Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1915-05-27
Experience on Lusitania.

Experience on Lusitania.
A most stirring account of the tor
pedoing of the Lusitania reached New
York by mail from Wallace B. Phil
lips, one of the survivors. The state
ment he sent to his parents, Mr.. and
Mrs. Henry w. Phillips of Brooklyn,
duplicates one he has made for the use
of the British Admiralty. 1t will be
part of the record of the Board of
Trade inquiry. Mr.. Phillips writes:
81 had just finished lunch and left
the dinin~ saloon about ten minutes
past two, and should judge that at that
time there We're possibly one hundred
people still at luncheon. Two or three
children and one woman came rush.
ing in the open doorway shouting
Torpedo" and in possibly five to
ten seconds it struck. The sound of
the explosion while loud, was not es-
peciaIly terrifying, but the shock was
considerable. Almost instantly the
boat took a decided list.
In a very short space of time after
the first torpedo struck q second one
hit the vessel. 1 have heard a number
of persons say that it was possibly
thirty seconds later, but it appeared to
be considerably less. The shock of the
second explosion was very great in
deed, and possibly thirty seconds after
it had occurred an immense column OF
water, carrying with it all kinds OF
debris, shot up from the side of the
vessel. l proceeded to the deck above,
called the boat deck, and on reaching
there found a large number of people
standing around quietly and the Of
ficers shouting that no boats were to
be lowered and that the vessel was not
in danger of sinking. A few of the
boats were partially filled with people,
but I did not see any others getting
into them.
II met William F. Hodges of the
Baldwin Locomotive Works. Mr..
Hodges was just going out of his cabin
with several life preservers, and 1
asked him if he had enough for his
wife and two children and himself. He
told me yes. l saw Alfred Vanderbilt,
Mr.. Frohman, Guy Vernon and Miss
Rita Jolivet, A. Scott and three or four
others whom I did not know standing
close together and spoke to them. I
saw several boats filled with people
being lowered. and then walked along
the extreme end of "A deck. By this
time the boat had taken such a decid-
ed list that I thought she was going
over every second, so I climbed over
the side and dropped into the lifeboat
which had been lowered below me, this
being one of the very few lifeboats
that were properly launched from the
ship, and it was in charge of First
Officer Jones. 1 landed on the gunwale
of the boat, but for an instant 1 was
undecided whether to stay on or dive
overheard, az the ship was coming on
top of US. 1 should Judge that our
boat had the most advantageous po-
sition of the three or four others that
were launched at the same time, and
rather imagine as the ship went
down it must have crushed under It
SeVeral of the boats.
After this there appeared to be an
other explosion in the engine room, as
"a Of 20,
SCOT shot out from one Of the tunnels
the tunnels at this time being just
submerged. and hit the people in our
boat directly in the face at the same
time blowing one woman out of the
funnel who had been sucked in an
instant before.
AT the time of the final plunge I
personally did not hear any great
number of cries or screams, and such
few as there were subsidized in a very
few seconds. Five minutes after the
boat went down 1 counted sixteen craft
of all kinds on the surface, which in