NEW YORK, April 19---C. H. Stengle, one of the first passengers off the vessel, said that the collision of the Titanic with the iceberg was the result of "criminal carelessness."
"The ship was going 22 knots an hour when she struck," he exclaimed.
Stengle said that the impact was so terrific that great blocks of ice were thrown on the deck and a number of people were killed when these blocks slid across the decks. The stern of the boat rose in the air. People ran shrieking from below.
Women and children immediately rushed to the lifeboats. As fast as possible they were lowered away to the sea.
Sailors took the women and hurled them bodily into the boats, tearing them away from their husbands to whom they were clinging.
Stengle did not confirm the report that men were shot down because they tried to push women and children away from the boats. He said he was so far aft that he could not tell.
One of the women told him that she heard a seaman threaten to shoot men who tried to get into the boats. She also told him, he said, that she heard two shots fired, but he did not know whether this was so.
Stengle said that 1,500 men leaped into the sea when they saw there was no chance far them on board of the boats.
"How they died, I do not know. I caught a lifeboat by the gunwale after I had jumped into the ocean. I was not dragged on board. There were not enough sailors in the lifeboats to operate them and the women were compelled to pull oars themselves. Some of these women, working at the oars, could be heard shrieking the names of their husbands."
"The ship was going 22 knots an hour when she struck," he exclaimed.
Stengle said that the impact was so terrific that great blocks of ice were thrown on the deck and a number of people were killed when these blocks slid across the decks. The stern of the boat rose in the air. People ran shrieking from below.
Women and children immediately rushed to the lifeboats. As fast as possible they were lowered away to the sea.
Sailors took the women and hurled them bodily into the boats, tearing them away from their husbands to whom they were clinging.
Stengle did not confirm the report that men were shot down because they tried to push women and children away from the boats. He said he was so far aft that he could not tell.
One of the women told him that she heard a seaman threaten to shoot men who tried to get into the boats. She also told him, he said, that she heard two shots fired, but he did not know whether this was so.
Stengle said that 1,500 men leaped into the sea when they saw there was no chance far them on board of the boats.
"How they died, I do not know. I caught a lifeboat by the gunwale after I had jumped into the ocean. I was not dragged on board. There were not enough sailors in the lifeboats to operate them and the women were compelled to pull oars themselves. Some of these women, working at the oars, could be heard shrieking the names of their husbands."
