Shipwrecks -- North Atlantic Ocean -- History -- 20th century; Titanic (Steamship)
The quartermaster was then asked to relieve one or the other of those
struggling at the oars, as someone else could manage the rudder while
he rowed. He flatly refused and continued to lampoon them, shouting:
“Here, you fellow on the starboard side, your oar is not being put in
the water at the right angle.” No one made any protest to his
outbursts, as he broke the monotony, but they continued to pull at the
oars with no goal in sight. Presently he raised his voice and shouted
to another lifeboat to pull near and lash alongside, commanding some
of the other ladies to take the light and signal to the other
lifeboats. His command was immediately obeyed. He also gave another
command to drop the oars and lay to. Some time later, after more
shouts, a lifeboat hove to and obeyed his orders to throw a rope, and
was tied alongside. On the cross-seat of that boat stood a man in
white pajamas, looking like a snow man in that icy region. His teeth
were chattering and he appeared quite numb. Seeing his predicament,
Mrs. Brown told him he had better get to rowing and keep his blood in
circulation. But the suggestion met with a forcible protest from the
quartermaster in charge. Mrs. Brown and her companions at the oars,
after their exercise, felt the blasts from the ice-fields and demanded
that they should be allowed to row to keep warm.
Over into their boat jumped a half-frozen stoker, black and covered
with dust. As he was dressed in thin jumpers, she picked up a large
sable stole which she had dropped into the boat and wrapped it around
his limbs from his waist down and tied the tails around his ankles.
She handed him an oar and told the pajama man to cut loose. A howl
arose from the quartermaster in charge. He moved to prevent it, and
Mrs. Brown told him if he did he would be thrown overboard. Someone
laid a hand on her shoulder to stay her threats, but she knew it would
not be necessary to push him over, for had she only moved in the
quartermaster’s direction, he would have tumbled into the sea, so
paralyzed was he with fright. By this time he had worked himself up to
a pitch of sheer despair, fearing that a scramble of any kind would
remove the plug from the bottom of the boat. He then became very
impertinent, and our fur-enveloped stoker in as broad a cockney as one
hears in the Haymarket shouted: “Oi sy, don’t you know you are talkin’
to a lidy?” For the time being the seaman was silenced and we resumed
our task at the oars. Two other ladies came to the rescue.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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