Titanic: A Survivor's Story (18 page)

Authors: Archibald Gracie

After rescuing our men we found several lifeboats near us and an order was given to tie together, which we obeyed. It did not seem as if we were together long when one boat said they could rescue more could they get rid of some of the women and children aboard and some of them were put into our boat. Soon after cries of ‘Ship ahoy’ and a long low moan came to us and an officer in command of one of the boats ordered us to follow him. We felt that we were already too crowded to go, but our men, with quartermaster and boatswain in command, followed the officer and we pulled over to what proved to be an overturned boat crowded with men. We had to approach it very cautiously, fearing our wash would sweep them off. We could take only a few and they had to come very cautiously. The other boat (No. 12) took most of them and we then rowed away.

This rescue, which Mrs. Stephenson so well describes, occurred at dawn. Her story now returns to the prior period of night time.

The sea was smooth and the night brilliant with more stars than I had ever seen.

Occasionally a green light showed which proved to be on the Emergency boat, and our men all recognized it as such. We all prayed for dawn, and there was no conversation, everyone being so awed by the disaster and bitterly cold.

With the dawn came the wind, and before long quite a sea was running. Just before daylight on the horizon we saw what we felt sure must be the lights of a ship. The quartermaster was a long time in admitting that we were right, urging that it was the moon, but we insisted and they then said it might be the
Carpathia
as they had been told before leaving the
Titanic
that she was coming to us. For a long time after daylight we were in great wreckage from the
Titanic
, principally steamer chairs and a few white pilasters.

We felt we could never reach the
Carpathia
when we found she had stopped, and afterwards when we asked why she didn’t come closer we were told that some of the early boats which put off from the starboard side reached her a little after four, while it was after six when we drew under the side of the open hatch.

It had been a long trying row in the heavy sea and impossible to keep bow on to reach the ship. We stood in great danger of being swamped many times and Captain Rostron, who watched us come up, said he doubted if we could have lived an hour longer in that high sea. Our boat had considerable water in the centre, due to the leakage and also the water brought in by the eight men from their clothing. They had bailed her constantly in order to relieve the weight. Two of the women near us were dying seasick, but the babies slept most of the night in their mothers’ arms. The boatswain’s chair was slung down the side and there were also rope ladders. Only few, however, of the men were able to go up the ladders. Mail bags were dropped down in which the babies and little children were placed and hoisted up. We were told to throw off our life-preservers and then placed in a boatswain’s chair and hoisted to the open hatch where ready arms pulled us in; warm blankets waited those in need and brandy was offered to everybody. We were shown at once to the saloon, where hot coffee and sandwiches were being served.

E
NGELHARDT
B
OAT
‘D’
¹⁶

No male passenger in this boat.

Passengers
: Mrs. J.M. Brown, Mrs. Harris, Mrs. Frederick Hoyt, the Navratil children.

Picked up from the sea
: Frederick Hoyt.

Bade goodbye to wife and sank with ship
: Mr. Harris.

Crew
: Bright, Q.M., in charge; Seaman Lucas; Steward Hardy.

Stowaway
: One steerage foreigner, Joseph Dugemin.

Jumped from deck below as boat was lowered
: H.B. Steffanson (Swede), and H. Woolner (Englishman).

Total
: 44. British Report (p. 38): Crew 2, men passengers 2, women and children 40.

Incidents

C.H. Lightoller, Second Officer (Am. Inq., p. 81):

In the case of the last boat I got out, the very last of all to leave the ship, I had the utmost difficulty in finding women. After all the other boats were put out we came forward to put out the Engelhardt collapsible boats. In the meantime the forward Emergency boat (No. 2) had been put out by one of the other officers, so we rounded up the tackles and got the collapsible boat to put that over. Then I called for women and could not get any. Somebody said: ‘There are no women.’ This was on the Boat Deck where all the women were supposed to be because the boats were there. There were between fifteen and twenty people put into this boat – one seaman and another seaman, or steward. This was the very last boat lowered in the tackles. I noticed plenty of Americans standing near me, who gave me every assistance they could, regardless of nationality.

And before the British Court of Inquiry the same officer testified:

Someone shouted: ‘There are no more women.’ Some of the men began climbing in. Then someone said: ‘There are some more women,’ and when they came forward the men got out of the boat again. I saw no men in her, but I believe a couple of Chinese stowed away in her.

When that boat went away there were no women whatever. I did not consider it advisable to wait, but to try to get at once away from the ship. I did not want the boat to be ‘rushed.’ Splendid order was maintained. No attempt was made to ‘rush’ that boat by the men. When this boat was being loaded I could see the water coming up the stairway. There was splendid order on the boat until the last. As far as I know there were no male passengers in the boats I saw off except the one man I ordered in, Major Peuchen.

A.J. Bright, Q.M. (Am. Inq., p. 831):

Quartermaster Rowe, Mr. Boxhall and myself fired the distress signals, six rockets I think in all, at intervals. After we had finished firing the distress signals, there were two boats left (Engelhardt collapsibles ‘C’ and ‘D’). All the lifeboats were away before the collapsible boats were lowered. They had to be, because the collapsible boats were on the deck and the other boats had to be lowered before they could be used. The same tackle with which the lifeboats and the Emergency boats were lowered was employed after they had gone in lowering the collapsible boats.

