“THE MILLIONAIRES BOAT.”
“During the six hours we were afloat we were near what we boys later called the millionaries’ boat. That lifeboat had only sixteen passengers in her. When all were put aboard the Carpathia the six men who were the crew of that millionaires’ boat each got £5. Those who had worked harder saving second-class passengers didn’t get a cent.”
White then told of the way in which the children from the open boats were swung aboard the Carpathia in sacks, while the women were hoisted up in rope swings.
“Near the boat in which I was,” White went on, “were two collapsible boats which had failed to work and were not better than rafts. They had thirty-two men clinging to them who were later picked up by the lifeboats.
“The other two collapsible boats which had about sixty persons in them deposited what women they carried in the regular lifeboats and went to the scene of the sinking.
“From the water were picked up perhaps fifty of the crew who had floated off when she sank or else who had jumped before. The second officer was picked up, too, and took command of a boat.
“Now, about the sinking itself. There was some sort of an explosion just about 2 o’clock, or shortly after I had gone overboard. It was not until this explosion, the nature of which I do not know, that the lights went out. They had been fed by steam from oil boilers.
“The explosion caused a break in the ship just aft of the third funnel. The forward section went down bow first. The after part then seemed almost to right itself, and we thought she might keep afloat.
“But it wasn’t long before the propellers shot out of the water, and down she went. A steward who stood on the poop deck had the ship go down under him. He was picked up later, and his watch was found to have stopped at 2.20 A. M., so we knew that that was the time she foundered. There was no apparent suction when she foundered.