Titanic: A Survivor's Story

by Gracie, Archibald

  C.D. MacKay, steward (Br. Inq.):

  No. 11 was lowered to A Deck. Murdoch ordered me to take charge. We collected all the women (40) on the Boat Deck, and on A Deck we collected a few more. The crew were five stewards, one fireman, two sailors, one forward and one aft. There was Wheelton, McMicken, Thessenger, Wheate and myself. The others were strangers to the ship. There were two second-class ladies, one second-class gentleman, and the rest were third-class ladies. I found out that they were all third-class passengers. We had some difficulty in getting the after fall away. We went away from the ship about a quarter of a mile. No compass. The women complained that they were crushed up so much and had to stand. Complaints were made against the men because they smoked.

  J.T. Wheate, Ass’t. 2nd Steward (Br. Inq.):

  Witness went upstairs to the Boat Deck where Mr. Murdoch ordered the boats to the A Deck where the witness and seventy of his men helped pass the women and children into boat No. 9, and none but women and children were taken in. He then filled up No. 11 with fifty-nine women and children, three male passengers and a crew of seven stewards, two sailors and one fireman. He could not say how the three male passengers got there. The order was very good. There was nobody on the Boat Deck, so the people were taken off on the A Deck.

  Philip E. Mock, first cabin passenger [letter]:

  No. 11 carried the largest number of passengers of any boat – about sixty-five. There were only two first cabin passengers in the boat besides my sister, Mrs. Schabert, and myself. The remainder were second-class or stewards and stewardesses. We were probably a mile away when the Titanic’s lights went out. I last saw the ship with her stern high in the air going down. After the noise I saw a huge column of black smoke slightly lighter than the sky rising high into the sky and then flattening out at the top like a mushroom.

  I at no time saw any panic and not much confusion. I can positively assert this as I was near every boat lowered on the starboard side up to the time No. 11 was lowered. With the exception of some stokers who pushed their way into boat No. 3 or No. 5, I saw no man or woman force entry into a lifeboat. One of these was No. 13 going down, before we touched the water.

  From address of the Attorney-General, Sir Rufus Isaacs, K.C., M.P.

  No. 11 took seventy, and carried the largest number of any boat.

  BOAT NO. 1314

  No disorder when this boat was loaded and lowered.

  Passengers: Women: Second cabin, including Mrs. Caldwell and her child Alden. All the rest second and third-class women.

  Men: Dr Dodge only first cabin passenger. Second cabin, Messrs. Beasley and Caldwell. One Japanese.

  Crew: Firemen: Barrett (in charge), Beauchamp, Major and two others. Stewards: Ray, Wright and another; also baker ——.

  Total: 64.

  Incidents

  Mr. Lawrence Beesley’s book, already cited, gives an excellent description of No. 13’s history, but for further details, see his book, The Loss of the SS. Titanic, Houghton, Mifflin Co., Boston.

  F. Barrett, leading stoker (Br. Inq.):

  Witness then made his escape up the escape ladder and walked aft on to Deck A on the starboard side, where only two boats were left, Nos. 13 and 15. No. 13 was partly lowered when he got there. Five-sixths in the boat were women. No. 15 was lowered about thirty seconds later. When No. 13 got down to the water he shouted: ‘Let go the after fall,’ but, as no one took any notice, he had to walk over women and cut the fall himself. No. 15 came down nearly on top of them, but they just got clear. He took charge of the boat until he got so cold that he had to give up to someone else. A woman put a cloak over him, as he felt so freezing, and he could not remember anything after that. No men waiting on the deck got into his boat. They all stood in one line in perfect order waiting to be told to get into the boat. There was no disorder whatever. They picked up nobody from the sea.

