can judge by its size by
recalling that seven-eighths of an iceberg is submerged. Within fifty
yards of the boats in the water Captain Rostrom gave the signal to
reverse the engines so our ship would not crash into the shipwrecked
passengers.
“‘Ready men--go,’ shouted the captain to me, and McKenna loosened the
rope and our boat dropped into the water. We tugged away at the oars
with all our strength. We shoved our boat alongside of boat No. 13 from
the Titanic. It was filled with passengers. I believe there were about
fifteen children in it.
“Poor little things! Some were benumbed with cold; others were
apparently lifeless, and several moaned piteously. The women in the
boat were scantily clad. Their clothing was grotesque. They had on
wraps, night robes, silk shawls over their heads and men’s coats around
them. Many had no shoes, and all of them suffered from the cold.
“McKenna and I tied a hawser to the boat and then rowed back to the
Carpathia. Harris, the bos’n’s mate, and another member of the crew
helped us to lift the unfortunate ones from the boat. Some had to be
carried up the ladder to the boat deck of the Carpathia.
“A few could walk, but the majority were so benumbed that they could
neither speak nor walk.
“As fast as others of our crew could get the Titanic’s boats they were
dragged toward the side of the Carpathia. We rescued twenty boatloads
of passengers--710 in all. Our ship resembled a hospital on our way
back to New York, for a number of the women and children were ill.
“The three physicians on the Carpathia told me as we were going up the
bay that there were sixteen patients for the hospital as soon as the
Carpathia docked.”
From a little porthole on the side of the Carpathia a woman passenger
told how the wireless call from the wrecked Titanic sent the Cunard
liner racing to the rescue; how the fainting, hysterical survivors
were taken from the lifeboats, and of the nerve-wrecking scenes that
followed on board the rescue ship.
A NARRATIVE ON THE TUG BOAT REYNOLDS.
The narrative was told to persons on the tug boat Reynolds as the
latter sped side by side with the Carpathia as she moved up the North
river to her berth at the Cunard pier. The woman thrust her head
through the porthole of the liner in response to megaphone calls
shouted from the Reynolds.
“What’s the trouble now?” she asked.
“Tell us about the wreck of the Titanic. Who are you?”
“Miss Peterson, of Passaic, N. J.,” was the answer. She was a passenger
on the Carpathia.
The captain of the Reynolds, William Bennett, turned his craft closer
to the Carpathia, so those on the tug could get within speaking
distance.
“It’s almost too horrible to speak about,” began Miss Peterson. “It
seems like a dream. I was asleep in my berth. I had walked along the
promenade deck until about 10 o’clock and had gone to my room and
fallen asleep. Suddenly I heard a deep blast from the horns. I awoke
startled.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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