Almost frenzied by the memory of the disaster through which they had passed many of the survivors were unable for days even to discuss all the details of the Titanic horror.

  One of the best accounts was given by Lady Duff-Gordon, wife of Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon, who dictated it. Her tale shows that the Titanic was near icebergs before she went to bed on the night of the disaster. Here is her story, as well as that of others:

  "I was asleep. The night was perfectly clear. We had watched for some time the fields of ice. There was one just before I went below to retire. I noticed among the fields of ice a number of large bergs.

  "There was one which one of the officers pointed out to me. He said that it must have been 100 feet high and seemed to be miles long. It was away off in the distance. I went to my bedroom and retired.

  "I was awakened by a long grinding sort of shock. It was not a tremendous crash, but more as though some one had drawn a giant finger all along the side of the boat.

  "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.

  "Then there was another great explosion and the great stern of the Titanic sank as though a great hand was pushing it gently down under the waves. As it went, the screaming of the poor souls left on board seemed to grow louder. It took the Titanic but a short time to sink after that last explosion. It went down slowly without a ripple.

  "We had heard the danger of suction when one of these great liners sink. There was no such thing about the sinking of the Titanic. The amazing part of it all to me as I sat there in the boat, looking at this monster being, was that it all could be accomplished so gently.

  "Then began the real agonies of the night. Up to that time no one in our boat, and I imagine no one in any of the other boats, had really thought that the Titanic was going to sink. For a moment a silence seemed to hang over everything, and then from the water about where the Titanic had been arose a bedlam of shrieks and cries. There were women and men clinging to the bits of wreckage in the icy water.

AN AWFUL CHORUS OF SHRIEKS.

  "It was at least an hour before the last shrieks died out. I remember next the very last cry was that of a man who had been calling, loudly: 'My God! My God!' He cried monotonously, in a dull, hopeless way. For an entire hour there had been an awful chorus of shrieks gradually dying into a hopeless moan until this last cry that I spoke of. Then all was silent. When the awful silence came we waited gloomily in the boats throughout the rest of the night.

  "At last morning came. On one side of us was the ice floes and the big bergs, and oil the other side we were horrified to see a school of tremendous whales. Then, as the mist lifted, we caught sight of the Carpathia looming up in the distance and headed straight for us.

  "We were too numbed by the cold and horror of that awful night to cheer or even utter a sound. We just gazed at one another and remained speechless. Indeed, there seemed to be no once among us who cared much what happened.

  "Those in the other boats seemed to have suffered more than we had. We, it seemed, had been miraculously lucky. In one of the boats was a woman whose clothing was frozen to her body.

  "The men on the Carpathia had to chop it off before she could be taken to a warm room. Several of the stokers and sailors who had manned the boats had been frozen to death, and they lay stiff and lifeless in the bottom of the boats, while the women and children were lifted to the Carpathia.

  "I did not see Captain Smith after I was put into the small boat, but others told me that when the Titanic went down Captain Smith was seen swimming in the icy water. He picked up a baby that was floating on a mass of wreckage and swam with it to one of the small boats. He lifted the baby into the boat, but the child was dead.

  "The women in the boat, according to the story told me, wanted the captain to get into the boat with them, but he refused, saying: 'No, there is a big piece of wreckage over here, and I shall stick to that. We are bound to be rescued soon.' Nothing more was seen of Captain Smith.

FIFTEEN BRIDES LOSE THEIR HUSBANDS.

  "There was an absolute calm and silence on the Carpathia. There were hundreds of women who had lost their husbands, and among them fifteen brides. Yew of these had been married more than five or six months. No one cared to talk. The gloom was awful. I buried myself in my cabin and did not come on deck again."

  From Robert Hichens, quartermaster at the wheel of the Titanic when the great vessel crashed into the iceberg, and then in command of one of the boats which left the steamship before it went down, have come details of the terrible sight at sea which could have been known to perhaps no other person.

  And standing out in memory of this young Cornishman are shrieks and groans that went up from the dark hulk of the giant steamship before she sank.

  Hichens, a type of young Englishman who follows the sea, had for years been on the troopship Dongolo, running to Bombay, and thought himself fortunate when he obtained his berth as quartermaster of the Titanic, the greatest and largest of all steamships. He told in their sequence the events of the night and morning of April 14 and 15.

