As a former newspaper reporter, I've always been interested in how the newspapers of 1912 covered the Titanic disaster.
I recently began paying special attention to coverage of the Senate Titanic hearings, to compare the formal transcript with newspaper stories on the testimony of witnesses.
I was reading of steerage passenger Daniel Buckley's appearance at the Senate inquiry ---in the Connecticut newspaper, The Day, of May 4, 1912---when I was struck with the feeling that something seemed odd about the story.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1915&dat=19120504&id=FPUgAAAAIBAJ&sjid=z3QFAAAAIBAJ&pg=6441,392126
Odd how? While the gist of the story was what I remembered, there were details that sounded new. So I checked the transcript, and, sure enough, the newspaper story was radically different. It was way beyond the normal disparity between what appears in the press and the formal transcription of the (alleged) words spoken at the hearing.
Was it a case of bad reporting? Or something more?
After weighing all the options, only one answer made sense. The reporter wasn't reporting Buckley's testimony!
What was printed in The Day as the purported account of Buckley's questioning before the Senate Titanic Inquiry was actually a long-lost deposition given by Buckley to Senate investigators before the Inquiry was in session!
Of course. No wonder the opening sentence ("I, with three companions from County Cork, Ireland, took a steerage passage on the Titanic.") read more like a sworn legal document than the words of a Irish immigrant barely out of his teens.
Titanic researcher Senan Molony has called the missing depositions 'the holy grail' of Titanic research.
http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/holy-grail-depositions.html
"Raising to the light of day the missing depositions – if, indeed, they still exist - ought to be a prime goal of Titanic research. Two have recently seen the light of day, and are enough to encourage a certain hope. They also inspire the possibility that this material may be the Holy Grail… with inherent power to rewrite history."
Molony was writing specifically of the depositions taken for the British Inquiry from 212 crew members who returned to England following the disaster. The Buckley deposition, if that is what it is, was taken for the earlier Senate Inquiry and would be the earliest on record.
But how and why did it appear in the middle of an obscure story in an east coast state and nowhere else?
As a former newspaper court reporter, I can hazard a guess.
Buckley gave his official evidence on May 3, 1912. According to the Senate Report on the sinking of the Titanic, on that day Senator William Alden Smith, Inquiry chairman, took testimony from six witnesses. He questioned them separately---that is, alone, without the rest of the committee present.
The reporter for The Day accurately names five of the six.
"Among the witnesses yesterday were Daniel Buckley, a steerage passenger; Melville E. Stone, of the Associated Press; Jack Binns, wireless operator on the steamer Republic, when she went down ... and George Harder, of Brooklyn, a first cabin passenger."
Elsewhere in the story he mentions "Olaus Abelse, who was in the Titanic steerage". This is obviously Olaus Abelseth, the second steerage passenger to testify that day.
There is no mention of Norman Chambers, another first cabin survivor.
The snippets of testimony from four of the five men that he names in his story can reasonably be found in the transcript of the session. Only Buckley's account stands out.
The best explanation I can give is that the reporter wasn't there for Buckley's questioning. He approached Senator Smith afterward for help in recreating what Buckley said. Instead, Smith gave him the depostion, which covered the same ground, and the reporter ran with it.
For a comparison with how Buckley's testimony was covered in other newspapers, see this story in The Telegraph, May 4, 1912.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2209&dat=19120504&id=cRRAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=PaQMAAAAIBAJ&pg=1098,5421140
As an added curiousity, the same story in The Day reported on the testimony of "Thomas Watkins, another steerage passenger." Here, in its entirely, is what the newspaper said:
"Thomas Watkins, a professional swimmer, testified."
"I swam about 14 miles, the night the Titanic went down, before I was rescued. I take these accidents as a matter of business. I have been in similar accidents before, but I lost $2,200 this time."
There was nobody named Thomas Watkins on the Titanic passenger list. Nor was Thomas Watkins mentioned in the official Senate Inquiry Report. Was Senator Smith duped by a phony survivor to the point of taking his sworn testimony?
I initially thought that Thomas "Watkins" was actually Thomas McCormack, another Irish survivor, who, like Buckley, travelled in steerage. In his accounts, he said he swam for hours before being rescued. I considered the possibility that he said in his deposition that he swam "about 14 miles."
But, although you can find many first, second and third-hand accounts of McCormack's experience on the Titanic, there is never a mention of his being a professional swimmer, having swum 14 miles, or losing $2,200. So, who was the Thomas Watkins who testified at the Senate Inquiry? We'll probably never know.
Here, then, is what I believe to be the deposition taken from Daniel Buckley, as reported in The Day, May 4, 1912:
I, with three companions from County Cork, Ireland, took a steerage passage on the Titanic. The night of the tragedy I was awakened by a grating noise. That was when our ship hit the iceberg. My friends and I dressed hastily and started for the boat deck.
We found that officers of the ship had locked a gate to prevent steerage passengers from going up on the first cabin deck. The water was rising fast. We broke the gate and rushed up on deck.
One of the first class passengers said to me: 'here buckle this preserver on; you will need it.' I helped to lower lifeboat No. 6. There being no women around men started to fight their way into it. An officer fired several shots over their heads.
Just as we lowered the boat and stood ready to shove off we saw a group of women on deck. The officer ordered 'you men get out of that boat or I'll kill you.'
Almost all the men except myself got out. I was crying when I jumped into the boat and fell face forward on the floor.
Mrs. John Jacob Astor took pity on me. 'Stop crying,' she told me 'and take this shawl and wrap it over you.' Officers saw me wrapped in Mrs. Astor's shawl. They thought I was a woman and let me be. Then they loaded a lot of other women in the boat.
We had rowed about 200 yards away when the Titanic went down, with a noise like thunder.
I would be dead today if it were not for the mercy of Mrs. Astor, and her goodness," said Buckley.
The witness, 21 years old, told his story without shame and apparently with no realization of the light in which he was placing himself.
"Was any preference shown as regards first cabin and steerage women," asked Senator Smith.
"Not that I could see, " replied Buckley. "The women were loaded into the lifeboats as fast as they came on deck. It made no difference who they were just so they were women."
"What sort of people were with you?" inquired Senator Smith.
"There were 20 or 30 passengers, all classes, I should say, and some firemen and stewards."
"Were there any women left on deck?"
Yes, there were some.The officers ordered us out and when we didn't go one of them shot his revolver over us six times. Then they threw us out, until there were only six men left, and the women began to climb in, mostly steerage passengers."
"A fireman in my boat said that she hadn't been sunk by ice at all. He said that they had been trying to make a record with her and her boilers burst."
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Sunday, May 11, 2014
Snoopy reporters paid to solve a Titanic puzzle
Toledo News-Bee
April 24, 1912
It Costs the Newspapermen
$100 To Learn They're Stung
The joke is on those wise New York newspapermen, and it cost them just $100 to find it out. One of the enterprising journals of the metropolis dispatched a tug to meet the liner Carpathia as it neared New York with survivors of the wrecked Titanic.
On its way the press boat caught this wireless code message directed at Carpathia:
"If any rurhuman alegroness pessimabe herkeluaur buauing nbonrd claiming have alforjin from me ospiinylle false overgordel to orbing with all compnrsero consistent with procedidng nestilvitas minde sinturnus ipsuillees modify entedrntess and eninbindo procedure and ditifico egogue enerveinis or enerveront.
Sumner
Scenting mystery, the newspaper promptly printed the dispatch and offered $100 reward for a correct translation. Manager Sumner of the Cunard Line, which owns the Carpathia, telephoned the paper to send a representative and $100 to him.
"I think I can translate the cipher,"he said,"as I wrote it myself."
Then he informed the paper that the message merely warned the Carpathia not to let any newspaper boats send reporters aboard, and ordered the Captain to rush to New York.
The joke was all the funnier when it came out that the press boat in question relayed the code message to the Carpathia, thus killing its own chances to board the rescue ship and interview survivors.
April 24, 1912
It Costs the Newspapermen
$100 To Learn They're Stung
The joke is on those wise New York newspapermen, and it cost them just $100 to find it out. One of the enterprising journals of the metropolis dispatched a tug to meet the liner Carpathia as it neared New York with survivors of the wrecked Titanic.
On its way the press boat caught this wireless code message directed at Carpathia:
"If any rurhuman alegroness pessimabe herkeluaur buauing nbonrd claiming have alforjin from me ospiinylle false overgordel to orbing with all compnrsero consistent with procedidng nestilvitas minde sinturnus ipsuillees modify entedrntess and eninbindo procedure and ditifico egogue enerveinis or enerveront.
Sumner
Scenting mystery, the newspaper promptly printed the dispatch and offered $100 reward for a correct translation. Manager Sumner of the Cunard Line, which owns the Carpathia, telephoned the paper to send a representative and $100 to him.
"I think I can translate the cipher,"he said,"as I wrote it myself."
Then he informed the paper that the message merely warned the Carpathia not to let any newspaper boats send reporters aboard, and ordered the Captain to rush to New York.
The joke was all the funnier when it came out that the press boat in question relayed the code message to the Carpathia, thus killing its own chances to board the rescue ship and interview survivors.
How Far South Was The Iceberg That Holed The Titanic?
The Sunday Morning Star
Wilmington, Delaware
April 28, 1912
The Titanic's Position
It will probably surprise most persons to know how far south the Titanic was when it encountered the iceberg that gave the steamship its death blow. The location of the boat given by the wireless call for help was 41:46 north and 50:14 west. A reference to the map will show that this point is south of all the New England states. A map of Europe will show the location of the Titanic when it went down ever more strikingly. The ship sailed from Southampton, England, in latitude about 50 north, and she was at least 9 degrees, or about 600 statute miles, south of that latitude when she struck the iceberg. She was in a latitude not only far south of the English channel, but farther south than any part of Germany, France, or Austria. She was about the same latitude as Rome and Constantinople. The Riviera, where many Europeans and Americans go to find a mild winter climate is farther north than was the Titanic when she ran into the ice field.
