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05 - Loss of the S. S. Titanic by Lawrence Beesley · Loss of the S. S. Titanic

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  Speaker 1: Chapter five of the Loss of the s S Titanic
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  Speaker 1: by Lawrence Beasley. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain,
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  Speaker 1: recorded by Alison Hester, Chapter five the rescue. All accounts
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  Speaker 1: agreed that the Titanic sunk about two twenty a m.
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  Speaker 1: A watch in our boat gave the time as two
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  Speaker 1: thirty a m. Shortly afterwards. We were then in touch
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  Speaker 1: with three other boats. One was fifteen on our starboard quarter,
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  Speaker 1: and the others I have always supposed were nine and eleven,
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  Speaker 1: but I do not know definitely. We never got into
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  Speaker 1: close touch with each other, but called occasionally across the
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  Speaker 1: darkness and saw them looming near, and then drawing away again.
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  Speaker 1: We called to ask if any officer were aboard the
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  Speaker 1: other three, but did not find one. So, in the
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  Speaker 1: absence of any plan of action, we rowed slowly forward,
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  Speaker 1: or what we thought was forward, for it was in
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  Speaker 1: the direction the Titanic's vowels were pointing before she sank.
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  Speaker 1: I see now that we must have been pointing northwest,
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  Speaker 1: for we presently saw the northern lights on the starboard,
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  Speaker 1: and again when the Carpathia came up from the south,
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  Speaker 1: we saw her from behind us on the southeast and
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  Speaker 1: turned our boat around to get to her. I imagine
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  Speaker 1: the boats must have spread themselves over the ocean fan
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  Speaker 1: wise as they escaped from the Titanic, those on the
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  Speaker 1: starboard and port sides forward being almost dead ahead of her,
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  Speaker 1: and the stern boats being broadside from her. This explains
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  Speaker 1: why the port boats were so much longer in reaching
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  Speaker 1: the Carpathia as late as eight thirty a m. While
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  Speaker 1: some of the starboard boats came up as early as
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  Speaker 1: four ten a m. Some of the port boats had
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  Speaker 1: to row across the place where the Titanic sank to
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  Speaker 1: get to the Carpathia, through the debris of chairs and
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  Speaker 1: wreckage of all kinds. None of the other three boats
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  Speaker 1: near us had a light, and we missed lights badly.
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  Speaker 1: We could not see each other in the darkness. We
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  Speaker 1: could not signal to ships which might be rushing up
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  Speaker 1: full speed from any quarter to the Titanic's rescue. And
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  Speaker 1: now we had been through so much it would seem
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  Speaker 1: hard to have to encounter the additional danger of being
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  Speaker 1: in the line of a rescuing ship. We felt again
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  Speaker 1: for the lantern beneath our feet along the sides, and
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  Speaker 1: I managed this time to get down to the locker
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  Speaker 1: below the tiller platform and open it in front by
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  Speaker 1: removing a board, to find nothing but the zinc air tank,
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  Speaker 1: which renders the boat unsinkable when upset. I do not
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  Speaker 1: think there was a light in the boat. We felt
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  Speaker 1: also for food and water, and found none, and came
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  Speaker 1: to the conclusion that none had been put in. But
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  Speaker 1: here we were mistaken. I have a letter from second
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  Speaker 1: Officer Lyetoler in which he assures me that he and
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  Speaker 1: fourth Officer Pittman examined every lifeboat from the Titanic as
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  Speaker 1: they lay on the Carpathia's deck afterwards, and found biscuits
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  Speaker 1: and water in each, not that we wanted any food
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  Speaker 1: or water. Then we thought of the time that might
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  Speaker 1: elapse before the Olympic picked us up. In the afternoon,
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  Speaker 1: towards three a m. We saw a faint glow in
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  Speaker 1: the sky ahead on the starboard quarter. The first gleams.
