Titanic, First Accounts

by Tim Maltin

  I also have a letter from Mr. George Rheims, of Paris, indicating his presence on this same boat with Messrs. Williams and Mellers and Mrs. Abbott and others.

  Incidents

  Edward Brown, steward (Br. Inq.):

  Witness helped with boats 5, 3, 1 and C, and then helped with another collapsible; tried to get it up to the davits when the ship gave a list to port. The falls were slackened but the boat could not be hauled away any further. There were four or five women waiting to get into the boat. The boat referred to was the collapsible boat “A” which they got off the officers’ house. They got it down by the planks, but witness does not know where the planks came from. He thinks they were with the bars which came from the other boats; yet he had no difficulty in getting the boat off the house. The ship was then up to the bridge under water, well down by the head. He jumped into the boat then and called out to cut the falls. He cut them at the aft end, but cannot say what happened to the forward fall. He was washed out of the boat but does not know whether he went down in the water.20 He had his lifebelt on and came to the top. People were all around him. They tore his clothes away struggling in the water. He could not swim, but got into the collapsible boat “A.” Only men were in it, but they picked up a woman and some men afterwards, consisting of passengers, stewards and crew. There were sixteen men. Fifth Officer Lowe in boat No. 14 picked them up.

  O. Abelseth (Am. Inq.):

  Witness describes the period just before the ship sank when an effort was made to get out the collapsible boats on the roof of the officers’ house. The officer wanted help and called out: “Are there any sailors here?” It was only about five feet to the water when witness jumped off. It was not much of a jump. Before that he could see the people were jumping over. He went under and swallowed some water. A rope was tangled around him. He came on top again and tried to swim. There were lots of men floating around. One of them got him on the neck and pressed him under the water and tried to get on top, but he got loose from him. Then another man hung on to him for a while and let go. Then he swam for about fifteen or twenty minutes. Saw something dark ahead of him; swam towards it and it was one of the Engelhardt boats (“A”). He had a life-preserver on when he jumped from the ship. There was no suction at all. “I will try and see.” he thought, “if I can float on the lifebelt without help from swimming,” and he floated easily on the lifebelt. When he got on boat “A” no one assisted him, but they said when he got on: “Don’t capsize the boat,” so he hung on for a little while before he got on.

  Some were trying to get on their feet who were sitting or lying down; others fell into the water again. Some were frozen and there were two dead thrown overboard. On the boat he raised up and continuously moved his arms and swung them around to keep warm. There was one lady aboard this raft and she (Mrs. Abbott) was saved. There were also two Swedes and a first-class passenger. He said he had a wife and child. There was a fireman also named Thompson who had burned one of his hands; also a young boy whose name sounded like “Volunteer.” He and Thompson were afterwards at St. Vincent’s Hospital. In the morning he saw a boat with a sail up, and in unison they screamed together for help. Boat A was not capsized and the canvas was not raised up, and they could not get it up. They stood all night in about twelve or fourteen inches of water21—their feet in water all the time. Boat No. 14 sailed down and took them aboard and transferred them to the Carpathia, he helping to row. There must have been ten or twelve saved from boat A; one man was from New Jersey, with whom he came in company from London. At daybreak he seemed unconscious. He took him by the shoulder and shook him. “Who are you?” he said; “let me be; who are you?” About half an hour or so later he died.

  In a recent letter from Dr. Washington Dodge he refers to a young man whom he met on the Carpathia, very much exhausted, whom he took to his stateroom and gave him medicine and medical attention. This young man was a gentleman’s valet and a second-cabin passenger. This answers to the description of William J. Mellers, to whom I have written, but as yet have received no response. Dr. Dodge says he believes this young man’s story implicitly: He, Mellers, “was standing by this boat when one of the crew was endeavoring to cut the fastenings that bound it to the vessel just as the onrush of waters came on which tore it loose. It was by clinging to this boat that he was saved.”

  R. N. Williams, Jr., in his letter writes me as follows:

  “I was not under water very long, and as soon as I came to the top I threw off the big fur coat I had on. I had put my lifebelt on under the coat. I also threw off my shoes. About twenty yards away I saw something floating. I swam to it and found it to be a collapsible boat. I hung on to it and after a while got aboard and stood up in the middle of it. The water was up to my waist.22 About thirty of us clung to it. When Officer Lowe’s boat picked us up eleven of us were alive; all the rest were dead from cold. My fur coat was found attached to this Engelhardt boat ‘A’ by the Oceanic, and also a cane marked ‘C. Williams.’ This gave rise to the story that my father’s body was in this boat, but this, as you see, is not so. How the cane got there I do not know.”

