ANNA_SJOBLOM CELINEY_YASBECK CHARLES_LIGHTOLLER CHARLOTTE_COLLYER EUGENE_DALY FRED_BARRET HAROLD_BRIDE HERBERT_STONE JACK_THAYER JOSEPH_BOXHALL LUCY MARJORIE_COLLYER THOMAS_DILLON VIOLET_JESSOP CHARLOTTE COLLYER I was afraid of the sea. But I listened to the people who said take the new Titanic, she cannot come to any harm. New inventions have made her safe. HAROLD BRIDE They told me that apparently we�d struck something. ANNA SJOBLOM I didn�t become alarmed. EUGENE DALY There was no danger, they said. JOSEPH BOXHALL I told them to come at once, we were sinking. CHARLOTTE COLLYER Then came the terrible cry, �Women and children, women and children!� MARJORIE COLLYER Two men lifted me up and put me in a boat. JACK THAYER It really was every man for himself. VIOLET JESSOP My heart stood still. THOMAS DILLON If we�re gonna die, best to die gripping something. HAROLD BRIDE It was a terrible sight, men swimming and sinking. ANNA SJOBLOM I�d been brought up to believe in a hell after death. But now I think I went through a hell that night. FRED BARRET Mr Harvey ordered me to fetch some men down. I got between 15 and 20. The engineers put the pumps on. Those who would have gone off duty stayed on. HAROLD BRIDE Send a call for assistance�, ordered the captain. Which call should I send?The regulation international call for help�. Just that. And the captain was gone. The next moment we sent an urgent distress call. CHARLES LIGHTOLLER My boats were along the portside. My idea was that I�d lower the boats and transfer the passengers. They would be perfectly safe in that smooth sea until another ship picked them up. Up tot his time we hadn�t had a chance for a boat drill beyond just lowering some of the boats in Southampton. The crew of the Titanic had been put through a ?? and care taken that there were no misfits. A tap on the shoulder, an indication with the hand was quite sufficient to set the men about the different jobs. Clearing the way of boat covers, calling ??, ready for lowering. CHARLES LIGHTOLLER The water, having reached ?? deck showed me she�d been badly holed. Although I knew it was serious, I�d not a thought that it was likely to prove fatal. I figured she�d go so far until she balanced her buoyancy and there she would remain. VIOLET JESSOP Suddenly orders came down. Everybody to the boat, all stewards and stewardesses were on duty in their sections to assist and direct people. I continued through my section trying to reassure, reminding people to put on warm clothing, take blankets and valuables. VIOLET JESSOP Of course we reiterated from room to room that it was just a precautionary measure. Everywhere I found extraordinary calmness, people who had been asleep were dressing, fumbling sleepy eyed with buttons, they were�they were unemotional, probably thinking, as I did, that it was all too fantastic. LUCY DUFF-GORDON A steward knocked at the door, �Sorry to alarm you, madam but the Captain�s orders are that all passengers should put on lifebelts.� We laughed and joked as he helped us. �Wrap up warmly, we may have a little trip for an hour or so in one of the lifeboats�. Cosmo was so brave to try and keep us in good spirits, making a bad jest as to how unappetizing we both looked in those sickly white life preservers LUCY DUFF-GORDON I put on a heavy crepe scarf, I wore the big squirrel coat, brought my little velveteen ring bag. It all looked so pretty � just like a bedroom on land, it didn�t seem possible there could be any danger. But a vase of flowers on the wash stand slid off and fell to the floor. VIOLET JESSOP Slowly people started, some joking, taking their time about it. To those few who showed concern a reassuring answer was there are plenty of boats in the vicinity, they�ll be with us any moment now. JOSEPH BOXHALL I heard the Crow�s Nest reporter light on the bough. I went on the bridge right away and found this light. It was two mast head lights of a steamer just below the horizon. You could not only see her lights with the naked eye, you could see the lights of her portholes. JOSEPH BOXHALL Captain Smith, we�ve spotted a steamer on the horizon. I told the Captain about this ship, he said, �Tell them to come at once, we are sinking.� HAROLD BRIDE After the signal had been sent out the ether seemed to be dead. No reply came through. HAROLD BRIDE We told her our position and said we were sinking by the head. Harold Cottam, Wireless Operator, RMS Carpathia I asked him if he intended me to go get the ship turned round immediately and he said Yes, quick. HAROLD BRIDE The operator went to tell his Captain. LUCY DUFF-GORDON Although we�d been warned by the stewards to be going away in a boat, it didn�t seem possible that all this could actually be happening. There was the strangest scene. People bundled up in odd clothes boarding lifeboats in the night. Few seemed to want to brave the dark sea in an open boat. And it was only after considerable coaxing that many went at all. LUCY DUFF-GORDON We were just walking forward when a sailor tried to drag me away from Cosmo. The officers called for women and children. LUCY DUFF-GORDON I had no such ideas about my husband. It would have been too awful to have been alone. CHARLES LIGHTOLLER I did not know it was urgent then. I had no idea it was urgent. CHARLES LIGHTOLLER Nothing like it. HAROLD BRIDE The operator returned and told us The Carpathia was putting about and heading for us. Our captain had left us at this time, Phillips told me to run and tell him what The Carpathia had answered. I went through an awful mass of people to his cabin. The decks were full. I came back and heard Phillips giving The Carpathia fella directions. He told me to put my clothes on. Until that moment, I forgot I wasn�t dressed. I went to my cabin and dressed and brought an overcoat to Phillips. He was very cold. I slipped the overcoat on him while he worked. JOSEPH BOXHALL The ship was close enough, I thought, to read our electric Morse signal, so I signalled it. I told her to come at once, we were sinking. The captain was with me most