  F.D. Ray, steward (Am. Inq., 798):

  Witness assisted in the loading of boat No. 9 and saw it and No. 11 boat lowered, and went to No. 13 on A Deck. He saw it about half filled with women and children. A few men were ordered to get in; about nine to a dozen passengers and crew. Dr Washington Dodge was there and was told that his wife and child had gone away in one of the boats. Witness said to him: ‘You had better get in here then,’ and got behind him and pushed him and followed after him. A rather large woman came along crying and saying ‘Do not put me in the boat; I don’t want to get in one. I have never been in an open boat in my life.’ He said: ‘You have got to go and you may as well keep quiet.’ After that there was a small child rolled in a blanket thrown into the boat to him. The woman that brought it got into the boat afterwards.

  We left about three or four men on the deck at the rail and they went along to No. 15 boat. No. 13 was lowered away. When nearly to the water, two or three of them noticed a very large discharge of water coming from the ship’s side which he thought was the pumps working. The hole was about two feet wide and about a foot deep with a solid mass of water coming out. They shouted for the boat to be stopped from being lowered and they responded promptly and stopped lowering the boat. They pushed it off from the side of the ship until they were free from this discharge. He thinks there were no sailors or quartermasters in the boat because they apparently did not know how to get free from the tackle. Knives were called for to cut loose. In the meantime they were drifting a little aft and boat No. 15 was being lowered immediately upon them about two feet from their heads and they all shouted again, and they again replied very promptly and stopped lowering boat No. 15. They elected a fireman (Barrett) to take charge. Steward Wright was in the boat; two or three children and a very young baby seven months old. Besides Nos. 9, 11, and 13, No. 15 was lowered to Deck A and filled from it. He saw no male passengers or men of the crew whatever ordered out or thrown out of these lifeboats on the starboard side. Everybody was very orderly and there was no occasion to throw anybody out. In No. 13 there were about four or five firemen, one baker, three stewards; about nine of the crew. Dr Washington Dodge was the only first-class passenger and the rest were third-class. There was one Japanese. There was no crowd whatever on A Deck while he was loading these boats. No. 13 was full.

  Extracts from Dr Washington Dodge’s address: ‘The Loss of the Titanic,’ a copy of which he kindly sent me:

  I heard one man say that the impact was due to ice. Upon one of his listeners’ questioning the authority of this, he replied: ‘Go up forward and look down on the fo’castle deck, and you can see for yourself.’ I at once walked forward to the end of the promenade deck, and looking down could see, just within the starboard rail, small fragments of broken ice, amounting possibly to several cartloads. As I stood there an incident occurred which made me take a more serious view of the situation, than I otherwise would.

  Two stokers, who had slipped up onto the promenade deck unobserved, said to me: ‘Do you think there is any danger, sir?’ I replied: ‘If there is any danger it would be due to the vessel’s having sprung a leak, and you ought to know more about it than I.’ They replied, in what appeared to me to be an alarmed tone: ‘Well, sir, the water was pouring into the stoke ‘old when we came up, sir.’ At this time I observed quite a number of steerage passengers, who were amusing themselves by walking over the ice, and kicking it about the deck. No ice or iceberg was to be seen in the ocean.

  I watched the boats on the starboard side, as they were successively filled and lowered away. At no time during this period, was there any panic, or evidence of fear, or unusual alarm. I saw no women nor children weep, nor were there any evidences of hysteria observed by me.

  I watched all boats on the starboard side, comprising the odd numbers from one to thirteen, as they were launched. Not a boat was launched which would not have held from ten to twenty-five more persons. Never were there enough women or children present to fill any boat before it was launched. In all cases, as soon as those who responded to the officers’ call were in the boats, the order was given to ‘Lower away.�
��

  What the conditions were on the port side of the vessel I had no means of observing. We were in semi-darkness on the Boat Deck, and owing to the immense length and breadth of the vessel, and the fact that between the port and the starboard side of the Boat Deck, there were officers’ cabins, staterooms for passengers, a gymnasium, and innumerable immense ventilators, it would have been impossible, even in daylight, to have obtained a view of but a limited portion of this boat deck. We only knew what was going on within a radius of possibly forty feet.

