Voices from the Titanic (59 page)

Twenty-year-old
Cyril Furmstone Evans
, a native of Liverpool, was the Marconi wireless operator on the
Californian
. He revealed that he had informed the
Titanic
of ice at around 11 p.m. on the Sunday night but had been told to ‘shut up.'

‘What time did you communicate with the
Titanic
?' – ‘In the afternoon, sir. I was sending a message to the
Antillian
, of our line. I was sending an ice report, handed in by the skipper. The
Titanic
called me up, and we exchanged signals. I said, “Here is a message, an ice report.” He said, “It's all right, old man. I heard you send to the
Antillian
.” '

‘When did you next communicate with the
Titanic
?' – ‘9.05 New York time, sir, on the fourteenth, the same evening. I went outside of my room just before that, about five minutes before that and we were stopped, and I went to the captain and I asked him if there was anything the matter. The captain told me he was going to stop because of the ice, and he asked me if I had any boats. I said, “The
Titanic
.” He said: “Better advise him we are surrounded by ice and stopped.” So I went to my cabin, and at 9.05 New York time I called him up. I said: “Say, old man, we are stopped and surrounded by ice.” He turned around and said: “Shut up, shut up, I am busy. I am working Cape Race,” and at that I jammed him.'

‘What do you mean by that?' – ‘By jamming we mean when somebody is sending a message to somebody else and you start to send at the same time, you jam him. He does not get his message. I was stronger than Cape Race. Therefore my signals came in with a bang, and he could read me and he could not read Cape Race.'

‘What time did you retire that night?' – ‘At 11.25 I still had the phones on my ears and heard him still working Cape Race. At 11.35 I put the phones down and took off my clothes and turned in.'

‘When you were awakened?' – ‘About 3.30 a.m., New York time, by the chief officer, Mr Stewart. He said, “There is a ship that has been firing rockets in the night. Please see if there is anything the matter.” I jumped out of bed, slipped on a pair of trousers and a pair of slippers, and I went at once to my key and started my motor and gave “C.Q.”. About a second later, I was answered by the
Frankfurt
. He told me the
Titanic
had sunk.'

‘Did any officer of the ship or member of the crew tell you about Captain Lord being notified three times that a vessel was sending up rockets?' – ‘I think the apprentice did. Gibson.'

‘What did he say to you?' – ‘I do not know exactly. I know the effect. I think he said that the skipper was being called; called three times. I think that is all he said.'

(US Inquiry, 26 April 1912)

In a hard-hitting editorial, the Socialist
Daily Herald
expressed its outrage at the perceived class distinctions on board the
Titanic
.

• Driven Back From The Deck

• Half-Empty Boats Rush Past Them

• Steerage Passengers Kept At Bay With Revolver Shots

• ‘Five Thousand Dollars For A Place In The Boat'

‘With my own eyes I saw an officer shoot two or three third-class passengers.'

‘Five thousand dollars for a place in the boat.'

The above paragraphs are quotations from our own reporter's interviews with
Titanic
survivors at Plymouth last night.

The first was an interview with a fireman, and the subject of the second remark was a wealthy American struggling in the icy waters during the great debacle.

Shall we ever know the truth? Will the crime of the
Titanic
ever be made plain? Or is it possible for 399 steerage men, 81 steerage women and 53 steerage children to be done to death and the world to pass on to discussion of straw hats for summer wear?

Are we such a superficial people that we can weep over the damning figures, complain of the hardness of fate, and forget?

We do not believe it. The conscience of England is roused, and justice will be done. But by the people of England! – not by its officials – not by the capitalist press. That great voice of protest which is to be heard in the street finds no echo in the columns of the newspapers. And it is before that final and inexcrable judge – the people – we put the evidence of how the women and children of the steerage died.

This is how it stands.

Major Peuchen said:

The Washington correspondent of the
Daily Telegraph
gives quite another version of this piece of evidence:

Who were the men driven back under the orders of this magnificent officer? And were they all men? And were they driven off to give the steerage women a better chance? On the lower decks we shall find the answer to our question.

Abraham Hyman, steerage passenger, said that he saw many steerage passengers hurrying up but when they got on the deck they were waved back by an officer, who told them there was no danger. Hyman said he also noticed a rope stretched across the deck guarded by several members of the crew. Women came on deck crying, and were waved back by officers.

One man started a rush and was knocked down. Other men stood their ground, comforting the women. The crowd broke away only when they had seen the water rushing into the steer-age. Then there was a scramble for the boats, but he saw men helping women and children and making no attempt to save themselves.

The crowd broke away only when they had seen water rushing into the steerage. They rushed on deck and were driven back like sheep by a magnificent officer! But that is not all.

Mr Lowe was asked:

‘Did you hear any pistol shots on that Sunday night?' – ‘Yes.'

‘Where did you hear them?' – ‘I heard them and fired them.'

‘At whom?' – ‘As lifeboat No. 15 [sic] was going down the ship's side I expected it would double up under our feet as it was. It would not have done for me to have told anyone else, or there would have been trouble. I feared that many would leap into it as we passed the decks. I thought, well, I shall have to see that no one else gets into that boat.
As we were lowering away I saw a lot of Italians at the ship's rail glaring and ready to spring. I yelled “Look out!” to the men, and fired down the ship's side.
'

‘How far was your lifeboat from the ship's side?' – ‘About 3ftfrom the rail. I fired the shots with no intention of hurting anyone. I know I did not hurt anyone.'