In fact the Titanic was in the same latitude as the Adriatic Sea and the northern part of the Mediterranean. She was not more than 100 miles north of the Azores, which is on the southernmost course across the Atlantic, even for ships bound for the Mediterranean. If a line was drawn from New York City to Madrid, Spain, that line would pass near the point where the Titanic sank in a great field of ice. All reports show that the ice field was fast moving south.
These facts raise and interesting question: How far south would the Titanic have had to go to have escaped the ice?
Wilmington, Delaware
April 28, 1912
The Titanic's Position
It will probably surprise most persons to know how far south the Titanic was when it encountered the iceberg that gave the steamship its death blow. The location of the boat given by the wireless call for help was 41:46 north and 50:14 west. A reference to the map will show that this point is south of all the New England states. A map of Europe will show the location of the Titanic when it went down ever more strikingly. The ship sailed from Southampton, England, in latitude about 50 north, and she was at least 9 degrees, or about 600 statute miles, south of that latitude when she struck the iceberg. She was in a latitude not only far south of the English channel, but farther south than any part of Germany, France, or Austria. She was about the same latitude as Rome and Constantinople. The Riviera, where many Europeans and Americans go to find a mild winter climate is farther north than was the Titanic when she ran into the ice field.
In fact the Titanic was in the same latitude as the Adriatic Sea and the northern part of the Mediterranean. She was not more than 100 miles north of the Azores, which is on the southernmost course across the Atlantic, even for ships bound for the Mediterranean. If a line was drawn from New York City to Madrid, Spain, that line would pass near the point where the Titanic sank in a great field of ice. All reports show that the ice field was fast moving south.
These facts raise and interesting question: How far south would the Titanic have had to go to have escaped the ice?
Friday, March 28, 2014
The Two Tales of Mrs. Coutts Reveal A Heroic Act By Moody, Titanic's Junior Officer
There's nothing more frustrating for a Titanic researcher than finding a first-hand account by a Titanic survivor that's clear and detailed---only to discover another first-hand account by the same survivor that's just as clear and just as detailed but which completely contradicts the first one.
Arghh.
Take the two tales of Winnie Coutts.
The first appeared in the Washington Post (and can be found on Encyclopedia Titanica in their biography of Winnie Coutts):
http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/tribute-heroes.html
(all emphases mine)
RESCUED WOMAN PAYS TRIBUTE TO HEROIC MEN ON TITANIC
The Washington Post
Saturday 20 April 1912
From the lips of the woman who was saved from the Titanic came today one of the most glowing tributes yet paid to the heroism and self-sacrifice of the brave men who gave their lives that women and children might be spared a watery grave.
Mrs William Coutts, of this city, described in graphic manner how she and her two sons, Neville and William 3 and 9 years old, respectively, were rescued through the bravery of men aboard the doomed vessel.
“My husband had sent me money to buy second-class passage for the children and myself.” Said Mrs Coutts, “but I went in the steerage. I wanted to save the difference in passage money to help build up our home.”
“I was asleep when the ship struck. The crash was slight that I thought little of it. I lay awake for fully fifteen minutes before I got up. I dressed myself slowly, and then went out on deck to see what the trouble was.”
“Every one was hurrying, but there was no disorder. I heard some talk about lifeboats, and then I hurried back to the children. I tied life preservers on the boys and then looked around for one for myself. There was none in sight.”
“I rushed out on deck with the children following me.”
“Just when I had given up hope of finding my way a seaman came along and said “Hurry now; all women and children to the lifeboats.”
“He took us to the side of the ship but I wanted a life preserver. Just then an American gentleman who had heard me asking for a life preserver stepped up to me. He raised his hat, and then slowly removed the life preserver he had strapped to himself.”
“Take my life preserver, madam,” he said. Then he reached over and put his hand on the children’s heads. “If I go down, please pray for me.” He said.
“There were other brave men on board the Titanic, for I saw them helping women into the lifeboats as our boat pulled away. After kissing those they helped into the boats the men stepped back and did everything they could to load the boats quickly.”
“I was in the first boat that was picked up by the Carpathia. There were seventeen in our boat. It was frightfully cold, but neither I nor the children suffered as much as the others, because we were fully dressed.”
“When we got on board the Carpathia every one did everything possible for us. There was no discrimination, the poorest women receiving as much attention as the wealthiest.”
That story may have come "from the lips" of Winnie Coutts, but the next came "from the pen" of the same woman. It's in the form of a letter written by Mrs. Coutts to a friend in England. The letter is dated April 26, 1912.
The entire letter was reprinted in George M. Behe's terrific book of first-hand accounts 'On Board RMS Titanic' (P. 254). You can hear the sections of the letter relevant to this article read by Winnie Coutts'
granddaughter at http://publicradioeast.org/post/enc-ties-tiantic
Here is a story about that letter containing those parts read by the granddaughter:
(All emphasis mine)
Mon April 23, 2012
ENC (East North Carolina) ties to the Titanic / Public Radio East
New Bern, NC – Sunday was the 100th anniversary of the Titanic sinking, a British passenger liner that met a watery grave after it struck an iceberg. The vessel was on her maiden voyage across the Atlantic to New York City. This week, we set out to discover any ties the Titanic had with eastern North Carolina. In New Bern, we found a woman whose family survived that disaster. Fay Coutts Blettner reads from a letter written by her grandmother, Minnie Coutts written to a friend in England after the incident.
"the crash was so slight that I thought little of it. I lay awake fully 15 minutes. Presently, I could hear people opening their cabin doors and inquiring what was the matter. Some of the stewardesses assured them that there was no danger."
Many people during this time believed the Titanic was an unsinkable ship.
"However, I got up just to find out all about it. I was surprised to see foreigners carrying all their belongings---rugs, blankets and even small trunks up on deck. Children were crying."
Around 11:40 pm on that April 14th night, the Titanic ran into an iceberg, ripping a large hole in the starboard side of the ship. Blettner says her grandmother became concerned when an order for life preservers was issued. Alarmed, she awoke her two sons, Willie and Neville, who were ages 9 and 3 at the time. Blettner continues her letter:
"I pulled Neville out of bed, put on his knickers and coat over his sleeping suit and put on his boots, no time to lace them up. There were only two life preservers in my cabin and I put one on Willy, and the other on Neville. I mentioned to an officer that I had not gotten one, and he said he was afraid that there were not anymore."
The Titanic didn't have enough life jackets or lifeboats on board for the two thousand two hundred and twenty three people.
"we were just going, when I saw the same officer. I said to him again that I had not gotten one of the preservers. He told me to follow him. He took us through quite a number of corridors and passages right into the first class saloon, to his own quarters. There, he got his own lifebelt and tied it on me saying at the same time, 'There my child, if the boat goes down, you'll remember me.'"
The "American gentleman" has become one of the Titanic's officers.
The story of how he "removed the life preserver he had strapped to himself” is now a story of being led through "quite a number of corridors and passages" to the officer's "own quarters" where "he got his own lifebelt and tied it on me."
The Good Samaritan's last words were either "If I go down, please pray for me.” or "if the boat goes down, you'll remember me.'"
Arghh.
Which story to believe? Both come across as credible. But they can't both be true?
Here's where a Titanic researcher earns his stripes. To refuse to pick one story over another is a cop-out and is not an option. What tips the balance?
One story was in the public sphere; the other was private. You always lean toward a story told in private to a friend or relative. Witnesses will be more open and revealing with confidantes. But that's not enough. You still need to examine the competing story to try to identify its defects.
In the Coutts case, the answer lies in the mechanics of news gathering.
The story is dated April 20, 1912. The rescue ship Carpathia arrived in New York the evening of April 18, 1912. Steerage passengers, including Mrs. Coutts, were the last to be released from the ship after it docked. One newspaper story says all were off the Carpathia within an hour after the first passenger left at 9:35 p.m. Mrs. Coutts was undoubtedly met by her husband, William Coutts, and rushed to their home at 143 Fourth Avenue, Brooklyn.
The reunion between a fearful husband and his wife and children would have been as irresistable a story then as now. Yet the Washington Post story doesn't mention her husband. This suggests to me that a reporter spoke to Mrs. Coutts at the pier April 18, and not at her home the following day.
New York was a madhouse for reporters the night the Carpathia arrived and even the day after. Reporters acted as legmen who would buttonhole any survivor they could find, collect a few anecdotes, then phone them in to a rewrite man who would blend their work into a single story.
Some reporters teamed up, each getting what he could with each of them eventually sharing their stories with the other. With 700 survivors scattered to the winds, even that wasn't easy.
The goal initially was quantity, not quality. There are many ways to snag stories in such a chaotic environment. You can stop a witness and ask as many questions as possible before he or she walks away.
You can be part of a mob of reporters lobbing questions at a witness while you copy down the answers. You can eavesdrop on witnesses talking to family members. You can eavesdrop on other reporters phoning in to their rewrite men.
If we accept that Mrs. Coutts' letter details the true version of events, simply because there's no middleman who can misconstrue or misquote her, then we can see that the Washington Post tale was a product of a flawed reporting process.
It's possible another woman's account of getting a lifebelt from an American man was spliced onto Mrs. Coutt's account by a rewrite man. Or something she said was misinterpreted. Or even that a reporter invented a detail or two to spice up the story. We'll never know.
But determining which tale is true is not the an end in itself. Who was the officer who gave his lifebelt to Mrs. Coutts?
From her description of events, it was someone who led her from the back of the ship, to the first class saloon (which was on D Deck, unless Mrs. Coutts was actually referring to the first class lounge on A Deck), to his quarters at the front of the ship. He wasn't wearing his lifebelt; he retrieved it from his room.
