“From the distance of a mile or more we heard the explosion and saw the Titanic go down. The lights did not go out all at once. As the ship slowly settled the rows of lights, one after another, winked out, disappearing beneath the surface. Finally the ship plunged down, bow first, and the stern slipped beneath the waves.
HAD HOPED ALL ON BOARD WOULD BE SAVED.
“Even then we had hoped that all on board might be saved. It was only after we had been taken aboard the Carpathia, and somehow few of us there were compared with the great company aboard the Titanic, that we got the first glimmer of the appalling reality.”
“I never dreamed that it was serious,” said Alfred White, one of the two oilers from the engine room who were saved by being picked up.
“I was on the whale deck in the bow calling the watch that was to relieve me when the ice first came aboard. It was a black berg that we struck—that is, it was composed of black ice. It could not be seen at all at night.
“The striking opened seams below the water line, but did not even scratch the paint above the line. I know that because I was one of those who helped make an examination over the side with a lantern.
“I went down into the light engine room, where my station was, at 12.40 o’clock. We even made coffee, showing that there wasn’t much thought of danger. An hour later I was still working around the light engines. I heard the chief engineer tell one of his subordinates that No. 6 bulkhead had given away.
“At that time things began to look bad, for the Titanic was far down by the bow. I was told to go up and see how things were going, and made my way up through the dummy funnel to the bridge deck.
“By that time all the boats had left the ship and yet every one in the engine room was at his post. I was near the captain and heard him say: ‘Well, boys, I guess it’s every man for himself now.’
“I slipped down some loose boat falls and dropped into the water. There was a boat not far away, which later picked me up. There were five firemen in her as a crew, forty-nine women and sixteen children. There was no officer.