“Mr. Straus stepped aside when the first boat was being filled, explaining that he could not go until all the women and children had been given places. ‘Where you are, Papa, I shall be,’ spoke up Mrs. Straus, rejecting all entreaties to enter the boat.
“Mr. Straus vainly attempted to persuade his wife to enter the second boat, assuring her that eventually he would find a place after all the women and children had been taken off.
“Miss Bird, who was making her first trip across, having been engaged in London by Mrs. Straus, joined other passengers in urging Mrs. Straus to enter the boat, but she clung closer to her husband and repeated previous declarations that unless Mr. Straus accompanied her she would remain behind. Mr. Straus only shook his head.
“One after another the boats were lowered. Finally that in which Mrs. John Jacob Astor was rescued was made ready. ‘Here is a place for you, Mrs. Straus!’ cried Mrs. Astor. Mrs. Straus only shrank closer to her husband.
“Several passengers, at least two of them being women, attempted to force Mrs. Straus into the boat, but she cried out against separation from her husband and ordered her maid, Miss Bird, to take the place beside Mrs. Astor.
“‘You go,’ said Mrs. Straus to the maid. ‘I must stay with my husband.’
CLASPED IN EACH OTHERS ARMS.
“Seeing it was useless to argue with Mrs. Straus, several men passengers lifted Miss Bird into the boat, which was lowered with all haste. As this boat and two others, comprising the last to leave the vessel, glided across the waters into the black night the last glimpse caught of Mr. and Mrs. Straus showed them standing on the deck, clasped in each other’s arms, weeping.”
Mr. and Mrs. C. E. Henry Stengel, of Newark, N. J., received the congratulations of friends on their rescue in their home at Broad street and Lincoln Park.
Mr. and Mrs. Stengel left the Titanic in different boats. Mr. Stengel first saw his wife safely aboard one boat, then assisted other women to leave. As a small boat, half full, was being lowered, Mr. Stengel says he asked the officer in charge if he should come aboard.