New-York tribune., 1912-04-20
T|TAN|C'S CREW PRAISE
MATES WHO WERE LOST
Survivors Gather To Be Clothed
and Tell fearful Tales OF
Sacrifice and HeroiSm.
STEAMER ON FIRE BELOW
Stokers Agree Blaze Was in
Progress from Time of Leav-
ing Southampton Till
Q P. M. Saturday.

Siories Of heroism and s@lf-sacriice on
the part OF the members Of the crew who
went down with the Titanic were told yes
terday by those OF the crew who survived.
The ones who witnessed the tragic death
Of Captain Smith wept as they told their
tales. In their eyes the captain OF the Ii
tanic was sanctihed by his fate.
The story OF how Chief Engineer Bell
and his assistants went TO their death
down in the recesses OF the ship, working
alone at the pumps. after they had or
dered the chief stoker aloft, telling him 70
lips OF every sailor.
But, Ike true sailors. their fna word
OF praise went To the women. They told
OF cultured women who took the oars when
the men who manned them tired. or the
Countess Of Rothes. who held the tiller Of
one OF the lifeboats for over five hours, one
OF them said:
she was better'n a man, that's wot. An
when | guv her mo orders she obeyed them
Just like any sailor would"
All the crew united in saying that no ore
on the snip at first believed the vessel was
I'm danger Many OF them went back 20
their hunks. only TO he reused few min
utes later by orders to stand by the boats.
OF the final scenes just before the ship
went down. and when all the boats han
left her, none was more solemn than thai
OF group OF mon and women kneeling
bareheaded about a priest. making their
last confession. As the priests hand was
seen to make the sign OF the cross. pro-
nounc!ng the words OF absolution. the ship
sank. and the "Egote absolyo' OF the priest
was answered by brief prayer by con-
title men and women.
Say Fire Was IN Progress.
Every stoker who was interviewed de-
clared that the Titanic was aiire from the
time she left Southampton until Saturday
afternoon at ? O'Clock.
This story was first told by an officer Of
the ship. who requested that his name be
withheld, saying that all the men had been
warned not to talk about the disaster.
The fire was in the coal bunkers, for
ward" said this man, in stokeholes and
TO- on the forward end, I'm what is known
as the second and third sections.
THE fire must have been raging long
before she pulled out OF her pier in South
ampton. for the bunker was a raging hell
Nntn, one HOuI Oul pdSt 'h' A'''N'N7' '''~
fire was discovered.
Immediately we began to work on the
fire and IL took us until Saturday after
noon 10 extingush It. We were compelled
to dig out all the coal from these sec
tions.
In my opinion this fire played no small
part i'm the disaster, for when the bow
was stove in the waters readily tore open
the watertight bulkheads. behind which
had been this coal. II the coal had been
stil in the second and third sections
when the vessel struck the iceberg II would
have probably helped tho bulkhead to re-
sist the strain"
The same man. speaking of the accident.
said:
None OF us realized there was any dan
ger at first. ] ran to the deck, and soon
returned thinking nothing serious had
happened Then | wondered what would
be the result II the order was given to
lower the lfeboats. for no man knew his
place on the ship In such an event"
No Muster Of the Crew.
Asked to explain, he said:
well, we had no muster. ordinarily
the crew Is mustered every Sunday morn