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Message |
    
Tarn Stephanos
| | Posted on Friday, February 1, 2002 - 2:38 pm: | 
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Naurally most of the accounts from surviors were from the perspective of being on the boat deck, or in the lifeboats. I have been trying to assemble accounts by survivors who witnessed the flooding deep within the ship. Any votes for the most interesting accounts?
My picks are:
*Officer Boxhall's account of the flooding mailroom
*Severall passngers accounts of the flooding squash court(such as the account of 1st class survivor Henry Blank)
*The various stages of flooding in the boiler rooms
*A crewmwmbers testomony in the British Inquiry of water creeping up Scotland Road. Related to that, I once read a 1912 newspaper account of a man who trudged through chest deep water on Scotland Road before making it topside..
*I recall reading an account of water creeping up the grand staircase, as to who wrote it, im not sure...
*The deatils of the canvas hatch cover in the 3rd class open space bulging due to growing air pressure was particulartly fascinating...
I hate to draw a comparison with the film- but were there any real survivors who encountered and wrote about tremendous interior flooding before they made it topside (i.e shades of Jack and Rose's water logged escape..)?
Many thanks
Tarn Stephanos |
Robert Falange
Member
Username: bobfalange
Post Number: 53
Registered: 7-2001
| | Posted on Monday, April 1, 2002 - 8:00 pm: |
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There was Charles Joughin's account of the water in his cabin ("E" deck, portside, amidships), although this only measured about 2 or 3 inches some time after 1:00am, perhaps 1:30am. (British Inquiry 6209-6230).
This is not very dramatic in itself, Tarn, compared to other accounts, but it might help place the locations and timings of flooding acounts in perspective.
best wishes,
bob |
Addison Hart
Member
Username: addisonhart
Post Number: 85
Registered: 4-2001
| | Posted on Monday, April 1, 2002 - 9:28 pm: |
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Barrett's account of the water in Boiler Room 5, with Harvey and Shepard.
God bless,
Addison |
Michael Douglas Shetina
Member
Username: titanicmichael
Post Number: 49
Registered: 7-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, April 4, 2002 - 6:52 am: |
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Laura Francatelli has the most fascinating. It tells how even though the deck was flooding, theose passengers on that deck were so confident in the ship they told her that they were alright
Just My Usual Rambling Nonsense
Mike |
Manuel Reiprich
Member
Username: manuel
Post Number: 67
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Monday, October 4, 2004 - 3:01 pm: |
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I personally can´t believe Joughins statement. His cabin was on E-Deck, amidships , I know. But isn´t that point too far aft to get flooded between 1:00 and 1:30 A.M.? Remember: At the Grand Staircase, the water reached E-Deck around 1:00 A.M. and because of the slant its unbelievable for me that water could rise to this part of the ship (were Joughins cabin was) before the final plunge, because this part of e-deck rose higher and higher.
Any ideas?
Manuel |
Manuel Reiprich
Member
Username: manuel
Post Number: 68
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Monday, October 4, 2004 - 3:03 pm: |
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completion:The statement that water reached e-deck at the staircase at 1:00 A.M. is from Mrs. Kreuchen, I think. |
Manuel Reiprich
Member
Username: manuel
Post Number: 69
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Friday, November 12, 2004 - 11:40 pm: |
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Anybody who wants to answer my last question? Please!!!!!! |
Randy Bryan Bigham
Member
Username: rbigham
Post Number: 901
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, November 13, 2004 - 4:53 am: |
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I think the flooding occurred on E Deck forward well before 1 A.M. Not only does Laura Francatelli mention it explicitly in her letter to a friend after the disaster but Dorothy Gibson (berthed in cabin E-22) also recalled seeing the stairs leading to E Deck flooding as she and her mother made their way up on deck. The Gibsons left in the first lifeboat, number 7, which was lowered about 12:40, according to the latest research.
Francatelli’s experience also must have happened before 1 A.M. since her account, as well as that of her employer, Lucy Duff Gordon, confirms that they were topside well before they escaped in boat 1, launched about 1:15 A.M.
All this would seem to make it quite believable that water was amidships by 1:30 A.M. |
Pat Winship
Member
Username: pbowman
Post Number: 350
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - 4:53 pm: |
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Tarn, I think the "water creeping up the staircase" is Lightoller talking about the emergency stairs. It goes like this:
"Between one boat being lowered away and the next boat being prepared, I usually nipped along to have a look down the very long emergency staircase leading direct from the boat deck down to “C” deck. Actually built as a short cut for the crew, it served my purpose now to gauge the speed with which the water was rising, and how high it had got. By now the fore deck was below the surface. That cold, green water, crawling its ghostly way up that staircase, was a sight that stamped itself indelibly on my memory. Step by step, it made its way up, covering the electric lights, one after the other, which, for a time, shone under the surface, with a horribly weird effect." Lightoller Titanic and Other Ships
Pat W |
Manuel Reiprich
Member
Username: manuel
Post Number: 70
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - 6:00 pm: |
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Randy, i dont know which "stairs leading to E Deck" Dorothy Gibson meant. The Grand Staircase?
Did she said that water reached the E Deck at the point of the Grand Staircase before they escaped in boat 7 at 12.40 A.M.?
What I don´t understand is the following:
Joughins cabin was in the aft part of the e-deck,
two decks above boiler room 1, i think.
So, I could not understand how this aft part of the ship could get under water before the final plunge. The dip of the ship caused a raising of this part of e deck above sea level.
Did Joughin really say the truth? Or was his cabin in a other part of the ship, more ahead? |
Randy Bryan Bigham
Member
Username: rbigham
Post Number: 908
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - 7:13 pm: |
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Hi, Manuel:
I assume Dorothy Gibson meant the grand staircase, as it was close to her cabin. I don’t think the "grand" part of the stairs went below E Deck but wasn’t there some sort of stairs?