  Boats Nos. 13 and 15 were swung from the davits at about the same moment. I heard the officer in charge of No. 13 say: ‘We’ll lower this boat to Deck A.’ Observing a group of possibly fifty or sixty about boat 15, a small proportion of which number were women, I descended by means of a stairway close at hand to the deck below, Deck A. Here, as the boat was lowered even with the deck, the women, about eight in number, were assisted by several of us over the rail of the steamer into the boat. The officer in charge then held the boat, and called repeatedly for more women. None appearing, and there being none visible on the deck, which was then brightly illuminated, the men were told to tumble in. Along with those present I entered the boat. Ray was my table steward and called to me to get in.

  The boat in which I embarked was rapidly lowered, and as it approached the water I observed, as I looked over the edge of the boats, that the bow, near which I was seated, was being lowered directly into an enormous stream of water, three or four feet in diameter, which was being thrown with great force from the side of the vessel. This was the water thrown out by the condenser pumps. Had our boat been lowered into the same it would have been swamped in an instant. The loud cries which were raised by the occupants of the boat caused those who were sixty or seventy feet above to cease lowering our boat. Securing an oar with considerable difficulty, as the oars had been firmly lashed together by means of heavy tarred twine, and as in addition they were on the seat running parallel with the side of the lifeboat, with no less than eight or ten occupants of the boat sitting on them, none of whom showed any tendency to disturb themselves – we pushed the bow of the lifeboat, by means of the oar, a sufficient distance away from the side of the Titanic to clear this great stream of water which was gushing forth. We were then safely lowered to the water. During the few moments occupied by this occurrences I felt for the only time a sense of impending danger.

  We were directed to pull our lifeboat from the steamer, and to follow a light which was carried in one of the other lifeboats, which had been launched prior to ours. Our lifeboat was found to contain no lantern, as the regulations require; nor was there a single sailor, or officer in the boat. Those who undertook to handle the oars were poor oarsmen, almost without exception, and our progress was extremely slow. Together with two or three other lifeboats which were in the vicinity, we endeavoured to overtake the lifeboat which carried the light, in order that we might not drift away and possibly become lost. This light appeared to be a quarter of a mile distant, but, in spite of our best endeavors, we were never enabled to approach any nearer to it, although we must have rowed at least a mile.

  BOAT NO. 1515

  No disorder in loading or lowering this boat.

  Passengers: All third-class women and children (53) and

  Men: Mr. Haven (first-class) and three others (third-class) only. Total: 4.

  Crew: Firemen: Diamond (in charge), Cavell, Taylor; Stewards: Rule, Hart. Total: 13.

  Grand Total (Br. Rpt., p. 38): 70.

  Incidents

  G. Cavell, trimmer (Br. Inq.):

  The officer ordered five of us in the boat. We took on all the women and children and the boat was then lowered. We lowered to the first-class (i.e. A) deck and took on a few more women and children, about five, and then lowered to the water. From the lower deck we took in about sixty. There were men about but we did not take them in. They were not kept back. They were third-class passengers, I think – sixty women, Irish. Fireman Diamond took charge. No other seaman in this boat. There were none left on the third-class decks after I had taken the women.

  S.J. Rule, bathroom steward (Br. Inq.):

  Mr. Murdoch called to the men to get into the boat. About six got in. ‘That will do,’ he said, ‘lower away to Deck A.’ At this time the vessel had a slight list to port. We sent scouts around both to the starboard and port sides. They came back and said there were no more women and children. We filled up on A Deck – sixty-eight all told – the last boat to leave the starboard side. There were some left behind. There was a bit of a rush after Mr. Murdoch said we could fill the boat up with men standing by. We very nearly came on top of No. 13 when we lowered away. A man, Jack Stewart, a steward, took charge. Nearly everybody rowed. No lamp. One deckhand in the boat, and men, women and children. Just before it was launched, no more could be found, and about half a dozen men got in. There were sixty-eight in the boat altogether. Seven members of the crew.

  J.E. Hart, third-class steward (Br. Inq., 75):

  Witness defines the duties and what was done by the stewards, particularly those connected with the steerage.

