Name |
Lifeboat from Titanic |
Lifeboat to Carpathia |
Confidence Level |
Lundström,
Mr Thure Edvin |
4 |
4 |
2.89 |
Letter to his family, reprinted in On Board RMS Titanic, by George Behe, page 355: (One paragraph is summarized as follows) During the wait Mr. Lundstrom did what he could to help others find lifebelts. He came across a group of 10 or 15 young men who were very frightened and said, “Let’s pray.” He led them in prayer. "All the lifeboats were gone as I stood on the third class deck praying. A calmness filled my soul as only a person could feel that has left themselves in God’s hand. I didn’t feel any fear about death. I prayed that God’s will for my life would be done and that if it was meant for me to live He would show me a way to be rescued." (Lundstrom then lowered himself down a rope into the sea.) "I didn’t swim long before I was taken on one of the lifeboats, where I stood, soaking wet for over four hours in water." (The lifeboat was already carrying several dead bodies, and the rest of the night was spent bailing water out of the craft to keep it from sinking.) "After 20 minutes after I had been rescued the big liner sank taking several hundred with it to the deep." From the Chicago Daily News, 24 April 1912: "I was surrounded by young Swedes, who all seemed willing to die after they had placed their wives and sisters and babies in the boats. I stood there with them a while and then jumped into the sea. It was frightfully cold, but I was used to it, and I swam for many minutes. Then I was picked up by a lifeboat. There were only twenty-five people in it. I thought of all those brave young men who were drowned. Then I got extremely cold, but they let me row a while and that was good. At last we were picked up." Unlike most of the claimant swimmers that night, Lundstrom stated that he was in the water for minutes rather than hours, and again unlike them he provided details of the boat that picked him up, details which of course correspond closely to boat 4. We think he's a strong contender for the man pulled from the water who was described by Sam Hemming as definitely a 3rd Class passenger, and one who spoke very good English but sounded like he might be a foreigner. Lundstrom was of course a Swede, but he was well traveled and had lived and worked in China as well as the US, showing a good ability to learn and use new languages. |