Authors: Greg King
Henry and Annie Adams had managed to retrieve lifebelts from their cabin; she was convinced that the ship would not survive “but my husband was just as sure she could not sink.” Their journey to the Boat Deck was harrowing: twice the rushing crowd knocked Henry Adams over. Annie helped him to his feet and dragged him to the port side, climbing “the sloping deck” to reach the railing. Having been pushed, pummeled, and trodden over, Henry “seemed dazed and almost unconscious.” Annie put a lifebelt on him, refusing to enter a nearby lifeboat so that she could remain at his side.
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From the bridge, Captain Turner ordered that the lifeboats should not be lowered until the ship had at least lost some of its steam and slowed its progress through the water.
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This took nearly ten minutes, during which time passengers clambered aboard many of the lifeboats and awaited lowering.
Lusitania
’s sharp list to starboard now created problems. The previous day, Turner had ordered the lifeboats swung out over the railing. Those on the starboard side, given odd numbers, now hung at an angle from their davits some sixty feet above the water and were separated from the deck by gaps of six or more feet. At five tons each, they were too heavy to be pulled back in and boarding was difficult.
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Passengers were forced to inch their ways over planks or deck chairs laid between the railing and the rims of the boats, trying to avoid a plunge into the sea below; a few of the more athletic passengers actually jumped the gap to reach the starboard boats.
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On the port side, the immediate problem was worse, as lifeboats had swung inward and now hung over the deck. It was nearly impossible, as Albert Bestic found, to push them back into position for lowering. Even when this could be done, the boats lay against the ship’s hull and were dragged over rivets peppering the steel plating, risking further damage.
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Two snubbing chains held the boats steady in rough seas; before launching, the bolt holding the chain to a deck chock had to be knocked out with a mallet. Then the falls, or ropes holding the boat to the davits, could be lowered manually until the boat was flush with the sea. The falls at the bow and stern worked independently from each other, requiring the men lowering the lifeboats to work in tandem to keep them even.
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But most of
Lusitania
’s crew had no experience working the falls and lowering lifeboats. Charles Lauriat saw “no discipline or order” along the port Boat Deck, and “no officer taking charge of the lowering of any one lifeboat.”
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James Brooks complained of the “lack of competent seamen on board,” while David Thomas thought that the crew had largely “looked after themselves first.”
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“There was no order maintained,” Michael Byrne summarized. “There was no one to tell you to get into this boat or that. It was everybody for himself.”
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Passengers who got away safely were fortunate—and rare. Alice Lines reached the deck with Stuart still clinging to her skirt and baby Audrey in her arms. She struggled toward a lifeboat and, assisted by several passengers, managed to take a seat; she saw no seamen nearby. The boat was lowered and began to pull away from the side of the ship.
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A steward literally hurled Jessie Taft Smith into Lifeboat No. 13 on the starboard side as it was being lowered. As it reached the water, she saw that “two thirds of the people in the boat were men.”
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Among the few women were Emily Anderson and her young daughter, Barbara. Having safely brought her to the deck, assistant purser William Harkness had continued to watch over Barbara as she stood, still clutching her engraved spoon, near her mother. “He scooped me up and we both fell together into a boat which was lowering,” Barbara remembered. Luckily neither was injured, and Emily Anderson quickly climbed in alongside them.
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More often, though, the efforts proved disastrous. Lifeboat No. 1 was successfully lowered, but reached the water as
Lusitania
continued to steam ahead; drifting back along the side of the ship, it found itself directly in the path of No. 3, which landed atop it, crushing its passengers and capsizing both lifeboats.
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Two more lifeboats, Nos. 10 and 12, also spilled their passengers into the water when seamen lost control of the falls. Lifeboat No. 12 finally fell atop those still alive and struggling in the water.
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Many passengers, like George Kessler, valiantly tried to help others into boats and assist in lowering them.
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They were shocked to find many of the boats in poor condition. “The tackle was utterly stiff from paint and want of use,” Oliver Bernard remembered, “and also so complicated that only capable seamen could have handled the boats. I regarded only a few of the men I saw as able seamen.”
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Some lifeboats lacked plugs; oarlocks were rusted, oars were missing, and ropes were frayed.
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Nor were all of the twenty-six collapsible boats, stowed beneath the regular lifeboats, of much use. These had wooden keels over watertight tanks and canvas sides that would be raised for use.
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One passenger tried to lift a collapsible boat near the Grand Entrance, but found that it was stuck to its cradle by a thick layer of paint.
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Even when they were freed, many of the collapsible boats were useless. The metal ribs on many had rusted so badly that the canvas sides could not be pulled up.
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Thomas Home watched as a sailor insisted that one lifeboat be lowered without releasing the snubbing chain; a passenger had to stop him before it capsized into the sea. From this, Home thought that the passengers were “more capable than the ship’s company.”
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Frightening scenes were repeated all along the deck. William Adams found his father and watched as a lifeboat, loaded mainly with women, fell “sixty or seventy feet into the water,” spilling its occupants because “the crew could not work the davits and falls properly, so let them slip out of their hands.”
