Titanic on Trial

by Nic Compton

  After we got on board the Carpathia I met one or two American passengers. I recall that Colonel Astor and his wife were aboard. I saw him walking on the top deck – one of the officers told me who he was. I never saw his wife at all.

  It was well on in the forenoon when the captain set the course to New York.

  Arthur Rostron – Captain, SS Carpathia

  At 8.30 all the people were on board. I asked for the purser, and told him that I wanted to hold a service, a short prayer of thankfulness for those rescued and a short burial service for those who were lost. I consulted with Mr Ismay. I ran down for a moment and told them that I wished to do this, and Mr Ismay left everything in my hands. I then got an episcopal clergyman, one of our passengers, and asked him if he would do this for me, which he did, willingly.

  While they were holding the service, I was on the bridge, of course, and I manoeuvred around the scene of the wreckage. We were then very close to where the Titanic must have gone down, as there was a lot of wreckage – hardly wreckage but small pieces of broken-up stuff, nothing in the way of anything large; a few deck chairs and pieces of cork from lifebelts, a few lifebelts, and things of that description, all very small stuff indeed.

  We only saw one body. It was floating, with a life-preserver on. It was male and appeared to me to be one of the crew; he was only about 100 yards from the ship. We could see him quite distinctly, and saw that he was absolutely dead. He was lying on his side, and his head was awash. Of course he could not possibly have been alive and remain in that position. I did not take him aboard. For one reason, the Titanic’s passengers then were knocking about the deck and I did not want to cause any unnecessary excitement or any more hysteria among them, so I steamed past, trying to get them not to see it.

  At eight o’clock the Leyland Line steamer Californian hove up, and we exchanged messages. I gave them the notes by semaphore about the Titanic going down, and that I had got all the passengers from the boats; but we were then not quite sure whether we could account for all the boats. I told them: ‘Think one boat still unaccounted for.’ He then asked me if he should search around, and I said, ‘Yes, please.’

  The next day I got a message from the Californian saying: ‘Have searched position carefully up to noon and found nothing and seen no bodies.’

  James Moore – Captain, SS Mount Temple

  At 3.25am I stopped the engines, and then went slowly to avoid the ice, because it was too dark to proceed full speed on account of the ice. I reached the Titanic’s position, or very close to it, at 4.30 in the morning. I saw a large ice pack right to the east of me; at least five miles wide and 20 miles long, perhaps more than that.

  I searched around to see if there was a clear place we could go through, because I feared the ice was too heavy for me to push through, and I realised that the Titanic could not have been through it. I steered away to the south-southeast true, because I thought the ice appeared thinner down there. When I found the ice was too heavy, I stopped there and turned around, and searched for a passage, and I could not see any passage whatever. I had a man pulled up to the masthead in a bowline, right to the foretopmast head, and I had the chief officer at the mainmast head, and he could not see any line through the ice at all that I could go through.

  Of course, I had no idea then that the Titanic had sunk. I had not the slightest idea of that.

  On the way back again, at about six o’clock in the morning, I sighted the Carpathia on the other side of this great ice pack, and there is where I understand he picked up the boats. So this great pack of ice was between us and the Titanic’s position. It was not until I received word from the Carpathia that she had picked up the boats and the Titanic had sunk that I gave up hopes of seeing her. I stayed there until nine o’clock, and was cruising around all that time. I saw nothing whatever in the way of wreckage.

  I saw the Californian cruising around there; she was there shortly after me. She was to the north of the Carpathia and steaming to the westward.

  Stanley Lord – Captain, SS Californian

  I don’t know what time we got there. I think he was taking the last boat up when I got there. I saw several empty boats, some floating planks, a few deck chairs and cushions, a few lifebelts floating around; but considering the size of the disaster, there was very little wreckage. It seemed more like an old fishing boat had sunk.

  I talked to the Carpathia until nine o’clock. Then he left. Then we went full speed in circles over a radius – that is, I took a big circle and then came around and around and got back to the boats again, where I had left them. At 11.20 we proceeded on our course.

  Arthur Peuchen – First Class Passenger

  I felt sure that an explosion had taken place in the boat, because in passing the wreck the next morning – I was standing forward, looking to see if I could see any dead bodies, or any of my friends – and to my surprise I saw the barber’s pole floating. The barber’s pole was on the C deck, my recollection is, and that must have been a tremendous explosion to allow this pole to have broken from its fastenings and drift with the wood.

  I was surprised, when we steamed through this wreckage, that we did not see any bodies in the water. That is something that astonished me very much. The wreckage was something like two islands, and was strewn along. I was interested to see if I could see any bodies, and I was surprised to think that with all these deaths that had taken place we could not see one body. I understand a life-preserver is supposed to keep up a person, whether dead or alive.

