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)
“Major Archibald Butt remained on board and went down with the ship.
Colonel Astor also went down with the ship. Mrs. Astor was in my boat.
The Colonel took her to the side and kissed her and saw her over the
side.
“When I went over the side with my children and got in the boat there
were no seamen in it. Then came a few men, but there were oars with no
one to use them. The boat had been filled with passengers and there was
nothing else for me to do but to take an oar.
WARNED TO PULL AWAY FROM SHIP.
“We could see now that the time of the ship had come. She was sinking
and we were warned by the cries from the men above to pull away from
the ship quickly. Mrs. Thayer, wife of the Vice president of the
Pennsylvania Railroad, was in my boat, and she, too, took an oar.
“It was cold and we had no time to clothe ourselves with warm
overcoats. The rowing warmed me. We started to pull away from the ship.
We could see the dim outlines of the decks above, but we could not
recognize anybody.
“We had pulled our lifeboat away from the Titanic for a distance of
about a city block, that is about all, I should say--when the Titanic
seemed to shake to pieces. The ship had struck about fourteen minutes
to 12. It was ten minutes past 1 when we saw her lunge.
“She had exploded. There was a rumbling noise within her, then she
gave a lurch and started to go down. We realized what it meant. That
the sinking ship would suck us under with her. It was a moment later
that the suction struck us. It was all we could do to keep from being
caught, so strong was the drag down that followed the Titanic.
“But we pulled away at last, after straining as hard as we could at the
oars. Then we were alone in the boat, and it seemed darker. We remained
in the boat all night waiting for daylight to come. It came at last,
and when it broke over the sea we saw ice floes all about it.
“It was about 8.30 o’clock when the Carpathia came into sight. I can’t
tell how I felt when I saw her. I had believed that my husband had gone
down on the ship. It was not until after we were taken over the side of
the Carpathia that I saw him.
“Mr. Carter had been compelled to take an oar in a lifeboat that was
not sufficiently manned. That is how he came to be saved. All of the
men waited for the women to go first. Mr. Carter was among the number.
When he put me into a lifeboat he stayed back, and I had thought when I
saw the ship blow up and sink that he had gone down with her.
DOES NOT DESERVE CRITICISM.
“Mr. Ismay does not deserve any criticism for being saved. He was
another of those who had to man an oar in a lifeboat, so as to get the
boats out of danger by being sucked under by the sinking Titanic.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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