Voices from the Titanic (32 page)

I am saved but I have lost everything. I must however be thankful for my life. I have not a penny and no clothes. I was thrown on board a little boat in my nightdress and boots. I had no stockings on. We were in this little boat in the middle of the ocean for six hours, and I was nearly frozen when we were picked up. I shall be a pretty sight when I land. We were rescued by a passing ship, the
Carpathia
. The
Titanic
struck just before midnight and was underwater about two o'clock. There were over 1,000 persons on board when she foundered. Mrs Davis and her son John are saved, but we have seen nothing of Joe. We think he is drowned. We have not seen anything of the other ‘boys' who left St Ives. We could hear the screams from the men as the
Titanic
was sinking. I think there are hundreds drowned.

I don't know what I shall do when I get to New York. I am frightened to death nearly, and I am afraid I shall catch my death
of cold by the time I get to Hancock. I will write again as soon as possible and tell you more news. I don't know where they are going to put us when we get to New York.

Your loving daughter, Maude.

(
St Ives Times
, 3 May 1912)

My dear mother and dad, I expect you have been wondering whether you would ever hear from me again. You have seen by the papers the wreck of the
Titanic
, but after the most terrible time of my life, I am safe. My nerves are very shattered, I look and feel about ten years older, but I will get over it again after a time.

You will like to hear the truth of the wreck from me, for the papers never tell the right news. We were all in bed on Sunday night at about 11.30 when we felt an awful jerk, and the boat grazed something along its side, and the sea seemed to splash right over the deck. The men in the next cabin slipped on their coats and ran up to see what it was, and came and told us the ship had run into an iceberg nearly as large as herself.

Most of the people went back to bed again, but then came an order to ‘get up and put something warm on, put on a lifebelt and come on deck.' So I got one underskirt on and a skirt, and stockings, and shoes and coat, and ran up to find a lifebelt, because there were only three in our berth for four of us. A boy from the next cabin stole one from ours, but he went down with it – poor boy. We did not have time to go back to our cabins again to get anything, and we did not dream it was serious. I thought I should get back to get more clothes on and get a few other things, but we were put into the lifeboats, and pushed off at once. They put all ladies and children in first. I guess there were thirty or forty in our boat. It seemed to be the last one lowered with women in it.

When we got away from the ship we could understand the hurry and the order to get half a mile away as soon as possible. For the
Titanic
was half in the water. We watched the portholes go under until half the ship, only the back half, stuck up. Then the lights went out, and the boilers burst and blew up. There was a sickening roar like hundreds of lions, and we heard no more but the moaning and shouting for help from the hundreds of men and a few women who went down with her.

There were not enough boats for so many people. Twenty lifeboats were lowered, and only fourteen boats were picked up. Several men were on a raft that was thrown out, and their cries for help were so pitiful for so long. Only one fellow, about twenty-one years old, is alive from the raft. He says the men were pushed off to make it lighter. This man was on it for six hours and then saved.

Just before the ship went down the captain, the same Captain Smith of the twin ship
Olympic
, jumped into the sea and picked up a little girl who was hanging to the ship, and put her on the raft. They pulled him on, too, but he would not stay. He said: ‘Goodbye boys, I must go with the ship.' He swam back through the icy waters and died at his post.

We had no drink or provisions. The only thing in our favour was the clear starlight night and fairly smooth sea.

This boat, the
Carpathia
, of the Cunard line, was going from Halifax to Berlin. She was the only ship near enough to catch the wireless message for help from the
Titanic
, and then the operator says he was just leaving and closing the door when he heard the clicking of the wireless. So it was taken just in time, for they never sent another message, and it was an hour and a quarter after that before the first lifeboat got to the ship. Of course, she stood still, and waited for us all to come up. They were all in but two when we got in.

We were in the little boat for just five hours and a half before being rescued. They lowered bags for the babies to pull them up, and we sat on a kind of swing and were drawn up by a
rope to safety. They have been most kind to us. They led us one by one to the dining room, and gave us brandy. I drank half a glass of brandy down without water. We were all perished, and it put life into us. The ship is, of course, filled with its own passengers. But they found places for us all to sleep, but none of us slept well after going through such a horrible nightmare. This ship stood right over the place where the
Titanic
went down, and picked us up. Two small boats were picked up later. They were floating. One had seven dead bodies in it, and the other just a dead boatman. They sewed them up in canvas here, weighted them, and gave them a Christian burial at sea. Two small boats filled with passengers capsized. They all went down but two or three who clung to the upturned boat and were saved.

