Voices from the Titanic

by Geoff Tibballs

  When the accident happened a fireman with one or two others were on deck procuring some refreshment. They should have been relieved in about ten minutes. The starboard deck was covered with ice, and one of his comrades expressed the opinion that it was ‘pretty serious, Bill!’ An officer came along and ordered them to go below to their work, but they stopped where they were, and were shortly afterwards mistaken for the relief watch, which, for some reason or another, did not turn up as usual. The men were accordingly told to help with the boats. He was sitting in one of the boats attending to the gear when he felt somebody underneath the thwarts, and on making a search found two Chinamen concealed.

  This man did not leave in a boat, but swam towards an upturned collapsible.

  CAPTAIN COULD HAVE SAVED HIMSELF

  I was just a short distance from the ship, and I knew that Captain Smith could have saved himself if he liked. He could have jumped into the water and been rescued as others were, but up to the last he walked up and down the deck, giving through a megaphone to those trying to save their lives.

  Another fireman assisted to free a collapsible boat in the officers’ quarters, and got it over the side just in time. It overturned, but he clung to it, and one of the liner’s funnels falling into the water created a swell which carried the boat away from the ship. He was so affected by the cold water that he had to receive attention in a New York hospital.

  Another version was given by a second-class steward of the conduct of Mr Lowe, the Fifth Officer. He stood on the bulkhead of the top deck and heard Mr Murdoch giving directions as to lowering the boats. The steward was called upon to assist, after which he was lowered into a boat with Mr Lowe in charge. When the boat was within four feet of the water there was not sufficient rope to lower her further, so that she had to be dropped into the water. The steward was jerked overboard, picked up by another boat, and transferred to his original position. They rowed away, and Mr Lowe, who had done more than anyone else, this steward said, to keep people afloat, got the other lifeboats which had preceded his together, and by transferring passengers practically emptied one boat, which was manned by seven men, including the speaker.

  They proceeded to row towards the wreck with the object of saving as many lives as possible. In this they were successful. On getting within a hundred yards of her the liner sank. Mr Lowe said, ‘Well, boys, I am prepared to row nearer and take my chance. I don’t think there’s any fear of being sucked down. Are the rest prepared to go? At the same time it practically means certain death because if we go among all these people we shall probably be lost.’

  They proceeded to draw nearer, but those in the boat demurred. They spent all night rowing round, however, and picked up several more people.

  One of these was a stalwart German. They tried several times to get him into the boat, but failed; and then Mr Lowe expressed the opinion that the cause was due to the poor man’s legs being doubled up by the cold. The steward went into the water to try and straighten the limbs, and after many difficulties the German was hauled into the frail craft only to die within five minutes.

  ‘I saw Mr Bruce Ismay run on deck in his pyjamas,’ the steward went on. ‘He rendered most valuable assistance, being cool and collected all the time. He only went into the last boat at the pathetic request of the women as there was no other man who understood handling a boat available.’

  Asked what the crew generally thought of Mr Ismay, the steward emphatically declared that they held him in the highest respect, and thought he had been shabbily treated in America. This opinion was further confirmed by a fireman who worked in the electrical engine-room.

  MR ISMAY’S EXAMPLE ‘DON’T FORGET YOU ARE ENGLISH’

  Percy Keene, who was one of the waiters of the Titanic, testified to the discipline that prevailed on the ship when the emergency arose. He said the boats were got out as smartly as possible, but no one seemed to realize what was about to happen. It was treated as a joke even among the sailors, and this over-confidence in the unsinkability of the Titanic accounted for the death roll being so heavy. Some people even got out of the boats again to secure warmer clothing, and they found too late that they were unable to get back again to the deck as the end came with amazing suddenness.

  All through the anxious time Mr Bruce Ismay set an example which stirred the crew to great exertions. He was wonderfully calm, and went from boat to boat assisting in the lowering of them and in placing women and children in them. Once he was not recognized by the officer in charge, who ordered him away, but it was generally felt among the crew that he had struggled hard, and in no way deserved the unkind things said of him in the American Press.

