The Sinking of the Titanic

by Bruce M. Caplan

  “All this time there was no trace of any disorder; no panic or rush to the boats and no scenes of women sobbing hysterically, such as one generally pictures as happening at such times—everyone seemed to realize so slowly that there was imminent danger. When it was realized that we might all be presently in the sea with nothing but our life-belts to support us until we were picked up by a passing steamer, it was extraordinary how calm everyone was and how completely self-controlled.

  “One by one, the boats were filled with women and children, lowered and rowed away into the night. Presently the word went round among the men, ‘the men are to be put in boats on the starboard side.’

  “I was on the port side, and most of the men walked across the deck to see if this was so. I remained where I was and soon heard the call:

  “‘Any more ladies?’

  “Looking over the side of the ship, I saw the boat, No. 13, swinging level with B deck, half full of ladies. Again the call was repeated, ‘Any more ladies?’

  “I saw none come on, and then one of the crew, looking up said:

  “‘Any more ladies on your deck, sir?’

  “‘No,’ I replied.

  “‘Then you had better jump.’

  “I dropped in, and fell in the bottom, as they cried ‘lower away.’ As the boat began to descend two ladies were pushed hurriedly through the crowd on B deck and heaved over into the boat, and a baby of ten months passed down after them. Down we went, the crew calling to those lowering each end to ‘keep her level,’ until we were some ten feet from the water, and here occurred the only anxious moments we had during the whole of our experience from leaving the deck to reaching the Carpathia.

  “Immediately below our boat was the exhaust of the condensers, a huge stream of water pouring all the time from the ship’s side just above the water line. It was plain we ought to be quickly away from this, not to be swamped by it when we touched water.

  NO OFFICER ABOARD

  “We had no officer aboard, nor petty officer or member of the crew to take charge. So one of the stokers shouted: ‘Someone find the pin which releases the boat from the ropes and pull it up!’ No one knew where it was. We felt on the floor and sides, but found nothing, and it was hard to move among so many people—we had sixty or seventy on board.

  “Down we went and presently floated, with our ropes still holding us, the exhaust washing us away from The side of the vessel and the swell of the sea urging us back against the side again. The result of all these forces was an impetus which carried us parallel to the ship’s side and directly under boat 14, which had filled rapidly with men and was coming down on us in a way that threatened to submerge our boat.

  “‘Stop lowering 14,’ our crew shouted, and the crew of No. 14, now only twenty feet above, shouted the same. But the distance to the top was some seventy feet and the creaking pulleys must have deadened all sound to those above, for down she came, fifteen feet, ten feet, five feet and a stoker and I reached up and touched her swinging above our heads. The next drop would have brought her on our heads, but just before she dropped another stoker sprang to the ropes, with his knife.

  JUST ESCAPED ANOTHER BOAT

  “‘One,’ I heard him say, ‘two,’ as his knife cut through the pulley ropes, and the next moment the exhaust stream had carried us clear, while boat 14 dropped into the water, into the space we had the moment before occupied, our gunwales almost touching.

  “We drifted away easily, as the oars were got out, and headed directly away from the ship. The crew seemed to me to be mostly stewards or cooks in white jackets, two to an oar, with a stoker at the tiller. There was a certain amount of shouting from one end of the boat to the other, and discussion as to which way we should go, but finally it was decided to elect the stoker, who was steering, as captain, and for all to obey his orders. He set to work at once to get into touch with the other boats, calling to them and getting as close as seemed wise, so that when the search boats came in the morning to look for us, there would be more chance for all to be rescued by keeping together.

  “It was now about 1 A.M.; a beautiful starlight night, with no moon, and so not very light. The sea was as calm as a pond, just a gentle heave as the boat dipped up and down in the swell; an ideal night, except for the bitter cold, for anyone who had to be out in the middle of the Atlantic ocean in an open boat. And if ever there was a time when such a night was needed, surely it was now, with hundreds of people, mostly women and children, afloat hundreds of miles from land.

