Titanic Survivor Recalls the Sinking and Carpathia Rescue

and we rowed away, and I didn't close my eyes at all.

I saw that ship sink, and I saw that ship break in half.

And for so many years, people have argued with me about that, but now at last it has been proven beyond all doubt that she did break in half.

I know she did, I saw her. And the fore part went down nose first, and the other, the stern of that ship stood up in the water for quite a long time, or it seemed a long time to me, and then keeled over.

And we heard the dreadful sound of people drowning, which was, oh, unbelievable.

And then because our lifeboat was so full, so overfull, the officers called all the boats together and transshipped some of us.

One in that boat, and two in that, and three in that, and I got separated from my mother.

And, uh, that was the most terrifying thing to happen to a child.

But the most dreadful sound of all is the sound of people drowning, the screams.

Absolutely ghastly. My mother used to say sometimes, she couldn't get me to talk about it for years, but if ever I did, anyone did talk to me and I said that, she used to say, "Yes, but do you remember the silence that followed it?"

And that's quite right, it's as the whole world stood still that night.

Once the lights had gone, the ship had gone, the sound had gone.

Oh, it was dreadful. Dreadful. Now there was nothing to do but wait for rescue.

Among those standing on the upturned boat was Harold Bride, the wireless operator, who confirmed to his companions that the Carpathia was on her way.

At 3:30 AM, she was sighted on the horizon firing rockets, and at 4:30 she was on the scene.

The Carpathia arrived with the dawn. By 8:30 had taken on board 705 survivors and 14 lifeboats, the rest being set adrift.

And, uh, we were picked up, as you know, in the morning by this little ship, the Carpathia.

And the rescue, uh, of people from lifeboats in mid-ocean is quite a terrifying thing.

These little boats, shall we say, draw up alongside, for want of a better expression, to what looks like an enormous vessel.

She was quite a small vessel, the Car- the Carpathia, but she looked big from there.

And then how do you get on board? You don't have a gangplank like you do when you're ashore.

And so they opened a, a sort of, I don't know whether the word is right, a hatch in the side of the ship where the luggage used to be laid.

And, um, they threw down rope ladders, and people like my mother and other grown-ups had to climb up in mid-ocean, up a swaying rope ladder, rope ladder, which she said was the most terrifying thing.

A sailor behind sort of holding on. And then, uh, what can the children do?

We couldn't climb up a rope ladder. So they got these big luggage nets, and the mesh is fairly wide apart.

It's quite a big mesh. Children would've slipped through it, small children.

Anyway, our legs and feet would've gone through it.

So each child was put in a sack. And I remember being petrified when I was put in that sack, and it was tied round.

And the sack full of these children were put into these huge nets, and quite safely of course, hauled aboard.

But that really was quite terrifying. Then having got on board, of course, I couldn't find my mother.

And I didn't find her for hours, but eventually I found her.

And I'm quite sure one of the most pathetic things must have been the whole of the next day, how these poor women, such as my moth- m- my mother, roamed about the ship looking to see if they could see the husband they left behind.