  ‘Once I heard Mr Ismay say,’ continued Mr Keene, ‘ “Don’t forget you are English.” This was just before the last boat was sent away. Mr Ismay took his place in it because there were no passengers, women or children, on the deck or in sight anywhere.’

  Continuing, Keene bore testimony to the devotion to duty of the bedroom stewards. He had seen for himself how valiantly they had driven back the men who had attempted to reach the boats before all the women and children had been accommodated. They had given their lives willingly for others.

  He described in detail how he saw the Titanic break into two or three parts, but after the middle section, with the machinery, gave out the end quickly followed.

  Walter Hurst, fireman, stated that when he reached the boat deck, after the collision, he assisted into getting the passengers into the boats. About five minutes before the Titanic went down he thought the time had come to look out for himself, and fearing the suction that was expected, he leapt into the sea. For three hours he battled for his life, being eventually picked up at daylight, when he was almost done for.

  ‘I could not have lasted very much longer,’ he said. ‘I was numbed to the bone with the cold, and I still feel the effects, and shall do so for a long time.’

  He mentioned that the engine-room staff died practically at their posts. He pointed out that a watch comprised fifty-three firemen, twenty-four trimmers, twenty greasers, five leading firemen, and ten engineers.

  Of the watch on duty only six men, and these of the lower ratings, were saved. How they got out he could not explain, but said that the others remained raking out the fires probably to the very last. The fact that so many firemen were saved was due to the fact that they had been sent away to assist in the boats, whilst many were picked up after jumping into the sea as a last chance.

  MR MURDOCH’S FATE ‘ONE LEFT FOR YOU AND ANOTHER FOR MYSELF’

  One of the crew told our representative that Mr Murdoch, the First Officer, who was in charge of the ship when the collision occurred, played a hero’s part. He it was who personally superintended the lowering of practically every boat that was put into the water. He moved from one boat to another urging and cheering the men at their task. When the end came, and as the last boat was being handled, the water rose above his knees, and it was obvious that the boat could not survive.

  ‘Mr Murdoch calmly pulled out his revolver and blew out his brains.’

  Previously he had used it to threaten the excited steerage passengers and a group of firemen who he feared were likely to rush the boats. He drove them back, as one man said, like a flock of sheep, remarking significantly as he patted the barrel of his revolver: ‘There is one left for you and one for myself.’

  A number of men declared yesterday that they saw Mr Murdoch fire the fatal shot shortly before the Titanic plunged into the darkness of the ocean depths.

  Another stirring story concerns the closing chapter of the career of Chief Purser McElroy, who has a relative at Bodmin. From the outset McElroy was kept busily employed rousing the passengers and then encouraging them to face the ordeal that awaited them. From one to the other he went with characteristic sang-froid and coolness, his cheery manner giving heart to many. Here he stopped to fasten a lifebelt a little more securely; there it was to persuade a passenger to put on warmer clothing.

 
Then he conducted them to the boats, and as the last one drew away from the side of the Titanic sailors saw the popular purser standing calmly on the topmost deck sucking a lemon. By his side stood Mr Wm. Gwynne [sic], one of the United States postal clerks, and together they awaited with complacency the end. Three American and two English postal clerks were lost, the latter being Messrs Williamson and Jago Smith (a Cornishman). They were endeavouring to save the registered mail when last seen, being under the impression that the ship would float for eight to ten hours.

  Equally heroic was the manner in which Drs O’Loughlin and Simpson, with Chief Steward Latimer, faced the end. After they had done all they could to help the passengers, they gathered in the lounge, a beautiful apartment, and then seated in chairs, calmly smoked cigarettes as if nothing was about to happen.

