PATERSON, N. J., GIRLS AMONG RESCUED
The Misses Agnes and Evelyn Wilde, sisters, of Paterson, N. J., were at lunch when the torpedo struck the vessel. They rushed on deck. Miss Agnes Wilde said:
“We clung to each other, determined not to be separated, even if we went to the bottom. We were thrown into a boat, together with thirty-six others, and after several hours were picked up by a fishing boat, which towed us for several hours, intending to take us to Kinsale. Before we arrived, however, a Government boat came along and took us to Queenstown.
“We were drenched to the skin, cold and penniless. We went into a shop, where they fitted us out from head to foot without charge. We are only beginning to realize what we have passed through.”
Mrs. Martha Anna Wyatt, sixty years old, of New Bedford, Mass., said: “I went down with the ship and spent four hours in a collapsible boat before being picked up. I was going to England to live.
“While the ship was sinking I found it impossible to get into any of the life-boats. There seemed no help about. I simply stood still, clinging to the rail, and went down. I seemed to go to the bottom. When I came to the surface again I was pulled into the collapsible boat which brought me to safety.”
Mrs. C. Stewart, who was traveling from Toronto to Glasgow, said:
“I was in my cabin with my eight-months-old baby, who was sleeping in the berth, when I heard the crash. I snatched my baby up and went on deck. A man yelled, ‘Come on with the baby.’ I handed him the infant and he said, ‘Now for yourself.’
“We were two and a half hours in the boat before we were picked up by a Greek steamer.”
Robert C. Wright, of Cleveland, O., gave what may be the last word of Elbert Hubbard. Mr. Wright said:
“I don’t know who was saved, but I know that Elbert Hubbard must have been drowned. He was a conspicuous person on account of his long hair. I saw him and his wife start below, apparently for life-belts, but I never saw either again. I am certain they were drowned.”