  It was in his boat that Mrs. John Jacob Astor took her place, after Col. Astor had kissed her good-bye, and handed her a flask of brandy, then taking his place in the line of men, some of whom realized even then that the steamship was doomed. And his last sight as his boat was lowered was of Captain Smith, standing on the bridge, giving his orders as calmly as if he were directing her entrance into a harbor.

  He told of how the officers stood with revolvers drawn, to enforce, if the emergency should arise, that rule of the sea of women first; but the emergency did not arise, and the men stood back or helped the women to their seats.

A SEAMAN'S NARRATIVE.

  In the way of a seaman, he told the narrative of the night spent in the little boat, comforting as best he could the women who did not realize as he did that some of them had looked upon their loved ones for the last time.

  "My watch was from 8 to 12 o'clock," said Hichens. "From 8 to 10 o'clock I was the stand-by man, and from 10 to 11 o'clock I had the wheel. When I was at the stand-by it was very dark, and, while it was not dark, there was a haze. I cannot say about the weather conditions after 10 o'clock, for I went into the wheelhouse, which is enclosed.

  "The second officer was the junior watch officer from 8 to 10 o'clock, and at 8 o'clock he sent me to the carpenter with orders for him to look after the fresh water, as it was going to freeze.

  "The thermometer then read 31½ degrees, but so far as could be seen there was no ice in sight. The next order was from the second officer for the deck engineer to turn the steam on in the wheelhouse, as it was getting much colder. Then the second officer, Mr. Lightoller, told me to telephone the lookout in the crow's nest.

  "'Tell them,' he said, 'to keep a sharp and strict lookout for small ice until daylight and to pass the word along to the other lookout men.

  "I took the wheel at 10 o'clock, and Mr. Murdock, the first officer, took the watch. It was 20 minutes to 12, and I was steering when there were the three gongs from the lookout, which indicated that some object was ahead.

  "Almost instantly, it could not have been more than four or five seconds, when the lookout men called down on the telephone, 'Iceberg ahead!' Hardly had the words come to me when there was a crash.

  "I ain't likely to forget, sir, how the crash came. There was a light grating on the port bow, then a heavy crash on the port bow, then a heavy crash on the starboard side. I could hear the engines stop, and the lever closing the watertight emergency doors.

TITANIC SETTLES IN THE WATER.

  "Mr. Murdock was the senior officer of the watch, and with him on the bridge were Mr. Buxtell, the fourth officer, and Mr. Moody, the sixth officer. The Titanic listed, perhaps, five degrees, to the starboard, and then began to settle in the water. I stood attention at the wheel from the time of the crash until 20 minutes after 12, and had no chance to see what the captain did."

  Mrs. Potter, Mrs. Earnshaw and Mrs. Stephenson had spoken freely of the accident to the conductor of the train which took them home.

  "From the descriptions of the scene that followed the accident given to me by the three ladies," said the conductor, "it seems utterly impossible to tell adequately of the suffering and hardship brought about by the catastrophe. It all happened so suddenly, without a moment to make the least preparation.

  "Most of the passengers had gone to bed. The day had been clear, and nearly everybody spent the afternoon and evening on the decks and between 10 and 10.30 o'clock the steamer chairs, smoking rooms and cafes were gradually vacated. The sea was perfectly calm, and least expected was the crash which was the sounding note of the Titanic's doom.

  "'I was in the first lifeboat that was lowered,' Mrs. Potter told me. 'The jar, which tumbled nearly everyone from his berth, was followed by a wild scramble to the decks. Women in night clothes, over which were thrown coats, ran distractedly in all directions. Men almost crazed with excitement, tore madly about trying to gather together families and relatives, and the confusion was increased by the orders shouted by the ship's officers to the crew to make ready the lifeboats.

  "'Colonel and Mrs. John Jacob Astor were standing near me when I got into the boat. They did not attempt to leave the ship, and the last time I saw them together was when they, embracing each other, watched the first boat lowered.

  "'I was placed in the boat with Mrs. Thayer. From the boat we could see 'Jack' Thayer jump from the ship. His mother saw him struggling in the water. We cried to him to swim to our boat. He tried twice to get into a lifeboat near him, and both times he was pushed away by persons in it. We saw him swim to an icecake on which were thirty men. Only ten of them were saved.

SUFFERED FROM EXPOSURE.

