Collapsible A

Collapsible Lifeboat A/1

0 (when reached Oceanic)

**Collapsible A** was an “Engelhardt Type Collapsible” raft that was stationed above the officers quarters on the starboard side of the RMS *Titanic*. Beside the most-forward funnel. It was the tenth lifeboat to be launched from the starboard side; and the third collapsible to be launched. Officers Moody, Murdoch and Wilde had slid the lifeboat from the roof at around 2:02 AM, however not being able to properly lower it due to the rapid flooding of the ship.

## Diegesis

Around 2:00 AM after Collapsible C had been lowered from the starboard side 13 minutes earlier, around 50 people were gathered around the officer’s quarters awaiting the launch of the boat. As oars were set up and stationed to be used as make-shift ramps for it, Collapsible A slid off the roof, breaking the oars and landing; sliding down the deck by a meter.

The crew tied the raft to the davits of boats 1 and C, without raising the canvas sides of the raft. Water began rushing the deck. Moody earlier suggested letting the raft drift off, however Murdoch denied the suggestion, as water began rushing the deck where Collapsible A was, the crew and a few passengers carrying pocket knifes began cutting the ropes to the raft. When half the raft was already underwater, it suddenly sprang up causing everybody in the boat to be thrown off into the sea.

The raft washed off ship at around 2:07 AM, with around 20 - 30 passengers on board fighting for their lives, to get as far from the ship as possible. In the chaos, many passengers had fallen off and had not been able to get back on. With the sides not raised it was soon awash with icy seawater, being half-submerged. Around 17 to 25 people had climbed into the boat by the time it had completely washed off the *Titanic,* including passengers Thomson Beattie, Rhoda Mary Abbott and Arthur O’Keefe, they continued to ward-off nearby swimmers in the water, as many in the boat had perished due to the raft being partially filled with the icy water.

Collapsible A survivor August Edvard “Wennerström” Andersson recalled about the night on raft.

> “*All the feeling had left us. If we wanted to know if we still had legs (or any other part) left, we had to feel down in the water with our hand. The only exercise we got was when someone gave up hope and died, whom we immediately threw overboard to give the live ones a little more space and at the same time lighten the weight of the boat.”*
>
>

He also recalled witnessing Elin Lindell fall out of the boat having died, as he reached out to grab and hold on to the corpse, weakened by frost-bites and coldness, Wennerström let go of the body. As it floated off, he fearfully turned his head towards Edvard but Edvard had already succumbed to hypothermia a few minutes earlier.

Between 3:30-4:30AM, several passengers and crew had perished onboard, and have either been thrown off or left onboard. By the time Collapsible A was rescued by Lifeboat 14 and Collapsible D. Around 14 out of the original 30 occupants were still alive by that time. With Abbott being the only female survivor, as reported by Arthur John Bright who was on Collapsible D which was being towed by Lifeboat 14, the remaining people of the raft were singing during the night, possibly waiting for their potential death.

There were three dead bodies left on the raft when Collapsible A survivors were rescued. Two of them later being identified as first class passenger Thomson Beattie and third class passenger Arthur O’Keefe. The other being an unidentified crewman. Lowe decided not to bring them aboard, Collapsible A was left adrift in the ocean along with Beattie and the others bodies.

### Oceanic

On May 13th 1912, nearly a month after the disaster, White Star Line streamer *RMS* *Oceanic*, during a westbound crossing had found Collapsible A adrift in the ocean, which still contained the three bodies, in a rotting state. Oceanic crew members had reportedly tried to sink the raft with little to no success, they then towed it back to the ship, where they buried the bodies at sea; and taking the raft itself to New York where it would be placed at Pier 59, along with the other lifeboats.

## Occupants

* Edward Brown -----------*1st Class Saloon Steward*
* William McIntyre\* ------------*Trimmer*
* John William Thompson ----------*Fireman*
* Augustus Henry Weikman *First Class Barber*
* Richard Norris Williams II *First Class Passenger*
* Peter Dennis Daly *First Class Passenger*
* George Alexander Lucien Rheims *First Class Passenger*
* William John Mellors\* (B?) *Second Class Passenger*
* Rhoda Mary Abbott *Third Class Passenger*
* Olaus Jørgensen Abelseth\* *Third Class Passenger*
* Karl Olof Jansson\* *Third Class Passenger*
* Gunnar Isidor Tenglin *Third Class Passenger*
* William Henry Tornquist\* *Third Class Passenger*
* August Edvard Wennerström\* *Third Class Passenger*

* Arthur O'Keefe\* (B?) (passed away) *Third Class Passenger*
* Edith Corse Evans\* (B?, passed away) *First Class Passenger*
* Edvard Bengtsson Lindell (passed away) *Third Class Passenger*

\* = not certain