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The Detroit News,
April 21, 1912:
“I could see that to remain was
to be drowned, so, with my friends, began looking
about for a raft. All we could find was a broad seat
running about the side, on which there were wide
cushions. We snatched up the cushions and tore off
the broad seats, hoping that they would keep us
afloat in the water. With one of the seats I jumped
overboard. The deck was then about 25 feet above the
water. I sank, but soon came up again, and then
began a battle for my life.
I could just keep my head
above water by putting my weight on the seat, but
found it very difficult to make any headway toward
the small boats. Finally one came past me, however,
and the people in it hauled me aboard. There were no
women in this boat and the men were mostly members
of the crew. One man had already died, and soon
after I was hauled in they dropped his body
overboard.
A few minutes later I
helped pull another man into the boat, an American,
who was unconscious and whose body was stiff from
the cold water. He revived after we got him on the
Carpathia and was recovering when I left New York
Friday afternoon. I do not know his name.
When I jumped from the deck
of the Titanic I lost track of my friends, and it
was not until we were on the Carpathia that I
learned Sap and Scherlinck were alive. But they were
the only ones of our party of 20 who were saved.
I watched the Titanic sink
from the small boat, after we had rowed 300 or 400
feet away from the ship."
Some of us felt
there was not enough evidence to pinpoint a lifeboat,
several felt that he may have gotten up on Collapsible
B, but could not guess whether he transferred to #4 or
#12.
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