  WATCHED THE TITANIC

  “The captain-stoker told us that he had been at sea twenty-six years, and had never yet seen such a calm night on the Atlantic. As we rowed away from the Titanic, we looked back from time to time to watch her, a more striking spectacle it was not possible for anyone to see.

  “In the distance it looked an enormous length, its 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 downward in the bows, where the water was by now up to the lowest row of port-holes.

  “Presently, about 2 A.M., as near as I can remember, we observed it settling very rapidly, with the bows and the bridge completely under water, and concluded it was now only a question of minutes before it went; and so it proved.”

  Mr. Beasley went on to tell of the spectacle of the sinking of the Titanic, the terrible experiences of the survivors in the life-boats and their final rescue by the Carpathia as already related.

  CHAPTER XV

  JACK THAYER’S OWN STORY OF THE WRECK

  SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD SON OF PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD OFFICIAL TELLS MOVING STORY OF HIS RESCUE—TOLD MOTHER TO BE BRAVE—SEPARATED FROM PARENTS—JUMPED WHEN VESSEL SANK—DRIFTED ON OVERTURNED BOAT—PICKED UP BYCARPATHIA

  ONE of the calmest of the passengers was young Jack Thayer, the seventeen-year-old-son of Mr. and Mrs. John B. Thayer. When his mother was put into the life-boat he kissed her and told her to be brave, saying that he and his father would be all right. He and Mr. Thayer stood on the deck as the small boat in which Mrs. Thayer was a passenger made off from the side of the Titanic over the smooth sea.

  The boy’s own account of his experience as told to one of his rescuers is one of the most remarkable of all the wonderful ones that have come from the tremendous catastrophe:

  “Father was in bed, and mother and myself were about to get into bed. There was no great shock. I was on my feet at the time and I do not think it was enough to throw anyone down. I put on an overcoat and rushed up on A deck on the port side. I saw nothing there. I then went forward to the bow to see if I could see any signs of ice. The only ice I saw was on the well deck. I could not see very far ahead, having just come out of a brightly lighted room.

  “I then went down to our room and my father and mother came on deck with me, to the starboard side of A deck. We could not see anything there. Father thought he saw small pieces of ice floating around, but I could not see any myself. There was no big berg. We walked around to the port side, and the ship had then a fair list to port. We stayed there looking over the side for about five minutes. The list seemed very slowly to be increasing.

  “We then went down to our rooms on C deck, all of us dressing quickly, putting on all our clothes. We all put on life-preservers, and over these we put our overcoats. Then we hurried up on deck and walked around, looking out at different places until the women were all ordered to collect on the port side.

  SEPARATED FROM PARENTS

  “Father and I said good-bye to mother at the top of the stairs on A deck. She and the maid went right out on A deck on the port side and we went to the starboard side. As at this time we had no idea the boat would sink we walked around A deck and then went to B deck. Then we thought we would go back to see if mother had gotten off safely, and went to the port side of A deck. We met the chief steward of the main dining saloon and he told us that mother had not yet taken a boat, a
nd he took us to her.

  “Father and mother went ahead and I followed. They went down to B deck and a crowd got in front of me and I was not able to catch them, and lost sight of them. As soon as I could get through the crowd I tried to find them on B deck, but without success. That is the last time I saw my father. This was about one half an hour before she sank. I then went to the starboard side, thinking that father and mother must have gotten off in a boat. All of this time I was with a fellow named Milton C. Long, of New York, whom I had just met that evening.

  “On the starboard side the boats were getting away quickly. Some boats were already off in a distance. We thought of getting into one of the boats, the last boat to go on the forward part of the starboard side, but there seemed to be such a crowd around I thought it unwise to make any attempt to get into it. He and I stood by the davits of one of the boats that had left. I did not notice anybody that I knew except Mr. Lindley, whom I had also just met that evening. I lost sight of him in a few minutes. Long and I then stood by the rail just a little aft of the captain’s bridge.