Only one officer fits the bill---Sixth Officer James Moody.
Chief Officer Henry Wilde and Second Officer Charles Lightoller had lifebelts. Lightoller wrote in The Christian Science Journal ,Vol. XXX, 10/1912, No. 7, that while in his room handing out guns to the senior officers he heard Wilde say he was going for his lifebelt, prompting him, Lightoller, to grab his own.
Third Officer Herbert Pitman was off the ship in Lifeboat No.5. Fifth Officer Harold Lowe left in Lifeboat No. 14. Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall was sending off rockets before being ordered to Lifeboat No. 2; he was never at the stern of the ship.
First Officer William Murdoch loaded the aft starboard lifeboats, then went forward and wound up briefly at No.2, in which Mrs. Coutts and her sons escaped. But a reconstruction of the timing of events shows his priority was on getting passengers into six still-unloaded lifeboats, not on helping one mother find a lifebelt.
http://titanicsecrets.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-final-shootings-on-titanic.html
That leaves James Moody. As I demonstrated in the above article, Moody's role during the sinking of the Titanic has been underestimated. His role in lowering the aft port lifeboats has been completely overlooked. He was ordered by Lightoller to get the aft boats ready for loading, so he left the area of the officers' quarters before the order for lifebelts was given by the Captain.
After lowering Boat No. 12, it's possible he met up with Murdoch at No. 10 and was tasked with going below decks to find more women, something he had done for Murdoch at the aft starboard boats. This would explain how he met up with Mrs. Coutts.
Thus, unravelling the true story of Mrs. Coutts and her sons has led to the discovery of an unknown heroic act by James Moody, Titanic's most junior officer.
It also explains how she, a third-cabin passenger, wound up in Lifeboat No. 2, a boat in the first-class section of the ship. The other occupants were three groupings of first cabin passengers (Mrs. Appleton and Mrs. Cornell, Mrs. Douglas and her maid, and Mrs. Robert, her daughter, her niece and her maid) as well as steerage passengers Mr. and Mrs. Kink and their daughter. The Kinks were among the first to abandon their steerage quarters and get to the boat deck, and had been waiting for a lifeboat almost from the beginning, explaining how they were present. (Mr. Kink dove into No. 2 at the last moment as it was being lowered to the sea.)
That's how Titanic's Secrets Unfold.
Arghh.
Take the two tales of Winnie Coutts.
The first appeared in the Washington Post (and can be found on Encyclopedia Titanica in their biography of Winnie Coutts):
http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/tribute-heroes.html
(all emphases mine)
RESCUED WOMAN PAYS TRIBUTE TO HEROIC MEN ON TITANIC
The Washington Post
Saturday 20 April 1912
From the lips of the woman who was saved from the Titanic came today one of the most glowing tributes yet paid to the heroism and self-sacrifice of the brave men who gave their lives that women and children might be spared a watery grave.
Mrs William Coutts, of this city, described in graphic manner how she and her two sons, Neville and William 3 and 9 years old, respectively, were rescued through the bravery of men aboard the doomed vessel.
“My husband had sent me money to buy second-class passage for the children and myself.” Said Mrs Coutts, “but I went in the steerage. I wanted to save the difference in passage money to help build up our home.”
“I was asleep when the ship struck. The crash was slight that I thought little of it. I lay awake for fully fifteen minutes before I got up. I dressed myself slowly, and then went out on deck to see what the trouble was.”
“Every one was hurrying, but there was no disorder. I heard some talk about lifeboats, and then I hurried back to the children. I tied life preservers on the boys and then looked around for one for myself. There was none in sight.”
“I rushed out on deck with the children following me.”
“Just when I had given up hope of finding my way a seaman came along and said “Hurry now; all women and children to the lifeboats.”
“He took us to the side of the ship but I wanted a life preserver. Just then an American gentleman who had heard me asking for a life preserver stepped up to me. He raised his hat, and then slowly removed the life preserver he had strapped to himself.”
“Take my life preserver, madam,” he said. Then he reached over and put his hand on the children’s heads. “If I go down, please pray for me.” He said.
“There were other brave men on board the Titanic, for I saw them helping women into the lifeboats as our boat pulled away. After kissing those they helped into the boats the men stepped back and did everything they could to load the boats quickly.”
“I was in the first boat that was picked up by the Carpathia. There were seventeen in our boat. It was frightfully cold, but neither I nor the children suffered as much as the others, because we were fully dressed.”
“When we got on board the Carpathia every one did everything possible for us. There was no discrimination, the poorest women receiving as much attention as the wealthiest.”
That story may have come "from the lips" of Winnie Coutts, but the next came "from the pen" of the same woman. It's in the form of a letter written by Mrs. Coutts to a friend in England. The letter is dated April 26, 1912.
The entire letter was reprinted in George M. Behe's terrific book of first-hand accounts 'On Board RMS Titanic' (P. 254). You can hear the sections of the letter relevant to this article read by Winnie Coutts'
granddaughter at http://publicradioeast.org/post/enc-ties-tiantic
Here is a story about that letter containing those parts read by the granddaughter:
(All emphasis mine)
Mon April 23, 2012
ENC (East North Carolina) ties to the Titanic / Public Radio East
New Bern, NC – Sunday was the 100th anniversary of the Titanic sinking, a British passenger liner that met a watery grave after it struck an iceberg. The vessel was on her maiden voyage across the Atlantic to New York City. This week, we set out to discover any ties the Titanic had with eastern North Carolina. In New Bern, we found a woman whose family survived that disaster. Fay Coutts Blettner reads from a letter written by her grandmother, Minnie Coutts written to a friend in England after the incident.
"the crash was so slight that I thought little of it. I lay awake fully 15 minutes. Presently, I could hear people opening their cabin doors and inquiring what was the matter. Some of the stewardesses assured them that there was no danger."
Many people during this time believed the Titanic was an unsinkable ship.
"However, I got up just to find out all about it. I was surprised to see foreigners carrying all their belongings---rugs, blankets and even small trunks up on deck. Children were crying."
Around 11:40 pm on that April 14th night, the Titanic ran into an iceberg, ripping a large hole in the starboard side of the ship. Blettner says her grandmother became concerned when an order for life preservers was issued. Alarmed, she awoke her two sons, Willie and Neville, who were ages 9 and 3 at the time. Blettner continues her letter:
"I pulled Neville out of bed, put on his knickers and coat over his sleeping suit and put on his boots, no time to lace them up. There were only two life preservers in my cabin and I put one on Willy, and the other on Neville. I mentioned to an officer that I had not gotten one, and he said he was afraid that there were not anymore."
The Titanic didn't have enough life jackets or lifeboats on board for the two thousand two hundred and twenty three people.
"we were just going, when I saw the same officer. I said to him again that I had not gotten one of the preservers. He told me to follow him. He took us through quite a number of corridors and passages right into the first class saloon, to his own quarters. There, he got his own lifebelt and tied it on me saying at the same time, 'There my child, if the boat goes down, you'll remember me.'"
The "American gentleman" has become one of the Titanic's officers.
The story of how he "removed the life preserver he had strapped to himself” is now a story of being led through "quite a number of corridors and passages" to the officer's "own quarters" where "he got his own lifebelt and tied it on me."
The Good Samaritan's last words were either "If I go down, please pray for me.” or "if the boat goes down, you'll remember me.'"
Arghh.
Which story to believe? Both come across as credible. But they can't both be true?
Here's where a Titanic researcher earns his stripes. To refuse to pick one story over another is a cop-out and is not an option. What tips the balance?
One story was in the public sphere; the other was private. You always lean toward a story told in private to a friend or relative. Witnesses will be more open and revealing with confidantes. But that's not enough. You still need to examine the competing story to try to identify its defects.
In the Coutts case, the answer lies in the mechanics of news gathering.
The story is dated April 20, 1912. The rescue ship Carpathia arrived in New York the evening of April 18, 1912. Steerage passengers, including Mrs. Coutts, were the last to be released from the ship after it docked. One newspaper story says all were off the Carpathia within an hour after the first passenger left at 9:35 p.m. Mrs. Coutts was undoubtedly met by her husband, William Coutts, and rushed to their home at 143 Fourth Avenue, Brooklyn.
The reunion between a fearful husband and his wife and children would have been as irresistable a story then as now. Yet the Washington Post story doesn't mention her husband. This suggests to me that a reporter spoke to Mrs. Coutts at the pier April 18, and not at her home the following day.
New York was a madhouse for reporters the night the Carpathia arrived and even the day after. Reporters acted as legmen who would buttonhole any survivor they could find, collect a few anecdotes, then phone them in to a rewrite man who would blend their work into a single story.
Some reporters teamed up, each getting what he could with each of them eventually sharing their stories with the other. With 700 survivors scattered to the winds, even that wasn't easy.
The goal initially was quantity, not quality. There are many ways to snag stories in such a chaotic environment. You can stop a witness and ask as many questions as possible before he or she walks away.
You can be part of a mob of reporters lobbing questions at a witness while you copy down the answers. You can eavesdrop on witnesses talking to family members. You can eavesdrop on other reporters phoning in to their rewrite men.
If we accept that Mrs. Coutts' letter details the true version of events, simply because there's no middleman who can misconstrue or misquote her, then we can see that the Washington Post tale was a product of a flawed reporting process.
It's possible another woman's account of getting a lifebelt from an American man was spliced onto Mrs. Coutt's account by a rewrite man. Or something she said was misinterpreted. Or even that a reporter invented a detail or two to spice up the story. We'll never know.
But determining which tale is true is not the an end in itself. Who was the officer who gave his lifebelt to Mrs. Coutts?
From her description of events, it was someone who led her from the back of the ship, to the first class saloon (which was on D Deck, unless Mrs. Coutts was actually referring to the first class lounge on A Deck), to his quarters at the front of the ship. He wasn't wearing his lifebelt; he retrieved it from his room.