  Through the courtesy of Mr. Harold Wingate of the White Star Line in letters to me I have the following information pertaining to boat “A”:

  “One of the bodies found in this boat was that of Mr. Thompson Beattie. We got his watch and labels from his clothes showing his name and that of the dealer, which we sent to the executor. Two others were a fireman and a sailor, both unidentified. The overcoat belonging to Mr. Williams I sent to a furrier to be re-conditioned, but nothing could be done with it except to dry it out, so I sent it to him as it was. There was no cane in the boat. The message from the Oceanic and the words ‘R. N. Williams, care of Duane Williams,’ were twisted by the receiver of the message to ‘Richard N. Williams, cane of Duane Williams,’23 which got into the press, and thus perpetuated the error.

  “There was also a ring found in the boat whose owner we eventually traced in Sweden and restored the property to her. We cannot account for its being in the boat, but we know that her husband was a passenger on the Titanic—Edward P. Lindell, a third-class passenger. The widow’s address is, care of Nels Persson, Helsingborg, Sweden.”

  Rescue of the occupants of boat “A” at daylight Monday morning is recorded in the testimony of Officer Lowe and members of the crew of his boat No. 14 and the other boats 12, 10, 4 and “D” which were tied together. No 14 we recall was emptied of passengers and a crew taken from all the boats referred to went back to the wreck. The substance of the testimony of all of them agrees and I need only cite that of Quartermaster Bright, in charge of boat “D,” as follows:

  A. Bright, Q. M. (in charge) (Am. Inq., 834):

  Just at daylight witness saw from his place in boat “D” one of the other collapsible boats, “A,” that was awash just flush with the water. Officer Lowe came and towed witness’s boat to the other collapsible one that was just awash and took from it thirteen men and one woman who were in the water up to their ankles. They had been singing out in the dark. As soon as daylight came they could be seen. They were rescued and the boat turned adrift with two dead bodies in it, covered with a lifebelt over their faces.

  Admiral Mahan on Ismay’s duty:

  Rear-Admiral A. T. Mahan, Retired, in a letter which the Evening Post publishes, has this to say of J. Bruce Ismay’s duty:

  In the Evening Post of April 24 Admiral Chadwick passes a distinct approval upon the conduct of Mr. Ismay in the wreck of the Titanic by characterizing the criticisms passed upon it as the “acme of emotionalism.”

  Both censure and approval had best wait upon the results of the investigations being made in Great Britain. Tongues will wag, but if men like Admiral Chadwick see fit to publish anticipatory opinions those opinions must receive anticipatory comment.

  Certain facts are so notorious that they need no inquiry to ascertain. These are (1) that before the collision the captain of the Tit
anic was solely responsible for the management of the ship; (2) after the collision there were not boats enough to embark more than one-third of those on board, and, (3) for that circumstance the White Star Company is solely responsible, not legally, for the legal requirements were met, but morally. Of this company, Mr. Ismay is a prominent if not the most prominent member.

  For all the loss of life the company is responsible, individually and collectively: Mr. Ismay personally, not only as one of the members. He believed the Titanic unsinkable; the belief relieves of moral guilt, but not of responsibility. Men bear the consequences of their mistakes as well as of their faults. He—and Admiral Chadwick—justify his leaving over fifteen hundred persons, the death of each one of whom lay on the company, on the ground that it was the last boat half filled; and Mr. Ismay has said, no one else to be seen.

  No one to be seen; but was there none to be reached? Mr. Ismay knew there must be many, because he knew the boats could take only a third. The Titanic was 882 feet long; 92 broad; say, from Thirty-fourth street to a little north of Thirty-seventh. Within this space were congregated over 1,500 souls, on several decks. True, to find any one person at such a moment in the intricacies of a vessel were a vain hope; but to encounter some stragglers would not seem to be. Read in the Sun and Times of April 25 Col. Gracie’s account of the “mass of humanity, men and women” that suddenly appeared before him after the boats were launched.

  In an interview reported in the New York Times April 25 Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge, a very distinguished officer, holds that Mr. Ismay was but a passenger, as other passengers. True, up to a certain point. He is in no sense responsible for the collision; but when the collision had occurred he confronted a wholly new condition for which he was responsible and not the captain, viz., a sinking vessel without adequate provision for saving life. Did no obligation to particularity of conduct rest upon him under such a condition?

  I hold that under the conditions, so long as there was a soul that could be saved, the obligation lay upon Mr. Ismay that one person and not he should have been in the boat. More than 1,500 perished. Circumstances yet to be developed may justify Mr. Ismay’s actions completely, but such justification is imperatively required. If this be “the acme of emotionalism” I must be content to bear the imputation.

  Admiral Chadwick urges the “preserving a life so valuable to the great organization to which Mr. Ismay belongs.” This bestows upon Mr. Ismay’s escape a kind of halo of self-sacrifice. No man is indispensable. There are surely brains enough and business capacity enough in the White Star company to run without him. The reports say that of the rescued women thirty-seven were widowed by the accident and the lack of boats. Their husbands were quite as indispensable to them as Mr. Ismay to the company. His duty to the ship’s company was clear and primary; that to the White Star company so secondary as to be at the moment inoperative.