  THOUGHT SHIP WOULD FLOAT

  “The list to the port had been growing greater all the time. About this time the people began jumping from the stern. I thought of jumping myself, but was afraid of being stunned on hitting the water. Three times I made up my mind to jump out and slide down the davit ropes and try to make the boats that were lying off from the ship, but each time Long got hold of me and told me to wait a while. He then sat down and I stood up waiting to see what would happen. Even then we thought she might possibly stay afloat.

  “I got a sight on a rope between the davits and a star and noticed that she was gradually sinking. About this time she straightened up on an even keel and started to go down fairly fast at an angle of about 30 degrees. As she started to sink we left the davits and went back and stood by the rail about even with the second funnel.

  “Long and myself said good-bye to each other and jumped up on the rail. He put his legs over and held on a minute and asked me if I was coming. I told him I would be with him in a minute. He did not jump clear, but slip down the side of the ship. I never saw him again.

  “About five seconds after he jumped, I jumped out, feet first. I was clear of the ship; went down, and as I came up I was pushed away from the ship by some force. I came up facing the ship, and one of the funnels seemed to be lifted off and fell towards me about 15 yards away, with a mass of sparks and steam coming out of it. I saw the ship in a sort of red glare, and it seemed to me that she broke in two just in front of the third funnel.

  “This time I was sucked down, and as I came up I was pushed out again and twisted around by a large wave, coming up in the midst of a great deal of small wreckage. As I pushed my hand from my head it touched the cork fender of an over-turned life-boat. I looked up and saw some men on the top and asked them to give me a hand. One of them, who was a stoker, helped me up. In a short time the bottom was covered with about twenty-five or thirty men. When I got on this I was facing the ship.

  “The stern then seemed to rise in the air and stopped at about an angle of 60 degrees. It seemed to hold there for a time and then with a hissing sound it shot right down out of sight with people jumping from the stern. The stern either pivoted around towards our boat, or we were sucked towards it, as we only had one oar we could not keep away. There did not seem to be very much suction and most of us managed to stay on the bottom of our boat.

  SKETCHES OF THE TITANIC BY “JACK” THAYER

  These sketches were outlined by John B. Thayer, Jr. on the day of the disaster, and afterwards filled in by L. D. Skidmon, of Brooklyn.

  “We were then right in the midst of fairly large wreckage, with people swimming all around us. The sea was very calm and we kept the boat pretty steady, but every now and then a wave would wash over it.

  SAID THE LORD’S PRAYER

  “The assistant wireless operator was right next to me, holding on to me and kneeling in the water. We all sang a hymn and said the Lord’s Prayer, and then waited for dawn to come. As often as we saw the other boats in a distance we would yell, ‘Ship ahoy!’ But they could not distinguish our cries from any of the others, so we all gave it up, thinking it useless. It was very cold and none of us were able to move around to keep warm, the water washing over her almost all the time.

  “Toward dawn the wind sprang up, roughening up the water and making it difficult to keep the boat balanced. The wireless man raised our hopes a great deal by telling us that the Carpathia would be up in about three hours. About 3.30 or 4 o’clock some men on our boat on the bow sighted her mast lights. I could not see them, as I was sitting down with a man kneeling on my leg. He finally got up and I stood up. We had the second officer, Mr. Lightoller, on board. We had an officer’s whistle and whistled for the boats in the distance to come up and take us off.

  “It took about an hour and a half for the boats to draw near. Two boats came up. The first took half and the other took the balance, including myself. We had great difficulty about this time in balancing the boat, as the men would lean too far, but we were all taken aboard the already crowded boat, and in about a half or three-quarters of an hour later we were picked up by the Carpathia.

  “I have noticed Second Officer Lightoller’s statement that ‘J. B. Thayer was on our overturned boat,’ which would give the impression that it was father, when he really meant it was I, as he only learned my name in a subsequent conversation on the Carpathia, and did not know I was ‘Junior’.”

