“We put off into a field of small ice. The berg we had struck was plainly visible. The Titanic struck a large, jagged, submerged portion of the berg, on the port side; as she slowly slid back and away from the mountain of ice it passed her on the starboard side and went slowly on its way.
IT WAS APPALLING.
“As I say, we rowed slowly because of our heavy cargo. The Titanic settled slowly at first. When she got going, though, she went rapidly. It was appalling. I do not think any of us really believed until her final lurch that she would actually sink.
“She started to go down bow first. She dove like that until her propeller was out of water. Everybody rushed to the stern of the boat. You could see them climbing and clinging to the higher places. Suddenly the Titanic gave a frightful lurch. Hundreds of those on the stern were flung into the air.
“They looked like a swarm of bees; little and black. Then the Titanic broke, snapped in the middle and the boilers blew up and the engines dropped out with a frightful noise. She sank practically in two pieces, broken directly in half. There was little or no swirl or intake. I do not think any of the boats were drawn down.
“Murdock stood on the promenade deck when the last boat pushed off. Captain Smith had taken charge of the bridge. Murdock put a pistol to his right temple and fired. I saw him do it. And I saw him drop.
“Now I have just one dollar and twenty-five cents left tied up in a corner of my handkerchief. I was going to take that to cable one word. It will cost me one dollar to cable “Safe,” but I have a mother who is walking the streets of London waiting for that one word.”
The survivors of the Titanic are still paying a tribute without precedent to the bravery of the men and women of the wrecked liner, steerage passenger, stoker and millionaire.
Major Archibald Butt, U. S. A., military aide to President Taft, met his death in a manner that fully justified the President’s estimation of him as expressed in the eulogy given out at the White House, in which the President tenderly referred to his late aide as a man “gentle and considerate,” and as one who was “every inch a soldier.”