STATEMENTS BY SURVIVORS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 96, 23 April 1912, Page 7

STATEMENTS BY SURVIVORS.

CHIEF OFFICER DOES NOT HEED WARNINGS. STEWARD'S SENSATIONAL STORY. NEW YORK, 22nd April. Whitley, a first-dues steward, who is in hospital suffering from frozen feet, states that he overheard two of the Titanic's crow's-iiest look-outs talking together. One eaid that fifteen minutes before the collision he reported to Mr. Murdock, the first officer, who was on the bridge, that lie fancied he 6aw an iceberg. Twice afterwards the lookouts gave warning, but Mr. Murdock was most indignant, and no attention was paid to the warnings. On© of the look-outs added : "It is no wonder Murdock shot himself." Whitley, while assisting to launch a life-boat, was caught in the bight of a rope as it uncoiled, and was thrown into the sea. His lifebelt kept him afloat till he found an oak wardrobe which rose to the surface after the Titanic sank. Two other men who were clinging to this precarious support dropped off, after a time, exhausted. At daybreak Whitley saw a collapsible raft, black with men, all of whom were standing. He swam to it, but was not allowed to get on board. Ho was told : "It's thirty-one lives against yours." "I prayed," Whitley continued, "that someone on the raft might die, so that I could tako his place. Someone did die, and I was allowed on board." Afterwards those on the raft were transferred to seven of the Titani^'s lifeboats, which were .lashed together. It was here that Whitley heard the lookouts' conversation. He believes the lookouts are returning to England by the steamez Lapland. SAVED BY TWO SISTERS. Mr. Thomas M'Cormick, who is in hospital suffering from wounds in the head, declares that ho jumped, when the Titanic was sinking. He got his hands on the gunwale of a lifeboat, but members ot the crew struck him on the head and tore his hands loose. After repeated, efforts here he, strain to anothei boat, only to meet with the same reception. Finally two sisters — Mary and Kate Murphy — pulled, him aboard the second boat, despite the crew's efforts. DIFFICULT TO REALISE THE TRAGEDY. Mrs. J. Brown, wife of a Denver mine-owner, states t "The whole thing was so formal it was difficult to realise the tragedy of it. Men and women talked and laughed in little groups. I was looking at the boats when two men seized me aud threw me in, saying, 'You're going, too.' After tucking the women in many of tl*e men went to the restaurant lor a, smoke. Knowing how cold the water was I took oil' my lifebelt, because^ in the event of dirowning 1 did not wish to linger. I then took on oar and kept myself warm by rowing. We saved many lives. Soon a great wave came, and we knew the Titanic was gone. One man began to complain, 'We have no food, water, or compass-,' and I called out, 'Be quiet, or go oveibourd.' D&v/n revealed a wonderful sight. Fir*. l tamo tho and then a Hood of light, followed by the suu, a ball of reel lire, illuminating ioytv nulea oi lc&btu.c*."

WHAT AN ENGINEER REPORTED. A deck passenger states that Mr. Andrews, one of the Titanic's engineers, went below and reported to a group of pabsengers on his return that tho vessel was torn to bits below, but would "not sink if the bulkheads hold." She had been ripped by an underlying peak of ice, winch hod torn many of the forward plates from the bolts. The passenger added that it seemed impossible that it could be true, and many in that group on Iho deck of the mortally wounded liner smiled at this announcement. [The two decks of the Titanic, forming the superstructure of the ship, and the navigating bridge, were- built to ensure a high degree of rigidity. There were fifteen transver.se water-tight bulkheads, extending from the doublo bottom to the upper ''deck at the forward end of the ship, and to the saloon deck at the after end, in both instances far above the load waiter line. The room in which the reciprocating enginrs were placed was the largest of tho compartments, being about 60ft in length, while ths turbin© room was 57ft long. The boiler rooms were generally 57ft long, excepting that nearest tho reciprocating engine compartment. The holds were 50ft long. Any two compartments could be flooded without involving the safety of tho ship. The water-tight doors were electrically controlled.]