Sinking Of The Titanic And Great Sea Disasters, Logan Marshall [ebook reader with highlight function TXT] 📗
- Author: Logan Marshall
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In The Drifting Life-Boats
Sorrow And Suffering--The Survivors See The Titanic
Go Down With Their Loved Ones On Board--A Night
Of Agonizing Suspense--Women Help To Row--Help
Arrives--Picking Up The Life-Boats
Sixteen Boats Were In The Procession Which Entered
On The Terrible Hours Of Rowing, Drifting And Suspense.
Women Wept For Lost Husbands And Sons, Sailors Sobbed
For The Ship Which Had Been Their Pride. Men Choked Back
Tears And Sought To Comfort The Widowed. Perhaps, They
Said, Other Boats Might Have Put Off In Another Direction.
They Strove, Though None Too Sure Themselves, To Convince
The Women Of The Certainty That A Rescue Ship Would Appear.
In The Distance The Titanic Looked An Enormous Length,
Her Great Bulk Outlined In Black Against The Starry Sky, Every
Port-Hole And Saloon Blazing With Light. It Was Impossible
To Think Anything Could Be Wrong With Such A Leviathan, Were
It Not For That Ominous Tilt Downwards In The Bows, Where
The Water Was Now Up To The Lowest Row Of Port-Holes. Presently,
About 2 A. M., As Near As Can Be Determined, Those In
The Life-Boats Observed Her Settling Very Rapidly With The
Chapter 9 Pg 64Bows And The Bridge Completely Under Water, And Concluded
It Was Now Only A Question Of Minutes Before She Went. So
It Proved She Slowly Tilted Straight On End With The Stern
Vertically Upwards, And As She Did, The Lights In The Cabins
And Saloons, Which Until Then Had Not Flickered For A Moment,
Died Out, Came On Again For A Single Flash, And Finally Went
Altogether. At The Same Time The Machinery Roared Down
Through The Vessel With A Rattle And A Groaning That Could
Be Heard For Miles, The Weirdest Sound Surely That Could Be
Heard In The Middle Of The Ocean, A Thousand Miles Away From
Land. But This Was Not Yet Quite The End.
Titanic Stood Upright
To The Amazement Of The Awed Watchers In The Life-Boats,
The Doomed Vessel Remained In That Upright Position For A Time
Estimated At Five Minutes; Some In The Boat Say Less, But It
Was Certainly Some Minutes That At Least 150 Feet Of The Titanic
Towered Up Above The Level Of The Sea And Loomed Black Against
The Sky.
Saw Last Of Big Ship
Then With A Quiet, Slanting Dive She Disappeared Beneath
The Waters, And The Eyes Of The Helpless Spectators Had Looked
For The Last Time Upon The Gigantic Vessel On Which They Had
Set Out From Southampton. And There Was Left To The Survivors
Only The Gently Heaving Sea, The Life-Boats Filled
With Men And Women In Every Conceivable Condition Of
Dress And Undress, Above The Perfect Sky Of Brilliant Stars
With Not A Cloud, All Tempered With A Bitter Cold That Made
Each Man And Woman Long To Be One Of The Crew Who Toiled
Away With The Oars And Kept Themselves Warm Thereby--A
Curious, Deadening; Bitter Cold Unlike Anything They Had
Felt Before.
"One Long Moan"
And Then With All These There Fell On The Ear The Most Appalling
Noise That Human Being Has Ever Listened To--The Cries Of
Hundreds Of Fellow-Beings Struggling In The Icy Cold Water,
Crying For Help With A Cry That Could Not Be Answered.
Chapter 9 Pg 65Third Officer Herbert John Pitman, In Charge Of One Of
The Boats, Described This Cry Of Agony In His Testimony Before
The Senatorial Investigating Committee, Under The Questioning
Of Senator Smith:
"I Heard No Cries Of Distress Until After The Ship Went
Down," He Said.
"How Far Away Were The Cries From Your Life-Boat?"
"Several Hundred Yards, Probably, Some Of Them."
"Describe The Screams."
"Don't, Sir, Please! I'd Rather Not Talk About It."
"I'm Sorry To Press It, But What Was It Like? Were The
Screams Spasmodic?"
"It Was One Long Continuous Moan."
The Witness Said The Moans And Cries Continued An Hour.
Those In The Life-Boats Longed To Return And Pick Up Some Of
The Poor Drowning Souls, But They Feared This Would Mean
Swamping The Boats And A Further Loss Of Life.
Some Of The Men Tried To Sing To Keep The Women From Hearing
The Cries, And Rowed Hard To Get Away From The Scene Of
The Wreck, But The Memory Of Those Sounds Will Be One Of The
Things The Rescued Will Find It Difficult To Forget.
The Waiting Sufferers Kept A Lookout For Lights, And Several
Times It Was Shouted That Steamers' Lights Were Seen, But They
Turned Out To Be Either A Light From Another Boat Or A Star
Low Down On The Horizon. It Was Hard To Keep Up Hope.
