After the water closed over the Titanic, hundreds of people remained struggling for their lives in the freezing water. Their screams were unbearable and unforgettable for those who listened to them from the safety of the lifeboats. Nevertheless, as hundreds of men, women and children froze to death during the next hour, none of the boats rowed back to offer help.
It
was only after the dreadful cries had died down that Fifth Officer Lowe
transferred passengers out of lifeboat 14 and rowed it back to the site of
the Titanic’s sinking. Masses of dead bodies, buoyed by the
life belts, floated in the sea. Lowe and Able Seaman Joseph Scarrett were
only able to pull 14 people out of the water, and only half of those
survived the cold and exposure.As dawn began to break at 4:30 a.m., the lifeboats drifted in rough seas, surrounded by huge icebergs, some of them more than 200 feet high. Slowly, they made their way toward a rescue ship that had finally arrived. The Cunard liner Carpathia had steamed through the night, speeding 58 miles to the Titanic’s position after receiving her wireless plea for help: "Come at once. We have struck an iceberg."
Four
hours later, all 705 Titanic survivors had come aboard the Carpathia,
climbing up rope ladders and nets or being hauled up in slings to the
ship’s deck. Children had been placed in canvas sacks and pulled aboard.
Before leaving the site, the Carpathia searched for more
survivors, but found none. The ship’s captain, Arthur Rostron, ordered
the Carpathia’s flag lowered to half mast and assembled a
memorial service as the ship steamed over the patch of sea where the Titanic
sank. Thirteen of the liner’s lifeboats were taken aboard, and three
survivors who had perished after the rescue were released into the sea.
For
the next three days, the survivors were cared for and comforted by the Carpathia’s
passengers and crew. As they steamed west across the Atlantic to New
York, the ship’s wireless operator, Harold Cottam, and the Titanic’s
rescued Marconi operator, Harold Bride, transmitted the names of the
survivors to an anxious press and public. The Carpathia finally
arrived in New York Harbor on Thursday, April 18, and the stunned
survivors were greeted by mobs of reporters and photographers desperate
for details of the Titanic’s loss and the terrible disaster
that they had survived.
