Shipwrecks -- North Atlantic Ocean -- History -- 20th century; Titanic (Steamship)
Then I went off and rowed to the wreckage and around the wreckage and
picked up four people alive. I do not know who these live persons
were. They never came near me afterwards either to say this or that or
the other. But one died, Mr. W. F. Hoyt, of New York. After we got him
in the boat we took his collar off so as to give him more chance to
breathe, but unfortunately, he died. He was too far gone when we
picked him up. I then left the wreck. I went right around, and,
strange to say, I did not see a single female body around the
wreckage. I did not have a light in my boat. Then I could see the
_Carpathia_ coming up and I thought: “Well, I am the fastest boat of
the lot,” as I was sailing, you see. I was going through the water
four or five knots, bowling along very nicely.
By and by, I noticed a collapsible boat, Engelhardt “D.” It looked
rather sorry, so I thought: “Well, I will go down and pick her up and
make sure of her.” This was Quartermaster Bright’s boat. Mrs. H. B.
Harris, of New York, was in it. She had a broken arm. I had taken this
first collapsible (“D”) in tow and I noticed that there was another
collapsible (“A”) in a worse plight than this one that I had in tow. I
got to her just in time and took off, I suppose, about twenty men and
one lady. I left three male bodies in it. I may have been a bit
hard-hearted in doing this. I thought: “I am not here to worry about
bodies; I am here to save life and not bother about bodies.” The
people on the raft told me these had been dead for some time. I do not
know whether any one endeavored to find anything on their persons that
would identify them, because they were all up to their ankles in water
when I took them off.
[Illustration: FIFTH OFFICER LOWE TOWING THE CANVAS
COLLAPSIBLE]
[Illustration: THE CANVAS COLLAPSIBLE]
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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