We are told that the SS
Baltic
picked up about fifty men, and the poor women here are hoping their husbands are among the fifty. It is supposed there are 160 more widows through this wreck, and most of them have children. It was so heartbreaking to see and hear them crying for their husbands.

We were all gathered together, and our names taken for the newspapers. Of course, they cannot tell how many are dead, but we have on this ship only 200 hundred crew out of 910 and 500 passengers out of 2000. I am amongst the fortunate, for God has spared my life when I was so near death again. I have lost everything I had on board. The only thing I saved was my watch Dad gave me eleven years ago. But all my treasures and clothes and some money have gone. I have only the scanty clothes that I stand up in, including my big coat, which has been a blessing.

We expect to land on Wednesday night, or the next morning. I shall be so thankful, for I feel so ill on this boat. The boat is not so nice, and we have to sleep in the bottom of the boat. But still, I thank God I am alive.

I could tell you much more of the horrors of Sunday night, but will write again later on land. I can't bear to think of it all now.
Will you let Auntie and Edie see this letter, and tell my friends I am safe. You must have all been anxious.

With fondest love to all, from Lizzie.

The previous narrow escape to which Mrs Nye (who is well known in Folkestone) refers, was a serious illness from appendicitis. Her life has been full of sad and trying experiences. Her first sweetheart was washed off the Harbour Pier and drowned. She married a few years later, but had the misfortune to lose her two children by death, and also her husband.

(
Folkestone Herald
, 4 May 1912)

Dear Mother, I am writing these few lines on board the
Carpathia
, the ship that saved our lives. As I might not have much time when I get to New York I mean to give you an account of the terrible shipwreck we had. At 11.40 p.m. on the fourteenth our ship
Titanic
struck an iceberg, and sank to the deep at 2.22 a.m. on the fifteenth. The present estimation is 1,500 lost, 710 saved. Thank God some of us are amongst the number saved. Hannah Riordan, Bridgie Bradley, Nonie O'Leary, and the Shine girl from Lisrobin are alright. There is no account of Patie O'Connell, Michael Linehan, from Freeholds, or Jim O'Connor, Hugh's son from Tureeavonscane. However, I hope they were taken into some other ship. There were four of us sleeping in the same apartment. We had a bed of our own, and in every apartment there were four lifebelts, one for each person. At the time when the ship struck I heard a terrible noise. I jumped out of bed and told my comrades there was something wrong, but they only laughed. I turned on
the gas, and to my surprise there was a small stream of water running along the floor. I had only just dressed myself when the sailors came along shouting: ‘All up on deck unless you want to get drowned.' We all ran up on deck. I thought to go down again to my room for a lifebelt and my little bag. When I was going down the last flight of stairs the water was up three steps on the stairs, so I did not go any further. I just thought of Den. Ring's saying: ‘Stick to your lifebelts, and face a tearing ocean.' We were not long on deck when the lifeboats were prepared. There were only sixteen boats, and that amount was only enough to carry a tenth of the passengers. The third boat that was let down I went on it. There were about forty men in it. An officer came along and said half the men should come out of the boat and let some ladies in. When I heard this I hid in the lower part of the boat. We were only fifteen minutes in the boat when the big ship went down. It was a terrible sight. It would make the stones cry to hear those on board shrieking. It made a terrible noise like thunder when it was sinking. There were a great many Irish boys and girls drowned. I got out without any wound. There were a lot of men and women got wounded getting off the steamer. There did a good many die coming out on the lifeboats and after getting on the
Carpathia
. It was a great change to us to get on this strange steamer as we had a grand time on the
Titanic
. We got very good diet and we had a very jolly time dancing and singing. We had every kind of instrument on board to amuse us, but all the amusement sank in the deep. I have no more to say at present. I will write a lot when I get to New York. Goodbye at present. – Dannie.

(
Cork Free Press
, 13 May 1912)

Greatest Liner Afloat on Maiden Voyage Sends Wireless Calls for Help Off Newfoundland – Women Being Taken Off in Boats –
Virginian, Olympic
and
Baltic
Racing to the Rescue – Last Messages Faint and Blurred