Voices from the Titanic (53 page)
Read Voices from the Titanic Online
Authors: Geoff Tibballs
âThe steerage matron, Mrs Wallis,' continued one of the stewardesses, ârefused to leave her room when summoned to do so. She disregarded all warnings, and said, “I am not going on deck. I am quite safe here.” '
Another person who refused to leave her bedroom was the second cabin stewardess, Mrs Snape, a young widow, of Southampton, twenty-one years of age. She leaves a little girl. She was seen busy tying on lifebelts on her passengers, and as she did so she wished them all âGoodbye'. She refused suggestions that she should hurry to deck herself, telling some of the passengers and the stewardesses that she did not expect to see them again.
C. Maynard, aged thirty, who was a cook on the
Titanic
, was picked up from the bottom of a collapsible boat, to which he had clung for several hours, with many other survivors of the tragedy.
I was asleep at the time of the disaster, said Maynard, but the shock which aroused me was not a serious one. The engines stopped suddenly, but they never went astern. Aroused from my sleep, I went to the top deck, and was told off with others to No. 4 boat. Then I was ordered to one of the lower decks to open the windows to let the passengers get in. After this had been done I went back on the boat deck to find all the lifeboats had been launched, only a few collapsible boats being left.
By this time the
Titanic
was down by the stern and was rapidly sinking. Then I saw Captain Smith on the bridge. A rush of water washed me overboard, and as I went I clung on to one of our upturned boats. There were some six other men clinging to the woodwork when we were in the water. I saw Captain Smith washed from the bridge, and afterwards saw him swimming in the water. He was still fully dressed, with his cap on his head. One of the men clinging to the raft tried to save him by reaching out a hand, but he would not let him, and called out, âLook after yourselves, boys.' I do not know what became of the captain, but I suppose he sank.
We were clinging to the upturned boat for two or three hours before we were picked up by one of the lifeboats just before daybreak.
Thomas Threlfall, a leading stoker, states that he was off duty at the time of the collision and in his bunk. When he got on deck about midnight Second Engineer Everitt told him to get all the men below. He went below to section No. 4, and took on with the stoking.
I had ten firemen and four trimmers under me, he continued, and we had to look after five double boilers with thirty fires; that is, fifteen fires in each stokehold. I don't mind telling you that it did not feel nice going down below because we knew that a bad accident had happened, but every man Jack of my gang went on with his work and never murmured. The engineers were running about a lot, and this made things look black, but my men went on with the stoking until about 1.30 a.m.
Then we were warned that the end was close at hand, and we were ordered to come on deck. All the fires had been drawn, and what trouble there was with the boilers must have been caused when steam had been largely reduced.
The fourth funnel of the
Titanic
was chiefly a ventilating shaft, and was used to carry off the vapours and steam from the kitchens of the ship. It contained a winding staircase, by which there was communication between the stokehold and the topmost deck.
Presiding at a meeting in Ebenezer Church last evening, the Chief Constable of Plymouth (Mr J. D. Sowerby) paid a warm tribute to the survivors who came to England on the
Lapland
.
On Sunday he said he spent eight hours in the Great Western Docks assisting others to make as comfortable as possible the rescued members of the
Titanic
's crew. He conversed with many, and was impressed by the different views expressed. One of the seamen told him that he was in the sea for two and a half hours. His hands had swollen in the icy water to three times their ordinary size, and just before he was picked up he had almost abandoned hope. The survivor added that he trembled at the thought of going to sea again; whilst another man, taking quite a different view, said, âWell, you know, a thing like this only happens once in a thousand years.'
