MORE ABOUT THE TITANIC.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 306, 22 June 1912, Page 1 (Supplement)

MORE ABOUT THE TITANIC.

A SWIM FOR LIFE. New York, May 3. One of the most vivid narritives so far published has been given by Mr A. H. Barkworth, whose home is at Tranby House, Hessle, East Yorkshire. He is a typical British sportsman, and I am glad to say that he has almost entirely recovered "both his health and equanimity. He has been particularly kind to a young second-cabin passenger, named A. W. Mellor, whom he met on the Carpathia, who had his feet frozen, and for whom he is trying to get a job, before he himself returns to England next week. "Coming over," Mr. Barkworth says, "I made the acquaintance of two most' agreeable fellows. One was named Jones, a sort of farmer, he told me, up in Vermont. I think ho had once lived in England, for he could imitate the Dorset shepherds to perfection. The other man was Mr. A. H. Gee, who was going to take up a position as manager of a linen mill, near Mexico City. I was discussing in the smoking-room with them, late on Sunday night, the science of good road-building, in which I am keenly interested, when the crash came. Somebody said we had hit an iceberg, but I did not see it. "I went down to my state-room and got a coat and life-preserver, and came back on deck. To tell the truth, I didn't think about getting into a lifeboat, and the boats were all gone before we realised that the condition of the ship was so serious. Jones and Gee were looking over the side. I learned swimming at Eton, and made up my mind that if it came to the worst I would try my luck in the water. "When the ship gave her first dip we all went aft. "I remember somebody shouted, 'Go gently,' as if a sudden shift of weight would have disturbed the ship's position. Well, I had 1 read somewhere that a ship which is about to sink gives a premoni- ; tory dip, and when the Titanic did that I simply threw my despatch-case, containing all my money and some papers, into the scuppers. Jones and Gee were standing by with their arms on the rail looking down. I imagine they were preparing for death. I saw near by Mr. ' Howard Case, manager of the Vacuum ) Oil Company in London . I said some- - thing to him. 'My dear fellow,' he re- j plied, 'I wouldn't think of quitting the ! ship. Why, she'll swim for a week.'! And he calmly lit a cigarette. ! "This was not reassuring to me. I J had had enough of the Titanic, so I j climbed upon the rail, holding on to a j stanchion. I was afraid to dive, be- ' cause the water was full of steamer chairs and other things. I cannot re-' call that I had any sensations as I went down, but when I struck the water it seemed terrifically cold. I went under, and must have had my mouth open at the time, for I came up spitting out j salt water, I struck out away from the ship, for I feared the danger "of suction. I I found a spar, and it helped me to keep afloat. ™- '

"Well, I swam and swam. Finally, I managed to reach a capsized boat, to which a lot of men, one of them young John Thayer, were clinging. For a time we knelt on the bottom of the boat, and then someone suggested! that our legs were getting benumbed, and we had better try t6 stand. So we huddled together, and all except two of us managed to get into a nearly erect posture. We were on there five or six hours. Two men just behind me died, and one of them slipped) overboard, but we managed to keep the body of the other one. It is extraordinary how, under such circumstances, you lose your horror of the dead. The death of these two men did not seem to make any particular impression upon any of us. "I have read several accounts of how the band played while the ship went down 'Nearer, my God, to Thee.' I do not wish to detract from the bravery of anybody, but I might mention that when I first came on deck the band was playing a waltz. The next time I paused where the band had been stationed the members of it had thrown down their instruments, and were not to be seen, but I shall never forget the fierce, jarring notes of that waltz they played." GALLANT ENGINEERS. WHAT HAPPENED BELOW AFTER THE COLLISION. A passenger in the Lapland l , which brought home the surviving members of the Titanic's crew, tells the story of what happened in the ship's enginerooms and stokeholds after the collision. It is a tale of surpassing heroism' —of the thirty-six engineers who went calmly to their doom under the orders of Chief Engineer Bell in a desperate effort to save the ship, of the oilers and stokers who remained unflinchingly at their posts in a moment of mortal peril. There was no panic among the "black squad." All did their duty to the last/ like Englishmen. All the water-tight doors were in perfect order at the collision. Not one jambed

Two people on board must have known from the moment the Titanic struck that she was doomed—Mr. Andrews, the constructor, and Chief Engineer Bell. Both went down with her.

Leading Stoker Threlfall states that after the collision his stokehold, No. 4, was dry. * "The fires were burning as usual." The watertight doors were closed after him again. Xos. 1, 2 and! 3 stokeholds were also dry. Up to shortly before 2 a.m. "everything was going on just as usual below; the lights were burning and all pumps were working as if nothing had happened." It was then that the order was given by the chief engineer to the men to go on deck. They found the boats gone, the ship down by the head, her stern up in the air, and her hull with a heavy list to port. The captain ordered! all articles that would float to be thrown overboard, and gave the command, "Every man for himself." Thelfall adds that shortly after he took to the water he gained a raft and climbed upon it. There were several firemen standing on it. Chief-Engineer Bell swam up, and they called to him: "Come on, Mr. Bell, we'll pull you on board." He shouted back: "No, men, your raft might capsize. I'll be all right and find something else. Good-bye, men; God bless you." Oiler A. Whyte states that shortly after the accident the emergency dymnamos were started to run the electric light in ease the. engine-room should be flooded. He was sent on deck by the engineers at 1.40 a.m., saw the last boat leaving, and slid down the falls to her. The engineers l were still in the turbineroom. Leading Stoker F. Barrett states that at the order of Engineer Harvey lie drew thirty-six fires in the boilers. Engineer Shepherd broke his leg by falling in a man-hole. His only sorrow was that he could render no aid to save the ship. Barrett was sent on deck at 1.30 and was ordered to take charge of No. 13 boat. Out of ninety-one men in his watch only sixteen were saved. "When the water came pouring in," ■e of the firemen, "one of the bflhoutjed, 'You chaps have done HhmJun iiLd.eck. I was the HHb up thWadder, and when t^Hurned&ooLaLMS