‘How many shots did you fire?' – ‘Three times.
I fired at three decks
. I fired horizontally along the boat. Afterwards I locked my revolver. I have never had occasion to use it since.'

Was the boat full from which Mr Lowe so bravely fired his revolver? Was that the only revolver fired? Were the steer-age passengers kept in their quarters awash with water at the pistol-point?

Were boats sent down to the water half-full? We know they were. Take this as a sample of the evidence:

Mr Pitman, Third Officer, admitted that forty persons did not tax the capacity of his boat, which, he said, would have carried sixty at a tight fit. He had transferred women and a child from his boat to boat No. 7.

‘Then you think that No. 7 could have held more people?' – ‘Yes.'

‘Both these boats could have held more people then?' – ‘Yes.'

‘Why were not more taken?' – ‘There were no more women about when my boat was lowered. I can't say about No. 7.'

‘Were there any men around?' – ‘There may have been.'

There were no more women (and children?) about when his boat was lowered! Where were they then? Were they penned in their quarters waiting for the water to rush up and cover them? Had they tried to rush up on deck and been driven back? Were they whimpering helplessly in the dark? And were they only Italian men who stood at the ship side glaring and ready to spring?

Mr Lowe went away with his boat one-third empty, and he did not pull back. Why? The Senatorial Inquiry asked him that.

‘Did you hear any cries of distress?' – ‘Oh, yes.'

‘Crying and shouting? Was it in the water?' – ‘Yes, from the water. I heard no cries of distress before the ship went down. The cries were probably several hundred yards away. Then I told my men to get out their oars and pull towards the wreck so that we might be able to save a few more. They demurred,' he continued, ‘saying it would be a mad idea,' but he corrected himself at once by saying that it was not the crew who demurred, but the passengers. Even the women did not urge him to go back. He yielded to the importunities of the passengers and let the boat drift aimlessly …

Is that true? Did he refrain from going back because of the importunities of his first-class passengers? And was it because of their importunities that they hurried past the lower decks?

Is that the final picture that remains to us – of the boat deck kept clear of steerage passengers, of intruders driven off it like sheep, of men knocked down in ineffectual desperate rushes out of the death trap, of guarded ropes and women and children driven back into the rushing water, of frenzied men (and women?) glaring from the ship's side at the rapidly descending boats, and frightened away with revolver shots? Do we see first-class passengers urging instant escape, clamorous against a stoppage of the lower decks with their ‘glaring' occupants, insistent that the half-filled boats should not return?

Is it the fact that not one boat went down empty to the lower decks, that steerage passengers were driven off the upper deck, that what steerage passengers were saved were saved by sheerest accidents?

Were the steerage passengers treated like wild beasts to be kept under? Was the order of the day all thought and consideration for the first-class and second-class passengers? Were those dreadful creatures kept as far as possible out of the way until the first-class was clear?

The people of England shall decide. It has decided already that the course taken by the
Titanic
was unjustifiable, that the speed held by the
Titanic
was unjustifiable, that there was too little boat drill, that there were too few boats. Will it come now to the dreadful conclusion
that there were too few boats because the lives of the steerage passengers were not worth saving
?

(
Daily Herald
, 29 April 1912)

Mr Lightoller, the Second Officer of the
Titanic
, was again recalled when the Senatorial Inquiry into the
Titanic
disaster was resumed at Washington on Saturday. A few questions regarding a ship's barber, who disappeared after making a sensational statement, having been put to him, he was released from further attendance.

Captain Moore, of the liner
Mount Temple
, was then called. He said that he had been at sea for thirty-two years, and for twenty-seven of these in the North Atlantic.

‘Are you familiar with ice and icebergs?' asked Senator Smith. ‘Yes, sir, very familiar.'

In reply to further questions, the witness said an iceberg was ice broken off from the land in the Arctic regions, and might be composed of land, rocks, or almost anything it would pick up in its course.

Senator Smith explained he made the inquiry because some levity had been caused by a question he asked a few days ago of what is an iceberg composed, and by a witness answering ice.

‘Have you seen icebergs both by day and night?' he continued. – ‘Yes, sir.'

‘How did they look on a starlit night?' – ‘White, sir: in fact, luminous.'

‘Where was your ship on the night of Sunday, April the fourteenth?' – ‘In latitude 41.25, longitude 51.14 at 12.30 in the morning (ship's time).'

‘I wish you would tell the Committee in your own words just what happened on that Sunday night and on Monday morning at 12.30?' –'On Monday the fifteenth,' said Captain Moore, ‘I was awakened by the steward with a message from the Marconi operator to my ship to the effect that the
Titanic
was sending out a “C.Q.D.” call. Here is the message: “Titanic sinking. C.Q.D. Requires assistance. Position 41.44 N 50.24 W. Come at once. Iceberg.” This was the message my operator had picked up.'

‘What reply did you send?' – ‘None whatever, sir. I did not want to stop those distress messages going out. My operator said the
Titanic
could not hear him. I blew the whistle at once, and ordered a course to be laid towards the
Titanic
's position. I dressed and went to the chart room. We steamed up and sailed east by the compasses, turning right towards the
Titanic
. Then I went to the chief engineer, told him about the
Titanic
, and asked him to push up the fires, to wake all extra firemen, and get them busy. I said: “If necessary, give firemen a tot of rum.” '

‘A what?' asked Senator Smith. – ‘A tot of rum, sir, to wake them up; spur them to action.'