  "'In our boat were about twenty persons, most of them women, who suffered intensely from the exposure. Their scanty clothes were no protection from the water and ice. Mrs. Thayer rowed us for more than two hours. She battled with the waves which threatened to overturn us, and worked as valiantly as any experienced seaman could have done. To her, for the most part, we owe our lives.

  "'We did not meet with Mrs. Thayer's son until we had been on the Carpathia for twenty-four hours. He had been picked up from a raft and placed in the ship's hospital. As soon as he was able to get about he ran hurriedly through the Carpathia, and there was a happy meeting when he there saw his mother.

  "'While the accommodations on the Carpathia were not very comfortable, the passengers of the Titanic who were rescued by that vessel were well treated, and feel grateful to the officers and passengers!"

  The eight musicians who went down in the Titanic and who were playing "Nearer My God to Thee" when all the boats had gone, were under the leadership of Bandmaster Hartley, who was transferred from the Mauretania to take up his duties on the largest steamer of the White Star Line. Under his direction were John Hume, violinist; Herbert Taylor, pianist; Fred Clark, bass viol; George Woodward, cellist, and Messrs. Brailey, Krins and Breicoux, who played when the others were off duty.

  On the Celtic were John S. Carr and Louis Cross, cellist and bass viol of the orchestra on that steamship. When they got shore leave they told something about the men on the Titanic, with whom they had made many voyages. They also were acquainted with the conditions under which the men lived on the Titanic, and gave a graphic idea of the manner in which they must have responded when the call of duty came.

A MAN WITH A HIGH SENSE OF DUTY.

  "Some were already in bed and some were probably smoking when the ship hit the iceberg," said John S. Carr. "The Titanic had a special lounging and smoking room, with the sleeping rooms opening off it. It was so late that they all must have been there when the first shock came. Bandmaster Hartley was a man with the highest sort of a sense of duty.

  "I don't suppose he waited to be sent for, but after finding how dangerous the situation was he probably called his men together and began playing. I know that he often said that music was a bigger weapon for stopping disorder that anything on earth. He knew the value of the weapon he had, and I think he proved his point."

  "The thing that hits me hardest," said Louis Cross, "is the loss of Happy Jock Hume, who was one of the violinists. Hume was the life of every ship he ever played on and was beloved by every one from cabin boys to captains on the White Star Line. He was a young Scotchman, not over 21, and came of a musical family.

  "His father and his grandfather before him had been violinists and makers of musical instruments. The name is well known in Scotland because of it. His real first name was John, but the Scotch nickname stuck to him, and it was as Jock Hume that he was known to every one on the White Star Line, even when he sailed as bandmaster.

  "Over in Dumfries, Scotland, I happen to know there's a sweet young girl hoping against hope. Jock was to have been married the next time that he made the trip across the ocean. He was a young man of exceptional musical ability. If he had lived, I believe he would not long have remained a member of a ship's orchestra. He studied a great deal, although he could pick up without trouble difficult composition which would have taken others long to learn.

  "The odd part of it is that Jock Hume's mother had a premonition that something would happen to him on this trip. He was on the sister ship Olympic a few months ago when, on her maiden voyage, she collided with the warship Hawk. There was a rent torn in the side of the Olympic at that time and she had to be towed back to Belfast.

A MOTHER'S FATEFUL DREAM.

  "Young Hume went back to his home in Dumfries to spend the time until she should be repaired, and when his mother heard of the accident she begged him not to go back to life on the sea. He told numbers of persons in Liverpool about it. Mrs. Hume had a dream of some sort, and said she was sure no good would come of it if he went back.

  "Jock had his eye on going in for concert music sooner or later, but he laughed at his mother's fears and took the chance to go on the Titanic. He was known on many ships and had friends in New York. Last winter he got to know Americans who were wintering at the Constant Springs Hotel in Kingston, Jamaica.

  "He had been bandmaster on the Carmania, of the Cunard Line, and had played with the orchestra of the Majestic, the California, of the Anchor Line, and the Megantic, of the White Star Company, which plies between Liverpool and Montreal.

  "Hume was a light hearted, fine tempered young fellow with curly blond hair, a light complexion and a pleasant smile. He was the life of every ship he ever sailed on and was full of fun. He is mourned by every man who knew him.

  "Another thing of which we are all talking is that Fred Clark, the bass viol of the Titanic, should have gone down on his first trip across the Atlantic. Clark was well known in concert in Scotland, and had never shipped before. The White Star people were particularly anxious to have good music on the first trip of the Titanic, and offered him good pay to make just one trip. As the winter concert season had closed, he finally accepted.