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  Speaker 1: We thought of the coming dawn. We were not certain
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  Speaker 1: of the time, and were eager, perhaps to accept too
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  Speaker 1: readily any relief from darkness, only too glad to be
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  Speaker 1: able to look each other in the face and see
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  Speaker 1: who are our companions in good fortune to be free
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  Speaker 1: from the hazard of lying in a steamer's track, invisible
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  Speaker 1: in the darkness. But we were doomed to disappointment. The
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  Speaker 1: soft light increased for a time and died away a little,
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  Speaker 1: glowed again, and then remained stationary for some minutes the
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  Speaker 1: Northern lights. It suddenly came to me, and so it
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  Speaker 1: was presently. The light arched fan wise across the northern sky,
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  Speaker 1: with faint streamers reaching towards the Pole Star. I had
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  Speaker 1: seen them of about the same intensity in England some
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  Speaker 1: years ago, and knew them again. A sigh of disappointment
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  Speaker 1: went through the boats as we realized that the day
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  Speaker 1: was not yet. But had we known it, something more
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  Speaker 1: comforting even than the day, was in store for us.
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  Speaker 1: All night long, we had watched the horizon with eager
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  Speaker 1: eyes for signs of a steamer's lights. We heard from
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  Speaker 1: the captain Stoker that the first appearance would be a
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  Speaker 1: single light on the horizon, the masthead light, followed shortly
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  Speaker 1: by a second one lower down on the deck. If
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  Speaker 1: these two remained in vertical alignment and distance between them
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  Speaker 1: increased as the lights drew nearer, we might be certain
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  Speaker 1: it was a steamer. But what a night to see
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  Speaker 1: that first light on the horizon. We saw it many times,
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  Speaker 1: as the earth revolved, and some stars rose on the
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  Speaker 1: clear horizon and others sank down to it. There were
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  Speaker 1: lights on every quarter. Some we watched and followed until
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  Speaker 1: we saw the deception and grew wiser. Some were lights
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  Speaker 1: from those of our boats that were fortunate enough to
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  Speaker 1: have lanterns, but these were generally easily detected as they
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  Speaker 1: rose and fell in the near distance. Once they raised
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  Speaker 1: our hopes, only to sink them to zero again. Near
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  Speaker 1: what seemed to be the horizon on the port quarter,
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  Speaker 1: we saw two lights close together and thought this must
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  Speaker 1: be our double light. But as we gazed across the
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  Speaker 1: miles that separated us, the lights slowly drew apart, and
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  Speaker 1: we realized that they were two boats lanterns at different
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  Speaker 1: distances from us, in line, one behind the other. They
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  Speaker 1: were probably the forward port boats that had to return
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  Speaker 1: so many miles next morning across the Titanic's graveyard. But
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  Speaker 1: notwithstanding these hopes and disappointments, the absence of lights, food
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  Speaker 1: and water as we thought, and the bitter cold, it
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  Speaker 1: would not be correct to say we were unhappy in
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  Speaker 1: those early morning hours. The cold that settled down on
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  Speaker 1: us like a garment that wraps close around was the
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  Speaker 1: only real discomfort, and that we could keep at bay
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  Speaker 1: by not thinking too much about it, as well as
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  Speaker 1: by vigorous friction and gentle stamping on the floor. It
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  Speaker 1: made too much noise to stamp hard. I never heard
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  Speaker 1: that anyone in boat B had any effects from the cold.
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  Speaker 1: Even the stoker, who was so thinly clad, came through
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  Speaker 1: without harm. After all, there were many things to be
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  Speaker 1: thankful for, so many that they made insignificant. The temporary
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  Speaker 1: inconvenience of the cold, the crowded boat, the darkness, and
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  Speaker 1: the hundred and one things that in the ordinary way
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  Speaker 1: we might regard as unpleasant, the quiet sea, the beautiful night.
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  Speaker 1: How different from two nights later, when flashes of lightning
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  Speaker 1: in peals of thunder broke the sleep of many on
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  Speaker 1: board the Carpathia, And above all the fact of being
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  Speaker 1: in a boat at all, when so many of our
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  Speaker 1: fellow passengers and crew, whose cries no longer moaned across
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  Speaker 1: the water to us, were silent in the water. Gratitude
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  Speaker 1: was the dominant note in our feelings then, But grateful
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  Speaker 1: as we were, our gratitude was soon to be increased
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  Speaker 1: a hundredfold. About three thirty a m. As nearly as
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  Speaker 1: I can judge, someone in the bow called our attention
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  Speaker 1: to a faint, far away gleam in the southeast. We
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  Speaker 1: all turned quickly to look, and there it was, certainly,
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  Speaker 1: streaming up from behind the horizon, like a distant flash
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  Speaker 1: of a warship's searchlight. Then a faint boom like guns
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  Speaker 1: afar off, and the light died away again. The stoker,
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  Speaker 1: who had lain all night under the tiller, sat up suddenly,
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  Speaker 1: as if from a dream, the overcoat hanging from his shoulders.