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Isaac Lehmann saw a cluster of seamen try to lower another boat as a sailor armed with an ax chopped away at the falls. Men on one side lowered away, while those on the other did nothing; the boat slanted at a terrifying angle. Apparently thinking the situation could not be saved, the seamen let go, and the boat and its passengers toppled into the sea.
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Albert and Gladys Bilicke had been resting in their Regal Suite after luncheon when “the first torpedo struck,” Gladys recalled. “We rushed upon the deck,” and saw that lifeboats were being lowered into the water. Albert and Gladys took their seats in a starboard boat with “about fifty other persons” and watched as it inched its way away from the deck down the ship’s hull. “Before it reached the water,” Gladys said, “it shot down suddenly and plunged beneath the water carrying us with it.” Gladys never saw Albert again.
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Josephine Brandell, too, found herself hurled into the sea when her lifeboat overturned on hitting the water. It was, she said, “too awful. Words cannot describe it.” Luckily, Edgar Gorer had “rushed over” to her on deck a few minutes earlier, put a lifebelt around her, and “told me to be brave.”
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Now the lifebelt kept her afloat.
Angela Papadopoulos had fought her way back to the deck from her cabin. “I remember that on leaving the cabin in the darkest gloom,” she wrote, “I was forced to move along on all fours until I could find my balance.” Someone “pushed” Angela and her husband toward Lifeboat No. 17. Michael boarded first, and an officer “advised me to remove my skirt in case I had to swim.” She did so: “At times like this,” Angela said, “one must overcome modesty, and so I got into the lifeboat wearing only my petticoat.”
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Ian Holbourn helped Avis Dolphin, her nurse, Hilda Ellis, and the nurse’s friend, Sarah Smith, into the same boat; as he let go of her, Holbourn kissed Avis good-bye.
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“A lot of men jumped in on top of us,” Avis recalled, and the falls could not take the added strain.
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“We heard a noise like a branch snapping coming from above the bridge,” Angela said, “and we found ourselves first of all thrown onto the steel of the ship and then into the sea.” She caught a last glimpse of her husband before the suction dragged her beneath the surface.
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Holbourn jumped over the railing, but it was impossible to reach Avis through the wreckage and struggling passengers.
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Margaret Mackworth stood with Dorothy Conner and Howard Fisher on the starboard deck, watching as lifeboats spilled their passengers into the sea. Fisher saw a stampede toward a boat: “men jumped on women and children, trying to get into it.” He decided that it was too dangerous to try to enter the lifeboats, and within seconds the group saw the crowded boat fall and spill its unlucky passengers into the sea below.
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Soon, “a stream of steerage passengers came rushing up from below, and fought their way into the boat nearest us,” she recalled. They were, she saw, “white-faced and terrified.” People pushed toward the boats; an officer tried to prevent their entry, but “there was no real attempt at order or discipline.”
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Anxiously scanning the deck for any sign of her father, Margaret saw that “the strongest got there first” when it came to the lifeboats, and “the weak were pushed aside. Here and there, a man had his arm round a woman’s waist and bore her along with him; but there were no children to be seen—no children could have lived in that throng.”
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As Fisher ran off to find more lifebelts, Margaret turned to Dorothy, saying, “I always thought a shipwreck was a well-organized affair!” Dorothy shot back, “So did I, but I’ve learnt a devil of a lot in the last five minutes!” Margaret saw one lifeboat capsize while being lowered, spilling the occupants into the water. “We turned away and did not look,” she said. “It was not safe to look at horrible things just then.” Even though the ship continued sinking, the group made no attempt to enter a lifeboat. “Death,” Margaret decided, “would have seemed better than to make part of that terror-infected crowd.”
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Theodate Pope agreed. She thought that
Lusitania
’s decks “suddenly looked very strange, crowded with people.” Several nearby women “were crying in a pitifully weak way.” She and Friend watched as a lifeboat filled with passengers was upset and spilled its unfortunate occupants into the water. “We looked at each other,” she recalled, “sickened by the sight.”
Lusitania
was sinking so quickly that she “feared it would fall on and capsize the small boats.” Edwin Friend tried to convince Theodate to enter a boat, though he refused to board as long as any women or children remained on the ship. Neither would leave the other, and so, arms around each other’s waists, they made their way toward the stern, “through the crush of people coming and going.” If they remained on the ship, Friend decided, they needed lifebelts, and he led Theodate to a nearby cabin, where they managed to retrieve three. Back on deck, Friend tied them around Theodate and her maid, “in hard knots.” Then the trio stood in silence, watching the clouds moving against the funnels and trying to guess how many more minutes
Lusitania
might live.
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After watching such scenes, Isaac Lehmann ran back to his cabin. Someone, he found, had already been in there and taken his lifebelt.
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Passengers raiding cabins, lifeboats spilling helpless occupants into the sea, seamen refusing to give up lifebelts—the situation aboard
Lusitania
threatened to spiral into chaos: at any moment, Lehmann was sure, a true panic might erupt. “I don’t know what possessed me,” he later said, “but I looked in my dress suitcase and got hold of my revolver.” Thus armed against the worst, he returned to the deck.
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