(
Western Daily Mercury
, 30 April 1912)
One of the most interesting of survivors, a leading stoker, or âcaptain stoker', who was on duty in the stokehold in the very bowels of the ship at the time she struck the iceberg, and who stayed there facing death until driven out by the inrush of water, tells a graphic story. He is a fine, stalwart North of England man, says the
Manchester Guardian,
who has stoked many of the White Star liners across the Atlantic. He is Mr H. G. Harvey, son of the late Mr J. Thompson Harvey, of Belfast. This is the first account from the stokehold to be published. He said:
I am a leading fireman, and I was on the eight to twelve o'clock watch, so I was on duty when the collision with the iceberg occurred. There were three stokeholds in the
Titanic
built athwart ship, and there would be 83 men in that watch â namely 54 stokers, 23 coal trimmers, and six leading firemen. Eight of us out of the 83 are now alive. Two of them were detained to give evidence in New York; the others are here. The rest of the 83 were drowned. There were thirteen men working in my section; two of those thirteen were saved. We were working away, and thinking our watch was nearly up, when all of a sudden the starboard side of the ship came in on us. It burst in like big guns going off, and the water came pouring in. It swilled our legs, and we made a dash into the next section and slammed the watertight door to, quick. There was no time to waste. My section was about one-third of the ship's length from the bows, and we found that the whole of the starboard side was smashed in as far aft as our section. Well, we got into the next section aft, and there we stayed, for being on the watch it was our business to stay. I did not think, and nobody thought at the time, that the
Titanic
could sink.
Not a Man Saved
There was a poor fellow named Shepherd, an engineer, who joined at Southampton, whose leg was broken. When the side was stove in we carried him into the pump-room near our section, and there he lay with his broken leg, cursing because he was unable to be of any further assistance. There would have been time at first to carry him up if we had thought the ship would sink. I don't know whether he was carried up afterwards, but at any rate we know he was not saved, for there were thirty-six engineers aboard, and not a man of them was saved. They talked in America of millionaire heroes, but what of the engineers? They stuck to their work to the last, and went down with the ship. They kept the engines going until three minutes before the
Titanic
went out of sight. They were the heroes, I think. Those who in the ordinary way would have gone off duty stayed on the couple of extra hours, and they died like men.
Some time after I and my chaps got into the next section most of the stokers were sent up on deck, but I went up and brought twenty of them down again to keep the boilers going. Afterwards they were sent up again, and three engineers and I had orders to stop where we were. The engineers were there to work the section pumps to try to pump the water out of the section from which we had been driven. Harvey was the engineer in charge of us. Wilson was the second, and Shepherd was the third. While we were there the electric lights went out, and I was sent creeping along the alleyway to fetch some lamps. When I got back the lights were on again, and we found they had been switching from the main dynamos to the emergency dynamos, which were situated in the fourth funnel, which was a dummy funnel. So we had light again, and we stuck to the job. Then all of a sudden the water came with a rush into where we were.
How it came in I don't know, but in it came and Harvey, the engineer, said to me, âGet up on deck.' I was nearly swilled off my feet, but I managed to get out, and I reached the deck beneath the boat deck. I knew then that the ship must sink, for the forecastle head was under water, but men were leaning up against the saloon walls smoking cigarettes, and no one seemed alarmed. I dared not say what I believed for fear of causing panic. When I got on the deck a lifeboat was hanging from the davits, and the boatswain, who knew me, as I had sailed with him in other ships before, said to me, âYou go in this boat and pull an oar.' I took his orders, and got in as she swung from the davits. When they had lowered us I had to cut the ropes, as she was so crowded I could not free her otherwise. It was No. 13 lifeboat, and we had in her sixty women, eight other men, and two little babies, one two months and the other ten months old. One of the men was one of the lookout men. He is now in New York. The women were of all kinds â Irish emigrants, Scandinavians, and others. I had to take charge of the boat and steer, as most of the men were stewards, and knew little about boat work. It was bitterly cold, and one of the women, seeing how cold I was at the tiller, wrapped her cloak round me. I should have been glad to pull an oar.
Bravery of Women
The two babies were wrapped in blankets, and they both survived, poor little things. Those women were brave, if you like. They never cried, although most of them had husbands in the ship, and man, I tell you, when the ship sank and the moans of the drowning came over the water, one of those women began right away to sing a hymn. It was this: âEternal Father, Strong to Save.' She sang it out so that the other women should not listen to those pitiful moans, and we all joined in and sang. It was only the moaning of the hundreds who were being chilled to death in the icy water. It was too cold for them to be able to shout. Well, it was ten minutes past one when I entered the boat, and we had to row away for fear the boat might be sucked down. We rowed away, and we watched the
Titanic
until she sank. She looked like a great lighted theatre floating on the sea. We saw her head sink until her stern was right out of the water with the propellers in the air. Then she broke in half, the weight of the half out of the water being too great a strain, I suppose. The after end sunk down level with the water for a few moments, and then as the water rushed in it went down at an angle again and slid down gently beneath the waves. We were too far off to see any of those who jumped into the water, and our boat was too full for us to dare to go back. Most of those who jumped into the sea died within a quarter of an hour, for the awful moaning ceased after that. We saw nothing but ice and dead bodies.