If not, then she was either telling a fib or there was another stairwell near E-22.
My sources for her Titanic experiences are three 1912 interviews which she gave to the Moving Picture News, the New York Dramatic Mirror and the New York Morning Telegraph. I also have an apparently syndicated 1934 account which she gave to the Hearst press’ society and political correspondent Adela Rogers St. Johns. I will have to look through these stories later to see which one mentioned the stairs flooding.
Randy |
Randy Bryan Bigham
Member
Username: rbigham
Post Number: 909
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - 7:27 pm: |
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PS) My understanding from the wording in Gibson’s story (again I will have to double check as I don’t have my notes at hand) was that water was on the steps "BELOW" the grand staircase. She said she saw it, as did her mother, when they were heading up on deck after the general alarm was circulated. She does not say how far up the stairs the water had risen.
Perhaps someone better acquainted with the layout of the ship than I am can help figure out what she must have meant. |
Paul Lee
Member
Username: dpl
Post Number: 1048
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, November 27, 2004 - 4:26 pm: |
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Just thought I'd reawaken this thread with a bit of a poser:
apart from Buckley (who woke to find water in his room, and later found water on the staircase as he tried to get to his cabin) and Miss Kreuchen, who tried to get to her E-deck cabin only to find it flooded, did any other passenger report such events - trying to get back to their rooms only to find it partially or completely submerged?
Thanks!
Paul
--
http://www.paullee.com |
Damon Hill
Member
Username: damonh
Post Number: 41
Registered: 6-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 15, 2004 - 2:40 am: |
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Going back to passenger accounts of interior flooding, I remember reading somewhere that one of the Women in first-class, I think it may have been Emily Ryerson, described looking in through windows to firstclass staterooms as her lifeboat was being lowered and seeing the water swirl around the furniture. Can anyone verify this story?
Damon |
Joseph Kendrick
Member
Username: joe_k
Post Number: 14
Registered: 12-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, January 2, 2005 - 8:50 am: |
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I think I remember hearing that about Emily Ryerson also.
Joe |
Thomas Balle
Member
Username: thomas_b
Post Number: 27
Registered: 12-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, February 17, 2005 - 5:38 pm: |
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^^
i've read that in a book |
Matt Simons
Member
Username: jbeboatman
Post Number: 59
Registered: 3-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, March 26, 2005 - 8:36 pm: |
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Are there any survivor accounts of the first class lounge being flooded. Or the Dinning Saloon and/or Reception Room, or the Grand Staircase.
"Music to drown by, now I now know First Class" Tommy Ryan, Titanic 1997
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Patrick Garrett
Member
Username: pier59
Post Number: 12
Registered: 11-2004
| | Posted on Friday, April 1, 2005 - 7:10 am: |
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This may be a little late, but...
Damon Hill asked:
"I remember reading somewhere that one of the Women in first-class, I think it may have been Emily Ryerson, described looking in through windows to firstclass staterooms as her lifeboat was being lowered and seeing the water swirl around the furniture. Can anyone verify this story?"
Damon, Joseph, and Thomas were all correct in their hunches. Page 130 of Don Lynch's & Ken Marschall's Titanic: An Illustrated History (Hyperion/Madison Press, 1992) relates how Mrs. Ryerson watched water enter B-deck cabin windows while lifeboat No. 4 distanced itself from the ship.
I have wondered since reading that how many windows were open and how much that increased the rate of flooding. It certainly didn't improve matters.
Hope this post helped. |
Daniel Klistorner
Member
Username: danielr
Post Number: 1219
Registered: 12-2000
| | Posted on Friday, April 1, 2005 - 12:02 pm: |
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Damon/Patrick,
I'm a bit late too, but the primary source for that Ryerson account is her deposition from 1913, to the Limitation of Liability hearings. Mrs. Ryerson and Miss Bowen both gave depositions. Mrs. Ryerson does mention watching the C deck cabins get flooded.
Regards,
Daniel. |
Patrick Garrett
Member
Username: pier59
Post Number: 13
Registered: 11-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, April 3, 2005 - 7:27 am: |
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Thanks, Daniel, for the primary source confirmation. I wonder if she saw water entering C-deck or B-deck. I guess it was C-deck if the deposition mentions it. The passage from An Illustrated History said B and also that the windows were large and rectangular.
I suppose it's not a big deal which deck it was, but rather that she witnessed the flooding. My curiosity just got the better of me, seeing the different deck letters. Thanks again for your post. |
Vitezslav Ivicic
Member
Username: gilderoy
Post Number: 269
Registered: 9-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, June 24, 2007 - 1:54 pm: |
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I remember that when Carl Johnson (third class) jumped out of his bed, the water spilled over his foots and when Daniel Buckley jumped out of his bed, the were already few centimeters of water in his cabin.
And also two first class passengers, Norman C. Chambers with his wife. They were standing on the F-Deck by the entrance to the mail room and the baggage room. He looked into the both rooms and even that there was water and the mail workers were wet, he and his wife were joking about and the did not believe that the Titanic is sinking. |
Matthew Bird
Member
Username: matthewbird
Post Number: 14
Registered: 10-2007
| | Posted on Saturday, October 6, 2007 - 12:43 am: |
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I've seen a good painting of passengers ascending the Grand Staircase, shortly after 1 AM and looking down and seeing water on E-Deck.
Do any survivor accounts mention this? |
George L. Lorton
Member
Username: retro_geo
Post Number: 512
Registered: 5-2007
| | Posted on Saturday, October 6, 2007 - 2:49 am: |
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The Mail Room. Maybe the Squash Court.
Cordially,
George L. Lorton Esq.
"With Recollections of bygone happy days."
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