  "He was 34 years of age and was not married, but had a widowed mother. He was a well set-up man of a little over medium height, with black hair, dark complexion, and a high forehead. Clark was jolly company and of optimistic temperament. Just before he sailed a number of persons were joking with him about his finally going to sea, and he said:

  "'Well, you know it would be just my luck to go down with the ship. I've kept away from it so long it might finish me on this trip.' Then he laughed cheerily and all his friends joined in. They all considered the Titanic as safe as a hotel.

THE BOAT'S MUSICIANS.

  "Herbert Taylor, the pianist, was considered a master of his instrument. He was a man of an intellectual turn of mind, with a thin studious face. He was married, and his home was in London. About Woodward, the 'cello, I can tell you but little. His home was in Leeds. The other three men — Brailey, Krins and Breicoux — made up the trio which played in the second cabin and in the restaurant. They had been playing together for some time, but neither Carr nor myself shipped with them on any voyage.

  "It's a mistake from the technical point of view to call a steamer's orchestra a band," said Carr. "The term is a survival of the days when they really had a brass band on board. On all the big steamships now the music is given by men who are thorough masters of their instruments. The Titanic orchestra was considered one of the finest which was ever boated when the ship put out from the other side, and I think the way the men finished up showed that they had about as good stuff inside as any who went down in the Atlantic.'"

  H.E. Steffanson, of New York, another survivor who leaped into the sea and was picked up, declared that he saw the iceberg before the collision.

  "It seemed to me that the berg, a mile away, I should say, was about 80 feet out of the water. The ice that showed clear of the water was not what we struck. After the collision I saw ice all over the sea. When we hit the berg we seemed to slide up on it. I could feel the boat jumping and pounding, and I realized that we were on the ice, but I thought we would weather it. I saw the captain only once after the collision. He was telling the men to get the women and children into the boats. I thought then that it was only for precaution, and it was long after the boats had left that I felt the steamer sinking.

  "I waited on the upper deck until about 2 o'clock. I took a look below and saw that the Titanic was doomed. Then I jumped into the ocean and within five minutes I was picked up."

DISCIPLINE DESCRIBED AS PERFECT.

  Steffanson also described the discipline upon the boat as perfect. Many women, as well as men, he said, declined to leave the Titanic, believing she was safe.

  Miss Cornelia Andrews, of Hudson, N.Y., was one of the first to be put into a lifeboat.

  "I saw the Titanic sink," she said. "I saw her blow up. Our little boat was a mile away when the end came, but the night was clear and the ship loomed up plainly, even at that distance. As our boat put off I saw Mr. and Mrs. Astor standing on the deck. As we pulled away they waved their hands and smiled at us. We were in the open boat about four hours before we were picked up."

  E.W. Beans, a second-cabin passenger, was picked up after swimming in the icy water for twenty minutes. He, too, jumped into the sea after the boats were lowered.

  "I heard a shot fired," said Beans, "just before I jumped. Afterward I was told a steerage passenger had been shot while trying to leap into a lifeboat filled with women and children."

  How the wireless operator on the Carpathia, by putting in an extra ten minutes on duty, was a means of saving 745 lives was told by Dr. J.F. Kemp, the Carpathia's physician.

  "Our wireless operator," said Dr. Kemp, "was about to retire Sunday night when he said, jokingly: 'I guess I'll wait just ten minutes, then turn in.'

  "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. 0. S. SIGNAL.

  "I had turned in for the night when Main, our wireless operator, caught the 'S. 0. 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. 0. 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.

  "Phillips, the operators of the Titanic, evidently did not get our reply, or, if he did receive it, he could not answer us in any way. Captain Rostrom told Mrs. Smith, the stewardess, to prepare for any emergency. He told me to get coffee, sandwiches and other food ready for the survivors.

  "On our way to the Titanic the captain went below and told the engineer that he must get to the Titanic before she sank. I doubt if Captain Rostrom ever got as much speed out of the Carpathia as he did on the way to the Titanic.

  "Long before the Carpathia got near the scene of the wreck our boats were ready to be lowered into the water.

PROMPTNESS IN HANDLING LIFEBOATS.

  "Two men were stationed at each boat, and I and Thomas McKenna, seaman, were in charge of boat No. 1. We have sixteen boats on the ship, and they were hanging suspended from the davits within fifteen minutes after we received the 'S. 0. S.' call for help.