  We should be careful not to pervert standards. Witness the talk that the result is due to the system. What is a system, except that which individuals have made it and keep it? Whatever thus weakens the sense of individual responsibility is harmful, and so likewise is all condonation of failure of the individual to meet his responsibility.

  U.S. Senate and British Inquiries and Marconi Report

  Daniel Buckley,

  US Inquiry

  (DAY 13)

  DAB001. Mr. Buckley, where do you live?

  855 Trent Avenue, Bronx.

  DAB002. How old are you?

  Twenty-one years old.

  DAB003. Where did you get aboard the Titanic?

  At Queenstown.

  DAB004. Had you been living in Ireland?

  Yes; I lived in King Williamstown, Town Court.

  DAB005. How did you happen to come over to America?

  I wanted to come over here to make some money. I came in the Titanic because she was a new steamer. This night of the wreck I was sleeping in my room on the Titanic, in the steerage. There were three other boys from the same place sleeping in the same room with me.

  I heard some terrible noise and I jumped out on the floor, and the first thing I knew my feet were getting wet; the water was just coming in slightly. I told the other fellows to get up, that there was something wrong and, that the water was coming in. They only laughed at me. One of them says: “Get back into bed. You are not in Ireland now.”

  I got on my clothes as quick as I could, and the three other fellows got out. The room was very small, so I got out, to give them room to dress themselves.

  Two sailors came along, and they were shouting: “All up on deck! unless you want to get drowned.”

  When I heard this, I went for the deck as quick as I could. When I got up on the deck I saw everyone having those lifebelts on myself; so I got sorry, and said I would go back again where I was sleeping and get one of those life preservers; because there was one there for each person.

  I went back again, and just as I was going down the last flight of stairs the water was up four steps, and dashing up. I did not go back into the room, because I could not. When I went back toward the room the water was coming up three steps up the stairs, or four steps; so I did not go any farther. I got back on the deck again, and just as I got back there, I was looking around to see if I could get any of those lifebelts, and I met a first class passenger, and he had two. He gave me one, and fixed it on me.

  Then the lifeboats were preparing. There were five lifeboats sent out. I was in the sixth. I was holding the ropes all the time, helping to let down the five lifeboats that went down first, as well as I could.

  When the sixth lifeboat was prepared, there was a big crowd of men standing on the deck. And they all jumped in. So I said I would take my chance with them.

  DAB006. Who were they?

  Passengers and sailors and firemen mixed. There were no ladies there at the same time.

  When they jumped, I said I would go too. I went into the boat. Then two officers came along and said all of the men could come out. And they brought a lot of steerage passengers with them; and they were mixed, every way, ladies and gentlemen. And they said all the men could get out and let the ladies in. But six men were left in the boat. I think they were firemen and sailors.

  I was crying. There was a woman in the boat, and she had thrown her shawl over me, and she told me to stay in there. I believe she was Mrs. Astor. Then they did not see me, and the boat was lowered down into the water, and we rowed away out from the steamer.

  The men that were in the boat at first fought, and would not get out, but the officers drew their revolvers, and fired shots over our heads, and then the men got out. When the boat was ready, we were lowered down into the water and rowed away out from the steamer. We were only about 15 minutes out when she sank.

  DAB014. What became of those other three boys?

  I can not say. I did not see them any more after leaving the room where I parted from them.

  DAB015. They were lost?

  Yes; they were lost.

  DAB016. Was there any effort made on the part of the officers or crew to hold the steerage passengers in the steerage?

  I do not think so.

  DAB017. Were you permitted to go on up to the top deck without any interference?

  Yes, sir. They tried to keep us down at first on our steerage deck. They did not want us to go up to the first class place at all.

  DAB018. Who tried to do that?

  I can not say who they were. I think they were sailors.

  DAB019. What happened then? Did the steerage passengers try to get out?

  Yes; they did. There was one steerage passenger there, and he was getting up the steps, and just as he was going in a little gate a fellow came along and chucked him down; threw him down into the steerage place. This fellow got excited, and he ran after him, and he could not find him. He got up over the
little gate. He did not find him.

  DAB020. What gate do you mean?

  A little gate just at the top of the stairs going up into the first class deck.

  DAB021. There was a gate between the steerage and the first class deck?

  Yes. The first class deck was higher up than the steerage deck, and there were some steps leading up to it; 9 or 10 steps, and a gate just at the top of the steps.

  DAB022. Was the gate locked?

  It was not locked at the time we made the attempt to get up there, but the sailor, or whoever he was, locked it. So that this fellow that went up after him broke the lock on it, and he went after the fellow that threw him down. He said if he could get hold of him he would throw him into the ocean.

  DAB023. Did these passengers in the steerage have any opportunity at all of getting out?

  Yes; they had.

  DAB024. What opportunity did they have?

  I think they had as much chance as the first and second class passengers.