ORDERED ON DECK AND TOLD TO GET INTO THE BOATS.
“I went back in the smoking room with the others. One of the bridge players had not left the smoking room at all and was waiting impatiently for the others to come back and resume the game. They returned and took up their hands and we were all about to settle down, when an officer ordered us on deck and told us to get into the boats, there not being enough women on deck to fill the first ones. We didn’t like the idea of leaving the ship then, but did as we were told. Had we been in our rooms we would have had to stand aside, as other men did then.”
Two orphan French boys, about two and four years old respectively, whose sur-name is believed to be Hoffman and who called each other Louis and Lolo, will be cared for by Miss Margaret Hays, of 304 W. 83d st., New York, while efforts will be made to find their relatives, to whom their father was thought to have been taking them. The elder boy has been ill with a fever for three days, the excitement, exposure and probably grief over the loss of his father having told on the little fellow. The other, too young to realize what has befallen him, played around the saloon or sat contentedly in the lap of one of his new made but devoted friends among the passengers.
The father, who is in the list of second cabin passengers as “Mr. Hoffman,” is said to have told fellow-passengers on the Titanic the children’s mother died recently.
Mrs. Sylvia Caldwell, of Bangkok, Siam, is happy in having her husband and little son. Since she was the last woman to embark, her husband was able to come with her.
Mrs. Esther Hart, whose husband was lost, was coming, with their daughter Eva, to visit Mr. Hart’s sister in New York, then to go on to Winnipeg to make their home. They had sold the property at Ilford, Essex, England. All their money was lost when Mr. Hart went down with the Titanic.
Mrs. Lucy Ridsdale, of London, had said good-by to England and had started for Marietta, O., to make her home with her sisters. She was saved with the few clothes she wore. She had written letters telling of a “safe arrival and pleasant voyage” and had them ready to mail. They went down with the ship.
CHAPTER III.
BAND PLAYED TO THE LAST.
Suffering in the Lifeboats—Statement by Ismay—Would not Desert Husband—Thirty on Raft in Icy Water—Colonel Astor a Hero—Joked Over Collision—Officer Saves Many Lives.
But another account, compiled from various sources among the survivors gives somewhat varying angles and supplies quite a few missing details.
At the risk of a few slight repetitions it is given:
Of the great facts that stand out from the chaotic accounts of the tragedy, these are the most salient:
The death list was increased rather than decreased. Six persons died after being rescued.
The list of prominent persons lost stood as at first reported.
Practically every woman and child, with the exception of those women who refused to leave their husbands, were saved. Among these last was Mrs. Isidor Straus.
The survivors in the lifeboats saw the lights on the stricken vessel glimmer to the last, heard her band playing and saw the doomed hundreds on her deck and heard their groans and cries when the vessel sank.
Accounts vary as to the extent of the disorder on board.
Not only was the Titanic tearing through the April night to her doom with every ounce of steam crowded on, but she was under orders from the general officers of the line to make all the speed of which she was capable.
This was the statement made by J. H. Moody, a quartermaster of the vessel and helmsman on the night of the disaster. He said the ship was making 21 knots an hour, and the officers were striving to live up to the orders to smash the records.
“It was close to midnight,” said Moody, “and I was on the bridge with the second officer, who was in command. Suddenly he shouted ‘Port your helm!’ I did so, but it was too late. We struck the submerged portion of the berg.”
“Of the many accounts given by the passengers most of them agreed that the shock when the Titanic struck the iceberg, although ripping her great sides like a giant can opener, did not greatly jar the entire vessel, for the blow was a glancing one along her side. The accounts also agree substantially that when the passengers were taken off on the lifeboats there was no serious panic and that many wished ‘to remain on board the Titanic, believing her to be unsinkable.’”