  "I must not forget the women who were on the Carpathia. They were the most self-sacrificing women I ever saw. Their fortitude under the distressing circumstances was so remarkable that each one ought to be rewarded for the work she did after the survivors were lifted aboard the Carpathia.

  "As we got near the scene of the wreck the barometer dropped considerably. It became cold — bitter cold. We did not see the icebergs then, but Captain Rostrom said that we were nearing them. Suddenly, as the iceberg loomed up ahead of our ship, Captain Rostrom ran to the pilot house and took charge of the helm.

  "The night was clear and starlight, but we did not see an iceberg until the Carpathia was within a half mile of it. Of course, we had ample time to steer clear of the floes.

  "At 3.30 o'clock our vessel plunged into a sea of open ice. I believe there must have been thirty or forty icebergs in the water around the Carpathia. Captain Rostrom took his ship safely through the floe and suddenly we heard a shriek. It was faint at first and then it became louder.

  "'The, women and children, get them first,' Captain Rostrom shouted to the crew on the boat deck who were awaiting the signal to cut loose lifeboats. Our searchlight was trained on the sea ahead and the boats filled with the shipwrecked passengers stood out in bold relief.

  "I shall never forget the sight. There were many boats from the Titanic loaded with women and children wedged among the ice. Even before we got up to the first boat from the Titanic we, could see the iceberg which sank her. It looked to be as big as the Rock of Gibraltar. It towered high in the air and it moved very slowly.

AVOIDS CRASHING INTO SHIPWRECKED PASSENGERS.

  "I believe it was over 500 feet high, and we can judge by its size by recalling that seven-eighths of an iceberg is submerged. Within fifty yards of the boats in the water Captain Rostrom gave the signal to reverse the engines so our ship would not crash into the shipwrecked passengers.

  "'Ready men — go,' shouted the captain to me, and McKenna loosened the rope and our boat dropped into the water. We tugged away at the oars with all our strength. We shoved our boat alongside of boat No. 13 from the Titanic. It was filled with passengers. I believe there were about fifteen children in it.

  "Poor little things! Some were benumbed with cold; others were apparently lifeless, and several moaned piteously. The women in the boat were scantily clad. Their clothing was grotesque. They had on wraps, night robes, silk shawls ever their heads and men's coats around them. Many had no shoes, and all of them suffered from the cold.

  "McKenna and I tied a hawser to the boat and then rowed back to the Carpathia. Harris, the bos'n's mate, and another member of the crew helped us to lift the unfortunate ones from the boat. Some had to be carried up the ladder to the boat deck of the Carpathia.

  "A few could walk, but the majority were so benumbed that they could neither speak nor walk.

  "As fast as others of our crew could get the Titanic's boats they were dragged toward the side of the Carpathia. We rescued twenty boatloads of passengers — 710 in all. Our ship resembled a hospital on our way back to New York, for a number of the women and children were ill.

  "The three physicians on the Carpathia told me as we were going up the bay that there were sixteen patients for the hospital as soon as the Carpathia docked."

  From a little porthole on the side of the Carpathia a woman passenger told how the wireless call from the wrecked Titanic sent the Cunard liner racing to the rescue; how the fainting, hysterical survivors were taken from the lifeboats, and of the nerve-wrecking scenes that followed on board the rescue ship.

A NARRATIVE ON THE TUG BOAT REYNOLDS.

  The narrative was told to persons on the tug boat Reynold, as the latter sped side by side with the Carpathia as she moved up the North river to her berth at the Cunard pier. The woman thrust her head through the porthole of the liner in response to megaphone calls shouted from the Reynolds.

  "What's the trouble now?" she asked.

  "Tell us about the wreck of the Titanic. Who are you?"

  "Miss Peterson, of Passaic, N.J.," was the answer. She was a passenger on the Carpathia.

  The captain of the Reynolds, William Bennett, turned his craft closer to the Carpathia, so those on the tug could get within speaking distance.

  "It's almost too horrible to speak about," began Miss Peterson. "It seems like a dream. I was asleep in my berth. I had walked along the promenade deck until about 10 o'clock and had gone to my room and fallen asleep. Suddenly I heard a deep blast from the horns. I awoke startled.

  "Then came another blast. The lights were turned on all over the ship. I heard the officers and crew running up and down the decks. I dressed hurriedly, thinking something was wrong on the Carpathia. I hastened to the deck. It was about 2 o'clock in the morning and the stars were shining brightly overhead.

