Shipwrecks -- North Atlantic Ocean -- History -- 20th century; Titanic (Steamship)
One of the incidents I recall when loading the boats at this point
was my seeing a young woman clinging tightly to a baby in her arms as
she approached near the ship’s high rail, but unwilling even for a
moment to allow anyone else to hold the little one while assisting her
to board the lifeboat. As she drew back sorrowfully to the outer edge
of the crowd on the deck, I followed and persuaded her to accompany me
to the rail again, promising if she would entrust the baby to me I
would see that the officer passed it to her after she got aboard. I
remember her trepidation as she acceded to my suggestion and the happy
expression of relief when the mother was safely seated with the baby
restored to her. “Where is my baby?” was her anxious wail. “I have
your baby,” I cried, as it was tenderly handed along. I remember this
incident well because of my feeling at the time, when I had the babe
in my care; though the interval was short, I wondered how I should
manage with it in my arms if the lifeboats got away and I should be
plunged into the water with it as the ship sank.
According to Lightoller’s testimony before the Senate Committee he put
twenty to twenty-five women, with two seamen to row, in the first boat
and thirty, with two seamen, in the second.
Our labors in loading the boats were now shifted to the Boat Deck
above, where Clinch Smith and I, with others, followed Lightoller and
the crew. On this deck some difficulty was experienced in getting the
boats ready to lower. Several causes may have contributed to this,
viz., lack of drill and insufficient number of seamen for such
emergency, or because of the new tackle not working smoothly. We had
the hardest time with the Engelhardt boat, lifting and pushing it
towards and over the rail. My shoulders and the whole weight of my
body were used in assisting the crew at this work. Lightoller’s
testimony tells us that as the situation grew more serious he began to
take chances and in loading the third boat he filled it up as full as
he dared to, with about thirty-five persons. By this time he was short
of seamen, and in the fourth boat he put the first man passenger. “Are
you a sailor?” Lightoller asked, and received the reply from the
gentleman addressed that he was “a yachtsman.” Lightoller told him if
he was “sailor enough to get out over the bulwarks to the lifeboat, to
go ahead.” This passenger was Major Arthur Peuchen, of Toronto, who
acquitted himself as a brave man should. My energies were so
concentrated upon this work of loading the boats at this quarter that
lapse of time, sense of sight and sense of hearing recorded no
impressions during this interval until the last boat was loaded; but
there is one fact of which I am positive, and that is that every man,
woman, officer and member of the crew did their full duty without a
sign of fear or confusion. Lightoller’s strong and steady voice rang
out his orders in clear firm tones, inspiring confidence and
obedience.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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