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  Speaker 1: I can see him now steering out across the sea
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  Speaker 1: to where the sound had come from, and hear him
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  Speaker 1: shout that was a cannon. But it was not. It
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  Speaker 1: was the Carpathia's rocket, though we did not know it
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  Speaker 1: until later, But we did know now that something was
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  Speaker 1: not far away racing up to our help and signaling
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  Speaker 1: to us a preliminary message to cheer our hearts until
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  Speaker 1: she arrived. With every sense alert, eyes gazing intently at
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  Speaker 1: the horizon, and ears opened for the least sound, we
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  Speaker 1: waited in absolute silence on the quiet night, and then
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  Speaker 1: creeping over the edge of the sea where the flash
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  Speaker 1: had been. We saw a single light, and presently a
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  Speaker 1: second below it, And in a few minutes they were
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  Speaker 1: well above the horizon, and they remained in line. But
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  Speaker 1: we had been deceived before, and we waited a little
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  Speaker 1: longer before we allowed ourselves to say we were safe.
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  Speaker 1: The lights came up rapidly, so rapidly it seemed only
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  Speaker 1: a few minutes, though it must have been longer between
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  Speaker 1: first seeing them and finding them well above the horizon
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  Speaker 1: and bearing down rapidly on us. We did not know
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  Speaker 1: what sort of a vessel was coming, but we knew
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  Speaker 1: she was coming quickly, and we searched for paper, rags,
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  Speaker 1: anything that would burn. We were quite prepared to burn
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  Speaker 1: our coats if necessary. A hasty paper torch was twisted
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  Speaker 1: out of letters found in someone's pocket, lighted and held
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  Speaker 1: aloft by the stoker standing on the tiller platfor the
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  Speaker 1: little light shone in flickers on the faces of the
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  Speaker 1: occupants of the boat. Ran in broken lines for a
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  Speaker 1: few yards along the black oily sea, where for the
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  Speaker 1: first time I saw the presence of that awful thing
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  Speaker 1: which had caused the whole terrible disaster. Ice in little
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  Speaker 1: chunks the size of one's fist, bobbing harmlessly up and down,
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  Speaker 1: and spluttered away to blackness again as the stoker threw
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  Speaker 1: the burning remnants of paper overboard. But had we known it,
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  Speaker 1: the danger of being run down was already over, one
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  Speaker 1: reason being that the Carpathia had already seen the lifeboat,
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  Speaker 1: which all night long had shone a green light, the
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  Speaker 1: first indication the Carpathia had of our position. But the
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  Speaker 1: real reason is to be found in the Carpathia's log
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  Speaker 1: went full speed ahead during the night, stopped at four
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  Speaker 1: a m with an iceber dead ahead. It was a
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  Speaker 1: good reason. With our torch burnt, and in darkness again,
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  Speaker 1: we saw the headlights stop and realized that the rescuer
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  Speaker 1: had hove too. A sigh of relief went up when
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  Speaker 1: we thought, no hurried scramble had to be made to
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  Speaker 1: get out of her way, with a chance of just
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  Speaker 1: being missed by her and having to meet the wash
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  Speaker 1: of her screws as she tore by us. We waited,
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  Speaker 1: and she slowly swung round and revealed herself to us
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  Speaker 1: as a large steamer with all her portholes alight. I
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  Speaker 1: think the way those lights came slowly into view was
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  Speaker 1: one of the most wonderful things we shall ever see.
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  Speaker 1: It meant deliverance at once. That was the amazing thing
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  Speaker 1: to us. All we had thought of the afternoon as
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  Speaker 1: our time of rescue, and here, only a few hours
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  Speaker 1: after the Titanic sank, before it was yet light, we
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  Speaker 1: were to be taken aboard. Word. It seemed almost too
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  Speaker 1: good to be true, and I think everyone's eyes filled
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  Speaker 1: with tears, men's as well as women's, as they saw
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  Speaker 1: again the rows of lights, one above the other, shining
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  Speaker 1: kindly to them across the water, and thank God was
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  Speaker 1: murmured in heartfelt tones around the boat. The boat swung
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  Speaker 1: round and the crew began their long row to the steamer.
