by Nic Compton
My brother-in-law said to me, ‘We had better jump off or the suction will take us down.’ I said, ‘No. We won’t jump yet. We ain’t got much show anyhow, so we might as well stay as long as we can.’ So he stated again, ‘We must jump off.’ But I said, ‘No, not yet.’ So, then, it was only about five feet down to the water when we jumped off. It was not much of a jump. Before that we could see the people were jumping over. There was water coming on to the deck, and they were jumping over, then, out in the water. My brother-in-law took my hand just as we jumped off; and my cousin jumped at the same time.
Edward Brown – First Class Steward
We turned our attention to another collapsible boat that was on top of the officers’ house on the same side of the ship. We got two planks on the bow-end of the boat, and we slid it down on to the boat deck. We tried to get it to the davits, and we got it about halfway and then the ship got a list to port, and we had great difficulty. We made it fast by slackening the falls, but we could not haul it away any further.
The captain came past us while we were trying to get this boat away with a megaphone in his hand, and he spoke to us. He said, ‘Well, boys, do your best for the women and children, and look out for yourselves.’ He walked on the bridge.
The ship took her last plunge a very few seconds after that.
There were four or five women that I could see there waiting to get into this boat if we got it under the davits. The ship was very well down then; the bridge was under water. I found the water come right up to my legs, and I jumped into the collapsible boat then. There was a lot scrambled into it then; when the sea came on to the deck they all scrambled into it. I cut the after fall, and I called out to the man on the forward end of the boat to cut her loose; she would float if we got the falls loose. The boat was practically full, when the sea came into it, and washed them all out. I do not know where the boat went to then. We were washed out of it; that is all I know.
The last I saw of them, the women were in the water struggling.
I do not remember hearing the band stop playing. They were right on the forward boat deck companion, on the very top. They were playing for a long time, but I do not remember hearing them stop.
Part Three
In the Boats
Monday 15 April 1912
‘Then came the dreadful cries’
BOAT NO 6
Arthur Peuchen – First Class Passenger
The quartermaster who was in charge of our boat told us to row as hard as we could to get away from this suction, and just as we got a short distance away this stowaway made his appearance. He was an Italian by birth, I should think, who had a broken wrist or arm, and he was of no use to us to row. He got an oar out, but he could not do much, so we got him to take the oar in.
I think he was stowed away underneath. I should imagine if there was any room for him to get underneath the bow of the boat, he would be there. I imagine that was where he came from. He was not visible when looking at the boat. There were only two men when she was lowered.
As we pulled away from the Titanic, there was an officer’s call of some kind. A sort of a whistle. We stopped rowing. The quartermaster told us to stop rowing so he could hear it, and this was a call to come back to the boat. So we all thought we ought to go back to the boat. But the quartermaster said, ‘No, we are not going back to the boat.’ He said, ‘It is our lives now, not theirs,’ and he insisted upon our rowing farther away.
We commenced to hear signs of the breaking up of the Titanic. I kept my eyes watching the lights, as long as possible. I saw her bow pointing down and the stern up; not in a perpendicular position, but considerable. I should think an angle of not as much as 45 degrees. It was intact at that time. We heard a sort of a rumbling sound and the lights were still on at the rumbling sound, then a sort of an explosion, then another. It seemed to be one, two, or three rumbling sounds, then the lights went out. I imagined that the decks had blown up with the pressure; that is my theory of the explosion. I think it was the pressure, that heavy weight shoving that down, the water rushing up, and the air coming between the decks; something had to go.
Then came the dreadful calls and cries. We could not distinguish an exact cry for assistance; it was a moaning and crying. Frightful. It affected all the women in our boat whose husbands were among these. This went on for some time, gradually getting fainter, fainter. At first, it was horrible to listen to. I think we must have been five-eighths of a mile away, I should imagine, when this took place. It was very hard to guess the distance. There were only two of us rowing a very heavy boat with a good many people in it, and I do not think we covered very much ground.
I think the rebellion was made by some of the married women that were leaving their husbands. Some of the women suggested going back. But the quartermaster said it was no use going back there, there was only a lot of stiffs there, which was very unkind, and the women resented it very much. We did not return to the boat.
I did not say anything. I knew I was perfectly powerless. The quartermaster was at the rudder. He was a very talkative man. He had been swearing a great deal, and was very disagreeable. I do not think he was qualified to be a quartermaster. I had one row with him. I asked him to come and row, to assist us in rowing, and let some woman steer the boat, as it was a perfectly calm night. The stars were out. It did not require any skill for steering. He refused to do it, and he told me he was in command of that boat, and I was to row.
He remained at the tiller, and if we wanted to go back while he was in possession of the tiller, I do not think we could have done so. The night was cold and we kept rowing on. Then he imagined he saw a light. I have done a good deal of yachting in my life, I have owned a yacht for six years and have been out on the Lakes, and I could not see these lights. I saw a reflection. He thought it was a boat of some kind. He thought probably it might be a buoy out there of some kind, and he called out to the next boat, which was within hearing, asking if he knew if there was any buoy around there. This struck me as being perfectly absurd, and showed me the man did not know anything about navigating, expecting to see a buoy in the middle of the Atlantic. However, he insisted upon us rowing toward this imaginary light.
