On April 10, 1912, the Titanic, largest ship afloat, left Southampton,
England on her maiden voyage to New York City. The White Star Line had spared
no expense in assuring her luxury. A legend even before she sailed, her
passengers were a mixture of the world's wealthiest basking in the elegance of
first class accommodations and immigrants packed into steerage.
She was touted as the safest ship ever built, so safe that she carried only
20 lifeboats - enough to provide accommodation for only half her 2,200
passengers and crew. This discrepancy rested on the belief that since the
ship's construction made her "unsinkable," her lifeboats were
necessary only to rescue survivors of other sinking ships. Additionally,
lifeboats took up valuable deck space.
Four days into her journey, at 11:40 P.M. on the night of April 14, she
struck an iceberg. Her fireman compared the sound of the impact to "the
tearing of calico, nothing more." However, the collision was fatal and the
icy water soon poured through the ship.
It became obvious that many would not find safety in a lifeboat. Each
passenger was issued a life jacket but life expectancy would be short when
exposed to water four degrees below freezing. As the forward portion of the
ship sank deeper, passengers scrambled to the stern. John Thayer witnessed the
sinking from a lifeboat. "We could see groups of the almost fifteen
hundred people still aboard, clinging in clusters or bunches, like swarming
bees; only to fall in masses, pairs or singly, as the great after part of the
ship, two hundred and fifty feet of it, rose into the sky, till it reached a
sixty-five or seventy degree angle." The great ship slowly slid beneath
the waters two hours and forty minutes after the collision
The next morning, the liner Carpathia rescued 705 survivors. One thousand
five hundred twenty-two passengers and crew were lost. Subsequent inquiries
attributed the high loss of life to an insufficient number of lifeboats and
inadequate training in their use.
End of a Splendid Journey
Elizabeth Shutes, aged 40, was governess to nineteen-year-old
Margaret Graham who was traveling with her parents. As Shutes and her charge
sit in their First Class cabin they feel a shudder travel through the ship. At
first comforted by her belief in the safety of the ship, Elizabeth's composure
is soon shattered by the realization of the imminent tragedy:
"Suddenly a queer quivering ran under me, apparently the whole length
of the ship. Startled by the very strangeness of the shivering motion, I sprang
to the floor. With too perfect a trust in that mighty vessel I again lay down.
Some one knocked at my door, and the voice of a friend said: 'Come quickly to
my cabin; an iceberg has just passed our window; I know we have just struck
one.'
No confusion, no noise of any kind, one could believe no danger imminent.
Our stewardess came and said she could learn nothing. Looking out into the
companionway I saw heads appearing asking questions from half-closed doors. All
sepulchrally still, no excitement. I sat down again. My friend was by this time
dressed; still her daughter and I talked on, Margaret pretending to eat a sandwich.
Her hand shook so that the bread kept parting company from the chicken. Then I
saw she was frightened, and for the first time I was too, but why get dressed,
as no one had given the slightest hint of any possible danger? An officer's cap
passed the door. I asked: 'Is there an accident or danger of any kind? 'None,
so far as I know', was his courteous answer, spoken quietly and most kindly.
This same officer then entered a cabin a little distance down the companionway
and, by this time distrustful of everything, I listened intently, and
distinctly heard, 'We can keep the water out for a while.' Then, and not until
then, did I realize the horror of an accident at sea. Now it was too late to
dress; no time for a waist, but a coat and skirt were soon on; slippers were
quicker than shoes; the stewardess put on our life-preservers, and we were just
ready when Mr Roebling came to tell us he would take us to our friend's mother,
who was waiting above.
No laughing throng, but on either side [of the staircases] stand quietly,
bravely, the stewards, all equipped with the white, ghostly life-preservers.
Always the thing one tries not to see even crossing a ferry. Now only pale
faces, each form strapped about with those white bars. So gruesome a scene. We
passed on. The awful good-byes. The quiet look of hope in the brave men's eyes
as the wives were put into the lifeboats. Nothing escaped one at this fearful
moment. We left from the sun deck, seventy-five feet above the water. Mr Case
and Mr Roebling, brave American men, saw us to the lifeboat, made no effort to
save themselves, but stepped back on deck. Later they went to an honoured
grave.
Our lifeboat, with thirty-six in it, began lowering to the sea. This was
done amid the greatest confusion. Rough seamen all giving different orders. No
officer aboard. As only one side of the ropes worked, the lifeboat at one time
was in such a position that it seemed we must capsize in mid-air. At last the
ropes worked together, and we drew nearer and nearer the black, oily water. The
first touch of our lifeboat on that black sea came to me as a last good-bye to life,
and so we put off - a tiny boat on a great sea - rowed away from what had been
a safe home for five days.
The first wish on the part of all was to stay near the Titanic. We all felt
so much safer near the ship. Surely such a vessel could not sink. I thought the
danger must be exaggerated, and we could all be taken aboard again. But surely
the outline of that great, good ship was growing less. The bow of the boat was
getting black. Light after light was disappearing, and now those rough seamen
put to their oars and we were told to hunt under seats, any place, anywhere,
for a lantern, a light of any kind. Every place was empty. There was no water -
no stimulant of any kind. Not a biscuit - nothing to keep us alive had we
drifted long.
Sitting by me in the lifeboat were a mother and daughter. The mother had
left a husband on the Titanic, and the daughter a father and husband, and while
we were near the other boats those two stricken women would call out a name and
ask, 'Are you there?' 'No,'would come back the awful answer, but these brave
women never lost courage, forgot their own sorrow, telling me to sit close to
them to keep warm... The life-preservers helped to keep us warm, but the night
was bitter cold, and it grew colder and colder, and just before dawn, the
coldest, darkest hour of all, no help seemed possible.
The stars slowly disappeared, and in their place came the faint pink glow
of another day. Then I heard, 'A light, a ship.' I could not, would not, look
while there was a bit of doubt, but kept my eyes away. All night long I had
heard, 'A light!' Each time it proved to be one of our other lifeboats, someone
lighting a piece of paper, anything they could find to burn, and now I could
not believe. Someone found a newspaper; it was lighted and held up. Then I
looked and saw a ship. A ship bright with lights; strong and steady she waited,
and we were to be saved. A straw hat was offered it would burn longer. That
same ship that had come to save us might run us down. But no; she is still. The
two, the ship and the dawn, came together, a living painting."
References:
Elizabeth Shutes' account first appeared in: Gracie, Archibold, The Truth About the Titanic (1913), reprinted in: Foster, John Wilson (editor), The Titanic Reader (1999); Lord, Walter, A Night to Remember (1955); Davie, Michael, Titanic: The Death and Life of a Legend (1986).
Elizabeth Shutes' account first appeared in: Gracie, Archibold, The Truth About the Titanic (1913), reprinted in: Foster, John Wilson (editor), The Titanic Reader (1999); Lord, Walter, A Night to Remember (1955); Davie, Michael, Titanic: The Death and Life of a Legend (1986).