  There was a very large quantity of floating cork. I am at a loss to understand where it came from. There were a great many chairs in the water, all the steamer chairs were floating, and pieces of wreckage – but there was a particularly large quantity of cork.

  I think two or three of the boats were allowed to drift. One, I think, had some dead bodies in it. I saw at least two boats drifting away. I was afraid they could not take care of more. I saw dead bodies in one of the boats that came up, lying in the bow. I do not know whether that was set adrift or not.

  I would not say we were in the immediate vicinity of the scene of the disaster, because there was a breeze started up at daybreak, and the wreckage would naturally float away from where she went down, somewhat. It might be that it had floated away, probably a mile or half a mile; probably not more than that, considering that the wind only sprang up at daybreak. The wind was blowing, I imagine, from the north at that time.

  James Moore – Captain, SS Mount Temple

  The time I heard there were so many people left on board I said, ‘Then it is just possible those bodies might never be recovered,’ because there were so many decks, and if these people had been underneath those decks, the ship going down would cause the pressure to be very great. That pressure would have pressed them up under those decks and it is just a matter that they would never be released, because as they got lower down there would be such tremendous pressure that, even supposing the ship listed in any way, it was not possible for these bodies to withstand the pressure.

  It may be too that the ice has covered the spot where the Titanic sank, and that has kept those bodies under.

  Edward Wilding – Naval Architect, Harland & Wolff

  There were nine Harland & Wolff staff on board altogether; one of our managing directors and eight others. None were saved.

  ‘It was very remarkable, and the whole thing was providential, as regards our being able to get there’

  Mary Smith – First Class Passenger

  The sea had started to get fairly rough by the time we were taken on the Carpathia, and we were quite cold and glad for the shelter and protection. I have every praise for the Carpathia’s captain and its crew, as well as the passengers aboard. They were kindness itself to each and every one of us, regardless of which position we occupied on boat. One lady very kindly gave me her berth, and I was as comfortable as can be expected under the circumstances until we arrived in New York. The ship’s doctors were particularly nice to us. I k
now many women who slept on the floor in the smoking room while Mr Ismay occupied the best room on the Carpathia, being in the centre of the boat, with every attention, and a sign on the door saying, ‘Please do not knock.’ There were other men who were miraculously saved, and barely injured, sleeping on the engine room floor, and such places as that, as the ship was very crowded.

  The discipline coming into New York was excellent. We were carefully looked after in every way, with the exception of a Marconigram I sent from the Carpathia on Monday morning, April 15, to my friends. Knowing of their anxiety, I borrowed money from a gentleman and took this Marconigram myself and asked the operator to send it for me, and he promised he would. However, it was not received. Had it been sent, it would have spared my family, as well as Mr Smith’s, the terrible anxiety which they went through for four days. This is the only complaint I have to make against the Carpathia. They did tell me they were near enough to land to send it, but would send it through other steamers, as they were cabling the list of the rescued that way. He also said it was not necessary to pay him, because the White Star Line was responsible. I insisted, however, because I thought that probably the money might have some weight with them, as the whole thing seemed to have been a monied accident.

  Daniel Buckley – Third Class Passenger

  One of the firemen that was working on the Titanic told me, when I got on board the Carpathia and he was speaking to me, that he did not think it was any iceberg; that it was only that they wanted to make a record, and they ran too much steam and the boilers bursted. That is what he said.

  Charles Lightoller – Second Officer

  I may say that at that time Mr Ismay did not seem to me to be in a mental condition to finally decide anything. I tried my utmost to rouse Mr Ismay, for he was obsessed with the idea, and kept repeating, that he ought to have gone down with the ship, because he found that women had gone down. I told him there was no such reason. I told him a very great deal. I tried to get that idea out of his head, but he was taken with it, and I know the doctor tried, too. But we had difficulty in arousing Mr Ismay, purely owing to that wholly and solely, that women had gone down in the boat and he had not.

  Harold Cottam – Marconi Officer, SS Carpathia

  I informed the Baltic of the whole catastrophe about half past ten in the morning, the morning after the wreck. She was steaming in the direction of the wreck. I told her the distress signal received the previous night, and told her that we had been to the wreck and picked up as many passengers as we could find in the small boats, and were returning to New York. I believe I did mention something about Halifax, simply because the captain was bound for Halifax first, and then he changed his mind and was bound for New York. I may have sent the same to the other ships. There were three or four ships in the vicinity: the Virginian, the Californian, and the Baltic. I may have sent the same message to the three, I can not be certain.

  Arthur Rostron – Captain, SS Carpathia

  The first and principal reason for going to New York was that we had all these women aboard, and I knew they were hysterical and in a bad state. I knew very well, also, that people on land would want all the news possible. I knew very well, further, that if I went to Halifax, we could get them there all right, but I did not know how many of these people were half dead, how many were injured, or how many were really sick, or anything like that. I knew, also, that if we went to Halifax, we would have the possibility of coming across more ice, and I knew very well what the effect of that would be on people who had had the experience these people had had. I knew what that would be, the whole time we were in the vicinity of ice. I took that into consideration. I knew very well that if we went to Halifax it would be a case of railway journey for these passengers, as I knew they would have to go to New York, and there would be all the miseries of that.