  THE ‘MONEY BOAT’ STORY INDIGNANT DENIAL THAT REWARDS WERE PROMISED BY RICH FOLK

  Probably the most interesting description of the calamity was given by J. Horswell, who hails from Ugborough, near Ivybridge. His father was in the Metropolitan Police at Devonport. Horswell, who served as a sailor, was one of the men who went away in an emergency boat. This boat contained only thirteen people, including Sir Cosmo and Lady Duff Gordon, five firemen, two sailors (Horswell and a man named Symons, who has been detained in New York to give evidence at the inquiry), and two Americans.

  Horswell indignantly repudiated the suggestion that the boat was the ‘millionaires’ boat’, and that the crew had been bribed to take her passengers away, but admitted having in his possession an order on Coutts’s Bank, Ltd, dated April 15, 1912, for ‘the payment of £5 to J. Horswell’, the document bearing the signature of ‘Cosmo Duff Gordon’.

  He stated that nothing was said about money at any time in the boat, either before or after she left the Titanic, but on reaching the Carpathia, Sir Cosmo spontaneously expressed a wish to present each of the boat’s crew with £5 to help them replace the clothes and effects they had lost.

  Horswell explained further that the boat went from the side of the liner with such a small number through the instrumentality of Mr Murdoch, who hustled Sir Cosmo and his wife in and ordered them to get away. It was not thought at the time that the ship would sink, or that it would be long before they were back again.

  The small boat was wanted out of the way because the davits were required for the purpose of lowering other boats.

  Horswell said he saw Captain Smith in the water swimming, with a baby in his arms, towards a raft. The captain afterwards disappeared.

  Before the Titanic went down Horswell saw the light of a vessel about one point or one and a half points on the port bow. The liner had been sending up rockets, but they apparently did not attract the attention of the vessel for no answer came. After the boat was lowered they started to pull in the direction of the light, which, it transpired, was but one of a number of lights, thus indicating that the ship was a large one. Unfortunately, the lights seemed to get further away.

  FATAL OVER-CONFIDENCE

  Horswell attributed a great deal of loss of life to the over-confidence of the people, who apparently relied too much on the unsinkability of the Titanic. He instanced cases where people who had been placed in the boats got out of them again and returned to the liner, feeling assured that they were safer there than in the small craft.

  So far as the effect of the collision was concerned, Horswell was of opinion that the starboard side of the liner was torn away from the forecastle to the bridge – a distance of about 80 feet. ‘I was in my bunk asleep at the time, and I was jerked out on the floor.’

  The lights of the Titanic were visible practically to the last minute, ‘and it appeared to me,’ he proceeded, ‘that as she plunged beneath the surface there was a momentary reflection below water.’

  When he left his bunk and reached the deck he saw a quantity of ice there, and also had his attention directed to the fact that water was coming out of the hatches of the lower decks. As the liner began to take a dangerous list he was engaged with others in preparing the boats, prior to being ordered away by Mr Murdoch.

  Just before the end the Titanic separated between the third and fourth funnels. The foremost funnel had previously fallen into the water on the starboard side with a terrific splash, unquestionably doing a great deal of injury to people struggling in the water.

  Afterwards the ship broke in two, and the after part came up on a level keel for a brief space, the bow having already disappeared. Then the stern rose, and an instant later plunged below. He felt four distinct explosions after that, and regarded it as particularly fortunate that the boilers burst below water rather than above, as otherwise few would have lived to tell the ghastly story.

  Horswell did not pick up anybody. The temperature of the water, together with the consequent shock and excitement, was such that the death of hundreds must have been almost instantaneous. No bodies were seen floating about by Horswell, although he made a search.

  He further urged that the suggestion that a number of bodies were found on the ice floe was impossible, unless they had been washed there, for before the Carpathia left she carefully searched the vicinity of the fatality.

  ‘The Titanic was a wonderful ship,’ added Horswell. He regarded her as a much finer ship than the Olympic, being more speedy and far more easy for the crew to work. At the time of the accident she was steaming at a speed of nearly 23 knots an hour, her previous day’s run being 546 miles. Instructions had been given for the following day for a full test of her power. Two other boilers which had not been used were to have been worked.