Only one officer fits the bill---Sixth Officer James Moody.
Chief Officer Henry Wilde and Second Officer Charles Lightoller had lifebelts. Lightoller wrote in The Christian Science Journal ,Vol. XXX, 10/1912, No. 7, that while in his room handing out guns to the senior officers he heard Wilde say he was going for his lifebelt, prompting him, Lightoller, to grab his own.
Third Officer Herbert Pitman was off the ship in Lifeboat No.5. Fifth Officer Harold Lowe left in Lifeboat No. 14. Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall was sending off rockets before being ordered to Lifeboat No. 2; he was never at the stern of the ship.
First Officer William Murdoch loaded the aft starboard lifeboats, then went forward and wound up briefly at No.2, in which Mrs. Coutts and her sons escaped. But a reconstruction of the timing of events shows his priority was on getting passengers into six still-unloaded lifeboats, not on helping one mother find a lifebelt.
http://titanicsecrets.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-final-shootings-on-titanic.html
That leaves James Moody. As I demonstrated in the above article, Moody's role during the sinking of the Titanic has been underestimated. His role in lowering the aft port lifeboats has been completely overlooked. He was ordered by Lightoller to get the aft boats ready for loading, so he left the area of the officers' quarters before the order for lifebelts was given by the Captain.
After lowering Boat No. 12, it's possible he met up with Murdoch at No. 10 and was tasked with going below decks to find more women, something he had done for Murdoch at the aft starboard boats. This would explain how he met up with Mrs. Coutts.
Thus, unravelling the true story of Mrs. Coutts and her sons has led to the discovery of an unknown heroic act by James Moody, Titanic's most junior officer.
It also explains how she, a third-cabin passenger, wound up in Lifeboat No. 2, a boat in the first-class section of the ship. The other occupants were three groupings of first cabin passengers (Mrs. Appleton and Mrs. Cornell, Mrs. Douglas and her maid, and Mrs. Robert, her daughter, her niece and her maid) as well as steerage passengers Mr. and Mrs. Kink and their daughter. The Kinks were among the first to abandon their steerage quarters and get to the boat deck, and had been waiting for a lifeboat almost from the beginning, explaining how they were present. (Mr. Kink dove into No. 2 at the last moment as it was being lowered to the sea.)
That's how Titanic's Secrets Unfold.
Sunday, February 16, 2014
"She is absolutely unsinkable"
The Lewsiston Daily Sun
April 15, 1912 Page One
Franklin Not Worrying
New York, April 15---P.A.S. Franklin, vice-president of the International Mercantile Marine, stated early today that it was difficult to credit the report that the Titanic had met with an accident in view of the fact that the White Star Line had received no wireless message from her.
"We received a wireless from the Titanic early yesterday, giving her position," said Mr.Franklin, "and I am sure if she had met with an accident since, we would have heard from her. We are absolutely satisfied that if she has been in collision with an iceberg she is in no danger. With her various water-tight compartments, she is absolutely unsinkable and it makes no difference what she hit. The report should not cause any serious anxiety.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1928&dat=19120415&id=9LogAAAAIBAJ&sjid=UmkFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1640,5067134
United States Senate Inquiry
Day 3
Testimony of Philip Franklin
(Mr. Franklin was sworn by the chairman.)
Senator SMITH.
What is your full name?
Mr. FRANKLIN.
Philip A. S. Franklin.
Senator SMITH.
And where do you reside?
Mr. FRANKLIN.
I reside in New York.
Senator SMITH.
What is your business?
Mr. FRANKLIN.
I am the vice president in the United States of the International Mercantile Marine Co.
Senator SMITH.
How old are you?
Mr. FRANKLIN.
Forty-one years of age.
Senator SMITH.
What composes the International Mercantile Marine Co.?
Mr. FRANKLIN.
In a general way, the International Mercantile Marine Co., through its various ramifications, owns the White Star Line, the American Line, the Red Star Line, the Atlantic Transport Line, and the National Line, and the majority of the stock of the Leyland Line
April 15, 1912 Page One
Franklin Not Worrying
New York, April 15---P.A.S. Franklin, vice-president of the International Mercantile Marine, stated early today that it was difficult to credit the report that the Titanic had met with an accident in view of the fact that the White Star Line had received no wireless message from her.
"We received a wireless from the Titanic early yesterday, giving her position," said Mr.Franklin, "and I am sure if she had met with an accident since, we would have heard from her. We are absolutely satisfied that if she has been in collision with an iceberg she is in no danger. With her various water-tight compartments, she is absolutely unsinkable and it makes no difference what she hit. The report should not cause any serious anxiety.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1928&dat=19120415&id=9LogAAAAIBAJ&sjid=UmkFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1640,5067134
United States Senate Inquiry
Day 3
Testimony of Philip Franklin
(Mr. Franklin was sworn by the chairman.)
Senator SMITH.
What is your full name?
Mr. FRANKLIN.
Philip A. S. Franklin.
Senator SMITH.
And where do you reside?
Mr. FRANKLIN.
I reside in New York.
Senator SMITH.
What is your business?
Mr. FRANKLIN.
I am the vice president in the United States of the International Mercantile Marine Co.
Senator SMITH.
How old are you?
Mr. FRANKLIN.
Forty-one years of age.
Senator SMITH.
What composes the International Mercantile Marine Co.?
Mr. FRANKLIN.
In a general way, the International Mercantile Marine Co., through its various ramifications, owns the White Star Line, the American Line, the Red Star Line, the Atlantic Transport Line, and the National Line, and the majority of the stock of the Leyland Line
Titanic Widow Gives Clew To Great Jewel Theft
The Independent (St.Petersburg, Florida)
Tuesday, Aug. 5,1913 Page Six
Titanic Widow Gives Clew To Great Jewel Theft
Newport, Aug. 4---Mrs. Daniel Marvin, a fashionable young widow, whose husband lost his life in the Titanic disaster, has given the police an important clew that may aid them in tracing (sic) down the thieves who perpetrated the robbery of $125,000 worth of gems from the boudoir of Mrs. Charles G. Ramsey. Mrs. Marvin was returning in her automobile from a marshmellow bake, and while spinning along Ford road she saw a machine standing near Gunning Rock Cottage, the place occupied by Mrs. Ramsey, who is the daughter of the late E.H. Harriman. In the machine was a strange woman, and as Mrs. Marvin's auto drew close by two men rushed up, jumped into the car with the woman and sped away at breakneck speed. Mrs. Marvin was able to describe the car and its occupant, but the police refuse to state whether he (sic) had noticed the license number on the rear of the supposed thieves' machine.
*****************************************************************
New York Times
Aug. 1, 1912
Trail Gem Suspect to Big Hotel Here
Burns Detective After Clue to
the Stolen Jewels of Mrs. Rumsey]
and Mrs. Hanan
__________________
Haul Worth Over $250,000
__________________
"Gentleman Burglar" sought---M.s.
Hanan won't suspect servants---
Humors of Amateur Sleuthing
______________________
Special to the New York Times
NARRAGANSETT PIER, R. I., July 31---The search for the thieves who rifled the jewel collections of Mrs. C.C. Rumsey and Mrs. John H. Hanan continued unsuccessfully today, though the detectives sent here by the different agencies picked up a thread that took them out of town. Out of the many shadowy rumors current at the Pier tonight is a fairly definite one about a possible clue followed. It is understood here that one of the Burns detectives has shadowed a man to one of the big hotels in Forty-second Street, New York City.
Usually several days after such a robbery or series of robberies it is found that the loss has been overestimated. The reverse seems true in the Narragansett cases, for it now seems probable that thieves made way with gems worth more than a quarter of a million dollars. An extra necklace is missing from the Rumsey collection, a rope of pearls which cost in the neighborhood of $40,000 and which brings the total theft from the Gunning Rock cottage to $115,000.The omission of this second necklace from the list as originally published was not due to any attempt to conceal its loss---nor was it due as was rumored here for a while, to a second theft in the same house. The first publication of the loss, it will be remembered, was made from New York by C.C.Tegethoff, the representative of Mrs. Harriman in the administration of the Harriman estate, and before coming to Narragansett Pier he had not known that the second necklace was missing.
The impression is growing here that the thief was of the type known as "gentleman burglar", or, more picturesquely, as "Raffles."
"I would be willing to wager," said one of the Burns men today, "that the man, or possibly the woman, who went into the Rumsey house and stole those jewels was in evening clothes."
The impression is growing too that the two robberies were done by members of a band of skilled gem thieves. It is regarded as inconceivable that a mere sneak-thief, having accomplished so rich a haul at the Hanan home on Friday night, would have risked another twenty-four hours in Narragansett Pier to rob the Rumsey cottage. Closer study of the Hanan case suggests less of hurry and more of skill than it did at first. It has been noticed that most of the jewels that were passed by for no apparent reason were of a distinctive nature difficult to efface in the markets where stolen jewels are bought.
Mrs. Hanan was told to-night that in the minds of some of the detectives suspicion was narrowing down to one her twenty-two servants, but she continued to express confidence in them all.
"It would almost destroy my faith in human nature" she observed.
She added that if one of her household were found guilty, and were to surrender the plunder, she would let him or her take the next train out of town unmolested. The servants are all restive under the searchlight, and Mrs. Hanan has lamented their demoralization more than the loss of her gems.
The summer colonists whose jewels have been safely stored in vaults elsewhere are in a position to enjoy the amusing features of the thief hunt.
Besides the men from the three or four private agencies engaged, the Pier is overrun with amateur and independent detectives, all following the most amusing clues, all extraordinarily mysterious and many of them reduced to the point of soliciting on the street an opportunity to be put to work on the cases. The horde of detectives alone means many strangers in town and many are unknown to each other. The gayety of the Pier was added to measurably to-day by the discovery that two detectives from rival agencies had been shadowing each other all day long.
