Shipwrecks -- North Atlantic Ocean -- History -- 20th century; Titanic (Steamship)
As may be noticed in Chapter II, it was Clinch Smith’s suggestion and
on his initiative that we left that point on the starboard side of the
Boat Deck where the crew, under Chief Officer Wilde and First Officer
Murdoch, were in vain trying to launch the Engelhardt boat B which had
been thrown down from the roof of the officers’ quarters forward of
the first funnel. I say “Boat B” because I have the information to
that effect in a letter from Second Officer Lightoller. Confirmation
of this statement I also find in the reported interview of a Saloon
Steward, Thomas Whiteley, in the New York _Tribune_ the day after the
_Carpathia’s_ arrival. An analysis of his statement shows that Boat A
became entangled and was abandoned, while he saw the other, bottom up
and filled with people. It was on this boat that he also eventually
climbed and was saved with the rest of us. Clinch Smith and I got away
from this point just before the water reached it and drowned Chief
Officer Wilde and First Officer Murdoch, and others who were not
successful in effecting a lodgment on the boat as it was swept off the
deck. This moment was the first fateful crisis of the many that
immediately followed. As bearing upon it I quote the reported
statement of Harold S. Bride, the junior Marconi operator. His account
also helps to determine the fate of Captain Smith. He says: “Then came
the Captain’s voice [from the bridge to the Marconi operators], ‘Men,
you have done your full duty. You can do no more. Abandon your cabin.
Now, it is every man for himself.’” “Phillips continued to work,” he
says, “for about ten minutes or about fifteen minutes after the
Captain had released him. The water was then coming into our cabin....
I went to the place where I had seen the collapsible boat on the Boat
Deck and to my surprise I saw the boat, and the men still trying to
push it off. They could not do it. I went up to them and was just
lending a hand when a large wave came awash of the deck. The big wave
carried the boat off. I had hold of an oarlock and I went off with it.
The next I knew I was in the boat. But that was not all. I was in the
boat and the boat was upside down and I was under it.... How I got out
from under the boat I do not know, but I felt a breath at last.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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