The Mena weekly star., 1912-04-25

women over the side. At this ship's
side | saw the last line of boats dis
charge their loads and saw women.
some with cheap shawls about their
/ heads, some with the costliest of
| fur cloaks, ascending the ships side.
And such JOY as the first sight of
| our ship may have given them had
disappeared from their faces and
there were tears and signs of fall
tering as the women were helped
up the ladders or hoisted aboard in
swings. For lack of room. several
| OF the Iitanics boats, after unload
ing, were set adrift.
AS Seen by Ships officer.
Save for the surviving fourth
Iotficer, Boxhall, whose lips are seal
| ed, Hickens saw Sunday nights
tragedy at closer range than any
man now living. His story was:
went on watch at o'clock
Sunday night and stood by the man
lat the wheel until 10. At 10 | took
| the wheel for two hours. On the
| bridge from 10 o'clock were First
| officer Murdoch, Fourth Officer
Boxhall and Sixth Officer Moody. In
the crows nest lookout tower
were Fleet and another man | do
not know.
Second Officer Lightletter, who
was on watch while | stood by 8 to
| 10 sent me soon after 8 to tell the
commander to look out for the
fresh water supply, as there might
be danger of freezing. The tenn
peFatufe was then about 81 de-
grees. He gave the crows nest a
strict order to look out for small
lcebergs.
Second Officer Lightletter was
relieved by First officer Murdoch at
| 10 and | took the wheel; then at
| t0:40 three gongs sounded from the
| crows nest, the signal for some
| thing right ahead
Icebergs Ahead!
AT the same time one of the
men in the nest telephoned to the
bridge there was a big iceberg right
ahead. As Officer Murdock's hand
was on the lever to stop the engines
| the crash came. He stopped the
engines and then Immediately, by
lanother lever, closed the water
! tight doors.
The skipper, Capt. Smith
came from the chart room onto the
| bridge. His first words were, close
The emergency doors.
They're already closed sir
| Murdoch replied
Send to the carpenter and tell
him to sound the ship, was the
shippers next order. The message
was sent to the carpenter. The car
penter never came up to report.
The commutator showed the
boat carried degrees list to star
board. She then was rapidly set
! Ting forward. All the steam sirens
were blowing. By the shippers or
ders the engines We're put to work
at pumping out the ship, distress
signals were sent by the Marconi
and rockets were sent up. All
hands were ordered on deck and
| life belts We're sewed to every pass
enger.
1.-THE stewards and other hands
helped the sailors in getting the
boats out. The order women and
children first was given and en-
forced. There was no panic.
80 | was at the wheel until 1925.
It was my duty to stay there until
relieved.
81 did so, and there were 80 la
dies. sailor and myself in the
boat when it was lowered some
| time after 1 o'clock.
"The Titanic had lS Iifeboats
and two callapsible boats. All Of
them got away loaded except one
of the collapsible. which did not
open properly and was used as a
raft. Forty sailors and stewards
who were floating in the water got
on this raft and were picked up
by the lifeboats. Some were float
| ing about on chairs when picked
up.
Every boat, so far as | saw, was
full when it was lowered and every
boat that set out reached the Car
pathia. The green light of the boat
helped to keep us together, but
there were other lights. One was
ali electric flash light That a gentle
man had carried in his pocket.
Our boat was 400 yards away
when the ship went down. The
suction only rocked us a little.
~ heard revolver shots as ev-
eryone did. | cannot say who fired
| them. | have only told what
know and what | shall tell any ma
rine court that may examine me.
Two Explosions.
&c. w. Whateman, of Palmyra,
| N. j., the Titanics barber, was
blown off the deck by the second Of
| the two explosions of the boilers
and was in the water more than
| two hours before he was picked up
by raft.
1.-THE explosions, Whiteman said,
were caused by the rushing in of
the icy waters on the boilers. A
bundle of deck chairs roped to-
gether was blown Off the deck with
me and | struck on them on my
back, iniuring my spine, but it
served as a temporary raft.
| After the water had filled the
| forward compartments the ones at
the stern could not save her. They
did delay the ships going down. If
/ il was not for the compartment,
hardly any one could have got
away.
The water was too cold for me
| to swim and | was hardly more
than one hundred feet away when
| the ship went down. The suction
was not what one would expect, and
| only rocked the water around me.
was picked up after two hours.
Played Bridge With Death.
Bridge players in the smoking
room kept on with their game.
Once on deck. many hesitated to
enter the swinging life boats. The
absence of shock in the first mo-
ments of intense silence gave them
the feeling that there was only