One of those who saw the automobile which detectives believe figured in the Rumsey robbery, was Mrs. Daniel Marvin, the young widiow of a Titanic victim, who is now staying with her aunt, Mrs. Wheelock, in a cottage near the Rumseys. Mrs. Marvin gave a marshmallow roast on the rocks in front of the cottage last Saturday night, and she and her party were returning from the shore shortly before midnight when they came upon an automobile standing unlighted in the fork of the road.
The machine was a long gray touring car. A woman who was sitting in the back seat was the only occupant, but two men appeared and hastily climbed into the car. One of the Marvin party shouted, "Who are you?" and received the answer in a gruff voice, "None of your business." as the automobile shot down the road.
Tuesday, Aug. 5,1913 Page Six
Titanic Widow Gives Clew To Great Jewel Theft
Newport, Aug. 4---Mrs. Daniel Marvin, a fashionable young widow, whose husband lost his life in the Titanic disaster, has given the police an important clew that may aid them in tracing (sic) down the thieves who perpetrated the robbery of $125,000 worth of gems from the boudoir of Mrs. Charles G. Ramsey. Mrs. Marvin was returning in her automobile from a marshmellow bake, and while spinning along Ford road she saw a machine standing near Gunning Rock Cottage, the place occupied by Mrs. Ramsey, who is the daughter of the late E.H. Harriman. In the machine was a strange woman, and as Mrs. Marvin's auto drew close by two men rushed up, jumped into the car with the woman and sped away at breakneck speed. Mrs. Marvin was able to describe the car and its occupant, but the police refuse to state whether he (sic) had noticed the license number on the rear of the supposed thieves' machine.
*****************************************************************
New York Times
Aug. 1, 1912
Trail Gem Suspect to Big Hotel Here
Burns Detective After Clue to
the Stolen Jewels of Mrs. Rumsey]
and Mrs. Hanan
__________________
Haul Worth Over $250,000
__________________
"Gentleman Burglar" sought---M.s.
Hanan won't suspect servants---
Humors of Amateur Sleuthing
______________________
Special to the New York Times
NARRAGANSETT PIER, R. I., July 31---The search for the thieves who rifled the jewel collections of Mrs. C.C. Rumsey and Mrs. John H. Hanan continued unsuccessfully today, though the detectives sent here by the different agencies picked up a thread that took them out of town. Out of the many shadowy rumors current at the Pier tonight is a fairly definite one about a possible clue followed. It is understood here that one of the Burns detectives has shadowed a man to one of the big hotels in Forty-second Street, New York City.
Usually several days after such a robbery or series of robberies it is found that the loss has been overestimated. The reverse seems true in the Narragansett cases, for it now seems probable that thieves made way with gems worth more than a quarter of a million dollars. An extra necklace is missing from the Rumsey collection, a rope of pearls which cost in the neighborhood of $40,000 and which brings the total theft from the Gunning Rock cottage to $115,000.The omission of this second necklace from the list as originally published was not due to any attempt to conceal its loss---nor was it due as was rumored here for a while, to a second theft in the same house. The first publication of the loss, it will be remembered, was made from New York by C.C.Tegethoff, the representative of Mrs. Harriman in the administration of the Harriman estate, and before coming to Narragansett Pier he had not known that the second necklace was missing.
The impression is growing here that the thief was of the type known as "gentleman burglar", or, more picturesquely, as "Raffles."
"I would be willing to wager," said one of the Burns men today, "that the man, or possibly the woman, who went into the Rumsey house and stole those jewels was in evening clothes."
The impression is growing too that the two robberies were done by members of a band of skilled gem thieves. It is regarded as inconceivable that a mere sneak-thief, having accomplished so rich a haul at the Hanan home on Friday night, would have risked another twenty-four hours in Narragansett Pier to rob the Rumsey cottage. Closer study of the Hanan case suggests less of hurry and more of skill than it did at first. It has been noticed that most of the jewels that were passed by for no apparent reason were of a distinctive nature difficult to efface in the markets where stolen jewels are bought.
Mrs. Hanan was told to-night that in the minds of some of the detectives suspicion was narrowing down to one her twenty-two servants, but she continued to express confidence in them all.
"It would almost destroy my faith in human nature" she observed.
She added that if one of her household were found guilty, and were to surrender the plunder, she would let him or her take the next train out of town unmolested. The servants are all restive under the searchlight, and Mrs. Hanan has lamented their demoralization more than the loss of her gems.
The summer colonists whose jewels have been safely stored in vaults elsewhere are in a position to enjoy the amusing features of the thief hunt.
Besides the men from the three or four private agencies engaged, the Pier is overrun with amateur and independent detectives, all following the most amusing clues, all extraordinarily mysterious and many of them reduced to the point of soliciting on the street an opportunity to be put to work on the cases. The horde of detectives alone means many strangers in town and many are unknown to each other. The gayety of the Pier was added to measurably to-day by the discovery that two detectives from rival agencies had been shadowing each other all day long.
One of those who saw the automobile which detectives believe figured in the Rumsey robbery, was Mrs. Daniel Marvin, the young widiow of a Titanic victim, who is now staying with her aunt, Mrs. Wheelock, in a cottage near the Rumseys. Mrs. Marvin gave a marshmallow roast on the rocks in front of the cottage last Saturday night, and she and her party were returning from the shore shortly before midnight when they came upon an automobile standing unlighted in the fork of the road.
The machine was a long gray touring car. A woman who was sitting in the back seat was the only occupant, but two men appeared and hastily climbed into the car. One of the Marvin party shouted, "Who are you?" and received the answer in a gruff voice, "None of your business." as the automobile shot down the road.
Friday, February 14, 2014
Titanic Whale Spotting.
Not every Titanic mystery is a big one.
Take whales, for example. They're big, but whether Titanic survivors saw whales or not is neither here nor there.
Still, in the interests of historical truth, let's look at the evidence.
On the night the rescue ship Carpathia reached New York City, survivors Lord and Lady Cosmo Duff Gordon booked into the Ritz-Carlton hotel and had supper with a group of friends.
"Six ladies," said Lady Duff Gordon, at the British Inquiry into the sinking. And Abraham Merritt, the assistant editor of the American Weekly, "a great friend of ours."
Lady Duff Gordon, of course, regaled her friends with the story of her trip and her safe escape. After supper, publisher William Randolph Hearst phoned Merritt to get the lowdown, and after hearing what Merritt heard gave him an earful, reminding him that the Duff Gordon's story wasn't just gossip, it was NEWS.
" - After he had left us about half-an-hour he telephoned to me, and he said, "Mr. Hearst has just rung me up, and must have your story of the 'Titanic' wreck for tomorrow morning's newspaper." He said, "May I tell your story as I have heard it?" testified Lady Duff Gordon.
She said "Yes." And the next day the story appeared in the daily New York American newspaper, under her byline as if she wrote it, and with a reproduction of her signature to certify its authenticity.
But remember, Merritt heard the story at a social gathering; he didn't take notes and wasn't expecting to write a formal story. He would have just repeated to a rewrite man what he remembered and let the other man craft the story.
What about the whales? Getting there...
Lady Duff Gordon was aghast. Although she wrote a weekly fashion column for the newspaper, she wasn't about to sink to so low as to be a common reporter. At the Inquiry she denied much of what appeared under her name.
One reference in the story went unmentioned:
Saw a School of Whales.
At last –– morning. On one side of us were the ice flows. On the other we were horrified to see a school of tremendous whales. As the mist lifted we caught sight of the Carpathia looming up in the distance. We were too numbed by cold and shock to cheer, or even utter a sound.
An even more florid version of her story ran in the London Daily Mail,
"A graphic account of the terrible disaster to the Titanic has been supplied to the New York correspondent of the London "'Daily Mail" by Lady Duff-Gordon who, with her husband, Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon, was among the survivors picked up by the Carpathia."
It included this passage:
"At last morning broke on a desolate scene. On one side of us were numerous icefloes and on the other, big threatening bergs. We were also horrified to see a school of tremendous whales in the vicinity of our boat. Then, as it became lighter, we were cheered by the sight of the Carpathia, which had been advised by wireless of the disaster, looming up in the distance and heading straight for us. We were all too numb with the cold and the horror of the awful disaster to utter a sound."
A recent article on Lady Duff Gordon's Titanic experience contained this footnote:
http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/documents/i-was-saved-from-the-titanic-lady-duff-gordon.pdf
7. There are no other known accounts of a school of whales surfacing near the wreck site.
Really?
LOCAL SURVIVOR DEFENDS ISMAY
Atlantic City Daily Press
Sunday, 5th May 1912
City Clerk Donnelly’s Cousin Sends Sympathetic Note to Official
----------
NOT A COWARD, BUT BRAVE AND GALLANT
----------
“Ismay was unjustly critcised and abused for his actions regarding the Titanic
wreck,” stated E. C. [sic] Taylor, one of the survivors of the steamship,
yesterday, and who is spending a few days at the residence of his cousin, City
Clerk E. R. Donnelly. Mr. Taylor, who with his wife, were [sic] saved in one
of the small boats, is a big stockholder in a paper cup concern. He and his
wife were on the deck of the Titanic a few moments after she struck the iceberg.
...
“While we were on the Carpathia we passed through a school of about a dozen
whales and later on we passed a seal that was floating on a cake of ice. A
little farther on we passed a big floe of ice on which there was a big white
polar bear prowling around.
************************************
Sidney Collette in the Auburn Daily Advertiser, April 23, 1912
COLLETTS OWN STORY
Port Byron survivor of Titanic wreck
First Boats carried men.