gineer, who had just shouted, 'Good-bye.' Even as I looked the steel iloor of the engine-room passages buckled and broke. A great hole appeared and the engineer was shot down the hole clean through the bottom of the ship." HEROISM BELOW DECKS. . An admirable story, illustrating the wonderful discipline and heroism of the engineers, firemen and stokers on the Titanic after she struck, to which Lord . Charles Beresford has drawn attention, •was that told by Thomas Threlfall, a leading stoker. It is a simple and brief narrative, but one of Which every Englishman will justly be proud. "I was off duty at the time of the collision, and in my bunk. When I got on deck about midnight, Second Engineer Escritt told me to get all the men I could and go below. I went below to my section, No. 4, and took on with the I stoking. I had ten firemen and four | trimmers under me, and! we had to look after five double boilers with thirty fires; that is> fifteen fires in each stokehold, I don't mind telling you that it did not feel nice going down below, because we knew that a bad accident had happend, but every man Jack of my gang went on with his work and never murmured. The engineers were running about a lot, and this made things look black, but my men just went on stoking until about 1.2 a.m. Then 'We can't do any more now, Tommy'—that's me. 'You and your mates had better get up:' i We (that's me and my men) left off and I started up on deck. When we left there ! wasn't a drop of water in our section, I but I believe that some of the others were flooded. "I don't know what became of the other engineers, firemen andl stokers-, but I should say that, save those in my section, most of them went on working the engines and the fires until it was too late, and died at their posts. There was not an engineer to be seen when I got on deck; they were all below. I got away when I was told in boat No. 14, which was the last but one to leave the port side. The Titanic's head was then well under water, and it must have been after two o'clock a.m., for shortly afterwards she took a list to port and went down. It was an awful sight for us in the boat, for we knew that a good number of our comrades were on her."

j FUNERAL SHIP'S SAD MISSION. j RECOVERY OF BODIES. : London, May 1. , The cable steamer Mackay-Bennett arj rived at Halifax (Nova Scotia) yesteri day, with 190 bodies of victims from the ) lost liner Titanic. Captain Lardner is i strongly of opinion that the great bulk j of her human freight is coffined within j the wreck. So far only 319 of the 1801 persons who went to their deaths have been recovered. Of these 306 were picked up by Captain Lardner and) his men, the | remaining 13 being found by the sister j cable ship Minia, which went out to p,id I the Mackay-Bennett's quest. 'y I "I think that when the Titanic went j down she took most of her missing peot plew ith her," said Captain Lardner. j "Many were undoubtedly below decks, and could never have had a chance of I escape. Of the others, I think the greater number were swept below when the liner took her final plunge. The seas breaking over the decks would wash any people there down through the brokl en hatches and companion-ways into the j holds, and once there they could never be removed."

Of the 306 bodies picked up by the Mackay-Bennett, 116 were re-committed to the deep, with the solem rites of the Church of England for burial at sea. Thos« sent to join their comrades in the depths were principally firemen and other members of the ship's company. When the steamer sailed she had instructions to bring eevry body recovered to port, but, owing to the unexpectedly large number of those found, these instructions could not be carried out to the letter. Mr. J. Shaw, who superintended the work of embalming the dead and generally directed the caring for of the bodies as they were recovered from the ocean, said theirs was a horrible task. "Among the bodies we recovered is that of a two-year-old baby boy. His was the only body recovered which had no lifebelt. Nothing I have ever seen at sea made such an impression on me. On one day we found 50 bodies all in a group. Near by was a lifeboat which had evidently capsized, all within it being drowned. We secured, about 40 miles from the scene of the disaster, the bodies of twelve women. It has been stated that there was an explosion in the sinking Titanic, and this probably explains the terribly mutilated condition of many of the bodies. Arms and legs were shattered and faces and bodies mangled. We picked up many lifebelts--170 miles from tlfe wreck.

"Many of the bodies were of persons in full evening dress. All the watches worn by the men had stooped precisely at ten minutes past two. There was hardly any variation. There was a special service for each body buriedl at sea, the hymn, Mesu, lover of my soul,' being sung. We found and photographed the black iceberg which caused the wreck. It was an immense berg, but badly shattered." Directly the ship was docked, Captaiin Roberts, commander of Mr. Astor's yacht, went on board ,and a coffin was pulled) away from a pile on the after-deck and opened. Mr. Roberts looked in. "That, is Colonel Astor," he said. The body was dressed in a blue suit and had been found floating in an upright position. Round! the waist was a belt with a gold buckle, and in the pockets £SOO in notes and cash. A body, supposed at first to be that of Mr. G. H. Widener, the Philadelphia millionaire, was buried at sea. The head was crushed, and it was impossible to identify the features, but the clothes were marked with the name Widtener, and the pockets contained letters addressed to him. The captain, however, believes the body to be that of Mr. Widener's valet. By far the greater number of bodies were floating in groups of 20 or more amid the debris. Buoyed up by cork belts the bodies at a distance looked like a flock of gulls at rest on the water. Like that of Colonel Astor, they were all in an upright position, as if treading water.