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)
Eight or ten friends and relatives of the Thayer family, together with
Captain Donaghy, of the Lower Merion police department, and a squad of
his men, were awaiting the special train at the Haverford Station. A
big limousine automobile was also on hand with the motor running, ready
to whisk the party to the Thayer home, “Redwood,” just back of the
Merion Cricket Club.
As the train slowed up, the relatives and friends formed a double line
opposite the Pullman car. The moment the train stopped, Mrs. Thayer
was helped down the steps and to the automobile. Wearing heavy brown
furs, a dark hat with a half veil, Mrs. Thayer looked dazed and walked
as one asleep, as she was assisted into the motor car. Her son, young
“Jack” Thayer, was at her side, with Miss Eustis and the maid, Margaret
Fleming, bringing up the rear. The boy, a husky youngster, looked
little the worse for his experiences and bore himself in manly fashion.
TOO OVERCOME TO BE QUESTIONED.
There was a clang of the motor car door, a crashing bang as the gears
were shoved into place and the machine was off at top speed for the
Thayer residence. Dr. Gamble, whose car was also in waiting, acted
as spokesman for all. Mrs. Thayer, he said, was too overcome to be
questioned, but he had gleaned from young “Jack” Thayer and from
Margaret Fleming, the maid, a few details that brought out in vivid
relief the quiet heroism of Mr. Thayer.
The son, also had proven, himself in the critical moment. Shortly after
the Titanic crashed into the iceberg, said the doctor, Mr. Thayer had
collected his wife, his son and his wife’s maid and gotten them in line
for a lifeboat. Realizing that there was not enough room for the men,
Mr. Thayer forced his wife and her maid into the boat and then tried to
get his son in also.
The lad, however, refused to desert his father. Stepping back, he made
room for some one else, said to have been a grown man, and grasping
his father’s hand, said he “guessed he would stick by dad.” Before Mr.
Thayer could protest or forcibly place his son in the lifeboat, it had
been launched and the opportunity was gone.
A few seconds before the Titanic sank, however, Mr. Thayer seemed to
grasp the fact that the end was near. Picking up the boy he threw him
into the sea. “Swim to a boat, my boy,” he said.
Young Thayer, taken by surprise, had no chance to object. Before he
knew what had happened, he was struggling in the icy waters of the
ocean. Striking out, the lad swam to a lifeboat, said Mr. Gamble,
but was beaten off by some of those aboard, as the boat was already
overcrowded.
But the pluck that has made so many Thayers famous as athletes in
many branches of sport was deeply implanted in young “Jack” Thayer.
Turning from the lifeboat from which he had been beaten off, he swam to
another. Once again he was fended away with a long oar. And all this
time Mrs. Thayer, safe in another boat, watched her son struggle for
life, too overcome with horror to even scream.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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