We could see those different lifeboats that had lights. They were all over. They were not all staying together at all. Some of them were going east, west, north, and south, it seemed to me, but there was one boat that had a sort of an electric light, and one a sort of a bluish light, as well, which we thought at first was a steamer or something.
The women rowed, very pluckily, too. We got a couple of women rowing aft, on the starboard side of our boat, and I got two women to assist on our side; but of course the woman with me got sick with the heavy work, and she had to give it up. But I believe the others kept on rowing quite pluckily for a considerable time.
I think the quartermaster was at the tiller all the time, with the exception probably of a couple of minutes. I know he asked one of the ladies for some brandy, and he also asked for one of her wraps, which he got.
We could just commence to distinguish light, I think, about near four o’clock. We seemed to be in a nest of icebergs, with some smaller ones. I think you could count five, between a mile and five miles away. Two were large; another was sort of smaller in size. Some were jagged, but very high, and a number of them not so high. They were at least 100 feet high, two of them, and of a width I should think of 300 feet and 400 feet long; somewhat like an island.
Robert Hichens – Quartermaster
I had no trouble with Major Peuchen at all – only once. He was not in the boat more than ten minutes before he wanted to come and take charge of the boat. I told him, ‘I am put here in charge of the boat.’ I said, ‘You go and do what you are told to do.’ He did not answer me, but went forward on the starboard bow and sat down, alongside of Seaman Fleet, who was working very hard. He done most of the work himself; Fleet was doing most of the work.
Everybody seemed in a very bad condition in the boa
t. Everybody was quite upset, and I told them somebody would have to pull; there was no use stopping there alongside of the ship, and the ship gradually going by the head. We were in a dangerous place, so I told them to man the oars, ladies and all. I said, ‘All of you do your best.’
I was standing at the tiller. We did hear cries of distress, or I imagined so, for two or three minutes. Some of the men in the boat said it was the cries of one boat hailing the other. The cries I heard lasted about two minutes, and some of them were saying, ‘It is one boat aiding the other.’ I suppose the reason they said this was not to alarm the women – the ladies in the boat. I was too far away, and I had no compass to go back, to enable me to find where the cries came from.
There was another boat aside of me, the boat the master-at-arms was in, full right up. We all had lights and were showing them to one another. Most all of us. We kept all showing our lights now and then to let them know where we were, too.
Mrs Meyer was rather vexed with me, and I spoke rather straight to her. She accused me of wrapping myself up in the blankets in the boat, using bad language, and drinking all the whisky, which I deny. I was standing to attention, exposed, steering the boat all night, which is a very cold billet. I would rather be pulling the boat than be steering. But I seen no one there to steer, so I thought, being in charge of the boat, it was the best way to steer myself, especially when I seen the ladies get very nervous with the nasty tumble on.
I was very cold, and I was standing up in the boat. I had no hat on. A lady had a flask of whisky or brandy, or something of that description, given her by some gentleman on the ship before she left. She pulled it out and gave me about a tablespoonful, and I drank it. Another lady, who was lying in the bottom of the boat in a rather weak condition, gave me a half wet and half dry blanket to try keep myself a little warm, as I was half frozen.
We got down to the Carpathia, and I seen every lady and everybody out of the boat, and I seen them carefully hoisted on board the Carpathia, and I was the last man to leave the boat. That is all I can tell you.
Mary Smith – First Class Passenger
There was a small light on the horizon that we were told to row towards. Some people seemed to think it was a fishing smack or small boat of some description. However, we seemed to get no nearer the longer we rowed, and I am of the opinion it was a star. Many people in our boat said they saw two lights. I could not until I had looked a long time; I think it was the way our eyes focused, and probably the hope for another boat. I do not believe it was anything but a star.
There were 24 people in our boat – they are supposed to hold 50. During the night they looked for water and crackers and a compass, but they found none that night. We were some distance away when the Titanic went down. We watched with sorrow, and heard the many cries for help and pitied the captain, because we knew he would have to stay with his ship. The cries we heard I thought were seamen, or possibly steerage, who had overslept, it not occurring to me for a moment that my husband and my friends were not saved.
It was bitterly cold, but I did not seem to mind it particularly. I was trying to locate my husband in all the boats that were near us. The night was beautiful; everything seemed to be with us in that respect, and a very calm sea. The icebergs on the horizon were all watched with interest; some seemed to be as tall as mountains, and reminded me of the pictures I had studied in geography. Then there were flat ones, round ones also.
I am not exactly sure what time, but think it was between five and five thirty when we sighted the Carpathia. Our seaman suggested we drift and let them pick us up; however, the women refused and rowed toward it. Our seaman was Hichens, who refused to row, but sat in the end of the boat wrapped in a blanket that one of the women had given him. I am not of the opinion that he was intoxicated, but a lazy, uncouth man, who had no respect for the ladies, and who was a thorough coward.
