GAMBLERS ON TITANIC ESCAPE BY DRESSING AS WOMEN

An extraordinary story is reported in New York of the escape from the sinking Titanic of two well-known gamblers who, for some years, have frequented the Atlantic liners, and against whose card-sharking tricks notices have been posted on various ships, and actually were posted in the smoking room of the Titanic as she left Southampton.

The two men, says The Daily Chronicle’s New York correspondent, are known as ‘Doc Owen’ and ‘Kid Homer’, and they were playing with a third man when the crash came. Learning that there was no hope for the Titanic, they decided to try to get away in one of the boats. Those in authority, however, were allowing only women and children to go. ‘Doc Owen’ therefore got hold of a steward who, it is alleged, had been paid to keep the identity of the gamblers secret during the voyage, and, giving him a roll of bank notes, got him to furnish women’s clothing and hats. Dressed in these clothes, the three men hurried to the deck and leaped into a lifeboat filled with women just as it was being lowered.

Afterwards they stripped themselves of the women’s clothes, which they threw overboard. The boat they were in was filled with immigrant women and children, and did not have enough men to work the oars. Accordingly, their assistance was welcomed.