  ‘Pass the women and children up to the Boat Deck.’ was the order soon after the collision. About three-quarters of an hour after the collision he took women and children from the C Deck to the first-class main companion. There were no barriers at that time. They were all opened. He took about thirty to boat No. 8 as it was being lowered. He left them and went back for more, meeting third-class passengers on the way to the boats. He brought back about twenty-five more steerage women and children, having some little trouble owing to the men passengers wanting to get to the Boat Deck. These were all third-class people whom we took to the only boat left on the starboard side, viz., No. 15. There were a large number already in the boat, which was then lowered to A Deck, and five women, three children and a man with a baby in his arms taken in, making about seventy people in all, including thirteen or fourteen of the crew and fireman Diamond in charge. Mr. Murdoch ordered witness into the boat. Four men passengers and fourteen crew was the complement of men; the rest were women and children.

  When boat No. 15 left the boat deck there were other women and children there – some first-class passengers and their husbands. Absolute quietness existed. There were repeated cries for women and children. If there had been any more women there would have been found places for them in the boat. He heard some of the women on the A Deck say they would not leave their husbands.

  There is no truth in the statement that any of the seamen tried to keep back third-class passengers from the Boat Deck. Witness saw masthead light of a ship from the Boat Deck. He did his very best, and so did all the other stewards, to help get the steerage passengers on the Boat Deck as soon as possible.

  ENGELHARDT BOAT ‘C’16

  No disorder in loading or lowering this boat.

  Passengers: President Ismay, Mr. Carter. Balance women and children.

  Crew: Quartermaster Rowe (in charge). Steward Pearce. Barber Weikman. Firemen, three.

  Stowaways: Four Chinamen, or Filipinos.

  Total: 39

  Incidents

  G.T. Rowe, Q.M. (Am. Inq., p. 519, and Br. Inq.):

  To avoid repetition, the testimony of this witness before the two Courts of Inquiry is consolidated:

  He assisted the officer (Boxhall) to fire distress signals until about five and twenty minutes past one. At this time they were getting out the starboard collapsible boats. Chief Officer Wilde wanted a sailor. Captain Smith told him to get into the boat ‘C’ which was then partly filled. He found three women and children in there with no more about. Two gentlemen got in, Mr. Ismay and Mr. Carter. Nobody told them to get in. No one else was there. In the boat there were thirty-nine altogether. These two gentlemen, five of the crew (including himself), three firemen, a steward, and near daybreak they found four Chinamen or Filipinos who had come up between the seats. All the rest were women and children.

  Before leaving the ship he saw
a bright light about five miles away about two points on the port bow. He noticed it after he got into the boat. When he left the ship there was a list to port of six degrees. The order was given to lower the boat, with witness in charge. The rub strake kept on catching on the rivets down the ship’s side, and it was as much as we could do to keep off. It took a good five minutes, on account of this rubbing, to get down. When they reached the water they steered for a light in sight, roughly five miles. They seemed to get no nearer to it and altered their course to a boat that was carrying a green light. When day broke, the Carpathia was in sight.

  In regard to Mr. Ismay’s getting into the boat, the witness’s testimony before the American Court of Inquiry is cited in full:

  Senator Burton: Now, tell us the circumstances under which Mr. Ismay and that other gentleman got into the boat.

  Mr. Rowe: When Chief Officer Wilde asked if there were any more women and children, there was no reply, so Mr. Ismay came into the boat.

  Senator Burton: Mr. Wilde asked if there were any more women and children? Can you say that there were none?

  Mr. Rowe: I could not see, but there were none forthcoming.

  Senator Burton: You could see around there on the deck, could you not?

  Mr. Rowe: I could see the fireman and steward that completed the boat’s crew, but as regards any families I could not see any.

  Senator Burton: Were there any men passengers besides Mr. Ismay and the other man?

  Mr. Rowe: I did not see any, sir.

  Senator Burton: Was it light enough so that you could see anyone near by?

  Mr. Rowe: Yes, sir.

  Senator Burton: Did you hear anyone ask Mr. Ismay and Mr. Carter to get in the boat?