Titanic Men force girl to sign paper

Rescued Chicagoan Declares When She Was Dazed in New YorkHospital, Line’s Agents Made Her Attest Exonerating Document

That agents for the White Star line forced her to sign an exonerating statement while she was prostrated in St. Vincent’s hospital, New York, for which she was given $25, was told yesterday by Miss Anna Kelly, one of the third class survivors of the Titanic.

Miss Kelly said she was taken to the hospital after she arrived in New York with the Carpathia. The following day she said when she was still numb and her reason was dazed, four men, who said they were from the White Star line, brought her a paper to sign. She was unable to read it, being too weak, she said, but they persuaded her that it would be all right and aided her hand to write her name at the bottom of the paper.

“My hands were too numb to write, but one of the men helped me,” said Miss Kelly, “Then they gave me $25. I asked them if I could get to my cousins and sister in Chicago, and they said yes. That was all I cared.”

“Miss Kelly was rescued with insufficient clothing to keep her warm. Miss Kelly was not in the last boat. She said she was in boat No. 15 and that other boats left the ship’s side after the one she was in.

She said she was asleep when the ship struck, but she was awakened by screams and cries near her. She was dazed after she awoke and remembers only indistinctly getting in the boat and being rescued.

Chicago Inter Ocean, Thursday, April 25, 1912, p. 4, c. 2