Sinking of the Titanic and Great Sea Disasters Part 15

WOMEN SEEKING NEWS

In the first cabin library women of wealth and refinement mingled their grief and asked eagerly for news of the possible arrival of a belated boat, or a message from other steamers telling of the safety of their husbands. Mrs. Henry B. Harris, wife of a New York theatrical manager, checked her tears long enough to beg that some message of hope be sent to her father-in-law. Mrs. G. Thorne, Miss Marie Young, Mrs Emil Taussig and her daughter, Ruth, Mrs. Martin Rothschild, Mrs. William Augustus Spencer, Mrs. J. Stewart White and Mrs. Walter M. Clark were a few of those who lay back, exhausted, on the leather cus.h.i.+ons and told in shuddering sentences of their experiences.

Mrs. John Jacob Astor and the Countess of Rothes had been taken to staterooms soon after their arrival on s.h.i.+pboard.

Before noon, at the captain's request, the first cabin pa.s.sengers of the t.i.tanic gathered in the saloon and the pa.s.sengers of other cla.s.ses in corresponding places on the rescue s.h.i.+p. Then the collecting of names was begun by the purser and the stewards. A second table was served in both cabins for the new guests, and the Carpathia's second cabin, being better filled than its first, the second cla.s.s arrivals had to be sent to the steerage.

TEARS THEIR ONLY RELIEF

Mrs. Jacques Futrelle, wife of the novelist, herself a writer of note, sat dry eyed in the saloon, telling her friends that she had given up hope for her husband. She joined with the rest in inquiries as to the chances of rescue by another s.h.i.+p, and no one told her what soon came to be the fixed opinion of the men--that all those saved were on the Carpathia.

"I feel better," Mrs. Futrelle said hours afterward, "for I can cry now."

Among the men conversation centered on the accident and the responsibility for it. Many expressed the belief that the t.i.tanic, in common with other vessels, had had warning of the ice packs, but that in the effort to establish a record on the maiden run sufficient heed had not been paid to the warnings.

"G.o.d knows I'm not proud to be here," said a rich New York man. "I got on a boat when they were about to lower it and when, from delays below, there was no woman to take the vacant place. I don't think any man who was saved is deserving of censure, but I realize that, in contrast with those who went down, we may be viewed unfavorably." He showed a picture of his baby boy as he spoke.

PITIFUL SCENES OF GRIEF

As the day pa.s.sed the fore part of the s.h.i.+p a.s.sumed some degree of order and comfort, but the crowded second sabin and rear decks gave forth the incessant sound of lamentation. A bride of two months sat on the floor and moaned her widowhood. An Italian mother shrieked the name of her lost son.

A girl of seven wept over the loss of her Teddy bear and two dolls, while her mother, with streaming eyes, dared not tell the child that her father was lost too, and that the money for which their home in England had been sold had gone down with him. Other children clung to the necks of the fathers who, because carrying them, had been permitted to take the boats.

In the hospital and the public rooms lay, in blankets, several others who had been benumbed by the water. Mrs. Rosa Abbott, who was in the water for hours, was restored during the day. K. Whiteman, the t.i.tanic's barber, who declared he was blown off the s.h.i.+p by the second of the two explosions after the crash, was treated for bruises. A pa.s.senger, who was thoroughly ducked before being picked up, caused much amus.e.m.e.nt on this s.h.i.+p, soon after the doctors were through with him, by demanding a bath.

SURVIVORS AID THE DESt.i.tUTE

Storekeeper Prentice, the last man off the t.i.tanic to reach this s.h.i.+p, was also soon over the effects of his long swim in the icy waters into which he leaped from the p.o.o.p deck.

The physicians of the Carpathia were praised, as was Chief Steward Hughes, for work done in making the arrivals comfortable and averting serious illness.

Monday night on the Carpathia was one of rest. The wailing and sobbing of the day were hushed as widows and orphans slept. Tuesday, save for the crowded condition of the s.h.i.+p, matters took somewhat their normal appearance.

The second cabin dining room had been turned into a hospital to care for the injured, and the first, second and third cla.s.s dining rooms were used for sleeping rooms at night for women, while the smoking rooms were set aside for men. All available s.p.a.ce was used, some sleeping in chairs and some on the floor, while a few found rest in the bathrooms.

Every cabin had been filled, and women and children were sleeping on the floors in the dining saloon, library and smoking rooms. The pa.s.sengers of the Carpathia had divided their clothes with the s.h.i.+pwrecked ones until they had at least kept warm. It is true that many women had to appear on deck in kimonos and some in underclothes with a coat thrown over them, but their lives had been spared and they had not thought of dress. Some children in the second cabin were entirely without clothes, but the women had joined together, and with needles and thread they could pick up from pa.s.senger to pa.s.senger, had made warm clothes out of the blankets belonging to the Carpathia.

WOMEN BEFRIENDED ONE ANOTHER

The women aboard the Carpathia did what they could by word and act to relieve the sufferings of the rescued. Most of the survivors were in great need of clothing, and this the women of the Carpathia supplied to them as long as their surplus stock held out.

