COLONEL ARCHIBALD GRACIE

CONTENTS

CHAPTERPAGE
I.The Last Day Aboard Ship[1]
II.Struck By an Iceberg[14]
III.The Foundering of the “Titanic”[51]
IV.Struggling in the Water for Life[64]
V.All Night on Bottom of Half-Submerged Upturned Boat[87]
VI.The Port Side: Women and Children First[114]
VII.Starboard Side: Women First, But Men When There Were No Women[225]
Concluding Note[325]

ILLUSTRATIONS

Colonel Archibald Gracie[Frontispiece]
FACING PAGE
The Titanic[2]
The Promenade Deck of the Titanic[12]
Mr. and Mrs. Isidor Straus[24]
First-Class Smoking Room[28]
Bedroom of Parlor Suite[40]
Suite Bedroom[40]
James Clinch Smith[48]
Boilers of the Titanic arranged in Messrs. Harland & Wolff’s Works[52]
Thomas Andrews, Jr., Designer of the Titanic[58]
Joseph Bell, Chief Engineer[58]
The Last Photograph of the Titanic’s Commander and Three Officers[60]
Passengers of the Olympic awaiting Events[104]
The Overturned Engelhardt Boat B[110]
The Titanic narrowly Escapes Collision at Southampton[134]
Fifth Officer Lowe Towing the Canvas Collapsible[158]
The Canvas Collapsible[158]
Captain Rostron of the S. S. Carpathia[180]
Photographed from the Carpathia[242]

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE
“TITANIC”

CHAPTER I
THE LAST DAY ABOARD SHIP

“There is that Leviathan.”—Ps. 104:26.

AS the sole survivor of all the men passengers of the Titanic stationed during the loading of six or more lifeboats with women and children on the port side of the ship, forward on the glass-sheltered Deck A, and later on the Boat Deck above, it is my duty to bear testimony to the heroism on the part of all concerned. First, to my men companions who calmly stood by until the lifeboats had departed loaded with women and the available complement of crew, and who, fifteen to twenty minutes later, sank with the ship, conscious of giving up their lives to save the weak and the helpless.