Sinking of the Titanic and Great Sea Disasters Part 30

"All this time there was no trace of any disorder; no panic or rush to the boats and no scenes of women sobbing hysterically, such as one generally pictures as happening at such times everyone seemed to realize so slowly that there was imminent danger. When it was realized that we might all be presently in the sea with nothing but our life-belts to support us until we were picked up by pa.s.sing steamers, it was extraordinary how calm everyone was and how completely self-controlled.

"One by one, the boats were filled with women and children, lowered and rowed away into the night. Presently the word went round among the men, 'the men are to be put in boats on the starboard side.'

"I was on the port side, and most of the men walked across the deck to see if this was so I remained where I was and soon heard the call:

"'Any more ladies?'

"Looking over the side of the s.h.i.+p, I saw the boat, No. 13, swinging level with B deck, half full of ladies. Again the call was repeated, 'Any more ladies?'

"I saw none come on, and then one of the crew, looking up, said:

"'Any more ladies on your deck, sir?'

"'No,' I replied.

"'Then you had better jump.'

"I dropped in, and fell in the bottom, as they cried 'lower away.' As the boat began to descend two ladies were pushed hurriedly through the crowd on B deck and heaved over into the boat, and a baby of ten months pa.s.sed down after them. Down we went, the crew calling to those lowering each end to 'keep her level,' until we were some ten feet from the water, and here occurred the only anxious moment we had during the whole of our experience from leaving the deck to reaching the Carpathia.

"Immediately below our boat was the exhaust of the condensers, a huge stream of water pouring all the time from the s.h.i.+p's side just above the water line. It was plain we ought to be quickly away from this, not to be swamped by it when we touched water.

NO OFFICER ABOARD

"We had no officer aboard, nor petty officer or member of the crew to take charge. So one of the stokers shouted: 'Someone find the pin which releases the boat from the ropes and pull it up!' No one knew where it was. We felt on the floor and sides, but found nothing, and it was hard to move among so many people--we had sixty or seventy on board.

"Down we went and presently floated, with our ropes still holding us, the exhaust was.h.i.+ng us away from the side of the vessel and the swell of the sea urging us back against the side again. The result of all these forces was an impetus which carried us parallel to the s.h.i.+p's side and directly under boat 14, which had filled rapidly with men and was coming down on us in a way that threatened to submerge our boat.

"'Stop lowering 14,' our crew shouted, and the crew of No. 14, now only twenty feet above, shouted the same. But the distance to the top was some seventy feet and the creaking pulleys must have deadened all sound to those above, for down she came, fifteen feet, ten feet, five feet and a stoker and I reached up and touched her swinging above our heads.

The next drop would have brought her on our heads, but just before she dropped another stoker sprang to the ropes, with his knife.

JUST ESCAPED ANOTHER BOAT

"'One,' I heard him say, 'two,' as his knife cut through the pulley ropes, and the next moment the exhaust stream had carried us clear, while boat 14 dropped into the water, into the s.p.a.ce we had the moment before occupied, our gunwales almost touching.

"We drifted away easily, as the oars were got out, and headed directly away from the s.h.i.+p. The crew seemed to me to be mostly stewards or cooks in white jackets, two to an oar, with a stoker at the tiller. There was a certain amount of shouting from one end of the boat to the other, and discussion as to which way we should go, but finally it was decided to elect the stoker, who was steering, as captain, and for all to obey his orders. He set to work at once to get into touch with the other boats, calling to them and getting as close as seemed wise, so that when the search boats came in the morning to look for us, there would be more chance for all to be rescued by keeping together.

"It was now about 1 A. M.; a beautiful starlight night, with no moon, and so not very light. The sea was as calm as a pond, just a gentle heave as the boat dipped up and down in the swell; an ideal night, except for the bitter cold, for anyone who had to be out in the middle of the Atlantic ocean in an open boat. And if ever there was a time when such a night was needed, surely it was now, with hundreds of people, mostly women and children, afloat hundreds of miles from land.

WATCHED THE t.i.tANIC

"The captain-stoker told us that he had been at sea twenty-six years, and had never yet seen such a calm night on the Atlantic. As we rowed away from the t.i.tanic, we looked back from time to time to watch her, and a more striking spectacle it was not possible for anyone to see.

"In the distance it looked an enormous length, its great bulk outlined in black against the starry sky, every port-hole and saloon blazing with light. It was impossible to think anything could be wrong with such a leviathan, were it not for that ominous tilt downward in the bows, where the water was by now up to the lowest row of port-holes.

"Presently, about 2 A. M., as near as I can remember, we observed it settling very rapidly, with the bows and the bridge completely under water, and concluded it was now only a question of minutes before it went; and so it proved."

Mr. Beasley went on to tell of the spectacle of the sinking of the t.i.tanic, the terrible experiences of the survivors in the life-boats and their final rescue by the Carpathia as already related.

CHAPTER XV. JACK THAYER'S OWN STORY OF THE WRECK

SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD SON OF PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD OFFICIAL TELLS MOVING STORY OF HIS RESCUE--TOLD MOTHER TO BE BRAVE--SEPARATED FROM PARENTS--JUMPED WHEN VESSEL SANK--DRIFTED ON OVERTURNED BOAT PICKED UP BY CARPATHIA

ONE of the calmest of the pa.s.sengers was: young Jack Thayer, the seventeen-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. John B. Thayer. When his mother was put into the life-boat he kissed her and told her to be brave, saying that he and his father would be all right. He and Mr. Thayer stood on the deck as the small boat in which Mrs. Thayer was a pa.s.senger made off from the side of the t.i.tanic over the smooth sea.

The boy's own account of his experience as told to one of his rescuers is one of the most remarkable of all the wonderful ones that have come from the tremendous catastrophe:

"Father was in bed, and mother and myself were about to get into bed.

There was no great shock, I was on my feet at the time and I do not think it was enough to throw anyone down. I put on an overcoat and rushed up on A deck on the port side. I saw nothing there. I then went forward to the bow to see if I could see any signs of ice. The only ice I saw was on the well deck. I could not see very far ahead, having just come out of a brightly lighted room.

"I then went down to our room and my father and mother came on deck with me, to the starboard side of A deck. We could not see anything there.

Father thought he saw small pieces of ice floating around, but I could not see any myself. There was no big berg. We walked around to the port side, and the s.h.i.+p had then a fair list to port. We stayed there looking over the side for about five minutes. The list seemed very slowly to be increasing.

"We then went down to our rooms on C deck, all of us dressing quickly, putting on all our clothes. We all put on life-preservers, and over these we put our overcoats. Then we hurried up on deck and walked around, looking out at different places until the women were all ordered to collect on the port side.

SEPARATED FROM PARENTS

"Father and I said good-bye to mother at the top of the stairs on A deck. She and the maid went right out on A deck on the port side and we went to the starboard side. As at this time we had no idea the boat would sink we walked around A deck and then went to B deck. Then we thought we would go back to see if mother had gotten off safely, and went to the port side of A deck. We met the chief steward of the main dining saloon and he told us that mother had not yet taken a boat, and he took us to her.

"Father and mother went ahead and I followed. They went down to B deck and a crowd got in front of me and I was not able to catch them, and lost sight of them. As soon as I could get through the crowd I tried to find them on B deck, but without success. That is the last time I saw my father. This was about one half an hour before she sank. I then went to the starboard side, thinking that father and mother must have gotten off in a boat. All of this time I was with a fellow named Milton C. Long, of New York, whom I had just met that evening.

"On the starboard side the boats were getting away quickly. Some boats were already off in a distance. We thought of getting into one of the boats, the last boat to go on the forward part of the starboard side, but there seemed to be such a crowd around I thought it unwise to make any attempt to get into it. He and I stood by the davits of one of the boats that had left. I did not notice anybody that I knew except Mr.

Lindley, whom I had also just met that evening. I lost sight of him in a few minutes. Long and I then stood by the rail just a little aft of the captain's bridge.

THOUGHT s.h.i.+P WOULD FLOAT

"The list to the port had been growing greater all the time. About this time the people began jumping from the stern. I thought of jumping myself, but was afraid of being stunned on hitting the water. Three times I made up my mind to jump out and slide down the davit ropes and try to make the boats that were lying off from the s.h.i.+p, but each time Long got hold of me and told me to wait a while. He then sat down and I stood up waiting to see what would happen. Even then we thought she might possibly stay afloat.

"I got a sight on a rope between the davits and a star and noticed that she was gradually sinking. About this time she straightened up on an even keel and started to go down fairly fast at an angle of about 30 degrees. As she started to sink we left the davits and went back and stood by the rail about even with the second funnel.

"Long and myself said good-bye to each other and jumped up on the rail.

He put his legs over and held on a minute and asked me if I was coming.

I told him I would be with him in a minute. He did not jump clear, but slid down the side of the s.h.i.+p. I never saw him again.

"About five seconds after he jumped I jumped out, feet first. I was clear of the s.h.i.+p; went down, and as I came up I was pushed away from the s.h.i.+p by some force. I came up facing the s.h.i.+p, and one of the funnels seemed to be lifted off and fell towards me about 15 yards away, with a ma.s.s of sparks and steam coming out of it. I saw the s.h.i.+p in a sort of a red glare, and it seemed to me that she broke in two just in front of the third funnel.

"This time I was sucked down, and as I came up I was pushed out again and twisted around by a large wave, coming up in the midst of a great deal of small wreckage. As I pushed my hand from my head it touched the cork fender of an over-

{ill.u.s.t. caption = READING ROOM OF THE t.i.tANIC}

{ill.u.s.t. caption = Copyright, 1912. International News Service. THE SENATORIAL INVESTIGATION--ISMAY ON THE GRILL

J. Bruce Ismay, Managing Director of the........}