from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Friday, April 26, 1912
STICKS TO TITANIC TILL LAST MINUTE
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Young Englishman Reaches Cleveland and Relates Story of Disaster.
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Saw Man Shot Dead and Mrs. Straus Refuse to Desert Husband.
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REPEATED LORD'S PRAYER
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United With Other Men on Raft, Mostly Catholics, in Appealing to Heaven -- Floated Waist
Deep in Water With Col. Gracie, Officer Lightoller, Operator Bride and Others Awaiting
Rescue -- Tells of Captain Giving Away Life Belt.
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Afloat six hours on an overturned lifeboat with twenty-nine others--the last man to leave the boat deck of the doomed Titanic after she crashed into the iceberg that sent her to the bottom, Victor Sunderland of London, England reached Cleveland last night.
Sunderland, 20 years old, saw Mr. and Mrs. Isador Straus go to their death together; saw the first officer of the Titanic shoot dead a man who refused to give up his place in a lifeboat to a woman; leaped to the icywater with Second Officer Lightoller and found a place on the overturned lifeboat that proved a harbor of refuge for Col. Archibald Gracie.
He joined in the prayer offered up by the thirty on the fragile craft and a few minutes later was aiding in the work of pushing back those who sought to climb aboard when the boat was already overcrowded. He was one of the very few third class passengers to survive.
The young Englishman is a nephew of J. P. Foley, 8917 Superior-av N. E., where he is to make his future home. Although he landed with the Carpathia a week ago last night, no direct word was received from him. A score of telegrams purporting to be from him were proved on his own statement to have been sent by officials of St. Vincent's hospital, New York, from the time he landed until last Saturday afternoon.
Confirm's Gracie's Story
A telegram from the White Star Line Tuesday morning led his relatives here to the Euclid-av station of the Pennsylvania railroad Wednesday, but a later telegram from the same source stated that he would not leave until Thursday. Without previous word Sunderland appeared at his uncle's home last evening.
Sunderland's story of his escape from the sinking ship and his experience in the icy water before being picked up by the Carpathia tallies exactly with that others have told. Although he knew the names of none of his companions on the overturned boat except Second Officer Lightoller, with whom he had jumped, the incidents he set forth last night correspond with the story told by Col. Gracie.
"I lay on my bunk in Section G, third deck from the main deck, at 10 o'clock that Sunday night," said Sunderland last night. "Three of us were smoking. I had on my trousers. My coat and vest were hanging on a rack. A little before midnight we felt a slight jar and heard a noise similar to that a basket of coals would make if dropped on an iron plate. Seven of us ran up the companionway to the maion deck, where a steward told us to go back. We saw a number of pieces of ice on the deck, but he said there was nothing wrong, so we went back."
"We laid down in our bunks again and smoked for about a quarter of an hour. Suddenly one of us noticed water pouring into the section under the door. This time we knew something was wrong and three of us again ran up, but only to the first deck. The others were asleep, and I guess they were drowned."
"An officer stopped us there and told us to go back and get life preservers. Those preservers were located in racks over the bunks. When we got back we found the section full of water -- twenty feet of it -- and we had no chance toget our life belts. We ran aft between decks and up to the main deck."
"On the main deck there was a Catholic priest praying and around him was a crowd of men and women. Some were kneeling and some were running around screaming. I looked over the side and saw that the ship had stopped. It was about on an even keel then. At that point we three separated. I went from the main deck to the promenade deck amidships and the other two went aft to the taffrail. They were drowned as were the others in my section."
"Then I went to the boat deck. The boat deck was crowded on the starboard side. The crew was filling the boats with women and children and lowering them away. An old lady and an old man with a white beard stood together. An officer told the woman to get into a boat. She put her arm around her husband's shoulder and said, 'Let me have my husband.' When she was told she must go alone, she said, 'Then I will die with him.' That was the last I saw of them."
"In one boat, partly filled with women, a man sat--I think he was a Russian. An officer told him to get out, but he wouldn't. The officer fired his revolver one or twice and still the man sat there. The officer then shot him and he dropped back in his seat. He was lifted up and dropped overboard."
"I began to look for a lifebelt and I saw a steward in one boat with three lifebelts strapped about his body. I asked him to give me one, but he refused. I asked an officer where I could get one, but he said he didn't know. Capt. Smith stood near us, and I asked him."
"'I don't know where you can get one now,' he said. 'I have given mine away.'"
"He was a brave man. He seemed to be everywhere, always trying to get the women and children off."
"The ship had begun to list to port by that time and the boats on the starboard side were nearly all gone. The passengers rushed to the port side, but were crowded back by the crew to keep the boat even. The captain ordered all boats to row away from the ship. The ship began to sink by the head and by then the boat deck was clear of all but Lightoller, two firemen and myself."
"The ship had dropped down in the water until the boat deck was awash and the officer, fireman and myself tried to lower away a boat that stood in the blocks on the starboard side. The water was then gushing up through the gangway through which the firemen enter and leave the fire room. Just as we had the boat ready to lower the ship trembled and dropped suddenly. The firemen jumped over the starboard side."
"'Here she goes," shouted Lightoller and jumped over the port side. I followed."
"A lifeboat, bottomside up and evidently one of those which had overturned under its load, floated up to the rail and we grabbed for it. We climbed upon it and it drifted over the submerged part of the Titanic. We passed under the forward funnel and just as we were clear it fell. At that minute the Titanic broke in two just aft of amidships and the stern stood straight in the air."
"'Make for the stern. It looks like she will float,' Lightoller shouted, but just as he spoke the stern plunged down."
The twenty minutes that followed, Sunderland said, were marked by cries and screams for help, then all was quiet. In all, twenty-eight other swimmers climbed aboard the overturned boat and scores of others were thrust back into the water when they tried to climb on. Harold Bride, second wireless operator on the Titanic, was one of those who found a place on the boat. The survivors worked their way from the stern and distributed themselves over the bottom so as best to keep afloat and waist deep they stood for six hours."
"Someone asked how many Catholics there were on board," said Sunderland. "Nearly all were Catholics, and the man who spoke began to say the Lord's Prayer. Then he said the Hail Mary. We followed. About daylight we sighted the Carpathia and it was about that time Lightoller shouted for the other boats to pick us up. I was the fifth man to leave our boat and I got into one rowed by women, some dressed and others half dressed. There were seventy-two in our boat."
"We found that two of those on the overturned boat were dead when we were picked up and three men in the boat that got us died before we reached the Carpathia. Lightoller kept us from drowning before we were picked up. He made us keep steady."
When the Carpathia was reached five babies were taken from Sunderland's boat and lifted to the liner's deck in ashbags. Women and exhausted men were taken up in bo'sun's chairs. Cold coffee was all the third class survibors were given for the first two hours on the Carpathia.
In New York Sunderland was taken to the Salvation army home, fed and clothed and then taken to St. Vincent's hospital, where he remained until Saturday. From Saturday until Wednesday night he made attempts to obtain from the White Star line information that would lead him to the recovery of money he had lost in the wreck, but without success. His case is now in the hands of New York attorneys.