THE TITANIC DISASTER

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3895, 15 January 1929, Page 4

THE TITANIC DISASTER

TERRORS RECALLED. AFTER SIXTEEN YEARS Tlvero is a terrible memory that I have been doing my best to live down for 10 years. It was jogged into piognant life again (says a writer in the London Sunday Chronicle) by the sinking of the liner Vestris in which so many lives were lost; I refer to the Titanic disaster. I was one of the survivors of/that grim drama of the sea when .a floating palace ytrnck an iceberg and went to its doom, taking with it some of the world’s most famous men. The tragedy of the Vestris recalled it. Reading of _ the scramble for the boats, the struggles for life in the icycold sea, I lived again through that night of terror which turned many of the survivors white-haired. THIRTY MILLIONAIRES. Apart from the last dread scenes of swift doom, my chief memory of the Titanic disaster is the amazing nonchalance displayed by the huge crowd of notabilities who were on board. There were at least 30 millionaires. Prominent people in the first-class passenger list were Mr Bruce Ismay, chairman of the White Star Line, Mr Charles Frohmafi, the American theatre magnate, the Countess of Rothes (now the Dowager Countess), Ladv Duff-Gordon, Colonel and Mrs J. J. Aster, Mr W. T. Stead, the famous journalist, and Mr Isa dor Straus, the philanthropist CRUNCHING SOUND.

About, half an hour before we struck the iceberg I was chatting with my father’s old friend, Sir Hugh Lane, the connoisseur. The fact that we were in the track of icebergs was the subject. of the usual shipboard gossip. People spoke of icebergs as though they were ice-cream cornets. They hoped they would sec one. It would be a now experience. Half an hour later there was a bump. It wasn’t very severe —just a crunching sound and a shiver that sent a few glasses in the bar crashing to the floor. UNCONCERNED.

A well-known woman I knew appeared from one of the cabins. She was smiling. “It’s nothing,” she said. “We have only struck an iceberg.” Sho was so unconcerned that she wont back to her cabin. She was never seen alive again. The band went on playing popular songs. People, after the first alarm, vent on laughing and joking. I strolled on deck. With a shock I realised that the giant ship had a peculiar list forward. Then I saw the crew taking the covers off the lifeboats. There was no doubt about the seriousness of the disaster now. FROM DANCE TO DIRGE. ,

There were cries of “Women and children first!” The ship’s officers began to assemble the passengers on deck. Some of the women who came up from below were waltzing on deck with their men friends. The order was given to man the boats. Still there w.as no panic. Everybody thought they had plenty of time.

As the boats were lowered the band was playing an operatic selection.. Suddenly it broke off. Then it struck up that funeral dirge of the Titanic —“Nearer My God to Thee." It brought a sob to the throat. A TRAGIC MEMORY.

Owing to tire confusion which suddenly reigned on board when at last the terrible truth that we were sinking was brought home to all, it is difficult to tell coherently all that occurred. I have a memory of beautiful women with jewels ‘ gleaming on their throats being jostled by a frantic crowd surging towards the boats. Every woman seemed determined to stay by her husband or friend : the result was chaos. PLUCKY COUNTESS.

Among the wives who were clingMig desperately to their husbands was Mrs Isodor Straus. 1 saw Mr W. T. Stead implore her to take her place in tiro boats.

From the raft on to which I managed to jump, I afterwards saw Mrs Straus throw her arms round her husband. They were still locked in an embrace when the Titanic slid beneath the wa’ves. Near my raft I caught sight of Lady Rothes at the oar of one of the lifeboats. She rowed all night. By the time the survivors were landed at New York by the Carpnthin she had become known as tho “the plucky little Countess.”