by Nic Compton
I sent the message just as a matter of courtesy. We always pass the news around when we get hold of anything like that. I thought he would be a long way from where we were. I did not think he was anywhere near the ice. By rights, he ought to have been 18 or 19 miles to the southward of where I was. I never thought the ice was stretching that far down.
Robert Hichens – Quartermaster
At a quarter to ten, I called the first officer, Mr Murdoch, to let him know it was one bell, which is part of our duty. It is the duty of the quartermaster to strike the bell every half hour. I also took the thermometer and barometer, the temperature of the water, and the log. We had to do this duty every two hours. We write it down in the log book for the junior officer, and it is copied off in the quartermaster’s log book. After that we don’t take no notice of it.
We have a small bucket, leaded at the bottom, attached to a piece of line about 20 fathoms long, which we put over the lee side of the ship, and draw just sufficient water to put the instrument in to cover the mercury to make its temperature rise. It was an old paint tin the quartermaster got for the occasion, because we had nothing else. It would hold about a quart, if it was full up. The proper thing they use is a long piece of leather, leaded.
It began to get very, very cold; exceedingly cold. So cold, we could hardly suffer the cold. I thought there was ice about, somewhere. It did not concern me. It had nothing to do with me at all. The officers had to do with it. I am only a junior officer.
Reginald Lee – Lookout
There was a sudden change in the temperature. You could smell the ice.
Part Two
Collision
14–15 April 1912
‘I saw a black object right ahead, high above the water. I said, “Iceberg right ahead”’
Frederick Fleet – Lookout
I was on the lookout at the time of the collision. Lee and I relieved Symons and Jewell. They told us to keep a sharp lookout for small ice and growlers. They said they had had orders from the bridge. The sea was calm. The first part of the watch we could see the horizon, then there came a slight haze. It was nothing to talk about; it was only about two points on each side. It did not affect us, the haze; we could see just as well. I daresay it was somewhere near seven bells. The watch was nearly over.
I saw a black object right ahead, high above the water. I struck three bells as soon as I saw it. Then I went straight to the telephone, and rang them up on the bridge. They said, ‘What do you see?’ I said, ‘Iceberg right ahead.’ They said, ‘Thank you.’ I do not know who it was.
After I rang them up I looked over the nest, and the ship was going to port. The iceberg struck on the starboard bow, just before the foremast, about 20 feet from the stem. The ship did not stop at all; she did not stop until she passed the iceberg. Some ice fell on the forecastle head and some on the well deck, just a little bit higher than the forecastle.
I went back to my own place again. I told Lee I thought it was a narrow shave. That was only my idea; it was such a slight noise, that is why I said it.
Reginald Lee – Lookout
It was a dark mass that came through that haze, and there was no white appearing until it was just close alongside the ship, and that was just a fringe at the top. That was the only white about it, until she passed by, and then you could see she was white; one side of it seemed to be black, and the other side seemed to be white. When I had a look at it going astern, it appeared to be white.
As soon as the reply came back ‘Thank you,’ the helm must have been put either hard a-starboard or very close to it, because she veered to port, and it seemed almost as if she might clear it. But I suppose there was ice under water.
Just at that time I happened to be right in front of the nest, because the nest is semi-circular, and the telephone is in the corner of the nest on the starboard side. My mate was telephoning from there, and I was standing in the front of the nest watching the boat. The iceberg was just about amidships, in front of the nest. It was higher than the forecastle; but I could not say what height was clear of the water.
The ship seemed to heel slightly over to port as she struck the berg along the starboard side. There was a rending of metal – you could hear that from where we were. It seemed to be running right along the starboard side.
Bertram Hayes – Captain, White Star Line
There must have been some abnormal conditions which misled them. I do not think there was a bad lookout. I have known the two men, and there is no carelessness.
Joseph Scarrott – Able Seaman
The shock caused everybody to turn out, and we came on deck to see what was the cause of the vibration. We saw a large quantity of ice on the starboard side on the fore-well deck. I went and looked over the rail there, and I saw an iceberg that I took it we had struck. It would be abaft the starboard beam then, not a ship’s length away. It seemed the ship was acting on her helm, and we had swung clear of the iceberg. Her starboard quarter was going off the iceberg, and the starboard bow was going as if to make a circle round it.
The iceberg was about as high as the boat deck; it appeared to be that from the position of it. It struck me at the time that it resembled the Rock of Gibraltar looking at it from Europa Point. It looked very much the same shape as that, only much smaller. The highest point would be on my right, as it appeared to me.
Robert Hichens – Quartermaster
At the time of the collision I was at the wheel, steering the ship. At 20 minutes to 12, three gongs came from the lookout, and immediately afterwards a report on the telephone, ‘Iceberg right ahead.’ The chief officer rushed from the wing to the bridge. I was enclosed in the wheelhouse, and I could not see – I could only see my compass. Mr Murdoch rushed to the engines. I heard the telegraph bell ring; and he gave the order ‘Hard a-starboard.’l The sixth officer was standing by me to see the duty carried out, and the other quartermaster was standing by my left side. The sixth officer repeated the order, ‘Hard a-starboard. The helm is hard over, sir.’