  Furthermore, I did not know what the condition of the weather might be, or what accommodation I could give them in Halifax, and that was a great consideration – one of the greatest considerations that made me turn back.

  I had very little opportunity of being amongst the passengers or any of them. To tell you the truth, I was on the bridge or about my duties most of the time. I had, however, one or two conversations with the passengers on Tuesday afternoon. I heard then that all the people on the Titanic, as far as they could see, had all been supplied with lifebelts. That was the only time I had anything to do with the people.

  Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon – First Class Passenger

  When I got on the Carpathia, there was a little hitch in getting one of the men up the ladder. Hendrickson brought my coat, which I had thrown in the bottom of the boat, up after me, and I asked him to get the men’s names.

  I went to see the captain one afternoon and told him I had promised the crew of my boat a £5 note each. He said, ‘It is quite unnecessary.’ I laughed and said, ‘I promised it; so I have got to give it them.’

  George Symons – Lookout

  I only know I heard that they took my name, and I understood from the other fireman they were to send a wire to our parents. It was a great surprise to me when I received a cheque for £5. It was a day or two before we arrived in New York.

  I was took in several photographs on the Carpathia. It’s quite nice to know you are so big. I wrote my name on Lady Duff Gordon’s lifebelt at her request. We were asked to put our names on it, and we did it.

  Charles Hendrickson – Leading Fireman

  I received an order for £5 from Duff Gordon on the Carpathia. The others received the same. I think it was the day before we docked in New York we got that. Mr Duff Gordon sent for us, and we all went up together on the promenade deck of the Carpathia. He promised us this present in the early hours of the morning, before we were picked up from the lifeboat, he said he would do something for us. He said, ‘I am going to make a little present to the members of the boat’s crew,’ but we did not know what it was. After we got on board the Carpathia, he said, ‘See me later on, I am too busy now.’

  Henry Stengel – First Class Passenger

  There was another quite large bulletin posted by the captain which said there had been rumours aboard brought to him that the press was using the wires, and the captain made it very emphatic, and said, ‘I wish to state emphatically that there have not been but 20 words sent to the press,’ and that the wires were at the service of the survivors of the Titanic. That was signed by, I think, the purser.

  I contacted home, and through the efforts I made to help the people aboard the boat there, they said, ‘We appreciate what you are doing, and your two messages have gone.’ I think the first message was sent on Monday, just stating, ‘Both aboard the Carpathia; both safe aboard the Carpathia.’ It was addressed to the firm of Stengel and Rothschild, Newark, NJ. That message was received.

  I sent another message after that, asking to have two automobiles to meet me at the Carpathia pier; that I expected to bring some survivors home with me. I expected to bring several ladies, one from Fond du Lac, one from Green Bay, one from North Dakota, and another lady from West Orange. But as we left the boat they all found their friends, and I had no use for the two machines after that.

  Harold Cottam – Marconi Officer, SS Carpathia

  I do not remember when I went on, but I did not come off for a couple of days after I got on. I was never off. I believe it was Tuesday night when I fell off to sleep, and I had about three hours’ sleep. I don’t remember the days at all, being up all the time. I know I only had about eight or ten hours’ sleep from the time we left the scene of the wreck until we arrived at New York.

  Mr Bride came on Wednesday afternoon and carried on with the work while I was not there. His services were entirely voluntary. He could not walk or stand from injuries received at the time of the wreck. Bride had the phones right up to docking and right after docking. I was in the station having my dinner.

  I can not say the apparatus was in good condition, because the weather was not good. The atmosphere was in a stat
ic condition. There was rain about all the time. It was wet, foul weather. It caused a leak through the insulators when they were wet. I did repeat everything; I never send a telegram without repeating it. If there is a lot of static about, of course you would – when there is atmospheric disturbance; when there is stormy weather about.

  Harold Bride – Assistant Telegraphist

  After a short stay in the hospital of the Carpathia, I was asked to assist Mr Cottam, the operator, who seemed fairly worn out with work. The list of survivors, Mr Cottam told me, had been sent to the Minnewaska and the Olympic. There were hundreds of telegrams from survivors waiting to go as soon as we could get communication with shore stations.

  When we established communication with the various coast stations, all of which had heavy traffic for us, in some cases running into hundreds of messages, we told them we would only accept service and urgent messages, as we knew the remainder would be press and messages inquiring after someone on the Titanic. It is easy to see we might have spent hours receiving messages inquiring after some survivor, while we had messages waiting from that survivor for transmission.