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  Speaker 1: The captain called for a song and led off with
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  Speaker 1: pull for the shore boys. The crew took it up quaveringly,
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  Speaker 1: and the passengers joined in, But I think one verse
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  Speaker 1: was all they sang. It was too early yet gratitude
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  Speaker 1: was too deep and sudden, and its overwhelming intensity for
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  Speaker 1: us to sing very steadily. Presently, Finding the song had
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  Speaker 1: not gone very well, we tried a cheer and that
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  Speaker 1: went better. It was more easy to relieve our feelings
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  Speaker 1: with a noise and time and tune were not necessary ingredients,
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  Speaker 1: and a cheer. In the midst of our thankfulness for deliverance,
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  Speaker 1: one name was mentioned, with the deepest feeling of gratitude,
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  Speaker 1: that of MARCAWNI I wish he had been here to
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  Speaker 1: hear the chorus of gratitude that went out to him
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  Speaker 1: for the wonderful invention that spared us many hours and
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  Speaker 1: perhaps many days of wandering about the sea and hunger
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  Speaker 1: and storm and cold. Perhaps our gratitude was sufficiently intense
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  Speaker 1: and vivid to Marconi, some of it to him. That night,
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  Speaker 1: all around we saw boats making for the Carpathia, and
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  Speaker 1: heard their shouts and cheers. Our crew rowed hard in
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  Speaker 1: friendly rivalry with other boats to be among the first home,
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  Speaker 1: but we must have been eighth or ninth at the side.
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  Speaker 1: We had a heavy load aboard and had to row
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  Speaker 1: round a huge iceberg on the way. And then, as
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  Speaker 1: if to make everything complete for our happiness, came the dawn.
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  Speaker 1: First a beautiful, quiet shimmer away in the east, then
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  Speaker 1: a soft golden glow that crept up stealthily from behind
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  Speaker 1: the skyline, as if it were trying not to be noticed,
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  Speaker 1: as it stole over the sea, and spread itself quietly
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  Speaker 1: in every direction, so quietly as if to make us
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  Speaker 1: believe it had been there all the time and we
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  Speaker 1: had not observed it. The sky turned faintly pink, and
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  Speaker 1: in the distance the thinnest, fleeciest clouds stretched in thin
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  Speaker 1: bands across the horizon and close down to it, becoming
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  Speaker 1: every moment more and more pink. And next the stars
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  Speaker 1: died slowly, save one which remained long after the others
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  Speaker 1: just above the horizon and nearby, with the crescent turned
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  Speaker 1: to the north and the lower horn just touching the horizon,
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  Speaker 1: the thinnest palest of moons, and with the dawn came
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  Speaker 1: a faint breeze from the west, the first breath of
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  Speaker 1: wind we had felt since the Titanic stopped her engines,
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  Speaker 1: anticipating a few hours. As the day drew on to
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  Speaker 1: eight a m. The time the last boats came up,
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  Speaker 1: this breeze increased to a fresh wind, which whipped up
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  Speaker 1: the sea, so that the last boat, laden with people
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  Speaker 1: had an anxious time in the choppy waves before they
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  Speaker 1: reached the Carpathia. An officer remarked that one of the
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  Speaker 1: boats could not have stayed afloat another hour. The wind
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  Speaker 1: had held off just long enough. The captain shouted along
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  Speaker 1: our boat to the crew as they strained at the oars,
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  Speaker 1: two pulling and an extra one facing them and pushing
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  Speaker 1: to try to keep pace with the other boats. A
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  Speaker 1: new moon. Turn your money over, boys, that is, if
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  Speaker 1: you have any. We laughed at him for the quaint
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  Speaker 1: superstition at such a time, but it was good to
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  Speaker 1: laugh again, and he showed his disbelief in another superstition
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  Speaker 1: when he added, well, I shall never say again that
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  Speaker 1: thirteen is an unlucky number. Boat thirteen is the best
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  Speaker 1: friend we ever had, if there had been among us,
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  Speaker 1: and it is almost certain that there were so fast
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  Speaker 1: does superstition cling those who feared events connected with the
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  Speaker 1: number thirteen? I am certain they agreed with him, and
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  Speaker 1: never again will they attach any importance to such a
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  Speaker 1: foolish belief. Perhaps the belief itself will receive a shock
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  Speaker 1: when it is remembered that boat thirteen of the Titanic
