“I awakened my husband and told him that I thought we had struck something. There was no excitement that I could hear, but my husband went up on deck. He returned and told me that we had hit some ice, apparently a big berg, but that there seemed to be no danger. We went on deck.
“No one, apparently, thought there was any danger. We watched a number of women and children and some men going into the lifeboats. At last one of the officers came to me and said, ‘Lady Gordon, you had better go in one of the boats.’
“I said to my husband: ‘Well, we might as well take the boat, although I think it will be only a little pleasure excursion until morning.’
“The boat was the twelfth or thirteenth to be launched. It was the captain’s special boat. There was still no excitement. Five stokers got in and two Americans—A. L. Solomon, of New York, and L. Stengel, of Newark. Besides these there were two of the crew, Sir Cosmo, myself and a Miss Frank, an English girl.
“There were a number of other passengers, mostly men, standing near by and they joked with us because we were going out on the ocean. “The ship can’t sink,” said one of them. “You will get your death of cold out there in the ice.”
CRUISED AMONG ICE FOR TWO HOURS.
“We were slung off and the stokers began to row us away. We cruised around among the ice for two hours. Sir Cosmo had looked at his watch when we went off. It was exactly 12.15 A. M., and I should think fifteen minutes after the boat struck. It did not seem to be very cold. There was no excitement aboard the Titanic.
“Suddenly I had seen the Titanic give a curious shiver. The night was perfectly clear. There was no fog, and I think we were a thousand feet away. Everything could be clearly seen. There were no lights on the boats except a few lanterns which had been lighted by those on board.
“Almost immediately after the boat gave this shiver we heard several pistol shots and a great screaming arose from the decks.
“Then the boat’s stern lifted in the air and there was a tremendous explosion. Then the Titanic dropped back again. The awful screaming continued. Ten minutes after this there was another explosion. The whole forward part of the great liner dropped down under the waves. The stern rose a hundred feet, almost perpendicularly. The boat stood up like an enormous black finger against the sky. The screaming was agonizing. I never heard such a continued chorus of utter despair and agony.