But, during the time, she was crushing the ice. We could hear the grinding noise along the ship’s bottom. I heard the telegraph ring. The captain came rushing out of his cabin and asked, ‘What is that?’ Mr Murdoch said, ‘An iceberg.’ The captain said, ‘Close the emergency doors.’ Mr Murdoch replied, ‘The doors are already closed.’
The captain sent then for the carpenter to sound the ship. He also came back to the wheelhouse and looked at the commutator in front of the compass, which is a little instrument like a clock to tell you how the ship is listing. The ship had a list of five degrees to starboard.
Joseph Boxhall – Fourth Officer
I was just coming along the deck and almost abreast of the captain’s quarters, and I heard the report of three bells from the crow’s nest. That signifies something has been seen ahead. Almost at the same time I heard the first officer give the order ‘Hard a-starboard’, and the engine telegraph rang ‘Full speed astern’.
I was almost on the bridge when the iceberg struck. It seemed to strike the bluff of the bow – the forward part of the ship, but almost on the side. It is just where the ship begins to widen out on the starboard side. It was a glancing blow; a slight impact. It did not seem to me to be very serious. I did not take it seriously.
I saw Mr Murdoch pulling the lever and closing the watertight doors then. The captain was alongside of me when I turned round. He said, ‘What have we struck?’ The first officer said, ‘An iceberg, sir. I hard-a-starboarded and reversed the engines, and I was going to hard-a-port round it but she was too close. I could not do any more. I have closed the watertight doors.’ The captain asked him if he had rung the warning bell. He said, ‘Yes, sir.’
We all walked out to the corner of the bridge then, to look at the iceberg, the captain, the first officer and myself. I was not very sure of seeing it. I had just come out of the light, and my eyes were not accustomed to the darkness. It seemed to me to be just a small black mass not rising very high out o
f the water, just a little on the starboard quarter. The ship was past it then. I could not judge the size of it, but it seemed to me to be very, very low-lying. In my own opinion I do not think the thing extended above the ship’s rail. Probably about 30 feet – no, hardly 30 feet.
I do not know what was done, because I left the bridge then. I went right down below, in the lowest steerage, as far as I could possibly get without going into the cargo portion of the ship, and inspected all the decks as I came up, in the vicinity of where I thought she had struck. I found no indications to show that the ship had damaged herself. Then I went on the bridge and reported to the captain that I could not see any damage.
He said, ‘Go down and find the carpenter and get him to sound the ship.’ I was proceeding down, but I met the carpenter on the way. I said, ‘The captain wants you to sound the ship.’ He said, ‘The ship is making water,’ and he went on the bridge to the captain. I thought I would go down forward again and investigate; and then I met a mail clerk, a man named Smith, and he asked where the captain was. I said, ‘He is on the bridge.’ He said, ‘The mail hold is filling rapidly.’ I said, ‘Well, you go and report it to the captain and I will go down and see,’ and I proceeded right down into the mail room.
I went down as far as the sorting room deck and found mail clerks down there working. Taking letters out of the racks, they seemed to me to be doing. I could not see what they were putting them in. I looked through an open door and saw these men working at the racks, and directly beneath me was the mail hold, and the water seemed to be then within two feet of the deck we were standing on. There were bags of mail floating about.
I met the second steward, Mr Dodd, on my way to the bridge, and he asked me about sending men down below for those mails. I said, ‘You had better wait till I go to the bridge and find what we can do.’ I went to the bridge and reported to the captain what I had seen. He said all right, and then the order came out for the boats.
George Rowe – Quartermaster
I had charge of the taffrail log. As soon as the berg was gone, I looked at the log and it read 260 miles. It had been reset at noon.m
Alfred Olliver – Quartermaster
I happened to be looking at the lights in the standing compass when I heard three bells rung up in the crow’s nest. That was my duty, to look at the lights in the standing compass, and I was trimming them so that they would burn properly. When I heard the report, I knew that it was something ahead. I looked, but could not see anything. I left that and was just entering on the bridge as the shock came. I knew we had touched something.
I saw the captain on the bridge. He gave me orders to tell the carpenter to go and take the draught of the water. I went down and I saw the carpenter taking the draught. He says, ‘All right, I am doing it.’
As soon as I got on the bridge, I had another message to take, this time to the chief engineer. I cannot say what was in the message, as it was on a piece of paper and the paper was closed. I delivered the message to the chief engineer, and I waited for an answer. I waited for two or three minutes. Then he saw me standing, and he asked me what I wanted. I said I was waiting for an answer to the message I took him. He told me to tell the captain that he would get it done as soon as possible.
As soon as I came on the bridge, I delivered back the message that the chief engineer told me he would get it done as soon as possible. After I delivered that message, the chief officer sent me to the boatswain of the ship and told me to tell the boatswain to get the oar lines and to uncover the boats and get them ready for lowering. I done so, and came back on the bridge. No sooner did I get on the bridge, than the sixth officer told me to go and get the boat’s list, so that he could muster the men at the boats. I went and got the sailors’ boat list and took it to him. Then I went to my boat to muster the men.
I did not run any more messages.
Annie Robinson – First Class Stewardess
The mail man passed along first and he returned with Mr McElroy and the captain and they went in the direction of the mail room. I followed after they had come back. I saw two mail bags and a man’s Gladstone bag, and on looking down the staircase I saw water within six steps of coming on to E deck.
The carpenter was the next man I saw. He came along when I was looking down at the water, and he had the lead line in his hand. I could not tell you why. The man looked absolutely bewildered, distracted. He did not speak.
George Cavell – Trimmer
I felt a shock, and with that all the coal round me fell around me. I had a job to get out myself. It did not have time to knock me over. The coal surrounded me before I knew where I was. After that I came up right up to the bunker door, and then came down the ladder and into the stokehold. As soon as I got into the stokehold, the lights went out. I heard the bell go and I knew in a minute what it was for. I went on deck to see what it was, and I saw people running along wet through with lifebelts in their hands. They were going towards after-way. I should think they were the Third Class passengers. My mate said we had struck an iceberg.
The lights were on by the time I got back. The water had started coming up over her stokehold plates. It came gradually. We stopped as long as we could. And then I thought to myself, it was time, and I went for the escape ladder. By then, I was standing in about a foot of water.
Thomas Dillon – Trimmer
It was my first trip down below, to the engine room where the main engines are. I belonged to the upper section, but the upper section of boilers was not lit up, and they sent us to the engine room to assist in cleaning the gear.
The telegraph rang two seconds before she struck. About a minute and a half later, the engines stopped. About half a minute after that, they went slow astern for about two minutes. Then they went ahead again for about two minutes. Then they stopped.
There were a number of engineers there – I did not know their names. They rushed to their stations to work the pumps and valves. In the meantime, the watertight compartments were closed. That was three minutes after the ship struck.
The next order we got was to get out of the engine room and into the stokehold and open the watertight doors. The one leading from the engine room to the first boiler room was lifted up by hand high enough to let us get underneath. We then opened the watertight doors from the engine room to the second, third and fourth boiler room, and left them open. We were ordered to by the chief engineer, to allow the engineers to get forward to their duties with the valves and the pumps.
We did not open the door into No 5 boiler room because there was too much water in No 5.
Then we got the order, ‘All hands on deck; put your life-preservers on.’ That was an hour and 40 minutes after the ship struck. There was water coming in forward, coming from underneath.
Frederick Barrett – Leading Fireman
I was in a stokehold on the starboard side in No 6 section talking to the second engineer, Mr Hesketh. There is like a clock rigged up in the stokehold, and a red light goes up when the ship is supposed to stop; a white light for full speed, and I think it is a blue light for slow. A bell rings when the signal appears. This red light came up. It says ‘Stop’. I called out, ‘Shut all dampers,’ to shut the wind off the fires.
The crash came before we had them all shut. Water came pouring in from the ship’s side two feet abaft the watertight bulkhead. The ship’s side was torn from the third stokehold to the forward end, about two feet from where I was standing. The watertight bulkhead was not damaged. I could not estimate exactly how large the hole was but a large volume of water came through.
Me and Mr Hesketh jumped into the next section, just before the watertight compartment closed up. Mr Hesketh shouted out, ‘All hands stand by your stations.’ That is the order for the men to stand by the fires. My station was in the next boiler room, so the engineer Mr Shepherd and I went up an escape ladder and down to the boiler room. We could not get in, because there were eight feet of water in it.
We came back to No 5 section,
where the second assistant engineers, Mr Harvey and Mr Wilson, were attending to the pumps. The hole was not so big in that section as it was in No 6 section. The lights went out, and Mr Harvey sent me up for some lamps. I went to the top of the escape ladder and sent two firemen into the engine room for them. They fetched 12 to 15 lamps back, but by the time I went down with them the electric lights were burning again.
I looked at the boilers and there was no water in them. So I ran to the engineer, and he told me to get some firemen down to draw the fires.n I got 15 men down below. There were 30 furnaces to pull.* It would take them 20 minutes.
Mr Harvey asked me to lift the manhole plate off on the starboard side of No 5 section to get at the valves. But all the water which had been thrown on the furnaces when they were pulled out was making the stokehold thick with steam. Mr Shepherd was walking across in a hurry to do something when he fell down the hole and broke his leg. We lifted him up and carried him into the pump room.
Up until then, the water had never come above the floor plates. Then, all at once, I saw a wave of green foam come tearing through between the boilers and I jumped for the escape ladder.
Charles Hendrickson – Leading Fireman
I saw the water rushing in from the starboard side at the bottom of the spiral stairway leading from our quarters to the stokehold. There was a lot of water there and from the way it was rushing in you could not exactly tell how it was coming.
I met Mr Hesketh, the second engineer, and reported to him. He told me to get some men and get some lamps and take them down below. I went right through by the engine room and got all the lamps I could get that were ready. I got five, and left four or five men there to get more if they could. Then I came back by the engine room, went along and down the escape to go to No 6 section. When I got down there I found I could not get any further, the water was up too high; so I came back by the escape again and went to No 5 section.