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  Speaker 1: brought away a full load from the sinking vessel, carried
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  Speaker 1: them in such comfort all night that they had not
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  Speaker 1: even a drop of water on them, and landed them
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  Speaker 1: safely at the Carpathia's side, where they climbed aboard without
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  Speaker 1: a single mishap. It almost tempts one to be the
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  Speaker 1: thirteenth at table, or to choose a house numbered thirteen,
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  Speaker 1: fearless of any croaking about, flying in the face of
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  Speaker 1: what is humorously called providence. Looking towards the Carpathia in
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  Speaker 1: the faint light, we saw what seemed to be two
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  Speaker 1: large fully rigged sailing ships near the horizon, with all
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  Speaker 1: sails set standing up near her. But we decided that
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  Speaker 1: they must be fishing vessels off the banks of Newfoundland,
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  Speaker 1: which had seen the Carpathia stop and were waiting to
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  Speaker 1: see if she wanted help of any kind. But in
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  Speaker 1: a few minutes more the light shone on them, and
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  Speaker 1: they stood revealed as huge icebergs, peaked in a way
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  Speaker 1: that readily suggested a ship. When the sun rose higher,
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  Speaker 1: it turned them peaked and sinister. As they looked, towering
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  Speaker 1: like rugged white peaks of rock out of the sea,
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  Speaker 1: and terrible, as was the disaster one of them had caused,
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  Speaker 1: there was an awful beauty about them which could not
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  Speaker 1: be overlooked. Later, when the sun came above the horizon,
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  Speaker 1: they sparkled and glittered in its rays, deadly white, like
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  Speaker 1: frozen snow rather than translucent ice. As the dawn crept
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  Speaker 1: towards us, there lay another almost directly in the line
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  Speaker 1: between our boat and the Carpathia, and a few minutes
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  Speaker 1: later another on her port quarter, and more again on
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  Speaker 1: the southern and western horizons, as far as the eye
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  Speaker 1: could reach, all differing in shape and size and tones
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  Speaker 1: of color, according as the sun shone through them or
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  Speaker 1: was reflected directly or obliquely from them. We drew near
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  Speaker 1: our rescuer and presently could discern the bands on her funnel,
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  Speaker 1: by which the crew could tell she was a quinard.
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  Speaker 1: And already some boats were at her side, and passengers
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  Speaker 1: climbing up her ladders. We had to give the iceberg
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  Speaker 1: a wide berth and make a detour to the south.
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  Speaker 1: We knew it was sunk a long way below the
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  Speaker 1: surface with such things as projecting ledges, not that it
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  Speaker 1: was very likely there was one so near the surface
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  Speaker 1: as to endanger our small boat, But we were not
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  Speaker 1: inclined to take any risks for the sake of a
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  Speaker 1: few more minutes when safety lay so near. Once clear
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  Speaker 1: of the burg, we could read the Kunardar's name Carpathia,
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  Speaker 1: a name we are not likely ever to forget. We
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  Speaker 1: shall see her sometimes, perhaps in the shipping lists, as
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  Speaker 1: I have done already once when she left Genoa on
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  Speaker 1: her return voyage, and the way her lights climbed up
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  Speaker 1: over the horizon in the darkness, the way she swung
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  Speaker 1: and showed her lighted portholes, and the moment when we
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  Speaker 1: read her name on her side, will all come back
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  Speaker 1: in a flash. We shall live again the scene of rescue,
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  Speaker 1: and feel the same thrill of gratitude for all she
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  Speaker 1: brought us. That night, we rode up to her about
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  Speaker 1: four thirty and sheltering on the port side from the swell,
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  Speaker 1: held on by two ropes at the stern and bow.
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  Speaker 1: Women went up the side first, climbing rope ladders with
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  Speaker 1: a noose round their shoulders to help their ascent men.
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  Speaker 1: Passengers scrambled next, and the crew last of all. The
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  Speaker 1: baby went up in a bag with the opening tied up.
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  Speaker 1: It had been quite well all the time and never
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  Speaker 1: suffered any ill effects from its cold journey. In the night.
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  Speaker 1: We set foot on deck with very thankful hearts, grateful
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  Speaker 1: beyond the possibility of adequate expression, to feel a solid
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  Speaker 1: ship beneath us once more, end of Chapter five,