Name |
Lifeboat from Titanic |
Lifeboat to Carpathia |
Confidence Level |
Lindqvist, Mr Eino William |
Collapsible A |
14 |
3.72 |
From Lindqvist’s 1930 account in the Syracuse Post-Standard, April 27, 1930: “Officers were maintaining a terrific struggle to preserve that ancient rule of the sea – 'women and children first.' The odds, at times, appeared to be too great. With their pistols drawn, the Titanic’s officers formed the women and children into lines to await their turn for a place in a lifeboat. To win for my sister and her child a place in this line was the task I set myself to do. I shouted to my sister to hold on to my overcoat and to follow me. Then ensued a fight to hold that place, which lasted an hour and a half. Finally we reached a lifeboat, and with the aid of some ship’s officers, I managed to get my sister and ….. [unreadable] … an attempt to enter the last lifeboat. But a huge .45 automatic pistol pushed into my breast forced me back! ….. I stood by and helped to see that the lifeboat containing my sister and her baby was safely lowered, for I had seen some of the boats, manned by woefully green crews, stood on end. At this time the prow of the Titanic was almost submerged and her stern was high in the air, and she had a fearful list. .... But I could do nothing but flail my arms at the water until they, too weary to sustain me any longer, would…. [unreadable] happened. This raft, about forty feet long, had proved unseaworthy, and probably being overloaded, had immersed it’s benighted human cargo into the sea. Unless one had plenty of strength in reserve, a return to the raft was impossible. Those who managed to board the craft did all in their power to prevent others from climbing aboard. …. When it seemed I no longer had strength to keep up the frightfully unequal struggle, I managed to make a last supreme effort to get aboard – and succeeded! …. The raft, it seemed to me, was the airtight bottom of a boat with canvas sides, but the canvas sides had not been raised. …. After two and a half hours only enough were left alive so that under their weight the raft no longer sank, tho it was still extremely precarious. When the fight for the raft had ended, there were twenty men on it – but few able to stand on their feet. …. All of us lay full length. …. We were rescued shortly after 9:30 on the morning of the 15th.” The Pittsburgh Post Gazette of May 7, 1912 relates that Mr Lindqvist was "suffering from pneumonia" and was receiving aid, indicating he may have been in the water. There has been speculation that Lindqvist was in #15, however, we've seen nothing to indicate this. We've found that the Hirvonens (" my sister and her child") were probably in Collapsible D, which launched after #15. The prow being submerged and the fearful list describes the situation as the very last boats were launched. Lindqvist describes a boat on the port side, which could indicate Collapsible D. If Lindqvist put the Hirvonens in Collapsible D, then he could not have been in #15 (other side of the ship, port and starboard, front and back), and we know #15 left before Collapsible D. Assuming Lindqvist was actually on either Collapsible A or B, he does not say about another boat picking them up before getting on the Carpathia. As Lindquist said in the Syracuse article that the sides had not been raised, it looks more like Collapsible A than B. We do know that all the men and the woman on Collapsible A were picked up by #14. |