Titanic on Trial

by Nic Compton

  Mr Lightoller took charge of us and sighted the Carpathia’s lights. Then we started heading for that. We had to row a tidy distance to the Carpathia, because there was boats ahead of us, and we had a boat in tow with us, besides all the people we had aboard.

  COLLAPSIBLE D

  Hugh Woolner – First Class Passenger

  I could not really see a thing when the lights went out. It was all brilliantly lighted at the stem end, and suddenly the lights went out, and your eyes were so unaccustomed to the darkness, you could see nothing, and you could only hear sounds. There was nobody in sight. Not a soul. We were right up close, and it was like the side of a house and we could see nothing at all.

  She seemed to me to stop for about 30 seconds at one place before she took the final plunge, because I watched one particular porthole, and the water did not rise there for at least half a minute, and then she suddenly slid under with her propellers under the water.

  For quite a considerable time we simply rowed out into the sea. We heard other boats around about us, and when the eyes got accustomed to the darkness we could see a certain amount. There was a lantern on board, but there was no oil in it. Then some officer came along and said, ‘I want all these boats tied up by their painters, head and tail, so as to make a more conspicuous mark,’ and we did that.

  Then we drifted about for a long time. We had a water breaker, I think they call it, but there was no water in it. A sailor offered some biscuits, which I was using for feeding a small child who had waked up and was crying. It was one of those little children for whose parents everybody was looking. I should think it was about 15, as nearly as I can judge. It looked like a French child; but it kept shouting for its doll, and I could not make out what it said before that. It kept saying it over and over again.

  Then dawn began to break very slowly, and we could see more. There were a great many icebergs. They were of different colours as the sun struck them. Some looked white and some looked blue, and some sort of mauve, and others were dark grey. There was one double-toothed one that looked to be of good size.

  I saw a faint line, what looked like a faint line along the horizon. From the boat it looked like a brilliant white line along the horizon. But when we got on the Carpathia, we saw it was a huge floe which stretched out I do not know how far, but we were several hours steaming along it. It seemed to be stationary; but there were lumps on it, sort of lumps like haystacks or little mountains.

  The Carpathia seemed to come up very slowly and then she stopped. Then we looked out and we saw that there was a boat alongside her, and then we realised that she was waiting for us to come up to her instead of her coming to us, as we hoped. Then, just at that time, when we began to row toward the Carpathia, Mr Lowe came down with his boat under sail, again, and hailed us and said, ‘Are you a collapsible?’ We answered, ‘Yes.’ He said ‘How are you?’ I said, ‘We have about all we want.’ He said, ‘Would you like a tow?’ We answered, ‘Yes, we would.’ So he took our painter and towed us away to the Carpathia.

  There were several other children in the boat. We handed them into a bag, and they were pulled up the Carpathia’s side.

  John Hardy – Chief Second Class Steward

  They were all strangers to me. There were a number of Third Class passengers, that were Syrians, in the bottom of the boat, chattering the whole night in their strange language. We were some of the last.

  We picked up the husband of a wife that we had taken off another boat. The gentleman took to the water, and climbed in the boat when we were afloat. I remember that quite distinctly. I know the gentleman – but I do not know his name – because he sat there, wringing wet, alongside of me, helping me row. He was an American gentleman.

  COLLAPSIBLE C

  Bruce Ismay – Managing Director, IMM

  I do not know how far we were away. I was sitting with my back to the ship. I did not wish to see her go down. I only looked around once. She was very much down by the head; her starboard light was just about level with the water. I never looked around again. I was rowing all the time I was in the boat. We were pulling away.

  We saw a light a long way from us, which, I think, was a little bit on our starboard side. We thought we gained on her, and then she seemed to draw away from us again when daylight came. I do not think it was a steamer at all; I think it was a sailing ship we saw. I am sure it was not the Californian. This light was on the starboard side of the Titanic. I understand the Californian – or the ship that was supposed to be the Californian – was seen on the port side. The only light I saw was the one we rowed for. I saw no other light.

  We found four Chinamen stowed away under the thwarts after we got away. I think they were Filipinos, perhaps. There were four of them. I believe one was a cook, another was the butcher, and another was the quartermaster.

  There was very little wind, up to a certain hour in the morning, when the wind did get up. We gave it up because the wind got up; a little sea got up and we were making no progress at all.

  COLLAPSIBLE A

  Edward Brown – First Class Steward

  When I got in the water, I was in a whirlpool going round. I came up to the top. There was what I took to be an explosion – a great noise, a great report. There was no wreckage, but a lot of people in the water. And well I know it, because they tore my clothing away from me with struggling in the water.

  With the first report of that explosion, I saw the after part of the ship giving a bit of a tremble, that the bow had fallen off. The part right before the forward funnel was practically under water then. There were lights burning then.

  I saw a black object and swam towards it. I never swam in my life; but I kept myself up with the lifebelt, and I made my way the best I could towards it. It seemed a very long time; it seemed a lifetime to me. The lifebelt saved me.