  "I met Captain Rostrom and asked what was the trouble. 'The Titanic has struck an iceberg and is sinking. Great God, men,' he shouted, turning to his officers, 'get ready to save these poor souls. There must be 2,500 on board.'

  "Before the captain had told us of the wreck the Carpathia was being turned around toward the Titanic. I went on the boat deck and met many of our passengers. I heard the wireless buzz, and I knew the operator was trying to talk to the Titanic. I tried to get below to see the wireless instrument and operator, but I was told to go on deck again. The operator was clad only in his trousers and undershirt.

  "Captain Rostrom said: 'Can't you get her?' 'No,' replied the operator, 'she doesn't answer.'

  "'She's going down,' said Captain Rostrom, and he ordered the engineer to put on full speed.

SPEEDED FASTER THAN USUAL.

  "I don't know how fast we went, but the speed of the Carpathia at that time was greater by far than the way we had been traveling on our way across the ocean. You can imagine the excitement aboard the Carpathia. Everyone was dressed and on deck before we got to the Titanic, or rather what was left of her.

  "I guess it was about 3.30 o'clock when we got near the boats of the Titanic. The Carpathia had all her boats hanging on the davits and Captain Rostrom was ready. I heard women scream as the Carpathia approached the Titanic's boats. I shrieked with them because every one was saying, 'Oh, oh, it's awful, awful.' I saw the first boat of the Titanic taken from the water.

  "I saw the icebergs all around the boats. I wonder now how they kept afloat. Before the Carpathia had slackened speed much a lifeboat from our ship was in the water and the men were pushing toward the other boats.

  "They tied a rope to the Titanic's boats and then moved back to the Carpathia and the first boatload of survivors were taken from the water only a few minutes after we saw it.

  "There were about fifty women and children in it; some had fainted and lay motionless. Others were screaming and were hysterical. There were no men in the boat and none of the survivors were dressed properly.

  "They had on night robes, furs, evening gowns, anything they could find. Some were almost frozen. A little girl, they called her Emily, was shrieking, 'Oh, mama, mama, I'm sick. Oh, mama, mama!'

  "Her mother could not comfort her, because she collapsed as soon as she was lifted to the deck of the Carpathia. All the women on our boat got their heavy clothing and threw it around the survivors. Captain Rostrom told us to take them to our staterooms, and we did all we could to make them comfortable.

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 900 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.

COMPARATIVELY EMPTY BOAT WITHOUT WOMEN.

  "Just as it was about half day and dark we came upon a boat. There were eighteen men in it and it was in charge of an officer. There were no women in the boat, and it was not more than one-third filled. All of the men were able to come up the Jacob's ladder on the Carpathia, which we threw over the port side. Every one of them was given some brandy or hot black coffee. After they were all on board we pulled up their boat.

  "It was bright morning by now and all around the Carpathia, here and there, about a quarter mile apart, were more boats. These were fuller than the first and there were women in all of them. The women were hoisted up in bo'suns chairs, and the men who could do so climbed the Jacob's ladder. Some of the men, however, had to be hauled up, especially the firemen. There was a whole batch of firemen saved. They were nearly naked. They had jumped overboard and swam after the boats, it turned out, and they were almost frozen stiff.

  "The women were dressed, and the funny thing about it is only five of them had to be taken to the hospital. Both the men's hospitals were filled — twenty-four beds in all. We got twelve boatloads, I think, inside of a little more than an hour. Then, between quarter after and half after 8 o'clock, we got the last two boats — crowded to the guards and almost all women.

  "After we got the last boatload aboard the Californian came alongside and the captains arranged that we should make straight for New York and the Californian would look around for more boats. We circled round and round, though, and we saw all kinds of wreckage. There was not a person on a stick of it and we did not get sight of another soul.

  "While we were pulling in the boatloads of women we saved were quiet enough and not making any trouble at all. But when it seemed sure we would not find any more persons alive then bedlam came.

  "I hope I never go through it again. The way those women took on for the folks they had lost was awful and we could not do anything to quiet them until they cried themselves out.

  "There were five Chinamen in the boats and not a soul knew where they came from. No one saw them get into the boats; but there they were — wherever they came from.

  "The fellows from the crew of the Titanic told us that lots more of them could have got away, only no one would believe that their ship could sink."