“It was in the next ten minutes that the Titanic’s call for help came. Had the wireless man not waited, there would have been no survivors.”
“The iceberg that sank the Titanic looked to be as big as the Rock of Gibraltar,” said Thomas Brown, one of the stewards of the Carpathia, in describing what he saw when the crew of his ship picked up the survivors from the Titanic. Brown left the Carpathia a few minutes after she was docked and he gave a vivid description of the work of the rescue.
“There were 2,341 persons aboard the Titanic, counting officers and crew,” said the steward. “Seven hundred and ten persons were saved; so the list of those who drowned numbers 1,631 persons.
A CLEAR S. O. S. SIGNAL.
“I had turned in for the night when Main, our wireless operator, caught the ‘S. O. S.’ signal of distress. He told me it was the clearest signal of any sort he ever received. The minute he got the message he hastened to Captain Rostrom and said, ‘Captain, the Titanic is sinking; she struck an iceberg.’ Captain Rostrom did not believe it. ‘Here it comes again, Captain,’ said the operator.
“That was all the captain needed to get our crew into action: he sounded the bell for the watchman, and sent him to order all hands on deck.
“I doubt if any passengers on the Carpathia knew of the tragedy until Jones, the first mate, sounded the emergency gong after the watchman had summoned the crew.
“A few minutes after we got the signal for help we were ready for action. The ‘S. O. S.’ reached us shortly after midnight. We were then 56 miles away from the Titanic. Our engineer turned about and put on full speed, and we reached the Titanic about 3.30 o’clock Monday morning.
“While the Carpathia was speeding toward the doomed ship Captain Rostrom summoned the higher officers together, and said he would hold every man responsible for the work assigned to him.
“He told Main to answer the Titanic and tell Captain Smith that we were making for his ship, full steam ahead.