  It was a good while after daylight I was picked up by the lifeboat. It was submerged with the weight of men on it. I should say there were 16 or 17 on it, all men. They were mixed up; there were some stewards, some firemen, and the rest passengers. The women were picked up after I got aboard of it.

  There was nobody pulling then, because the boat was under sail when I got into it. The officer asked for volunteers to row. There were three oars put out on the starboard side of the boat, and I took one on the port side.

  My feet had burst my boots, and my hands were all swollen up.

  Olaus Abelseth – Third Class Passenger

  When we came into the water, I think it was from the suction – or anyway we went under, and I swallowed some water. I got a rope tangled around me, and I let loose of my brother-in-law’s hand to get away from the rope. I thought then, ‘I am a goner.’ That is what I thought when I got tangled up in this rope. But I came on top again, and I was trying to swim, and there was a man – lots of them were floating around – and he got me on the neck like and pressed me under, trying to get on top of me. I said to him, ‘Let go.’ Of course, he did not pay any attention to that, but I got away from him. Then there was another man, and he hung on to me for a while, but he let go. Then I swam, I could not say how long, but it must have been about 15 or 20 minutes. It could not have been over that. Then I saw something dark ahead of me. I did not know what it was, but I swam toward that, and it was one of those collapsible boats.

  When we jumped off of the ship, we had life-preservers on. There was no suction from the ship at all. I was lying still, and I thought, ‘I will try to see if I can float on the lifebelt without help from swimming,’ and I floated easily on the lifebelt.

  When I got on this raft or collapsible boat, they did not try to push me off and they did not do anything for me to get on. All they said when I got on there was, ‘Don’t capsize the boat.’ So I hung on to the raft for a little while before I got on.

  Some of them were trying to get up on their feet. They were sitting down or lying down on the raft. Some of them fell into the water again. Some of them were frozen; and there were two dead, that they threw o
verboard.

  I got on this raft or collapsible boat and raised up, and then I was continually moving my arms and swinging them around to keep warm. There was one lady aboard this raft, and she got saved. I do not know her name.s There were also two Swedes, and a First Class passenger, and he had just his underwear on. I asked him if he was married, and he said he had a wife and a child. There was also a fireman named Thompson on the same raft. He had burned one of his hands. Also there was a young boy, with a name that sounded like ‘volunteer’.

  The next morning we could see some of the lifeboats. One of the boats had a sail up, and he came pretty close, and then we said, ‘One, two, three.’ We said that quite often. We did not talk very much, except that we would say, ‘One, two, three,’ and scream together for help.

  The boat was not capsized, but there was water on the top. We were standing on the deck; the canvas was not raised up. We tried to raise the canvas up but we could not get it up. We stood all night in about 12 or 14 inches of water on this thing, and our feet were in the water all the time. I could not say exactly how long we were there, but I know it was more than four hours on this raft.

  It was broad daylight when the Carpathia came. There were several boats there then. Then this boat sailed down to us and took us aboard, and took us in. I helped row into the Carpathia. There must have been ten or twelve on board. They got saved off this raft.

  There was one man from New Jersey that I came in company with from London. I do not know what his name was. I tried to keep this man alive; but I could not make it. It was just at the break of day, and he was lying down, and he seemed to be kind of unconscious; he was not really dead, and I took him by the shoulder and raised him up, so that he was sitting up on this deck.

  He was just sitting down right on the deck. I said to him, ‘We can see a ship now. Brace up.’ And I took one of his hands and raised it up, and I took him by the shoulder and shook him, and he said, ‘Who are you?’ He said, ‘Let me be. Who are you?’ I held him up like that for a while, but I got tired and cold, and I took a little piece of a small board – a lot of which were floating around there – and laid it under his head on the edge of the boat to keep his head from the water. But it was not more than about half an hour or so when he died.

  We saw three big icebergs. They were quite a ways off.

  Riversdale French – Surgeon, SS Oceanic

  I went on the second visit to the boat. We found three bodies, a fur rug, a ring, and a lady’s comb. They were three men. One evidently was a passenger, and two probably members of the crew. The passenger’s body was in evening clothes, and we found his name. By the light of what I know now, I know those bodies had died of exposure.

  COLLAPSIBLE B

  Charles Lightoller – Second Officer

  The ship seemed to take a bit of a dive, and I just walked into the water. I was swimming out towards the head of the ship, the crow’s nest. I could see the crow’s nest. The water was intensely cold, and one’s natural instinct was to try to get out of the water. I do not know whether I swam to the foremast with that idea, but of course I soon realised it was rather foolish, so I turned to swim across clear of the ship to starboard. The next thing I knew I was up against the blower on the fore part of the funnel. The water was rushing down this blower, through a grating, right down into the stokehold. The water rushing down held me against the blower a little while. After a while – it seemed a good long while, though I do not suppose it was many moments – there seemed to be a rush of air from down below, and I was blown away from it.

