The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1912-04-19


secrecy any clothes 80 ~. and iheSl
lmnered 1eartily with The cold. One
Woman lad Nhite satin slippers and
I'm evening dress on dom know
lNhether Sc had thar attiie on nhetl
i've struck OF ahetiief ii her excite
tmenf She Dit ton IS mistake
eve were provided withsthe most
miserable little oh lamp have eyer
seen II SIess itsfttin't nave any kernsi
Esene mi TOR III going Out as fast
as We could light 1t With the matches
which the steward happened 70 bring.
along. We couldn't have seen al all
nor signaIled, had It not been For the
fact that one woman had a can that
mad a little electric light IN the end OF
III.
"As far as ! know there was no food
nor water in the craft but ] Will not
complain OF that for We were the luck
lest, guess, OF all the survivors. The.
other boats all leaked and the women
told us. afterwards that the water was,
up to their knees and that water was
below freezing foint, 81 degrees to be
exact. Ia
,fFor nearly Aight hours these 16.
I boat loads ot'hystefic L cold, wet. hum
leTy 3Somei, aRG.neif were ~ the mercy;
fsthe elements. During the darkness
| It was bad enough Int The dawn
lbfought a fresh danger. 4 disclosed
1.-The fact that we were beset by vast
lfields OF ice and, iceberg, These loom;
ling mountains Of CLASSY ice We're eyi
erywhere. We were almost afraid 20
move and ID. addto our distress, a Stir
breeze was springipg up. ehurning tho
sea into a nasty choppiness.
Still we kept ON rowing toward the.
light. The men were exhausted SO we.
women took hand. But those oars
lthey were the heaviest ones | have
lever seen. am good oarswoman,,
but with. the aid OF another woman
! could scarcely swing one of them.
There were three sets or them and
they had to be used to make any pro
gress.
Toward o'clock We gave UP hope
OF ever reaching that Hight. 1t had got.
ten trifle larger 1t seemed but u
was absolutely no nearer and we had
no food, very little clothing, no heat
and nearly every lireboat was shipping
water to an alarming extent. And on
top of all that, these Women didnt
know whether they We're ever to see
their husbands and their sons again IN
this world or not. twas terrible and
to say that they We're most wonderful
women to keep their minds in the bal
lance is putting 1t 100 mildly by far.
And then somebody looked back and
Ithere-there was a big searchlight
burning on the Prov of great liner
that light was the most beautiful sight
shall ever see Distress was turned
TO hope as we put directly about ana
rowed hard for an hour toward the
vessel. At the end OF that time wei
we're alongside Of the Carpathia. III
wasn't long before they let down lit
tles wooden seat about two feet long
and foot wide. Men OF. the deck
held the ends of the cables TO which
the seat was attached The Hfeboat
was hobbing up and down on the
waves and 1t was pretty hard to stand
up in 1t long enough to climb out Of
the seat, but YOU can wager We all
did 1t. AS soon as we got on deeE
we were rolled In blankets and given
brandy and water. and nothing | have
ever tasted was, quite SO good as that
brandy and water.
"By ten o'clock the Carpathia had
picked up all the 10 fife boats contain
| ing the survivors,. III addition to the
people who lad g5Ften INTO the life
boats in the stplace' there were sew
eral others in them. These men had
been, picked up as they were swim.
ming. They. we're very Weakened
from the exposure and four OF them
died on the Carpathia. These men,
we're w. H. White and Abraham Hori
nsr, passengers, and S. G. Sievert,
steward, and II: Lyons, sailor. They
we're wrappsdtn tlie Stars and Stripes
and buried off the Carpathla Monday,
returning to the sea from which they
had been SO vam1y rescued.
After we had picked up all the
Infeboats we steamed again about the
scene OF the disaster. In among the
CLASSY towering peaks of Ice we
| thrcated our way, seeing bit OF
wreckage here and a baby's bonnet