“The ladies first, dear heart,” he was heard to say.
Then quietly he saluted the second officer and turned to help in lowering more boats.
Miss Margaret Hayes gave another version of the manner in which Colonel Astor met his death: “Colonel Astor, with his wife, came out on deck as I was being assisted into a lifeboat,” said Miss Hayes, “and both got into another boat. Colonel Astor had his arms about his wife and assisted her into the boat. At the time there were no women waiting to get into the boats, and the ship’s officer at that point invited Colonel Astor to get into the boat with his wife. The Colonel, after looking around and seeing no women, got into the boat, and his wife threw her arms about him.
“The boat in which Colonel Astor and his wife were sitting was about to be lowered when a woman came running out of the companionway. Raising his hand, Colonel Astor stopped the preparations to lower his boat and, stepping out, assisted the woman into the seat he had occupied.
“Mrs. Astor cried out, and wanted to get out of the boat with her husband, but the Colonel patted her on the back and said something in a low tone of voice.”
A nephew of Senator Clark, of Butte, Montana, said Astor stood by the after rail looking after the lifeboats until the Titanic went down.
Brayton says: “Captain Smith stood on the bridge until he was washed off by a wave. He swam back, stood on the bridge again and was there when the Titanic went to the bottom.” Brayton says that Henry B. Harris, the theatrical manager, “tried to get on a lifeboat with his wife, but the second officer held him back with a gun. A third-class passenger who tried to climb in the boats was shot and killed by a steward. This was the only shooting on board I know of.”
Another account of Captain Smith’s death is as follows:
CAPTAIN SMITH DIED A HERO
Captain Smith died a hero’s death. He went to the bottom of the ocean without effort to save himself. His last acts were to place a five-year-old child on the last lifeboat in reach, then cast his life belt to the ice ridden waters and resign to the fate that tradition down the ages observed as a strict law.