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)
A motor car had been held in readiness and when she disembarked from
the vessel, leaning upon the arm of her young son, she was led silently
to it. They were the first of the Philadelphia survivors to arrive at
the Pennsylvania station. It was exactly 10 o’clock when the car in
which she and her son had ridden, pulled up outside the great building
erected when her husband was one of the directing heads of the road.
With her was Dr. Neidermeier, the station physician, who had been sent
to take care of her during the short time she stayed in New York.
Tenderly he lifted Mrs. Thayer to the pavement and then led her inside
and across the central floor toward the train.
Garments had been brought from her home for Mrs. Thayer, to take the
place of those which she had worn when, scantily clad, she bade her
husband good-bye and climbed down the ladder of the Titanic to the
waiting lifeboats. But the widow was too worn physically and too
greatly bowed down with grief to make the change. She wore a thin
raincoat which reached nearly to the ground. Its folds were wrinkled. A
heavy veil completely covered her head, crushing down her hat.
MET AT THE CUNARD PIER.
Following her from the cab came her son and Henry Thayer, a brother
of the former railroad man. Dr. Gamble, the family physician, and Mr.
Norris, a relative of Mrs. Thayer, were also in the party which had met
her at the Cunard pier.
As the widow of their former chief passed them, the employes of the
railroad stopped and removed their hats. T. DeWitt Cuyler, a director
of the Pennsylvania Railroad, saw her coming and stepped toward her. As
he did so, Dr. Neidermeier quickly grasped his arm and drew him to one
side where Mrs. Thayer would not hear.
“Mr. Thayer is dead,” the physician whispered silently. Mr. Cuyler
gripped the doctor’s hand and then, his face working violently, he
turned quickly away.
It was only a few minutes after Mrs. Thayer had stepped on board the
car that the train started for Philadelphia. It left the station at
10.19 o’clock.
“I was with father,” said “Jack” Thayer, speaking for himself of his
experience. “They wanted me to go into a boat, but I wanted to stay
with him. Men and women kept calling to me to hurry and jump in a boat,
but it wasn’t any use. I knew what I was doing. It didn’t seem to be
anything to be afraid about. Some of the men were laughing. Nobody
appeared to be excited. We had struck with a smash and then we seemed
to slide off backwards from the big field of ice. It was cold, but we
didn’t mind that.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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