[37] Italics are mine.—Author.
O. Abelseth (Am. Inq.):
Witness describes the period just before the ship sank when an effort was made to get out the collapsible boats on the roof of the officers’ house. The officer wanted help and called out: “Are there any sailors here?” It was only about five feet to the water when witness jumped off. It was not much of a jump. Before that he could see the people were jumping over. He went under and swallowed some water. A rope was tangled around him. He came on top again and tried to swim. There were lots of men floating around. One of them got him on the neck and pressed him under the water and tried to get on top, but he got loose from him. Then another man hung on to him for a while and let go. Then he swam for about fifteen or twenty minutes. Saw something dark ahead of him; swam towards it and it was one of the Engelhardt boats (“A”). He had a life-preserver on when he jumped from the ship. There was no suction at all. “I will try and see,” he thought, “if I can float on the lifebelt without help from swimming,” and he floated easily on the lifebelt. When he got on boat “A” no one assisted him, but they said when he got on: “Don’t capsize the boat,” so he hung on for a little while before he got on.
Some were trying to get on their feet who were sitting or lying down; others fell into the water again. Some were frozen and there were two dead thrown overboard. On the boat he raised up and continuously moved his arms and swung them around to keep warm. There was one lady aboard this raft and she (Mrs. Abbott) was saved. There were also two Swedes and a first-class passenger. He said he had a wife and child. There was a fireman also named Thompson who had burned one of his hands; also a young boy whose name sounded like “Volunteer.” He and Thompson were afterwards at St. Vincent’s Hospital. In the morning he saw a boat with a sail up, and in unison they screamed together for help. Boat A was not capsized and the canvas was not raised up, and they could not get it up. They stood all night in about twelve or fourteen inches of water[38]—their feet in water all the time. Boat No. 14 sailed down and took them aboard and transferred them to the Carpathia, he helping to row. There must have been ten or twelve saved from boat A; one man was from New Jersey, with whom he came in company from London. At daybreak he seemed unconscious. He took him by the shoulder and shook him. “Who are you?” he said; “let me be; who are you?” About half an hour or so later he died.
[38] Italics are mine.—Author.
In a recent letter from Dr. Washington Dodge he refers to a young man whom he met on the Carpathia, very much exhausted, whom he took to his stateroom and gave him medicine and medical attention. This young man was a gentleman’s valet and a second cabin passenger. This answers to the description of William J. Mellers, to whom I have written, but as yet have received no response. Dr. Dodge says he believes this young man’s story implicitly: He, Mellers, “was standing by this boat when one of the crew was endeavoring to cut the fastenings that bound it to the vessel just as the onrush of waters came up which tore it loose. It was by clinging to this boat that he was saved.”
R. N. Williams, Jr., in his letter writes me as follows:
“I was not under water very long, and as soon as I came to the top I threw off the big fur coat I had on. I had put my lifebelt on under the coat. I also threw off my shoes. About twenty yards away I saw something floating. I swam to it and found it to be a collapsible boat. I hung on to it and after a while got aboard and stood up in the middle of it. The water was up to my waist.[39] About thirty of us clung to it. When Officer Lowe’s boat picked us up eleven of us were alive; all the rest were dead from cold. My fur coat was found attached to this Engelhardt boat ‘A’ by the Oceanic, and also a cane marked ‘C. Williams.’ This gave rise to the story that my father’s body was in this boat, but this, as you see, is not so. How the cane got there I do not know.”
[39] Italics are mine.—Author.
Through the courtesy of Mr. Harold Wingate of the White Star Line in letters to me I have the following information pertaining to boat “A”: