by Nic Compton
Then we waited out there until the ship went down. Afterwards, we heard a lot of these cries and yells. You could not hear any shouts for help, or anything like that. It was a sort of continuous yelling or moaning. You could not distinguish any sounds. It was more like – what I thought it was – the steerage on rafts, and that they were all hysterical. That is the way it sounded in the distance.
Herbert Pitman – Third Officer
There was a crying, shouting, moaning. It came from the water, after the ship disappeared. We may have been 3 or 400 yards away. As soon as she disappeared, I said, ‘Now, men, we will pull toward the wreck.’ I said, ‘We may be able to pick up a few more.’ My boat would have accommodated a few more.
They started to obey my orders. They commenced pulling toward the ship, and the passengers in my boat said it was a mad idea on my part to pull back to the ship, because if I did, we should be swamped with the crowd that was in the water, and it would add another 40 to the list of drowned. So I decided I would not pull back.
There was a continual moan for about an hour – it may have been a shorter time. I cannot very well describe it. Then they died away gradually. I would rather not speak of it. We just simply took our oars in and lay quiet. We may have drifted along. We just simply lay there, in the vicinity of the wreck, doing nothing. We drifted toward daylight, as a little breeze sprang up.
BOAT NO 10
Edward Buley – Able Seaman
It was after the ship went down, when we heard them. When the lights were out. It was terrible cries. We laid to about 250 yards away, not because we could give any assistance, but because the boat I was in was full up, and we had no one to pull the oars.
There were a good few dead. Of course, you could not discern them exactly on account of the wreckage; but we turned over several of them to see if they were alive. It looked as though none of them were drowned. They looked as though they were frozen. The lifebelts they had on were partly out of the water, and their heads were laid back, with their faces on the water, several of them. Their hands were coming up. It looked as though they were frozen altogether.
I never saw any ice until morning. We thought it was a full-rigged ship. We were right in amongst the wreckage, and we thought it was a sailing ship, until the light came on and we saw it was an iceberg.
BOAT NO 4
Emily Ryerson – First Class Passenger
We didn’t go back, for people said ‘Don’t go there’ and ‘The ship is going down’, and nobody seemed to know what was to be done. So we floated by a little, up from the ship. The ship was sinking very rapidly then. We saw two lines of portholes, and then we saw only one. It was very brilliantly lighted and you could see very distinctly.
A great many portholes were open. The water was washing in the portholes, and later some of the square windows seemed to be open. You could see in the cabin and see the water washing in and the gold furniture and decorations. I remember noticing you could look far in; it was brilliantly lighted – which deck, I couldn’t tell.
I said to this man in the bow, Perkis, he was smoking a pipe and seemed quite unconcerned, and I said, ‘What were your orders?’ and he said, ‘There is another companionway aft, and we are ordered to go there.’ Some of the women were standing up in the boat, and they said, ‘Don’t go. The ship is going down, and we will be swamped,’ and he didn’t seem to care which way we went.
Those orders weren’t followed out. We saw no gangway, we looked and peered, but it was so black when we got in the water, we couldn’t see anything at first. They were throwing things into the water: steamer chairs, and doors, and casks. There seemed to be a mess of things between us and the ship.
Somebody said, ‘Row for your lives.’ Everybody rowed: Mrs Thayer, and my daughter, and all the women. One or two men were picked up when the ship went down – we picked up seven or eight – and these men were cursing and fighting. I think they were from the crew, not passengers. One died, I think, there.
Samuel Hemming – Lamp-trimmer
I went to the bridge and looked over and saw the water climbing upon the bridge. I went and looked over the starboard side, and everything was black. I could not see any boats. I went over to the port side and saw a boat off the port quarter, so I got up the after boat davits and slid down the fall and swam to the boat. I tried to get hold of the grab line on the bows, and it was too high for me, so I swam along and got hold of one of the grab lines amidships.
I pulled my head above the gunwale, and I said, ‘Give us a hand in, Jack.’ Foley was in the boat. I saw him standing up in the boat. He said, ‘Is that you, Sam?’ I said, ‘Yes,’ and him and the women and children pulled me in the boat.
It was full of women. There were about 40 women and four men. There were children; two young ladies and a little girl. I did not see the babies at all when I got in the boat. I did not see the three babies until later.
After the ship had gone, we pulled back and picked up seven. Stewards, firemen, seamen, and one or two men, passengers – I could not say exactly which they were. They swam toward the boat, and we went back toward them. We hung around for a bit. We were moving around constantly. We heard the cries, but we did not know what to do.
Walter Perkis – Quartermaster
No 4 was the last big boat on the port side to leave the ship. I took charge of it after I got in. We were about six lengths away from the ship. We picked up eight men, and two died in the boat afterwards; one was a fireman and one was a steward. After we had picked up the men, I could not hear any more cries anywhere. Everything was over. I waited then until daylight, or just before daylight, when we saw the lights of the Carpathia.
