University of Virginia Library

THE MONEY BOAT

Thomas Whiteley, a first saloon steward, in telling of various experiences of the disaster that had come to his knowledge, said that on one of the first boats lowered the only passengers aboard were a man whom he was told was an American millionaire, his wife, child and two valets. The others in the boat were firemen and coal trimmers, he said, seven in number, whom the man had promised to pay well if they would man the life-boat. They made only thirteen in all.

"I do not know the man's name," said Whiteley. "I

Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.
LIFE-BOATS, AS SEEN FROM THE CARPATHIA
Photographs taken from the rescue ship as she reached the first boats carrying the Titanic's sufferers.

[Description: Two black-and-white photographs, each providing an overhead view of a crowded life-boat on the water. ]

heard it, but have forgotten it. But I saw an order for five pounds which this man gave to each of the crew of his boat after they got aboard the Carpathia. It was on a piece of ordinary paper addressed to the Coutts Bank of England.

"We called that boat the `money boat.' It was lowered from the starboard side and was one of the first off. Our orders were to load the life-boats beginning forward on the port side, working aft and then back on the starboard. This man paid the firemen to lower a starboard boat before the officers had given the order."

Whiteley's own experience was a hard one. When the uncoiling rope, which entangled his feet, threw him into the sea, it furrowed the flesh of his leg, but he did not feel the pain until he was safe aboard the Carpathia.

"I floated on my life-preserver for several hours," he said, "then I came across a big oak dresser with two men clinging to it. I hung on to this till daybreak and the two men dropped off. When the sun came up I saw the collapsible raft in the distance, just black with men. They were all standing up, and I swam to it—almost a mile, it seemed to me —and they would not let me aboard. Mr. Lightoller, the second officer, was one of them.

"`It's thirty-one lives against yours,, he said, `you can't come aboard. There's not room.'"

"I pleaded with him in vain, and then I confess I prayed that somebody might die, so I could take his place. It was only human. And then some one did die, and they let me aboard.

"By and by, we saw seven life-boats lashed together, and we were taken into them."