Chester Titanic sinking story and lots going on this weekend!!

 

 Chester Creek over 100 years ago, boating anyone??

 

 

 

 

Note While doing some research on another project, I came across this local story of a Titanic survivor, a good read, Keith

CHESTER TIMES – April 20, 1912

            MRS. BUCKNELL SAVED, TELLS OF SHIPWRECK 

Well-Known Chester Woman, Declares Titanic’s Equipment Poor – Graphic Description

            Graphic descriptions of the wreck of the white Star Liner Titanic ware given by Mrs. Emma Ward Bucknell for many years a resident of Seventeenth and Walnut Streets, this city, who was a passenger on the ill-fated ship.  Mrs. Bucknell is the widow of the late William Bucknell, founder of Bucknell College, and a sister-in-law of Garnett Pendleton, president of the Cambridge Trust Company, Fifth and Market Streets, this city.

            Mrs. Bucknell was seen at the home of her son-in-law, Samuel Wetherill, Twenty-third and Spruce streets.  She told her story in a collected fashion, but with an occasional nervous movement of her hands across her eyes as though trying to blot from her vision some of the terrible scenes through which she passed.

            She was one of the first to get into a lifeboat and leave the doomed Titanic and one of the last to be drawn aboard the Carpathia.  She and her companions had rowed over a wind-tossed sea in freezing air for hours and were ten miles away from the spot where the liner sank before the Carpathia was sighted.

            “I was asleep in my cabin when the crash came,” said Mrs. Bucknell.   “I cannot explain just what the noise was like, except that it was horrible and sounded like a mixture of thunder and explosions.

            “In a moment there was a roaring sound and I knew that something serious was the matter.   The corridors filled rapidly with frightened passengers and then the stewards and officers came, reassuring us with the announcement that everything was all right and that ‘only a small hole had been stove in the bow.’

            “As I stepped out of my stateroom I saw lying before me on the floor a number of fragments of ice as big as my fists.  More was crumbled about the porthole, and it flashed over me at once just what had happened.

            “We have hit an iceberg,” I said to my maid, “get dressed at once.”

            We hurried into our clothes and I took the precaution to get fully dressed.  So did my maid.  I even thought to wrap myself in my warm fur coat, for even then I felt sure we would have to take to the lifeboats.  Something told me the damage was greater than we had been told.”

            “My fears were realized a few minutes later when a steward walked briskly down the corridor, calling to the passengers who had retired again to hurry into their clothes and get on deck at once.  I could see by this man’s drawn and haggard face that something dreadful had happened.

            COWARDS DRIVEN BACK – “There was very little confusion on the deck.  Once a group of men shouted that they would not be separated from their wives if it became necessary to take to lifeboats and made a rush to find accommodations for themselves.  The captain seemed to straighten out his shoulders and his face was set with determination.

            “Get back there, you cowards,” he roared.  “Behave yourselves like men.  Look at these women.  Can you not be as brave as they?”

            “The men fell back and from that moment there seemed to be a spirit of resignation all over the ship.  Husbands and wives clasped each other and burst into tears.  Then a few minutes later came the order for the women and children to take to the boats.

            “I did not hear an outcry from the women or men.  Wives left their husbands’ sides and without a word were led to the boats.  One little Spanish girl, a bride, was the only exception.  She wept bitterly and it was almost necessary to drag her into the boat.  Her husband went down with the ship.

            “Right here I want to say something about the utter unpreparedness of the Titanic for a shipwreck.  The lifeboats were so bunglingly fastened to the davits in the first place that it was hard work to get them free.  Half the collapsible boats were so stiff that they could not be opened and were useless.  Those that were not already opened and ready for use were unavailable also for none on board seemed to understand how they worked.

            “Hundreds more could have been saved if these collapsible boats had worked properly.

            “One of the lifeboats had a big hole in the bottom.  A plug had fallen out, I believe.  When it was loaded and lowered over the side into the sea, it began to fill at once.  AT this point the fifth officer proved himself a hero.  Women in the leaking boat were screaming with fright and tearing off their clothing in wild and fruitless efforts to plug up the hole.

            “The boat filled to the gunwales before any were saved.  The brave fifth officer to my knowledge rescued 19 of the women in this boat, some of whom had fallen over the side into the sea.  It was finally hauled alongside and re-plugged, loaded and relaunched.

            “Nothing impressed me more about the whole terrible affair than the absolute absence of panic.  They tell me that something of a panic ensured after our boat had pulled away, but I do not know anything about it.

            “We rowed all night.  I took an oar and sat beside the Countess De Rothe.  Her maid had an oar and so did mine.  The air was freezing cold, and it was not long before the only man that appeared to know anything about rowing commenced to complain that his hands were freezing.  A woman back of him handed him a shawl from about her shoulders.

            “I took it, sat beside him and wrapped my hands with his, and we pulled together.

            SAW THE TITANIC SINK – ‘As we rowed we looked back at the lights of the Titanic.  There was not a sound from her, only the lights began to get lower and lower, and finally she sank.  Then we heard a muffled explosion and a dull roar caused by the great suction of water.

            “As we passed over the spot where the Titanic had gone down we saw nothing but a sheet of yellow scum and a solitary log.  There was not a body, not a thing to indicate that there had been a wreck.  The sun was shining brightly then and we were near to the Carpathia.”