15.
CHAPTER XV
JACK THAYER'S OWN STORY OF THE WRECK
SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD SON OF PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD OFFICIAL
TELLS MOVING STORY OF HIS RESCUE—TOLD MOTHER TO
BE BRAVE—SEPARATED FROM PARENTS—JUMPED WHEN
VESSEL SANK—DRIFTED ON OVERTURNED BOAT PICKED UP
BY CARPATHIA
ONE of the calmest of the passengers was: young Jack
Thayer, the seventeen-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs.
John B. Thayer. When his mother was put into
the life-boat he kissed her and told her to be brave, saying
that he and his father would be all right. He and Mr. Thayer
stood on the deck as the small boat in which Mrs. Thayer
was a passenger made off from the side of the Titanic over
the smooth sea.
The boy's own account of his experience as told to one of
his rescuers is one of the most remarkable of all the wonderful
ones that have come from the tremendous catastrophe:
"Father was in bed, and mother and myself were about
to get into bed. There was no great shock, I was on my
feet at the time and I do not think it was enough to throw
anyone down. I put on an overcoat and rushed up on A
deck on the port side. I saw nothing there. I then went
forward to the bow to see if I could see any signs of ice. The
only ice I saw was on the well deck. I could not see very
far ahead, having just come out of a brightly lighted room.
"I then went down to our room and my father and mother
came on deck with me, to the starboard side of A deck.
We could not see anything there. Father thought he saw
small pieces of ice floating around, but I could not see any
myself. There was no big berg. We walked around to the
port side, and the ship had then a fair list to port. We stayed
there looking over the side for about five minutes. The list
seemed very slowly to be increasing.
"We then went down to our rooms on C deck, all of us
dressing quickly, putting on all our clothes. We all put on
life-preservers, and over these we put our overcoats. Then
we hurried up on deck and walked around, looking out at
different places until the women were all ordered to collect
on the port side.
SEPARATED FROM PARENTS
"Father and I said good-bye to mother at the top of the
stairs on A deck. She and the maid went right out on A
deck on the port side and we went to the starboard side.
As at this time we had no idea the boat would sink we walked
around A deck and then went to B deck. Then we thought
we would go back to see if mother had gotten off safely, and
went to the port side of A deck. We met the chief steward
of the main dining saloon and he told us that mother had
not yet taken a boat, and he took us to her.
"Father and mother went ahead and I followed. They
went down to B deck and a crowd got in front of me and
I was not able to catch them, and lost sight of them. As
soon as I could get through the crowd I tried to find them
on B deck, but without success. That is the last time I
saw my father. This was about one half an hour before
she sank. I then went to the starboard side, thinking that
father and mother must have gotten off in a boat. All of
this time I was with a fellow named Milton C. Long, of
New York, whom I had just met that evening.
"On the starboard side the boats were getting away quickly.
Some boats were already off in a distance. We thought of
getting into one of the boats, the last boat to go on the forward
part of the starboard side, but there seemed to be such
a crowd around I thought it unwise to make any attempt
to get into it. He and I stood by the davits of one of the
boats that had left. I did not notice anybody that I knew
except Mr. Lindley, whom I had also just met that evening.
I lost sight of him in a few minutes. Long and I then stood
by the rail just a little aft of the captain's bridge.
THOUGHT SHIP WOULD FLOAT
"The list to the port had been growing greater all the time.
About this time the people began jumping from the stern.
I thought of jumping myself, but was afraid of being stunned
on hitting the water. Three times I made up my mind to
jump out and slide down the davit ropes and try to make the
boats that were lying off from the ship, but each time Long
got hold of me and told me to wait a while. He then sat down
and I stood up waiting to see what would happen. Even
then we thought she might possibly stay afloat.
"I got a sight on a rope between the davits and a star and
noticed that she was gradually sinking. About this time she
straightened up on an even keel and started to go down
fairly fast at an angle of about 30 degrees. As she started
to sink we left the davits and went back and stood by the rail
about even with the second funnel.
"Long and myself said good-bye to each other and jumped
up on the rail. He put his legs over and held on a minute
and asked me if I was coming. I told him I would be with
him in a minute. He did not jump clear, but slid down the
side of the ship. I never saw him again.
"About five seconds after he jumped I jumped out, feet
first. I was clear of the ship; went down, and as I came up
I was pushed away from the ship by some force. I came up
facing the ship, and one of the funnels seemed to be lifted off
and fell towards me about 15 yards away, with a mass of
sparks and steam coming out of it. I saw the ship in a sort
of a red glare, and it seemed to me that she broke in two just
in front of the third funnel.
"This time I was sucked down, and as I came up I was
pushed out again and twisted around by a large wave, coming
up in the midst of a great deal of small wreckage. As I pushed
my hand from my head it touched the cork fender of an over-turned
life-boat. I looked up and saw some men on the
top and asked them to give me a hand. One of them, who was
a stoker, helped me up. In a short time the bottom was covered
with about twenty-five or thirty men. When I got on
this I was facing the ship.
"The stern then seemed to rise in the air and stopped at
about an angle of 60 degrees. It seemed to hold there for a
time and then with a hissing sound it shot right down out
of sight with people jumping from the stern. The stern
either pivoted around towards our boat, or we were sucked
towards it, and as we only had one oar we could not keep
away. There did not seem to be very much suction and most
of us managed to stay on the bottom of our boat.
"We were then right in the midst of fairly large wreckage,
with people swimming all around us. The sea was very calm
and we kept the boat pretty steady, but every now and then
a wave would wash over it.
SAID THE LORD'S PRAYER
"The assistant wireless operator was right next to me, holding
on to me and kneeling in the water. We all sang a hymn
and said the Lord's Prayer, and then waited for dawn to come.
As often as we saw the other boats in a distance we would
yell, `Ship ahoy!' But they could not distinguish our cries
from any of the others, so we all gave it up, thinking it useless.
It was very cold and none of us were able to move around to
keep warm, the water washing over her almost all the time.
"Toward dawn the wind sprang up, roughening up the
water and making it difficult to keep the boat balanced. The
wireless man raised our hopes a great deal by telling us that
the Carpathia would be up in about three hours. About
3.30 or 4 o'clock some men on our boat on the bow sighted
her mast lights. I could not see them, as I was sitting down
with a man kneeling on my leg. He finally got up and I stood
up. We had the second officer, Mr. Lightoller, on board.
We had an officer's whistle and whistled for the boats in the
distance to come up and take us off.
"It took about an hour and a half for the boats to draw
near. Two boats came up. The first took half and the other
took the balance, including myself. We had great difficulty
about this time in balancing the boat, as the men would
lean too far, but we were all taken aboard the already crowded
boat, and in about a half or three-quarters of an hour later
we were picked up by the Carpathia.
"I have noticed Second Officer Lightoller's statement that
`J. B. Thayer was on our overturned boat,' which would give
the impression that it was father, when he really meant it was
I, as he only learned my name in a subsequent conversation
on the Carpathia, and did not know I was `junior'."
