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.