of the time we were signalling. I would signal with the Morse and then go back and look at the ship. I cannot say I saw any reply. JOSEPH BOXHALL Then we started sending off these distress rockets, the quartermaster and I on the bridge. They go right up into the air and throw stars. CELINEY YASBECK My husband had left some money in our cabin and there were all our clothes and things that we were taking to America. CELINEY YASBECK We returned to try and get our clothes, money and jewellery. We started down for them but the water on our deck was waist deep. We never got there. CHARLOTTE COLLYER By this time the ship seemed to have tilted forward a little, and we heard queer noises as if the ship was being pulled about. CHARLOTTE COLLYER Suddenly we heard people running along the passageway in front of our door. Their feet reminded me of rats scurrying. I could see my face had grown very white. My husband stammered when he spoke to me, he said we had better go on deck and see what�s wrong. CHARLOTTE COLLYER When we went on board The Titanic every possession was with us. Neither of us took any belongings from the cabin, my husband even left his watch lying on his pillow. MARJORIE COLLYER I had a big dolly that I got two Christmases before and we were in such a hurry that I left it behind. I cried for my dolly but we couldn�t go back. CHARLOTTE COLLYER When we reached the deck there was a great many people. MARJORIE COLLYER Some of them were crying. I was crying for my doll but nobody could go back and get it. An officer said we should put on life preservers, so mother put one on me and then fastened one around herself. Papa put one on too. CHARLOTTE COLLYER My husband stepped over to an officer and asked him a question. Excuse me, Yes, sir, What�s going on?, I heard him shout back, Keep calm, there�s no danger. FRED BARRET All the water that had been thrown on the furnaces were just making the ?? all thick with steam. Mr Shepherd was walking across in a hurry to do something and he fell down the hole and broke his leg. We lifted him up and carried him. There was a knocking noise, all at once I saw a wave of green foam tearing between the boilers. A rush of water coming through. I never stopped to look, I just jumped for the escape ladder. FRED BARRET I went up the escape and into the main alleyway. Titanic was slowing down by the head. Water was coming down the alleyway from forward. VIOLET JESSOP All passengers upstairs at last. I returned to my room. I began tidying up, folding my nightgown, putting everything in its place. There was no sound. Titanic might have been in dock and all the crew gone home. I saw Stanley at the door watching me and he almost shouted at me as he seized my arm. �My god, don�t you realise this ship will sink, you have to follow the rest upstairs as quickly as possible.� Sinking. The word repeated itself without fully, fully entering my understanding. My mind could not accept that the super perfect creation was to do so futile a thing as sink. Of course, Titanic couldn�t be sinking. CHARLOTTE COLLYER Suddenly there was a commotion near one of the gangways and we saw a stoker come up from below. All the fingers of one hand had been cut off. Blood was running from the stumps and was spattered on his face and clothes. It brought up a picture of smashed engines and mangled human bodies. I went over to speak to him, I asked him if there was any danger. �Danger! I should say so, it�s hell down below. This ship will sink like a stone.� At this moment I got my first grip of fear. Those in charge herded us towards the nearest boat. Then above the clamour came the terrible cry, Lower the boat, women and children�. Someone was shouting these few words over and over again. LUCY DUFF-GORDON Cosmo pleaded with me while three or four boats were launched but I refused. I only said, Promise me that whatever you do you will not let them separate us and I clung to him. He saw that there was no use resisting me. We�ll go round to the starboard side�, Cosmo said, �it might be better there.� LUCY DUFF-GORDON It was better, for although there were crowds there was no confusion. The lifeboats were being quietly filled. HERBERT STONE I was walking up and down the bridge. Saw white lights in the sky in the direction of this other steamer. I thought perhaps the ship was in communication with some other ship or possibly signalling to us to tell us she had big icebergs around her. It didn�t occur to me the ship was in distress. I just thought they were white rockets, that�s all. It might have been anything. We called her up repeatedly on the Morse lamp and received no answer whatsoever. JOSEPH BOXHALL Some people say she replied to our rockets and signals but I didn�t see any of them. CHARLES LIGHTOLLER A chance her Captain missed. He could have laid his ship right alongside the Titanic and taken practically every soul on board. However, he didn�t. LUCY DUFF-GORDON Suddenly we saw some sailors who were launching a little boat, it was a captain�s special boat. LUCY DUFF-GORDON My husband asked the officer if we might get into it. We were helped in followed by two American men that came up at the last minute. LUCY DUFF-GORDON I shall never forget how black and deep the water looked below us. Men standing nearby joked with us because we were going out on the ocean, �You�ll get your death of cold out there amid the ice. CHARLOTTE COLLYER I found myself clinging to my husband�s arm with little Marjorie beside me. I did not want to leave him. CHARLES LIGHTOLLER Yes. CHARLES LIGHTOLLER The rule of human nature. CHARLOTTE COLLYER The deck seemed to be slipping under my feet and I hung onto my husband�s arm. And although he was very brave and not trembling, I saw his face was white as paper. CHARLOTTE COLLYER Women and children, women and children�, they struck utter terror into my heart and now they�ll ring in my ears �til I die. ANNA SJOBLOM There was a lot of confusion. People crying, swearing and praying. CHARLES LIGHTOLLER The Chief Officer shoved one of the revolvers into my hands.