Palisadian. [volume] (Cliffside Park, N.J.) 1906-current, 1915-06-05

All of this party, however, decided
that they would stay where they were
for few minutes | again crossed
the ship to see what was going on
on the opposite or low side which was
then getting very close to the water
| believe under normal conditions
the "a" deck is about sixty to sixty
five feet above the water level. When
| reached there it did not seem to be
more than twenty-five feet. There
were not many people on this side as
it was very difficult to maintain a
foothold and was getting worse each
second
l saw several boats filled with peo-
pie being lowered, and then walked
along to the extreme end of GA"
deck. By this time the boat had
taken such decided tilt that 1
thought she was going over every
second, so l climbed over the side
and dropped into life boat which
had been lowered below me, this being
one of the very few life boats that
were properly launche from the ship,
and was in charge of First Officer
Jones.
l landed on the gun-wale of the
boat but for an instant was unde-
cided whether to stay on or dive
over board as the ship was coming
over on top of us. l should judge
that our boat had the most advan-
tageous position of the three or four
others that were lowered at the same
time, and l rather imagine as the
ship went down it must have crushed
under it several of these boats.
In our boat, however, we were, by
pushing against the side of the
''Lusitania" able to keep it two or
three feet out from the side of the
ship, and as the "a" deck touched
the water, one of the large collapsible
RATS which were still on the deck
slid off and hit our boat very severe
bang broadside, with the result that
it knocked us thirty or forty feet out
and we, therefore, escaped the super
structure on "a" deck. 1t threw us
in line with the mast, however, as
it was slowly coming over, but
managed to grasp this with my hands
and just move the boat sufficiently so
that it went into the water within
an inch of us. But, we were not so
fortunate with the wires strung be-
tween the masts and one of these
cut the gun-wale of our boat, and |
thought would drag it down, but for
tunately just as | was again prepar-
ing to go over board, the wires
snapped.
Immediately after this, there APP
peared to be another explosion in the
engine room, as the most terrific
quantity of water and SCOT shot out
from one of the tunnels, the funnel
at this time being just submerged,
and hit the people in our boat di-
rectly in the face, at the same time
blowing one woman out of the funnel
who had been sucked in an instant
before.
Almost Immediately after this, the
ship completely disappeared with
very little suction. There then
seemed to be an immense pool of
still, very green water, in which
strong eddies were circulating, which
drew our boat directly into the center
of the pool, or over the spot where
the ship had sunk, and whirled us
round several times.
In the particular life boat in
which l was, we counted eighty-four
people, beside several who were being
supported in the water by people who
were in the boats holding out their
hands.
In looking round we saw another
boat some distance away, and after
some difficulty managed to get our
oars, and fifteen or twenty minutes
later we reached this boat, to which
we transferred about thirty of the
people in our boat, the other life
boat having only three firemen in it,
who stated the reason they were
alone was that the plug was out of
the boat and she had filled with
, water, but they had been able to bale
her out and in fact the boat was
nearly dry at the time we reached
her and he plug was stopped up.
By transferring the people from
our boat it lightened it, and also re-
moved the danger of its being
swamped, as with such load it was
in eminent danger of being so every
moment, it also enabled both boats
to pick up other people who were
struggling in the water.
Neither at the time of the explo-
sion nor beteween that and the sink
ing of the ship, was there the slightest
panic that l personally observed
among any class of people on board,
everybody being absolutely cool and
collected, and the majority of them
who had cabins on the upper decks,
promptly went to their state rooms
: and secured their life preservers. A
great many, however, on the lower
decks did not have this opportunity,
and while l do not remember seeing
a great many people without pre-
servers, when we did get into the
boats and look around there were
large numbers who did not have
them, and, of course, there was no
provision in the cabins on "a" and
"B" deck for more than sufficient
preservers to take care of the oc-
cupants of these state rooms.
At the time of the final plunge |
personally did not hear any great
number of cries or screams, and such
few as there were subsidized in a very
few seconds.