Every man knew his station and took it. They conducted themselves the same as they would if it were an ordinary everyday occurrence.
Andrew Cunningham – Bedroom Steward
I waited on the ship until all the boats had gone, and then I took to the water. I went in about two o’clock, about half an hour before she sank. I swam clear about three-quarters of a mile of the ship, because I was afraid of the suction. I had a mate with me. We saw the ship go down, then we struck out to look for a boat.
We called to No 4 boat, and they picked us up. I think his was the nearest boat to the scene of the accident, because he picked up most of the lot. There were only about eight or nine men in it. The majority of them were picked up out of the water. I think there was another fireman in the bottom of the boat; and besides that there was my mate, who died just after he was pulled in.
As soon as I got into the boat, I took an oar, and we rowed away from the scene of the wreck until morning, until we sighted the Carpathia. Of course, we took the two dead men on board with us.
Thomas Dillon – Trimmer
I was swimming for about 20 minutes after the ship went down. I saw about 1,000 people in the water. When I was picked up, I was unconscious, and I was not properly right when I came to. Lyons was lying on top of me, a seaman, and a passenger lying on top of me dead.
BOAT NO 1
George Symons – Lookout
After we left the ship, I gave the order to pull away. We pulled away I should say about 200 yards, and I told them to lay on their oars, and just a little while after that, after I saw that the ship was doomed, I gave the order to pull a little further and so escape the suction. Being the master of the situation, I used my own discretion. I said nothing to anybody about the ship being doomed in my opinion. A little while after that we pulled a little way and lay on the oars again.
The other boats were around us by that time, and some were pulling further away from us. I stood and watched it till I heard two sharp explosions in the ship. What they were I could not say. Then she suddenly took a heavy cant, and her bow went down clear. Her forecastle head was well under water then. Her foremost lights had all disappeared. You could see her starboard sidelight, which was still burning, was not so very far from the water, and her stern was well up in the air. You could not see her keel; you could
just see the propellers.
The next thing I saw was her poop. As she went down like that so her poop righted itself and I thought to myself, ‘The poop is going to float.’ It righted itself without the bow; in my estimation she must have broken in half. I should think myself it was abaft the after expansion plate. It could not have been more than two or three minutes after that that her poop went up as straight as anything; there was a sound like steady thunder as you hear on an ordinary night at a distance, and soon she disappeared from view.
I thought at the time, being master of the situation, it was not safe in any case to go back at that time. Not at that time; not as soon as the ship disappeared. I was only going by the cries. You could hear them; you could hear a decent few, it sounded like. But I thought at the time, by using my own discretion, that it was not safe in any way to have gone back to that ship as she disappeared.
I determined by my own wish, as I was master of the situation, to go back when I thought that most of the danger was over. I used my own discretion. I was not afraid of anything; I was only afraid of endangering the lives of the people I had in the boat. We had room, say, for another eight or a dozen more in the boat, but I was afraid of the swarming. Of the swarming of the people – swamping the boat.
I never had a thought in my head of cowardice. I do not admit it was cowardly.
We continued rowing for the light. It was bearing roughly on our port beam when we were rowing away from the ship. I thought my own self she was gradually going away from us. After we rowed a little way, we stopped and laid on our oars. Then I gave the order to pull back, and told the men in the boat we would pull back to the other boats. I was going my way back then as near as I possibly could to the scene of the disaster. I strained my ears to hear whether I could hear anybody, any person whatever making a cry. I heard no one.
I could not say that they were all drowned, because there were some picked up in a boat out of the water before daylight, according to the other story. Of course, I cannot say about other people.
Lady Lucy Duff Gordon – First Class Passenger
The moment we touched the water, the men began rowing. As far as I can remember, the order was to row quickly away from the boat for about 200 yards. After the Titanic sank, I never heard a cry. Before she sank, there were terrible cries. But my impression was that, after she sank, there was absolute silence. Well, perhaps I may have heard it, but I was terribly sick, and I could not swear to it.
Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon – First Class Passenger
The moment the Titanic sank, of course everything stopped. There was a dead silence. Then we did hear cries – until the men started rowing again, which was very soon, immediately, almost. I do not know which way they were rowing, but I think they began to row away immediately; in my opinion it was to stop the sound.
I heard no suggestion of going back. I do not think it would have been possible, for one thing. I do not know whether it would have been safe. I do not know which way we should have gone. I had been watching the Titanic, of course, to the last moment, and after that, one did not know where it had been. As soon as the Titanic had gone down, one lost all idea of where she had been.
It is difficult to say what occurred to me. I was minding my wife, and we were rather in an abnormal condition. There were many things to think about, but of course it quite well occurred to one that people in the water could be saved by a boat. It might have been possible, but it would have been very difficult to get back, the distance we were, and in the darkness, to find anything. I was not thinking about it. At that time I was attending to my wife. We had had rather a serious evening.