J. A. Shuttleworth, of Louisville, Ky., befriended Mrs. Lucien Smith, whose husband went down with the t.i.tanic. Mrs. Smith was formerly Miss Eloise Hughes, daughter of Representative and Mrs. James A. Hughes, of Huntington, W. Va., and was on her wedding trip. Mr. Shuttleworth asked her if there wasn't something he could do for her. She said that all the money she had was lost on the t.i.tanic, so Mr. Shuttleworth gave her $500

DEATHS ON THE CARPATHIA

Two of the rescued from the t.i.tanic died from shock and exposure before they reached the Carpathia, and another died a few minutes after being taken on board. The dead were W. H. Hoyte, first cabin; Abraham Hormer, third cla.s.s, and S. C. Sirbert, steward, and they were buried at sea the morning of April 15th, lat.i.tude 41.14 north, longitude 51.24 west. P.

Lyon, able seaman, died and was buried at sea the following morning.

An a.s.sistant steward lost his mind upon seeing one of the t.i.tanic's rescued firemen expire after being lifted to the deck of the Carpathia.

An Episcopal bishop and a Catholic priest from Montreal read services of their respective churches over the dead.

The bodies were sewed up in sacks, heavily weighted at the feet, and taken to an opening in the side of the s.h.i.+p on the lower deck not far above the water line. A long plank tilted at one end served as the incline down which the weighted sacks slid into the sea.

"After we got the t.i.tanic's pa.s.sengers on board our s.h.i.+p," said one of the Carpathia's officers, "it was a question as to where we should take them. Some said the Olympic would come out and meet us and take them on to New York, but others said they would die if they had to be lowered again into small boats to be taken up by another, so we finally turned toward New York, delaying the Carpathia's pa.s.sengers eight days in reaching Gibraltar."

SURVIVORS WATCH NEW BOATS

There were several children on board, who had lost their parents--one baby of eleven months with a nurse who, coming on board the Carpathia with the first boat, watched with eagerness and sorrow for each incoming boat, but to no avail. The parents had gone down.

There was a woman in the second cabin who lost seven children out of ten, and there were many other losses quite as horrible.

MR. ISMY "PITIABLE SIGHT"

Among the rescued ones who came on board the Carpathia was the president of the White Star Line.

"Mr. Ismay reached the Carpathia in about the tenth life-boat," said an officer. "I didn't know who he was, but afterward heard the others of the crew discussing his desire to get something to eat the minute he put his foot on deck. The steward who waited on him, McGuire, from London, says Mr. Ismay came das.h.i.+ng into the dining room, and throwing himself in a chair, said: 'Hurry, for G.o.d's sake, and get me something to eat; I'm starved. I don't care what it costs or what it is; bring it to me.'

"McGuire brought Mr. Ismay a load of stuff and when he had finished it, he handed McGuire a two dollar bill. 'Your money is no good on this s.h.i.+p,' McGuire told him. 'Take it.'

{ill.u.s.t. caption = DIAGRAM OF THE t.i.tANIC'S ARRANGEMENT AND EQUIPMENT

The t.i.tanic was far and away the largest and finest vessel ever built, excepting only her sister-s.h.i.+p, the Olympic. Her dimensions were: Length, 882 1/2 feet; Beam, 92 feet, Depth (from keel to tops of funnels), 175 feet Tonnage, 45,000. Her huge hull, divided into thirty watertight compartments, contained nine steel decks, and provided accommodation for 2,500 pa.s.sengers, besides a crew of 890.}

{ill.u.s.t. caption = UPPER DECK OF THE t.i.tANIC, LOOKING FORWARD}

insisted Mr. Ismay, shoving the bill in McGuire's hand. I am well able to afford it. I will see to it that the boys of the Carpathia are well rewarded for this night's work.' This promise started McGuire making inquiries as to the ident.i.ty of the man he had waited on. Then we learned that he was Mr. Ismay. I did not see Mr. Ismay after the first few hours. He must have kept to his cabin."

A pa.s.senger on the Carpathia said there was no wonder that none of the wireless telegrams addressed to Mr. Ismay were answered until the one that he sent yesterday afternoon to his line, the White Star.

"Mr. Ismay was beside himself," said this woman pa.s.senger, "and on most of the voyage after we had picked him up he was being quieted with opiates on orders of the s.h.i.+p's doctor.

FIVE DOGS AND ONE PIG SAVED

"Five women saved their pet dogs, carrying them in their arms. Another woman saved a little pig, which she said was her mascot. Though her husband is an Englishman and she lives in England she is an American and was on her way to visit her folks here. How she cared for the pig aboard s.h.i.+p I do not know, but she carried it up the side of the s.h.i.+p in a big bag. I did not mind the dogs so much, but it seemed to me to be too much when a pig was saved and human beings went to death.

"It was not until noon on Monday that we cleared the last of the ice, and Monday night a dense fog came up and continued until the following morning, then a strong wind, a heavy sea, a thunderstorm and a dense fog Tuesday night, caused some uneasiness among the more unnerved, the fog continuing all of Tuesday.

"A number of whales were sighted as the Carpathia was clearing the last of the ice, one large one being close by, and all were spouting like geysers."