BOAT HALF UNDER WATER.
He swam for a quarter of an hour and reached a boat and climbed in. He found the boat, with eighteen occupants, half under water. The people were in water up to their knees. Seven of them, he said, died during the night.
The sufferings of the Titanic’s passengers when taken off the lifeboats by the Carpathia were told by John Kuhl, of Omaha, Neb., who was a passenger on the latter vessel. Many of the women, he said, were scantily clad and all were suffering from the cold. Four died on the Carpathia as a result of the exposure.
“In spite of the suffering and the crowded condition of the boats,” said Mr. Kuhl, “the utmost heroism was displayed by all of the unfortunates. When they were lifted to the deck of the Carpathia many of the women broke down completely, and there were many touching scenes. Many of the women were incoherent and several were almost insane.”
Of all the heroes who went to their death when the Titanic dived to its ocean grave, none, in the opinion of Miss Hilda Slater, a passenger in the last boat to put off, deserved greater credit that the members of the vessel’s orchestra.
According to Miss Slater, the orchestra played until the last. When the vessel took its final plunge the strains of a lively air mingled gruesomely with the cries of those who realized that they were face to face with death.
Mrs. Edgar J. Meyer, of New York, said:
“It was a clear and star-lit night. When the ship struck we were in our cabin. I was afraid and made my husband promise if there was trouble he would not make me leave him. We walked around the deck a while.
“An officer came up and cried: ‘All women into the lifeboats.’ My husband and I discussed it—and the officer said: ‘You must obey orders.’ We went down into the cabin and we decided on account of our baby to part. He helped me put on warm things.
“I got into a boat, but there were no sailors aboard. An English girl and I rowed for four hours and a half. Then we were picked up at 6 o’clock in the morning.”