  I was in the sea between half an hour and an hour. With a lifejacket on, there is no necessity to swim; you can paddle, it holds you high in the water. But you cannot swim, because you cannot get your breast deep down in the water. I have heard since that the gymnasium instructor refused to put one on for that reason; he could swim far better and get clear of people and things without it.

  I found myself alongside of the collapsible boat, which I had previously launched on the port side, the one I had thrown on to the boat deck. It was still shut up, bottom side up. I just held on to something, a piece of rope or something, and was there for a little while, and then the forward funnel fell down. It fell within three or four inches of the boat. It lifted the boat bodily, and threw her about 20 feet clear of the ship.

  Edward Wilding – Naval Architect, Harland & Wolff

  The funnels are carried from the casings in the way of the comparatively light upper decks – that is, the boat deck and A deck. When these decks became submerged and the water got inside the house, the water would rise outside much faster than inside, and the excessive pressure on the comparatively light casings which are not made to take a pressure of that kind would cause the casing to collapse; would take the seating from under the funnel and bring the funnel down.

  Charles Lightoller – Second Officer

  After the funnel fell, some little time elapsed. I do not know exactly what came or went, but the next thing I remember I was alongside this collapsible boat again, and there were about half a dozen people standing on it. I climbed on it, and then turned my attention to the ship. The third if not the second funnel was still visible – certainly the third funnel was still visible. The stern was then clear of the water. Even at that time I think the propellers were clear of the water. She did eventually attain the absolutely perpendicular.

  The ship did not and could not have broken in two, and the stern did not settle on the water. I am perfectly certain of that. I was watching her keenly the whole time.

  After she reached an angle of 50 or 60 degrees, or something about that, there was this rumbling sound, which I attributed to the boilers leaving their beds and crushing down on or through the bulkheads. The ship at that time was becoming more perpendicular, until finally she attained the absolute perpendicular, and then went slowly down. She went down very slowly until the end, and then the after part of the second cabin deck went down much quicker.

  The only thing that I should attribute to explosions was when I was, in the first place, sucked to the blower, and, in the second place, shortly before the forward funnel falling, there was an up-rush of certainly warm water. But whether it was caused by an explosion or what, I could not say. It may have been the cold water reaching the boilers – if boilers do explode under those circumstances, which is quite an open question. Some say they do and a great many capable men certainly say they do not explode. If her boilers did not explode, it was not from that and must have been the rush of imprisoned air. The heat would be caused merely through its coming from the stokehold.

  Edward Wilding – Naval Architect, Harland & Wolff

  I should think it was very unlikely that the boilers exploded. There are very few cases, I believe, of boilers examined in ships after they have been flooded which have exploded. Of course, when sea water reaches a hot boiler there is a great cloud of steam which might give a certain impression of explosion. The boilers might have moved when the bow was down; I do not think the machinery did. The fact that the electric lights remained burning up to the moment almost that she disappeared indicates that one boiler room, most probably No 2, was still supplying steam to the emergency dynamos.

  Charles Lightoller – Second Officer

  As far as I remember, I was standing or kneeling on the upside-down lifeboat. There were several people in the water round about us who struggled towards the boat and swarmed towards it and got on to it during the night occasionally. Of course, we could not paddle that boat about; it was absolutely water-logged. Six others got on during the night, and there were nearly 28 or 30 people on this raft in the morning.

  The swell got up almost immediately after I was in the water. I had not been on the upturned boat more than half an hour or so before a slight swell was distinctly noticeable. In the morning there was quite a breeze and we maintained our equilibrium with the greatest difficulty when the rough sea came towards us.

  We saw then there were several icebergs scattered a
bout. I should say the nearest must have been at least ten miles away. That is a pretty rough estimate. I cannot say with any degree of accuracy now what the nearest was, it may have been less. They ranged from a matter of 50 or 60 feet to perhaps 200 or 300 feet. There was no pack ice that we saw then.

  Two lifeboats approached us. I had my whistle in my pocket. I whistled by way of showing it was an officer that was calling, and I asked them if they could take some of us on board. I said if they could manage to take half a dozen – because we were sinking then – it would lighten us up so that we could continue afloat.

  We all got into one of the boats, I do not know the number. This being the lighter one of the two, I chose it. Standing in the stern, I counted 65 heads, including those taken off that boat. I could not myself see anyone who sat in the bottom of the boat. I judge there were at least 75 in the boat. Bride was on board, the Marconi operator, of course; that is the boat that Phillips was on. There were two or three died during the night.

  It was one of the later boats to be taken on board the Carpathia, and therefore would be one of those that was turned adrift. It was the last boat to get to the Carpathia, as a matter of fact, I think.

  Harold Bride – Assistant Telegraphist

  I was upside down, on the under-side of the collapsible, lying on my back. After I had been there two or three seconds, I cleared myself and swam away from it. I do not know why. I swam away from the Titanic. I was in the water, I should estimate, nearly three-quarters of an hour. It may have been more. It seemed a lifetime to me. I was swimming when she went down – I estimate I was within 150 feet of her – and I felt practically no suction at all.