A CLEAR S. O. S. SIGNAL.
“I had turned in for the night when Main, our wireless operator, caught the ‘S. O. S.’ signal of distress. He told me it was the clearest signal of any sort he ever received. The minute he got the message he hastened to Captain Rostrom and said, ‘Captain, the Titanic is sinking; she struck an iceberg.’ Captain Rostrom did not believe it. ‘Here it comes again, Captain,’ said the operator.
“That was all the captain needed to get our crew into action: he sounded the bell for the watchman, and sent him to order all hands on deck.
“I doubt if any passengers on the Carpathia knew of the tragedy until Jones, the first mate, sounded the emergency gong after the watchman had summoned the crew.
“A few minutes after we got the signal for help we were ready for action. The ‘S. O. S.’ reached us shortly after midnight. We were then 56 miles away from the Titanic. Our engineer turned about and put on full speed, and we reached the Titanic about 3.30 o’clock Monday morning.
“While the Carpathia was speeding toward the doomed ship Captain Rostrom summoned the higher officers together, and said he would hold every man responsible for the work assigned to him.
“He told Main to answer the Titanic and tell Captain Smith that we were making for his ship, full steam ahead.
“Phillips, the operators of the Titanic, evidently did not get our reply, or, if he did receive it, he could not answer us in any way. Captain Rostrom told Mrs. Smith, the stewardess, to prepare for any emergency. He told me to get coffee, sandwiches and other food ready for the survivors.
“On our way to the Titanic the captain went below and told the engineer that he must get to the Titanic before she sank. I doubt if Captain Rostrom ever got as much speed out of the Carpathia as he did on the way to the Titanic.
“Long before the Carpathia got near the scene of the wreck our boats were ready to be lowered into the water.