Several boats had been lowered full of men, among them President Ismay. The officers were just lowering boat no. 9, the third from the last to be put off. The ladies stepped in , then the officer with drawn revolver said to me:
"Well, what of you, where are you going?" I replied that I have these young ladies in my chargeand felt it my duty to take care of them. "Get in", said the officer and a moment later the boat was lowered.
Fright for those in small boats.
After we had floated for an hour or more there came our first real scare for our own safety, All about us we could see the backs of monster fish, their shiny skins or scales glimmering grew in the moonlight. They were terrible looking monsters and we feared that they would swim under our boats and upset them, but they did not. It was a time when we were close to our Maker. I prayed constantly from the time our boat struck the iceberg intil I reached Neew York. Never was there a wireless message that went so quickly and straight as my prayers to the throne of God. Never will I forget those horrible hours after the sinking of the ship, It wass maddening. Minutes seemed like hours and hours like days.
*************************************
The Sinking of the Titanic and Great Sea Disasters
By Logan Marshall
1. The Sinking of the Titanic - Page 132
A passenger on the Carpathia said there was no wonder that none of the wireless telegrams addressed to Mr. Ismay were answered until the one that he sent yesterday afternoon to his line, the White Star.
"Mr. Ismay was beside himself," said this woman passenger, "and on most of the voyage after we had picked him up he was being quieted with opiates on orders of the ship's doctor.
"It was not until noon on Monday that we cleared the last of the ice, and Monday night a dense fog came up and con- tinued until the following morning, then a strong wind, a heavy sea, a thunderstorm and a dense fog Tuesday night, caused some uneasiness among the more unnerved, the fog continuing all of Tuesday.
"A number of whales were sighted as the Carpathia was clearing the last of the ice, one large one being close by, and all were spouting like geysers."
*********************************
And there's even this recollection by a woman who crossed the Atlantic 115 days after the Titanic sank, along the same route.
Beaver County Times (Pennsylvania)
April 12, 1982
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2002&dat=19820412&id=sVkuAAAAIBAJ&sjid=_NkFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1628,2604598
A Story of Two Ships
Woman's Voyage Almost Has Titanic Outcome
by Terri Gallagher, Times Staff
Seventy years ago this Wednesday, the world was stunned by perhaps the greatest sea disaster in the history of man. The Titanic, the world's largest and most luxurious ocean liner, sunk to an ice grave in the Atlantic after hitting an iceberg on its maiden voyage.
... snip
Fifteen day after the sinking of the Titanic, another ship, though not so luxurious nor large, narrowly escaped what could have been a similar fate in the same waters.
Beaver Falls resident Mary Carr, then a frightened 9-year-old from a small village in Austria, was aboard that ship.
She explained, "My mother, sisters, brother and I were coming over from Austria. My father had been here for nine years."
"The ship was called 'The Fatherland' and it was an old ship. It was supposed to be its last trip," the silver-haired woman said.
Mrs. Carr, then Mary Fleisher, and her family boarded "The Fatherland" bound for Ellis Island at the port of Antwerp, Belgium. The trip would last two weeks...
Mrs. Carr reminisced: "We saw three whales, I remember. That really scared me. We saw the sun draw water up from the ocean." Exciting events for a nine-year-old, Mrs. Carr explained...
snip
It was the middle of the night when The Fatherland trekked the route south of Newfoundland that had recently ended in treachery for the Titanic.
"We were sleeping. Then we were told we were going to hit an iceberg. Everyone got up," she said.
snip
"They steered the ship around and everything was OK."
snip
Mrs. Carr said her family never talked of the incident after arriving in New York and coming to Beaver Falls to live.
***********
Abraham Merritt went on to become a well-known writer, including the famous book Seven Footprints to Satan.
**************
Compare the two versions of Lady Duff Gordon's account:
New York American
April 19, 1912
LADY DUFF GORDON TELLS OF LAST AWFUL SOUNDS WHEN SHIP SANK, PISTOL SHOTS AND PIERCING CRIES
______
Declares That When She and Her Husband
Entered Lifeboat Other Passengers Twitted Them About Catching
Cold - "Ship Can't Sink." They Said.
______
Lady Gordon Is Positive That Two Mighty Explosions Preceded the Final Plunge of the
Titanic - After That for an Hour the Moans
and Cries of Drowning Men Were Heard.
______
By LADY DUFF GORDON.
The night was perfectly clear. We had watched for some time the fields of ice. I noticed a number of large bergs. There was one which an officer pointed out; he said it must be 100 feet high and seemed miles long.
I was asleep, awakened by a long grinding sort of shock. It was not a tremendous crash but more as though someone had drawn a giant finger along the side of the ship. I awakened my husband Sir Cosmo and told him I thought we had struck something. He went up on deck and told me we had hit a big iceberg, but that there seemed to be no danger.
Her Husband Bade Her Dress.
We were not assured of this, however, and Cosmo went upstairs again. He came back and said, "You had better put your clothes on because I heard the order given to strip the lifeboats."
We each put on a life preserver and over mine I threw some heavy furs. I took a few trinkets and we went up on deck. There was no excitement at that time. The ship had listed slightly to port and was down a little at the head. As we stood there one of the officers came rushing up and said, "The women and children are to go in the boats." No one apparently thought there was any danger. We watched a number of women and children and some men going into the lifeboats. At last an officer came to me and said, "Lady Gordon (sic), you had better go in one of the boats."
I said to my husband: "Well, we might as well take the boat; it will be only a pleasure cruise until morning.” The boat was the twelfth or thirteenth to be launched. It was the Captain's special boat. Five stokers got in and two American passengers –– A.L. Salomon, of New York, and L. Stengel (sic), of Newark. Besides these there were two of the crew, Sir Cosmo, myself, and a Miss Frank (sic).
Men said “Ship Can’t Sink.”
There were a number of other passengers, mostly men, standing nearby and they joked with us because we were going out on the ocean. "The ship can't sink," said one of them. "You will get your death of cold out there in the ice."
We were slung off and the stokers began to row us away. Cosmo had glanced at his watch as we cut loose. It was exactly 12:15 A.M (sic), fifteen minutes after the collision with the berg. It did not seem to be very cold. Suddenly I clutched the side of the lifeboat. I had seen the Titanic give a curious shiver. We were probably a mile away.
Heard Pistol Shots and Screams.
Almost immediately we heard several pistol shots and a great screaming arose from the decks. There were no lights on the ship now except for a few lanterns that had been lit by those who remained aboard. Then the boat’s stern lifted in the air and there was a tremendous explosion. After this the Titanic dropped back again. The awful screaming continued. Two minutes after this there was another great explosion. The whole forward part of the great liner dropped under the waves. The stern rose a hundred feet, almost perpendicularly. The boat stood up like an enormous black finger against the sky. Little figures hung and dropped into the water. The screaming was agonizing. I never heard such a chorus of utter despair and agony.
The great prow of the Titanic sank under the waves. As it went, the screaming of the poor souls on board grew louder. It took the Titanic perhaps two minutes to sink after the last explosion. It went down without a ripple.
We had heard of the danger of suction. But there was no such thing about the sinking of the Titanic. The amazing part of it all to me as I sat looking at this monster being destroyed was that it could be accomplished so gently. Then began our personal miseries of the night. Up to that time no one in our boat, and I imagine no one in the other boats, had really thought the Titanic was going to sink. For a moment a silence seemed to hang over all and then from the water where the ship had been there arose a bedlam of shrieks and cries. There were men and women clinging to bits of wreckage in the icy water.
Says Cries Lasted an Hour.
It was at least an hour before the last shrieks faded. I remember the last cry was that of a man calling "My God! My God!" He cried monotonously in a dull, hopeless way. For an entire hour there had been an awful chorus of shrieks until this last cry. Then all was silent. When the terrible quiet came we waited gloomily in the boat through the rest of the night.
Saw a School of Whales.
At last –– morning. On one side of us were the ice flows. On the other we were horrified to see a school of tremendous whales. As the mist lifted we caught sight of the Carpathia looming up in the distance. We were too numbed by cold and shock to cheer, or even utter a sound.
Our boat was among the first picked up by the Carpathia. After I had been helped aboard I stood by the rail and watched the other boats draw alongside and the women and children being assisted out.
Those in the other boats seemed to have suffered greater than we had. In one boat there was a woman whose clothing was frozen to her body. Men on the Carpathia had to chop it off before she was taken below to a warm bed. Several sailors had frozen to death and they lay stiff in the bottom of the boats.
Says Captain was Seen Swimming.
The rumor that Captain Smith committed suicide is untrue. I did not see him after I was away in the boat but others have told me the captain was seen swimming. He picked up a baby floating in the wreckage and swam with it to one of the boats, lifting it aboard only to be told it was dead. The women in this boat, according to the story told me, wanted the captain to get into the boat with them but he refused. Nothing more was seen of Captain Smith.
There was absolute calm on the Carpathia There were hundreds of women who had lost their husbands. No one cared to talk. The gloom was terrible. I buried myself in my cabin and did not come on deck again.
Signed
LUCY DUFF GORDON
*********************************
THE DREADFUL PLUNGE.
HOW THE TITANIC WENT DOWN.
LADY DUFF-GORDON'S GRAPHIC STORY
WAS THE CAPTAIN RECKLESS?
WARNING BY LOOK-OUT MEN IGNORED.
MR. ISMAY DEFENDED IN THE SENATE.
LONDON, April 21.
A graphic account of the terrible disaster to the Titanic has been supplied to the New York correspondent of the Lon- don "'Daily Mail" by Lady Duff-Gordon who, with her husband, Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon, was among the survivors picked up by the Carpathia.
