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)
The plight of the survivors in the boats was pitiful in the extreme.
Few of the women or children had sufficient clothing, and they shivered
in the bitter cold blasts that came from the great field of ice which
surrounded them. The bergs and cakes of drift ice crashed and thundered
bringing stark terror to the helpless victims.
Frail women aided with the heavy oars tearing their tender hands until
the blood came. Few of the boats were fully manned, sailors had stood
aside deliberately, refusing life that the women might have a chance
for safety although their places were in the boats.
Daybreak found the little flotilla bobbing and tossing on the surface
of the ocean. It was not known whether help was coming. Panic seized
some of the occupants, some of the women tried to jump into the water,
and had to be forcibly restrained. The babies, little tots, just old
enough to realize their position, found themselves heroes. They set an
example which moved their elders to tears as they told of it to-night.
Some tried to comfort their stricken parents.
Finally, off in the distant horizon, a sailor in the leading boat,
discerned smoke. “We are saved,” went up the cry, and the rescue came
just in time, for before the Carpathia had taken aboard the occupants
of the last frail craft the waves were increasing in height, kicked up
by the wind that had increased with the rising of the sun.
All were tenderly cared for on the Cunard liner. The regular passengers
willingly gave up their cabins to their unfortunate refugees, medical
aid was forthcoming, and nothing left undone that could relieve the
distress.
DID NOT SEE ANY SHOTS FIRED.
“It was his face, more than anything else, which made me fearful,”
continued Mr. Stengel. “He looked like an old, old man. I heard him
give instructions to his officers, and they took their stations at the
boats. I did not see anyone shot during the whole wreck. They fired
three shots in the air to show the steerage men that the guns were
loaded, but I was on the boat almost to the last, and I didn’t see
anyone shot. The boat which saved me was not a regular lifeboat, but
a light emergency boat. There was a great rush for it. By the time it
was launched the first fear had subsided. It was the last to be lowered
from the starboard side.
“The Titanic seemed to be floating safely, and a lot of people
preferred it to the flimsy looking rowboats. A deckhand told me that
there was a vacant place in it. There I found Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon,
Lady Duff-Gordon and their maid, Miss Francatelli. Just as the boat was
being lowered Mr. A. L. Solomon jumped in. We had gone but a little way
from the ship when the first boiler explosion came. It was followed
in quick succession by three others, at intervals of about one second
apart.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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