  CHAPTER XVI

  WIRELESS OPERATOR PRAISES HEROIC WORK

  STORY OF HAROLD BRIDE, THE SURVIVING WIRELESS OPERATOR OF THE TITANIC, WHO WAS WASHED OVERBOARD AND RESCUED BY LIFE-BOAT— BAND PLAYED RAG-TIME AND “AUTUMN”

  ONE of the most connected and detailed accounts of the horrible disaster was that told by Harold Bride, the wireless operator. Mr. Bride said:

  “I was standing by Phillips, the chief operator, telling him to go to bed, when the captain put his head in the cabin.

  “‘We’ve struck an iceberg,’ the captain said, ‘and I’m having an inspection made to tell what it has done for us. You better get ready to send out a call for assistance. But don’t send it until I tell you.’

  “The captain went away and in ten minutes, I should estimate the time, he came back. We could hear a terrific confusion outside, but there was not the least thing to indicate that there was any trouble. The wireless was working perfectly.

  “‘Send the call for assistance,’ ordered the captain, barely putting his head in the door.

  ‘“What call shall I send?’ Philips asked.

  “‘The regulation international call for help. Just that.’

  “Then the captain was gone. Phillips began to send ‘C. Q. D.’ He flashed away at it and we joked while he did so. All of us made light of the disaster.

  “The Carpathia answered our signal. We told her our position and said we were sinking by the head. The operator went to tell the captain, and in five minutes returned and told us that the captain of the Carpathia was putting about and heading for us.

  GREAT SCRAMBLE ON DECK

  “Our captain had left us at this time and Phillips told me to run and tell him that the Carpathia had answered. I did so, and I went through an awful mass of people to his cabin. The decks were full of scrambling men and women. I saw no fighting, but I heard tell of it.

  “I came back and heard Phillips giving the Carpathia fuller directions. Phillips told me to put on my clothes. Until that moment I forgot that I was not dressed.

  “I went to my cabin and dressed. I brought an overcoat to Phillips. It was very cold. I slipped the overcoat upon him while he worked.

  “Every few minutes Phillips would send me to the captain with little messages. They were merely telling how the Carpathia was coming our way and gave her speed.

  “I noticed as I came back from one trip that they were putting off women and children in life-boats. I noticed that the list forward was incr
easing.

  “Phillips told me the wireless was growing weaker. The captain came and told us our engine rooms were taking water and that the dynamos might not last much longer. We sent that word to the Carpathia.

  “I went out on deck and looked around. The water was pretty close up to the boat deck. There was a great scramble aft, and how poor Phillips worked through it right to the end I don’t know.

  “He was a brave man. I learned to love him that night and I suddenly felt for him a great reverence to see him standing there sticking to his work while everybody else was raging about. I will never live to forget the work of Phillips for the last awful fifteen minutes.

  “I thought it was about time to look about and see if there was anything detached that would float. I remembered that every member of the crew had a special life-belt and ought to know where it was. I remembered mine was under my bunk. I went and got it. Then I thought how cold the water was.

  “I remembered I had an extra jacket and a pair of boots, and I put them on. I saw Phillips standing out there still sending away, giving the Carpathia details of just how we were doing.

  “We picked up the Olympic and told her we were sinking by the head and were about all down. As Phillips was sending the message I strapped his life-belt to his back. I had already put on his overcoat. Every minute was precious, so I helped him all I could.

  BAND PLAYS IN RAG-TIME

  “From aft came the tunes of the band. It was a rag-time tune, I don’t know what. Then there was ‘Autumn.’ Phillips ran aft and that was the last I ever saw of him.

  “I went to the place where I had seen a collapsible boat on the boat deck, and to my surprise I saw the boat and the men sill trying to push it off. I guess there wasn’t a sailor in the crowd. They couldn’t do it. I went up to them and just lending a hand when a large wave came awash of the deck.