"I was asleep when the crash came,'said Lady Duff-Gordon, "but previously and while I was on deck watching the icefield the officers pointed to one immense ice berg, apparently 100 ft. high and several miles long. I was awakened by a long grinding crash. I aroused my husband, who ran out to investigate, and returning he said, 'We have hit a big berg. We then immediately adjusted the life preservers round our bodies and went on deck. There was then no excitement among the passengers or crew. The big vessel had listed slightly, but nobody at that time dreamed it would sink, and there was little alarm even when the officers came running along announcing that the women and children must go in the boats. We thought then that this was merely an ordinary precaution. Our boat was the twelfth or thirteenth launched and it contained five stokers, two Americans named Solomon and Stengel, two sailors, Sir Cosmo and myself, and Miss Frank, an English girl. Numbers of men standing near as our boat was launched were joking at our expense because we were going out in the ocean. Some of them, said to us, 'You'll catch your death of cold out there amid the ice.'
Pistol Shots and Screaming.
"We cruised round for about two hours in the vicinity of the ship and suddenly as we looked we saw the Titanic give a curions shiver. There were then no lights on the ship, with the exception of a few lanterns. Then we heard several pistol shots and great screaming from the deck. of the doomed vessel.
The Boilers Explode.
"Suddenly the stern of the ship was lifted in the air by a tremendous explo- sion. This was followed by another explosion among the boilers, and the forward part of the ship went under, while the stern rose a hundred feet or so in the air, like an enormous black finger silhouetted against the sky, and with little figures of human beings hanging to the point of the finger. These people dropped off into the water, uttering meanwhile most agonising screams. I have never heard such a continued chorus of utter agony.
Last of the Titanic.
"A minute or two later the Titanic's uplifted stern slowly disappeared, though a great hand were pushing it gently under the waves. As the steamer sank, the screaming of the poor souls on board seemed to become louder and louder. We were then about 200 yards away, watching her go down slowly and almost peacefully.
Bedlam of Shrieks and Cries.
"For a moment after the vessel had disappeared there was an awful silence. Then from the water where the Titanic had been there arose a bedlam of shrieks and cries from women and men, who had risen to the surface and were clinging to the wreckage in the icy-cold water. These cries lasted for an hour. Gradually the chorus of shrieks became moans of despair and finally ceased.
"The very last sound we heard from the water was a man's voice crying, 'My God! My God!' in a monotonously dull, hopeless manner.
A School of Whales.
"There was one iceberg. possibly the one the Titanic struck, that seemed to pursue us through the night, despite the rowers' frantic efforts to get past it. At last morning broke on a desolate scene. On one side of us were innumerable icefloes and on the other, big threatening bergs. We were also horrified to see a school of tremendous whales in the vicinity of our boat. Then, as it became lighter, we were cheered by the sight of the Carpathia, which had been advised by wireless of the disaster, looming up in the distance and heading straight for us. We were all too numb with the cold and the horror of the awful disaster to utter a sound.
Fifty Widows on the Carpathia.
"On board the Carpathia there were more than 50 women who had lost their husbands and included in these were 15 brides. The gloom on the Carpathia caused by the distress of the bereaved Titanic passengers was so ghastly that I buried my- self in my cabin and did not come on deck again till we reached New York.''
-30-
Take whales, for example. They're big, but whether Titanic survivors saw whales or not is neither here nor there.
Still, in the interests of historical truth, let's look at the evidence.
On the night the rescue ship Carpathia reached New York City, survivors Lord and Lady Cosmo Duff Gordon booked into the Ritz-Carlton hotel and had supper with a group of friends.
"Six ladies," said Lady Duff Gordon, at the British Inquiry into the sinking. And Abraham Merritt, the assistant editor of the American Weekly, "a great friend of ours."
Lady Duff Gordon, of course, regaled her friends with the story of her trip and her safe escape. After supper, publisher William Randolph Hearst phoned Merritt to get the lowdown, and after hearing what Merritt heard gave him an earful, reminding him that the Duff Gordon's story wasn't just gossip, it was NEWS.
" - After he had left us about half-an-hour he telephoned to me, and he said, "Mr. Hearst has just rung me up, and must have your story of the 'Titanic' wreck for tomorrow morning's newspaper." He said, "May I tell your story as I have heard it?" testified Lady Duff Gordon.
She said "Yes." And the next day the story appeared in the daily New York American newspaper, under her byline as if she wrote it, and with a reproduction of her signature to certify its authenticity.
But remember, Merritt heard the story at a social gathering; he didn't take notes and wasn't expecting to write a formal story. He would have just repeated to a rewrite man what he remembered and let the other man craft the story.
What about the whales? Getting there...
Lady Duff Gordon was aghast. Although she wrote a weekly fashion column for the newspaper, she wasn't about to sink to so low as to be a common reporter. At the Inquiry she denied much of what appeared under her name.
One reference in the story went unmentioned:
Saw a School of Whales.
At last –– morning. On one side of us were the ice flows. On the other we were horrified to see a school of tremendous whales. As the mist lifted we caught sight of the Carpathia looming up in the distance. We were too numbed by cold and shock to cheer, or even utter a sound.
An even more florid version of her story ran in the London Daily Mail,
"A graphic account of the terrible disaster to the Titanic has been supplied to the New York correspondent of the London "'Daily Mail" by Lady Duff-Gordon who, with her husband, Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon, was among the survivors picked up by the Carpathia."
It included this passage:
"At last morning broke on a desolate scene. On one side of us were numerous icefloes and on the other, big threatening bergs. We were also horrified to see a school of tremendous whales in the vicinity of our boat. Then, as it became lighter, we were cheered by the sight of the Carpathia, which had been advised by wireless of the disaster, looming up in the distance and heading straight for us. We were all too numb with the cold and the horror of the awful disaster to utter a sound."
A recent article on Lady Duff Gordon's Titanic experience contained this footnote:
http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/documents/i-was-saved-from-the-titanic-lady-duff-gordon.pdf
7. There are no other known accounts of a school of whales surfacing near the wreck site.
Really?
LOCAL SURVIVOR DEFENDS ISMAY
Atlantic City Daily Press
Sunday, 5th May 1912
City Clerk Donnelly’s Cousin Sends Sympathetic Note to Official
----------
NOT A COWARD, BUT BRAVE AND GALLANT
----------
“Ismay was unjustly critcised and abused for his actions regarding the Titanic
wreck,” stated E. C. [sic] Taylor, one of the survivors of the steamship,
yesterday, and who is spending a few days at the residence of his cousin, City
Clerk E. R. Donnelly. Mr. Taylor, who with his wife, were [sic] saved in one
of the small boats, is a big stockholder in a paper cup concern. He and his
wife were on the deck of the Titanic a few moments after she struck the iceberg.
...
“While we were on the Carpathia we passed through a school of about a dozen
whales and later on we passed a seal that was floating on a cake of ice. A
little farther on we passed a big floe of ice on which there was a big white
polar bear prowling around.
************************************
Sidney Collette in the Auburn Daily Advertiser, April 23, 1912
COLLETTS OWN STORY
Port Byron survivor of Titanic wreck
First Boats carried men.
Several boats had been lowered full of men, among them President Ismay. The officers were just lowering boat no. 9, the third from the last to be put off. The ladies stepped in , then the officer with drawn revolver said to me:
"Well, what of you, where are you going?" I replied that I have these young ladies in my chargeand felt it my duty to take care of them. "Get in", said the officer and a moment later the boat was lowered.
Fright for those in small boats.
After we had floated for an hour or more there came our first real scare for our own safety, All about us we could see the backs of monster fish, their shiny skins or scales glimmering grew in the moonlight. They were terrible looking monsters and we feared that they would swim under our boats and upset them, but they did not. It was a time when we were close to our Maker. I prayed constantly from the time our boat struck the iceberg intil I reached Neew York. Never was there a wireless message that went so quickly and straight as my prayers to the throne of God. Never will I forget those horrible hours after the sinking of the ship, It wass maddening. Minutes seemed like hours and hours like days.
*************************************
The Sinking of the Titanic and Great Sea Disasters
By Logan Marshall
1. The Sinking of the Titanic - Page 132
A passenger on the Carpathia said there was no wonder that none of the wireless telegrams addressed to Mr. Ismay were answered until the one that he sent yesterday afternoon to his line, the White Star.
"Mr. Ismay was beside himself," said this woman passenger, "and on most of the voyage after we had picked him up he was being quieted with opiates on orders of the ship's doctor.
"It was not until noon on Monday that we cleared the last of the ice, and Monday night a dense fog came up and con- tinued until the following morning, then a strong wind, a heavy sea, a thunderstorm and a dense fog Tuesday night, caused some uneasiness among the more unnerved, the fog continuing all of Tuesday.
"A number of whales were sighted as the Carpathia was clearing the last of the ice, one large one being close by, and all were spouting like geysers."
*********************************
And there's even this recollection by a woman who crossed the Atlantic 115 days after the Titanic sank, along the same route.
Beaver County Times (Pennsylvania)
April 12, 1982
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2002&dat=19820412&id=sVkuAAAAIBAJ&sjid=_NkFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1628,2604598
A Story of Two Ships
Woman's Voyage Almost Has Titanic Outcome
by Terri Gallagher, Times Staff
Seventy years ago this Wednesday, the world was stunned by perhaps the greatest sea disaster in the history of man. The Titanic, the world's largest and most luxurious ocean liner, sunk to an ice grave in the Atlantic after hitting an iceberg on its maiden voyage.
... snip
Fifteen day after the sinking of the Titanic, another ship, though not so luxurious nor large, narrowly escaped what could have been a similar fate in the same waters.
Beaver Falls resident Mary Carr, then a frightened 9-year-old from a small village in Austria, was aboard that ship.
She explained, "My mother, sisters, brother and I were coming over from Austria. My father had been here for nine years."
"The ship was called 'The Fatherland' and it was an old ship. It was supposed to be its last trip," the silver-haired woman said.
Mrs. Carr, then Mary Fleisher, and her family boarded "The Fatherland" bound for Ellis Island at the port of Antwerp, Belgium. The trip would last two weeks...
