The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1912-04-26

then went to the star board side, think
ing that father and mother must have
gotten off in boat. All of this time
| was with a fellow named Milton G.
Long. of New York, whom | had just
met that evening.
"On the starboard side the boats
were getting away quickly. Some
beats were already off in distance.
We thought of getting into one of the
boats, the last boat to go on the for
ward part of the starboard side, but
there seemed to be such a crowd
around / thought it unwise to make
any sttempt to get into it. He aud |
stood by the daVits of one of the boats
TINT had left. | did not notice any
body that / knew, except Mr.. Lludev.
whom | had also just met that even
ing ! lost sight of him in a few min
utes. Long sud | then stood by the
rail Just lit aft of the captain
br dye.
1.-The list to the port had been grow
ing greater all the time | thought of
jumping myself, but was afraid of be-
ing stunn d on biting the water
Three times [ made up my mind to
Jump out and slide down the dnvit
ropes and try to make the bonts that
were lying off from the ship, but each
time Long got hold of me aud told me
to wait awhile. He then sat down and
/ stood waiting to see what would hap
pen. Even then we thought she might
possibly stay atloat.
II got sight on rope between the
davits and a star and noticed that she
was gradually sinking. About this
time she Strengthened up on an even
keel and started to go down fairly fast
at an angle of about thirty degrees. As
she started to sink we left the davils
and went back and stood by the rail
about even with the second funnel
Long aud myself said goodbye to each
other aud jumped mp on the rail. He
put his legs over aud held on minute
aud asked me if | was coming. | told
him | would he with him in minute.
He did not jump clear. but slid down
the side of the ship. [ never saw
him again. About five seconds after he
jumped | jumped out, feet first.
was clenr of the ship, aud went down,
and as | came mp l was pushed away by
from the ship by some force, | came
up facing the ship aud one of the fun
nels seemed to be lifted off aud FELL
mass of sparks aud steam coming ont
of it. | saw the ship in II sort of red
glare, and it seemed to ME that she
broke in two Just in front of the third
funnel At this time | was sucked
down, aud as | came mp | was pushed
ont again aud twisted around by II large
wave, coming up in the midst of great
deal of small wreckage. As | pushed
it from around my head my hand
touched the cork fender of au over
turned life boat. | looked up and
saw some men on the top, One of
them, who was II stoker, helped me up.
La Il short time the bottom was cover
ed with about % or 30 men. When |
got on this was facing the ship. The
stern then seemed to rise in the air
and stopped at about an angle OF 60 de-
grees, 1t seemed to hold there for "a
time and then with kissing sound it
shot right down out of sight with peo-
pie jumping from the stern The
stern either pivoted around towards
our boat, or we were sucked toward 1t,
and 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,
''We were right in the midst of fair
ly large wreckage, with people SWIM
ming all around us. The sea was very
calm and we kept the boat pretty
steady, but every now and then wave
would wash over it.
Ine assistant wireless operator was
right next to me, holding on to me
and kneeling in the water. We all
sang hymn and said the Lords pray
err, and waited for dawn to come. As
often as we saw the other boats in the
distance we would yell ship Ahoyl'
but they could not distinguish our
cries from any of the others, so We all
gave it up, thinking it useless. 1t
was very cold and none of us were
able to move around to keep warm, the
water washing over her almost all the
time.
,.rnmnrds dawn the wind snrang nm