FALSE REPORT OF PASSENGERS BEING SHOT.
“The stern of the boat floated for nearly an hour after the bow was submerged,” said Mr. Beane, “and then went down. I heard a report that two steerage passengers were shot by the officers when they started to crowd in the boats, but later this was denied.”
Max Frolicher-Stehli, who, with his wife and his daughter Margaret, was on the way to this city to visit a brother, said:
“My wife and two women entered one of the first boats lowered. Twelve men, including myself, were standing near and as there were no other women passengers waiting we were ordered to get in. The sea was calm. We were rowed by four seamen, one of whom was in charge.
“The order maintained on the Titanic was what I would call remarkable. There was very little pushing and in most cases it was the women who caused the commotion by insisting that their husbands go with them into the lifeboats. As a rule the men were very orderly. It was not until we had left the ship that many of the women showed fright. From that time on, however, they filled the air with shrieks.”
The following statement issued by a committee of the surviving passengers was given the press on the arrival of the Carpathia.
“We, the undersigned surviving passengers from the S. S. Titanic, in order to forestall any sensational or exaggerated statements, deem it our duty to give the press a statement of facts which have come to our knowledge and which we believe to be true.