Mrs. Carr reminisced: "We saw three whales, I remember. That really scared me. We saw the sun draw water up from the ocean." Exciting events for a nine-year-old, Mrs. Carr explained...
snip
It was the middle of the night when The Fatherland trekked the route south of Newfoundland that had recently ended in treachery for the Titanic.
"We were sleeping. Then we were told we were going to hit an iceberg. Everyone got up," she said.
snip
"They steered the ship around and everything was OK."
snip
Mrs. Carr said her family never talked of the incident after arriving in New York and coming to Beaver Falls to live.
***********
Abraham Merritt went on to become a well-known writer, including the famous book Seven Footprints to Satan.
**************
Compare the two versions of Lady Duff Gordon's account:
New York American
April 19, 1912
LADY DUFF GORDON TELLS OF LAST AWFUL SOUNDS WHEN SHIP SANK, PISTOL SHOTS AND PIERCING CRIES
______
Declares That When She and Her Husband
Entered Lifeboat Other Passengers Twitted Them About Catching
Cold - "Ship Can't Sink." They Said.
______
Lady Gordon Is Positive That Two Mighty Explosions Preceded the Final Plunge of the
Titanic - After That for an Hour the Moans
and Cries of Drowning Men Were Heard.
______
By LADY DUFF GORDON.
The night was perfectly clear. We had watched for some time the fields of ice. I noticed a number of large bergs. There was one which an officer pointed out; he said it must be 100 feet high and seemed miles long.
I was asleep, awakened by a long grinding sort of shock. It was not a tremendous crash but more as though someone had drawn a giant finger along the side of the ship. I awakened my husband Sir Cosmo and told him I thought we had struck something. He went up on deck and told me we had hit a big iceberg, but that there seemed to be no danger.
Her Husband Bade Her Dress.
We were not assured of this, however, and Cosmo went upstairs again. He came back and said, "You had better put your clothes on because I heard the order given to strip the lifeboats."
We each put on a life preserver and over mine I threw some heavy furs. I took a few trinkets and we went up on deck. There was no excitement at that time. The ship had listed slightly to port and was down a little at the head. As we stood there one of the officers came rushing up and said, "The women and children are to go in the boats." No one apparently thought there was any danger. We watched a number of women and children and some men going into the lifeboats. At last an officer came to me and said, "Lady Gordon (sic), you had better go in one of the boats."
I said to my husband: "Well, we might as well take the boat; it will be only a pleasure cruise until morning.” The boat was the twelfth or thirteenth to be launched. It was the Captain's special boat. Five stokers got in and two American passengers –– A.L. Salomon, of New York, and L. Stengel (sic), of Newark. Besides these there were two of the crew, Sir Cosmo, myself, and a Miss Frank (sic).
Men said “Ship Can’t Sink.”
There were a number of other passengers, mostly men, standing nearby and they joked with us because we were going out on the ocean. "The ship can't sink," said one of them. "You will get your death of cold out there in the ice."
We were slung off and the stokers began to row us away. Cosmo had glanced at his watch as we cut loose. It was exactly 12:15 A.M (sic), fifteen minutes after the collision with the berg. It did not seem to be very cold. Suddenly I clutched the side of the lifeboat. I had seen the Titanic give a curious shiver. We were probably a mile away.
Heard Pistol Shots and Screams.
Almost immediately we heard several pistol shots and a great screaming arose from the decks. There were no lights on the ship now except for a few lanterns that had been lit by those who remained aboard. Then the boat’s stern lifted in the air and there was a tremendous explosion. After this the Titanic dropped back again. The awful screaming continued. Two minutes after this there was another great explosion. The whole forward part of the great liner dropped under the waves. The stern rose a hundred feet, almost perpendicularly. The boat stood up like an enormous black finger against the sky. Little figures hung and dropped into the water. The screaming was agonizing. I never heard such a chorus of utter despair and agony.
The great prow of the Titanic sank under the waves. As it went, the screaming of the poor souls on board grew louder. It took the Titanic perhaps two minutes to sink after the last explosion. It went down without a ripple.
We had heard of the danger of suction. But there was no such thing about the sinking of the Titanic. The amazing part of it all to me as I sat looking at this monster being destroyed was that it could be accomplished so gently. Then began our personal miseries of the night. Up to that time no one in our boat, and I imagine no one in the other boats, had really thought the Titanic was going to sink. For a moment a silence seemed to hang over all and then from the water where the ship had been there arose a bedlam of shrieks and cries. There were men and women clinging to bits of wreckage in the icy water.
Says Cries Lasted an Hour.
It was at least an hour before the last shrieks faded. I remember the last cry was that of a man calling "My God! My God!" He cried monotonously in a dull, hopeless way. For an entire hour there had been an awful chorus of shrieks until this last cry. Then all was silent. When the terrible quiet came we waited gloomily in the boat through the rest of the night.
Saw a School of Whales.
At last –– morning. On one side of us were the ice flows. On the other we were horrified to see a school of tremendous whales. As the mist lifted we caught sight of the Carpathia looming up in the distance. We were too numbed by cold and shock to cheer, or even utter a sound.
Our boat was among the first picked up by the Carpathia. After I had been helped aboard I stood by the rail and watched the other boats draw alongside and the women and children being assisted out.
Those in the other boats seemed to have suffered greater than we had. In one boat there was a woman whose clothing was frozen to her body. Men on the Carpathia had to chop it off before she was taken below to a warm bed. Several sailors had frozen to death and they lay stiff in the bottom of the boats.
Says Captain was Seen Swimming.
The rumor that Captain Smith committed suicide is untrue. I did not see him after I was away in the boat but others have told me the captain was seen swimming. He picked up a baby floating in the wreckage and swam with it to one of the boats, lifting it aboard only to be told it was dead. The women in this boat, according to the story told me, wanted the captain to get into the boat with them but he refused. Nothing more was seen of Captain Smith.
There was absolute calm on the Carpathia There were hundreds of women who had lost their husbands. No one cared to talk. The gloom was terrible. I buried myself in my cabin and did not come on deck again.
Signed
LUCY DUFF GORDON
*********************************
THE DREADFUL PLUNGE.
HOW THE TITANIC WENT DOWN.
LADY DUFF-GORDON'S GRAPHIC STORY
WAS THE CAPTAIN RECKLESS?
WARNING BY LOOK-OUT MEN IGNORED.
MR. ISMAY DEFENDED IN THE SENATE.
LONDON, April 21.
A graphic account of the terrible disaster to the Titanic has been supplied to the New York correspondent of the Lon- don "'Daily Mail" by Lady Duff-Gordon who, with her husband, Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon, was among the survivors picked up by the Carpathia.
"I was asleep when the crash came,'said Lady Duff-Gordon, "but previously and while I was on deck watching the icefield the officers pointed to one immense ice berg, apparently 100 ft. high and several miles long. I was awakened by a long grinding crash. I aroused my husband, who ran out to investigate, and returning he said, 'We have hit a big berg. We then immediately adjusted the life preservers round our bodies and went on deck. There was then no excitement among the passengers or crew. The big vessel had listed slightly, but nobody at that time dreamed it would sink, and there was little alarm even when the officers came running along announcing that the women and children must go in the boats. We thought then that this was merely an ordinary precaution. Our boat was the twelfth or thirteenth launched and it contained five stokers, two Americans named Solomon and Stengel, two sailors, Sir Cosmo and myself, and Miss Frank, an English girl. Numbers of men standing near as our boat was launched were joking at our expense because we were going out in the ocean. Some of them, said to us, 'You'll catch your death of cold out there amid the ice.'
Pistol Shots and Screaming.
"We cruised round for about two hours in the vicinity of the ship and suddenly as we looked we saw the Titanic give a curions shiver. There were then no lights on the ship, with the exception of a few lanterns. Then we heard several pistol shots and great screaming from the deck. of the doomed vessel.
The Boilers Explode.
"Suddenly the stern of the ship was lifted in the air by a tremendous explo- sion. This was followed by another explosion among the boilers, and the forward part of the ship went under, while the stern rose a hundred feet or so in the air, like an enormous black finger silhouetted against the sky, and with little figures of human beings hanging to the point of the finger. These people dropped off into the water, uttering meanwhile most agonising screams. I have never heard such a continued chorus of utter agony.
Last of the Titanic.
"A minute or two later the Titanic's uplifted stern slowly disappeared, though a great hand were pushing it gently under the waves. As the steamer sank, the screaming of the poor souls on board seemed to become louder and louder. We were then about 200 yards away, watching her go down slowly and almost peacefully.
Bedlam of Shrieks and Cries.
"For a moment after the vessel had disappeared there was an awful silence. Then from the water where the Titanic had been there arose a bedlam of shrieks and cries from women and men, who had risen to the surface and were clinging to the wreckage in the icy-cold water. These cries lasted for an hour. Gradually the chorus of shrieks became moans of despair and finally ceased.
"The very last sound we heard from the water was a man's voice crying, 'My God! My God!' in a monotonously dull, hopeless manner.
A School of Whales.
"There was one iceberg. possibly the one the Titanic struck, that seemed to pursue us through the night, despite the rowers' frantic efforts to get past it. At last morning broke on a desolate scene. On one side of us were innumerable icefloes and on the other, big threatening bergs. We were also horrified to see a school of tremendous whales in the vicinity of our boat. Then, as it became lighter, we were cheered by the sight of the Carpathia, which had been advised by wireless of the disaster, looming up in the distance and heading straight for us. We were all too numb with the cold and the horror of the awful disaster to utter a sound.
Fifty Widows on the Carpathia.
"On board the Carpathia there were more than 50 women who had lost their husbands and included in these were 15 brides. The gloom on the Carpathia caused by the distress of the bereaved Titanic passengers was so ghastly that I buried my- self in my cabin and did not come on deck again till we reached New York.''
-30-
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