The Washington herald., 1912-05-01
LITTLE LEFT FOR TITANIC INVESTIGATORS

i
consinued from Page ons.
boats on the A deck. Mrs. Astor was
placed In one OF these boats. She was
| passed out through the windows by Col
| Astor. heard him ask II he would be
permitted TO enter the boat and care for
/ his wife. and an officer replied that no
men would be allowed to so in that
boat
.'GoIng up to the boat deck. I found
Mrs. Brown and Miss Evans. whom
had supposed In lifeboats long ago.
took them over TO the starboard side,
where they were calling for women.
Miss Evans did not survive. however.
sacrificing her own life by letting Mrs.
Brown go first. Mr.. George Widener
and Mr.. John B. Thayer ! also saw
about this time. I want to say that
| there was no disorder, there were no
women sobbing. or wringing their bands.
The conduct Of both men and women
on the Titanic was nothing less than
heroic. Mr.. LightoIler. as saw him in
charge OF getting boats away. was
splendid, and the conduct Of the crew
was good.
MY friend and went forward. where
we found a group OF men trying to
launch a collapsible lifeboat. There did
not seem to be any chance for US there.
! there was such a crowd. SO we started
back Just then. TO our surprise and
CONSERVATION, we saw a mass OF peo-
pie. men and women, rush up from be-
low. We had thought all the women
were gone.
THE sea was following us and we
tried to jump. but failed. A great wave
came just then and. jumping with the
wave. ! was carried up and caught hold
of the rail about the superstructure on
the bridge. The same wave which lifted
me up engulfed all shat mass of hu-
manity We had just seen rush up from
below.
Went Down with ship.
Il went down with the ship. holding
to the rail. but soon let go. 1 felt my
self whirled around. and fearing hot
water from the boilers, swan as hard
as could under the water. rose to
the surface fianAily and believe that
my success in holding my breath under
water as long as / did saved my life.
I swan a good way from where the ship
had gone down. There was wreckage all
about and what l took to be bodies.
There were horrible cries and the gasps
OF drowning people, which do not think
you care for me TO dwell upon.
81 didn't think of the water being
cold, / was so occupied with getting
away. l got on a sort of crate. and
then saw an overturned boat nearby
and swan toward that. There were
then about twenty persons on 1t. and i
was pulled aboard. Most Of them were
men from the Titanic, including Mr..
LightoIler.- second oficer.
I'VE took on as many Of the people
struggling in the water as we dared
and when We began pulling away, We
were standing up to our waists in water
We had difficulty in keeping the over
turned boat balanced, and when we
turned away from the swimmers It was
only 10 prevent their drowning US all.
We had one oar and a piece OF board.
by means of which we managed 70 make
some headway. We saw lights which
we took TO be the lights OF ships, but
now believe they were the lights on
neighboring lifeboats.
When the sun came up we saw four
other lfeboats. Lghtoller blew on his
boats came over TO help us. Then came
the extremely dangerous task OF trans
ferring us from our overturned boat to
the nfebosts. 1t was finally accom-
plished and We proceeded toward the
Carpathias which had come In sight and
were taken aboard there"
Bourne Questions Ismay.
The afternoon session OF the commit
tee was taken up principally with the
testimony of American passengers who
survived the Titanic disaster. J. Bruce
Ismay was recalled to the stand for a
few minutes to give Senator Bourne.
who had been absent during the morn
ing session, an opportunity to question
him. His questions were along the
same lines as those Of his colleagues
when Mr.. Ismay was on the stand in the
morning. and brought out nothing new.
Mr.. Ismay reiterated his conclusions.
formed since the loss of the Titanic,
that IL might be desirable to extend the
bulkheads and watertight compart-
ments up through the ship. that no
more passengers should be carried on
any ship beyond the total capacity OF
all the lifeboats, which, he said, would
probably mean a reduction In the num- |
Der of passengers on each ship. He
said that he was not competent to form |
an opinion regarding the value of
searchlights on ocean liners. and would |
submit the question to his practical |
men on his return to England. In case |
OF divided opinion among his experts, |
he said, the searchlights would at least |
be given a trial.
c. d. Henry StengeI. a leather manu-
Of Newark. n. j.. one Of the /
passengers on the Titanic, was called to
the stand.
Asked IL he heard any order given that
the passengers be reused. Mr.. Stengel
said that he heard an order given for
the stewards to waken all the passengers,