Need for More Boats
There were thirty-five men who clung to an upturned boat all night and were taken up next morning. One was Mr Lightoller, one of the best officers that ever sailed. Two out of every three of the crew who have been saved were picked up out of the water after the ship went down. It is said the bandsmen were not so brave as has been made out, but some of the chaps who have come in the
Lapland
saw them playing when the water was over their feet. There were some brave people, but not all those who have got the credit. Let me tell you, there was a boat ahead of us all night, and we hailed her time after time, for we could see she was high out of the water and we were nearly to the water's edge. They never stopped nor answered us. We found next day that there were only thirteen people in that boat.
The captain stoker said, about the shooting that is said to have taken place on board: âJust as she was going down we heard some shots fired. I think there were people who preferred to put an end to it themselves. There are men here who saw Captain Smith swimming in the water with a child under his arm after the ship sank. He gave the child to the boat and then swam away. He refused to get into the boat himself.' As to the number of boats the captain stoker said: âOpinions differ, but my opinion is that if the
Titanic
had carried twenty more boats twice as many lives could have been saved.'
A Southampton man who was doing his usual shift at the electric light machinery when the ship struck the ice said:
We scarcely noticed the shock in our part of the ship and did not know there was any danger for a good while. We just went on at our work. There were four of us on the electric engine, and I am the only one of the four who was saved. We were working until within twenty minutes of the time she broke up; then when we knew she must sink we threw overboard everything we could that would float â 800 chairs from one of the saloons and chests of drawers and anything we could move. At the finish I climbed up the davits and slid down the ropes into the water and struck out. I was swimming for twenty minutes before I was picked up by No. 4 boat. Two persons in the boat died, and one of the two went raving mad before he died and wanted to jump into the water again. Both of them were blue in the face, real blue, when we picked them up.
(
Ulster Echo
, 30 April 1912)
Irish stewardess
Mary Sloan
wrote to her sister Maggie from the
SS Lapland
carrying
Titanic
survivors from New York to Plymouth. Her letter pays tribute to the noble courage of the doomed liner's designer Thomas Andrews.
SS
Lapland
, April 27, 1912. My Dear Maggie, I expect you will be glad to hear from me once more and to know I am still in the land of the living. Did you manage to keep the news from Mother? I hope you got the cablegram all right. I never lost my head that dreadful night. When she struck at a quarter to twelve and the engines stopped I knew very well something was wrong. Dr Simpson came and told me the mails were afloat. Things were pretty bad. He brought Miss Marsden and me into his room and gave us a little whiskey and water. He asked me if I was afraid, I replied I was not. He said, âWell spoken like a true Ulster girl.' He had to hurry away to see if there was anyone hurt. I never saw him again. I got a lifebelt and I went round my rooms to see if my passengers were all up and if they had lifebelts on. Poor Mr Andrews came along; I read in his face all I wanted to know. He was a brave man. Mr Andrews met his fate like a true hero realizing the great danger, and gave up his life to save the women and children of the
Titanic
. They will find it hard to replace him. I got away from all the others and intended to go back to my room for some of my jewellery, but I had no time. I went on deck. I saw Captain Smith getting excited; passengers would not have noticed but I did. I knew then we were soon going. The distress signals were going every second. Then there was a big crush from behind me; at last they realized the danger, so I was pushed into a boat. I believe it was the last one to leave. We had scarcely got clear when she began sinking rapidly. We were in the boats all night until the
Carpathia
picked us up, about seven in the morning. Mr Lightoller paid me the compliment of saying I was a sailor. Your Loving Sister, Mary.