We made no attempt to return to the sinking Titanic, because we supposed it was thoroughly equipped. Such a thought never entered my head. Nothing of the sort was mentioned in the boat, having left the ship so early, we were innocent of the poor equipment that we now know of.
BOAT NO 2
Joseph Boxhall – Fourth Officer
I pulled around the ship’s stern and was intending to go alongside. I reckoned I could take about three more people off the boat with safety. I kept a little distance off the ship, probably a hundred yards or so. I think there was a little suction, while the ship was settling down bodily, as the boat seemed to be drawn closer to the ship. But I do not think there was the suction that the people really thought there was. I was really surprised, myself. By hearsay, it seems to have been a general surprise to everybody that there was so little suction.
I suppose I was about a half a mile away when the Titanic sank. We were resting on the oars. I cannot say that I saw her sink. I saw the lights go out, and I looked two or three minutes afterward, and it was 25 minutes past two. So I took it that she sank at about 20 minutes after two.
A little while after the ship’s lights went out and the cries subsided, I heard the water rumbling or breaking on the ice. Then I knew that there was a lot of ice about; but I could not see it from the boat. Of course, sound travels quite a long way on the water, and being so close to the water, and it being such a calm night, you would hear the water lapping on those bergs for quite a long, long ways.
It was perfectly clear. You could almost see the stars set. I do not know why we couldn’t see the iceberg. I do not know what it was about it; I could not understand.
I have come across a good few icebergs, I suppose. On such a night as that, even if there is no moon, you can very, very often see an iceberg by the water on the sides of it – that is, if there is a little breeze. But when the water is in one of those oily calms, it’s much harder to see. If there had been a little ripple on the water, we should have stood a very good chance of seeing that iceberg in time to clear it.
It was like an oily calm when the Titanic struck, and for a long, long time after we were in the boats, and you could not see anything at all then.
I did not see anyone in the water. I was looking around for them, keeping my eyes open, but I did not see anyone. If I had, I should have taken them in the boat; I should have taken them in as far as safety would allow. But I did not see anyone in the water.
James Johnson – First Saloon Night Watchman
By the time we came back again and pulled round the stern of the Titanic, we must have pulled a mile and a half, I should think, for a good half-hour. We went back and rowed round about 800 yards off, and we heard many cries. There were lots of remarks by the ladies; they said they were sorry and everything. And the officer said to the ladies, ‘Do you think we should go back or not?’ And the ladies said, ‘No.’ I think they thought it was dangerous.
When we were all quiet, the officer said, ‘Listen,’ and what we heard was the swish of the water against an iceberg. When we looked, there was an iceberg right in front of us.
Joseph Boxhall – Fourth Officer
I had been showing green pyrotechnic lights most of the time. This was a box of green lights that I told the man to put in the boat for anybody that would happen to find them. They made a very brilliant light. I saw several of the boats which had lighted lamps in them, but the usual lifeboat’s lights. They are usually held by the man who steers the boat.
I did not see the icebergs until I got within about two or three ship’s lengths of the Carpathia. Then, as daylight broke, I saw several bergs; they looked quite black. It was just breaking daylight, and the Carpathia seemed to have stopped within half a mile of numerous bergs. But after the sun got up they looked white. And field ice; I could see field ice then as far as the eye could see. This is the first time that I have seen field ice on the Grand Banks. I have been running to New York since I was 19 years of age. I have seen icebergs, but have never seen any field ice before.
I do make a distinction between an iceberg and a growler. As I unde
rstand, a growler is a low-lying iceberg. They are all submerged; but I mean one lying, it might be, very largely on the surface of the water, but not high. It might be large or it might be small, but it is low lying. The larger it gets, then it gets to be an iceberg. Field ice is a lot of ice all together, not unlike a raft. It is a large expanse of ice covering the water, just a little above the surface.
As far as I understand, they come from the Arctic region. Some people who have been very close to them tell me that they have seen sand and gravel and rocks and things of that kind in them. And earth. I have never been close enough to see that.
Frank Osman – Able Seaman
After I got in the boat, the officer found a bunch of rockets, which was put in the boat by mistake for a box of biscuits. Having them in the boat, the officer fired some off, and the Carpathia came to us first and picked us up a half an hour before anybody else.
BOAT NO 5
George Harder – First Class Passenger
We rowed out there some distance from the ship. How far it was, I do not know. It may have been as far as a quarter of a mile, and it may have been one-eighth of a mile. At any rate, we were afraid of the suction. So the passengers said, ‘Let us row out a little farther.’ So they rowed out farther, perhaps about a half a mile; it may have been three-quarters of a mile. There we waited, and after waiting around a while, this other boat came alongside. They had 29 people in their boat, and we counted the number of people in our boat; and at that time we only counted 36. So we gave them four or five of our people in order to make it even, as we were kind of crowded.