THE FINAL PLUNGE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVII, Issue XLVII, 20 April 1912, Page 5

THE FINAL PLUNGE.

MANY JUMP OVERBOARD

LONG AND TERRIBLE HOURS BEFORE PICKED UP.

% (Received April 20. 9.10 a.m.) LONDON. April 19

The survivors, from a safe distance, witnessed the plunge, They heard the band playing.

Colonel Gracie emphatically denies shooting with a revolver. ' He once fired to intimidate some steerage passengers.

Colonel Astor, after placing his wife in a boat, asked permission to accompasy her. The second officer said : "No,- sir. No man must enter the boats till the women are off." Colonel Astor then assisted in clearing the other boats and i" £ - assuring nervous women. Several survivors state that the vessel was travelling at 23 knots. All steamers, which have already started Westward, have been ordered to travel further south.

Mr Taft was informed that Major Butt shot 12 men, and was then himself shot.' Among the most affecting scenes at the lauding was the sight of the women steerage passengers, thinly clad and ■shivering, with eyes red from constant weeping. Those the charitable organisations jspctdily succoured. When the Titanic plunged many jumped overboard. Some were rescued m t-h* boats.

A number embarked in the collapsible boats, which were subsequently picked uj>. A passenger descfribes how the fifth of ficer, Mr. Lowe, saved, many lives by warning people not to jump and swamp the boats. When his collapsible was launched he hoisted a mast and sail and collected other collapsibles, and,arranged an adequate crew for eaeh and connected them by lines, all moving together. He later returned to the wreck and saved a collapsible containing 30. who were scantily clad, and on the point of sinking. _ ; Some died from exposure whilst being transferred to the Carpathia. Colonel Grade states that he was idriven to the topmost deck, where he saw ;no other survivor. After a wave swept i the liner he grasped the brass railing • desperately, bus was forced to release it when she plunged. He was swirled round ■ for what seemed an interminable time and eventually he came to the surface and seized a wooden grating. When lie, recovered breath he discovered a large canvas cork, raft. Another man and he struggled to the raft, and ; both were res cued. Others were floundering in the sea at dawn. There were 30 on the raft, and they were knee deep in water and afraid to move lest they overturned the raft.

Long and terrible hours were spent be fore the Carpathia picked them up.