NEARLY ALL BOATS TAKEN FROM WATER.
“I did not go on deck again until an hour or more had passed; by that time the crew of the Carpathia had taken nearly all the boats from the water. I saw three loads of passengers taken from the boats and the mate of the Carpathia said there were about 800 saved. Captain Rostrom had tears in his eyes while he was directing the work of rescue.
“We were here, there, everywhere it seemed all at once. We got a few men aboard, but they were not taken from the lifeboats. It was women and children first.
“Our ship was a hospital ship on April 15. All the women on our boat offered to give up their staterooms and the captain ordered many of the survivors placed in our berths.
“The doctors had more than they could do to care for the sick. Women fainted one after the other. Mrs. Astor was unconscious at times. She called for her husband time and again, and so we dared not tell her that Colonel Astor was not aboard.”
A steward from the Carpathia told the following tale of the rescue of the Titanic’s passengers and crew to a group of his mates:
“It was between quarter after and half after 1 o’clock, ship’s time, Monday morning,” he said, “when all the stewards were mustered and Chief Steward Highes told us that a wireless had just come in that the Titanic had hit an iceberg and probably would need help. He urged us to turn right in and get ready for a ship’s load of people. The Carpathia turned in the direction the wireless had called from.
“We got hot coffee ready and laid out blankets and made sandwiches and everything like that. It seemed as if every passenger on the boat knew about the trouble and turned out. Captain Rostrom had shut off the hot water all over the ship and turned every ounce of heat into steam, and the old boat was as excited as any of us.
“After we got things ready we went out on deck. It was a glorious morning—no swell in the sea, but bitter cold. The ship’s lights were on full blaze and we were there in the middle of a sea of ice—the finest sight I ever saw.