Witness says that both he and Rowe assisted in getting out the starboard collapsible boat ‘C’ and then he went to the port side and filled up the other boat ‘D’ with passengers, about twenty-five in all. There was a third-class passenger, a man, in the boat, who was on his way to Albion, N.Y. (The passenger list shows this man to have been Joseph Dugemin.)

We were told to pull clear and get out of the suction. When boat ‘D’ was lowered the forecastle head was just going under water; that would be about twenty feet lower than the bridge, and the ship had then sunk about fifty feet – all of that, because when boat ‘D’ was lowered the foremost fall was lower down and the after one seemed to hang and he called out to hang on to the foremost fall and to see what was the matter and leg go the after fall. Boat ‘D’ was fifty to a hundred yards away when the ship sank.
¹⁷They had a lantern in the boat but no oil to light it. After leaving the boat, witness heard something but not an explosion. It was like a rattling of chains more than anything else.

After ‘D’ got away Mr. Lowe came alongside in another boat, No. 14, and told them to stick together and asked for the number in ‘D’ boat. Steward Hardy counted and told him. Lowe then put about ten or a dozen men from some other boat into witness’s boat because it was not filled up. One seaman was taken out. This would make thirty-seven in ‘D’ boat. Just at daylight they saw one of the collapsible boats, ‘A,’ that was awash – just flush with the water. Officer Lowe came and took boat ‘D’ in tow, because it had very few men to pull, and towed it to boat ‘A’ and took twelve men and one woman off and put them into his boat No. 14. They were standing in water just about to their ankles when No. 14 and ‘D’ came up to them. They turned the swamped boat adrift with two (three) dead bodies. They were then towed under sail by Mr. Lowe’s boat to the
Carpathia
, about four miles away.

William Lucas, A.B. (Br. Inq.):

Got into Engelhardt ‘D.’ The water was then right up under the bridge. Had not gone more than 100 yards when there was an explosion and 150 yards when the
Titanic
sank. Had to get some of the women to take oars. There was no rudder in the boat. Changed oars from one side to the other to get her away. Saw a faint red light abaft the
Titanic
’s beam about nine miles away – the headlight also. The witness was transferred to No. 12.

J. Hardy, Chief Steward, second-class (Am. Inq., p. 587):

We launched this boat filled with passengers. Mr. Lightoller and myself loaded it. I went away in it with the quartermaster (Bright) and two firemen. There were Syrians in the bottom of the boat, third-class passengers, chattering the whole night in their strange language. There were about twenty-five women and children. We lowered away and got to the water; the ship then had a heavy list to port. We got clear of the ship and rowed out some distance from her. Mr. Lowe told us to tie up with other boats, that we would be better seen and could keep better together. He, having a full complement of passengers in his boat, transferred about ten to ours, making thirty-five in our boat. When we left the ship, where we were lowered, there were no women and children there in sight at all. There was nobody to lower the boat. No men passengers when we were ready to lower it. They had gone; where, I could not say. We were not more than forty feet from the water when we were lowered. We picked up the husband (Frederick W. Hoyt) of a wife that we had loaded in the boat. The gentleman took to the water and climbed in the boat after we had lowered it. He sat there wringing wet alongside me, helping to row.

I had great respect and great regret for Officer Murcoch. I was walking along the deck forward with him and he said: ‘I believe she is gone, Hardy.’ This was a good half hour before my boat was lowered.

Senator Fletcher:
Where were all these passengers; these 1,600 people?

Mr. Hardy:
They must have been between decks or on the deck below or on the other side of the ship. I cannot conceive where they were.

In his letter to me, Mr. Frederick M. Hoyt relates his experience as follows:

I knew Captain Smith for over fifteen years. Our conversation that night amounted to little or nothing. I simply sympathized with him on the accident; but at that time, as I then never expected to be saved, I did not want to bother him with questions, as I knew he had all he wanted to think of. He did suggest that I go down to A Deck and see if there were not a boat alongside. This I did, and to my surprise saw the boat ‘D’ still hanging on the davits (there having been some delay in lowering her), and it occurred to me that if I swam out and waited for her to shove off they would pick me up, which was what happened.

Hugh Woolner, first-class passenger (Am. Inq., p. 887):

Then I said to Steffanson, ‘Let us go down on to A Deck.’ And we went down again, but there was nobody there. I looked on both sides of the deck and saw no people. It was absolutely deserted, and the electric lights along the ceiling of A Deck were beginning to turn red, just a glow, a red sort of glow. So I said to Steffanson, ‘This is getting to be rather a tight corner; let us go out through the door at the end.’ And as we went out the sea came in onto the deck at our feet. Then we hopped up onto the gunwale, preparing to jump into the sea, because if we had waited a minute longer we should have been boxed in against the ceiling. And as we looked out we saw this collapsible boat, the last boat on the port side, being lowered right in front of our faces.

Senator Smith:
How far out?

Mr. Woolner:
It was about nine feet out.

Senator Smith:
Nine feet away from the side of A Deck?

Mr. Woolner:
Yes.

Senator Smith:
You saw a collapsible boat being lowered?

Mr. Woolner:
Being lowered; yes.

Senator Smith:
Was it filled with people?

Mr. Woolner:
It was full up to the bow, and I said to Steffanson, ‘There is nobody in the bows. Let us make a jump for it. You go first.’ And he jumped out and tumbled in head over heels into the boat, and I jumped too and hit the gunwale with my chest, which had on the life-preserver, of course, and I sort of tumbled off the gunwale and caught the gunwale with my fingers and slipped off backwards.