Charles Hendrickson – Leading Fireman
There were terrible cries some distance off, about 200 yards away. Certainly, we all heard them. I proposed going back, and they would not hear of it. None of them would not go back. None of the passengers or anybody else. It was after the ship had gone then. I spoke to everyone there; I shouted out in the boat, to anyone who was listening. There was plenty of room for another dozen.
Sir Duff Gordon and his wife and this other lady passenger objected. They said it would be too dangerous to go back, we might get swamped. Sir Duff Gordon and his wife as well, that was all. I never heard anyone else. Symons never said anything. The crew never said anything.
I never said any more. The coxswain was in charge of the boat; he should know what to do best. It would not do for everybody to be in charge of a boat that is in her. When a man gets in a boat, the coxswain takes charge and does everything.
George Symons – Lookout
I never heard anybody of any description, passengers or crew, say anything as regards going back. I expected fully for someone to say something about it. That seemed reasonable. Had there been anything said, I was almost sure to have heard it. We were all doing our work. They were saying nothing. I heard no conversation whatever. The only conversation that I caught once was Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon trying to cheer Lady Duff Gordon up. That was the only conversation – some words he spoke to her, and that was nearly at the break of daylight. If there was any other conversation it was unknown to me. I never heard nothing. I used my own discretion.
Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon – First Class Passenger
There was a man sitting next to me, and of course in the dark I could see nothing of him. I never did see him, and I do not know yet who he is. I suppose it would be some time when they rested on their oars, 20 minutes or half an hour after the Titanic had sunk, this man said to me, ‘I suppose you have lost everything,’ and I said, ‘Of course.’ He said, ‘But you can get some more,’ and I said, ‘Yes.’ ‘Well,’ he said, ‘we have lost all our kit and the company won’t give us any more, and what is more our pay stops from tonight. All they will do is to send us back to London.’ So I said to them, ‘You fellows need not worry about that. I will give you a fiver each to start a new kit.’ That is the whole of that £5 note story. I said it to one of them, and I do not know yet which.
Robert Pusey – Fireman
After the Titanic was a wreck, after everything was quiet, Lady Gordon said to Miss Franks, ‘There is your beautiful nightdress gone,’ and I said, ‘Never mind about your nightdress, madam, as long as you have got your life.’ I said we had lost our kits and that our pay was stopped from the time she was a wreck. Then I heard someone forward at the fore end of me say, ‘We will give you a little to start a new kit.’ That was all I heard. It was about three o’clock in the morning, because we were rowing for the light when this was said. We were rowing for this light half an hour or more.
Henry Stengel – First Class Passenger
Between Sir Duff Gordon and myself we decided which way to go. We followed a light that was to the bow of the boat, which looked like in the dead of winter, when the windows are frosted with a light coming through them. It was in a haze. Most of the boats rowed toward that light, and after the green lights began to burn, I suggested it was better to turn around and go toward the green lights, because I presumed there was an officer of the ship in that boat, and he evidently knew his business.
In one of those boats there was an old sailor, and he afterwards explained that he took the end of a rope and dipped it in oil and lit that. That was a flare light that every now and then would show.
It was toward morning that we turned, and by that time another man and myself thought we saw a rocket explode. I said, ‘I think I saw a rocket,’ and another one said, ‘I think I saw a rocket,’ and one of the stokers, I think it was, said, ‘I see two lights. I believe that is a vessel.’ Then, after that, when another green light was burned, there was a flash light from a boat, and I said, ‘Now, I am pretty positive that is a boat, because that is an answer to the green signal,’ and one of the stokers said, ‘The green light is the company’s colour.’ That is what he said. Whether he was right or not, I do not know.
When we saw that flash light, it was like powder was set off. I said, ‘Now, let us give it to her and let us steer in between the
green light – where we saw the green light – and that boat,’ and that being a very light boat, we left the other boats quite a way behind. I felt somewhat enthused to see the boat, and I began to jolly them along to pull. I said, ‘Keep pulling.’ We kept pulling, and I thought we were the first boat aboard, but I found that the boat that had the green lights burning was ahead of us. We were the second boat aboard.
The icebergs were all around. As soon as we were afloat, you could see icebergs all around, because we thought they were sailing vessels at first, and began pulling this way, and then turning around and going the other way. They were in sight all along the horizon. It was quite a ways, but you could see the outline in the dusk. There was one of them, particularly, that I noticed, a very large one, which looked something like the Rock of Gibraltar; it was high at one point, and another point came up at the other end, about the same shape as the Rock of Gibraltar. It was not quite as large as the Titanic but it was an enormous iceberg. At such a distance I should judge it was 250 feet high at the highest point.