  TRYING TO RUSH THE BOATS

  One of the stewards last evening described how there were many instances among the steerage passengers of attempting to rush the boats. The officers behaved with great resource and cowed them by a display of revolvers.

  Continuing his story, however, he said that he would have been afraid to have jumped into a lifeboat even if he had felt inclined to do so, as he saw seven men shot for attempting to do so. One had his chin blown off.

  Another of the arrivals spoke of the devotion of Capt. Smith, who stuck to his post until the bridge disappeared beneath the waves. Once he leapt overboard, clutched an infant, swam with it to a lifeboat, and then returned to the sinking ship.

  Harry Oliver, of Southampton, a fireman, told our representative that he had turned in when a crash aroused him, and he went on deck to see what had happened. Then he saw a quantity of ice on deck, and was told that the ship had struck an iceberg. Satisfied with the information, he returned to his bunk and turned in again, confident that nothing serious had happened.

  He was just dropping off to sleep again when one of the other firemen rushed into the room and said, ‘Turn out quickly; she is making water in the winding staircase.’

  On going to have a look around, Oliver realized that his previous confidence was misplaced and went back to pack his bag, which he took up to the mess-room. Then a leading fireman said, ‘Put on your stokehold gear, and get ready for watch.’ This he did and then orders were given to put on lifebelts and get to the boats.

  On reaching the boat-deck, he found that most of the boats had already been launched except number nine. One of the officers ordered him into the boat, and it was then lowered away, having on board a number of women and children. Recognizing that the Titanic was fast settling down, the crew pulled vigorously to get beyond the region of a possible vortex.

  Suddenly there was a terrible crash, and the great ship appeared to split in ‘twain, if not in three distinct sections, the rending of her timbers and steel plates making a noise that carried terror into the hearts of all.

  The end came swiftly. One of the huge funnels toppled over the side, and then the bow parted just in a line with the bridge. Tilting forward, the Titanic appeared to be going down slowly by the head, when there was a rush and a roar which led the horrified onlookers to come to the conclusion that the machinery had burst through the bulkhead and had fallen out of the ship.


  Then for a moment or two the after portion of the vessel looked to be righting herself, and she came up on an even keel, yet with a lurch that raised her stern high in the air. For a brief period she remained in this position, and then vanished from view, whilst at that moment the air was rent with cries of ‘Mercy!’ and ‘Help!’

  It was a pitiable scene, and I can scarcely get the cries out of my ears now. It was too awful to realize that near us were our shipmates doomed to a dreadful death in the icy seas over which but a few brief hours before the Titanic had been driving in all the pride of a maiden voyage.

  STEWARD’S STORY SOLE SURVIVOR OF THE ENGINEERS’ DEPARTMENT

  An intensely thrilling story was told to our representative last evening by Cecil William Fitzpatrick, engineer’s room steward, and the sole survivor of the engineering staff.

  On the fateful Sunday evening he was aroused from sleep by a sudden lurch of the vessel and the stopping of the engines. One of his mates inquired the cause, but was told it was nothing serious. A little later Fitzpatrick was again awakened by a fireman, who was in the act of taking a lifebelt belonging to the engineers’ stewards. They refused to let him have it, and he then told them the Chief Engineer wanted them to muster.

  FOREIGNER SHOT DEAD

  When I was on deck, proceeded Fitzpatrick, the ship was listing to port, and I went to help lower away one of the lifeboats. Women and children were put in, and as she was being lowered a Dago (Italian) tried to jump from the taffrail to the edge of the boat. The officer in charge pointed a revolver at him, and told him to get back on deck. The Dago refused, the officer fired, and I saw the man fall back dead on the deck. There were crews of foreigners hanging around the lifeboat ready to leap, but they cowered when they saw one of their number shot dead.