Women Tried To Commit Suicide
"Let Me Go Back--I Want To Go Back To My Husband--I'll
Jump From The Boat If You Don't," Cried An Agonized Voice
In One Life-Boat.
"You Can Do No Good By Going Back--Other Lives Will Be
Lost If You Try To Do It. Try To Calm Yourself For The Sake Of
The Living. It May Be That Your Husband Will Be Picked Up
Somewhere By One Of The Fishing Boats."
The Woman Who Pleaded To Go Back, According To Mrs.
Chapter 9 Pg 66Vera Dick, Of Calgary, Canada, Later Tried To Throw Herself
From The Life-Boat. Mrs. Dick, Describing The Scenes In The
Life-Boats, Said There Were Half A Dozen Women In That One Boat
Who Tried To Commit Suicide When They Realized That The
Titanic Had Gone Down.
"Even In Canada, Where We Have Such Clear Nights," Said
Mrs. Dick, "I Have Never Seen Such A Clear Sky. The Stars
Were Very Bright And We Could See The Titanic Plainly, Like A
Great Hotel On The Water. Floor After Floor Of The Lights Went
Out As We Watched. It Was Horrible, Horrible. I Can't Bear
To Think About It. From The Distance, As We Rowed Away,
We Could Hear The Band Playing `Nearer, My God To Thee.'
"Among The Life-Boats Themselves, However, There Were
Scenes Just As Terrible, Perhaps, But To Me Nothing Could Outdo
The Tragic Grandeur With Which The Titanic Went To Its Death.
To Realize It, You Would Have To See The Titanic As I Saw It
The Day We Set Sail--With The Flags Flying And The Bands Playing.
Everybody On Board Was Laughing And Talking About The
Titanic Being The Biggest And Most Luxurious Boat On The Ocean
And Being Unsinkable. To Think Of It Then And To Think Of It
Standing Out There In The Night, Wounded To Death And Gasping
For Life, Is Almost Too Big For The Imagination.
Scantily Clad Women In Life-Boats
"The Women On Our Boat Were In Nightgowns And Bare Feet
--Some Of Them--And The Wealthiest Women Mingled With The
Poorest Immigrants. One Immigrant Woman Kept Shouting:
`My God, My Poor Father! He Put Me In This Boat And Would
Not Save Himself. Oh, Why Didn't I Die, Why Didn't I Die?
Why Can't I Die Now?'
"We Had To Restrain Her, Else She Would Have Jumped Over-
Board. It Was Simply Awful. Some Of The Men Apparently
Had Said They Could Row Just To Get Into The Boats. We Paid
No Attention To Cowardice, However. We Were All Busy With
Our Own Troubles. My Heart Simply Bled For The Women Who
Were Separated From Their Husbands.
"The Night Was Frightfully Cold, Although Clear. We Had
To Huddle Together To Keep Warm. Everybody Drank Sparingly
Of The Water And Ate Sparingly Of The Bread. We Did Not
Know When We Would Be Saved. Everybody Tried To Remain
Cool, Except The Poor Creatures Who Could Think Of Nothing
But Their Own Great Loss. Those With The Most Brains Seemed
To Control Themselves Best."
Chapter 9 Pg 67
Philadelphia Women Heroines
How Mrs. George D. Widener, Whose Husband And Son
Perished After Kissing Her Good-Bye And Helping Her Into One Of
The Boats, Rowed When Exhausted Seamen Were On The Verge
Of Collapse, Was Told By Emily Geiger, Maid Of Mrs. Widener,
Who Was Saved With Her.
The Girl Said Mrs. Widener Bravely Toiled Throughout The
Night And Consoled Other Women Who Had Broken Down Under
The Strain.
Mrs. William E. Carter And Mrs. John B. Thayer Were In
The Same Life-Boat And Worked Heroically To Keep It Free From
The Icy Menace. Although Mrs. Thayer's Husband Remained
Aboard The Titanic And Sank With It, And Although She Had
No Knowledge Of The Safety Of Her Son Until They Met, Hours
Later, Aboard The Carpathia, Mrs. Thayer Bravely Labored At
The Oars Throughout The Night.
In Telling Of Her Experience Mrs. Carter Said:
"When I Went Over The Side With My Children And Got In
The Boat There Were No Seamen In It. Then Came A Few Men,
But There Were Oars With No One To Use Them. The Boat Had
Been Filled With Passengers, And There Was Nothing Else For
Me To Do But To Take An Oar.
"We Could See Now That The Time Of The Ship Had Come. She
Was Sinking, And We Were Warned By Cries From The Men Above
To Pull Away From The Ship Quickly. Mrs. Thayer, Wife Of
The Vice-President Of The Pennsylvania Railroad, Was In My
Boat, And She, Too, Took An Oar.
"It Was Cold And We Had No Time To Clothe Ourselves With
Warm Overcoats. The Rowing Warmed Me. We Started To
Pull Away From The Ship. We Could See The Dim Outlines Of The
Decks Above, But We Could Not Recognize Anybody."
Many Women Rowing
Mrs. William R. Bucknell's Account Of The Part
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