TITANIC STOOD ON END FOR MINUTES BEFORE SHE SUNK

LIGHTS ALL BLAZED UNTIL SHE TOOK a VERTICAL POSITION

and STOOD WITH 150 FEET OUT of WATER - SLOWLY DIVED DOWN.

"As we rowed away from the Titanic we looked back from time to time to watch her. In the distance she looked an enormous length, her great hulk outlined in black against the starry sky, and porthole and saloon ablaze with light. It was impossible to think anything could be wrong with such a leviathan were it not for that ominous tilt downwards in the bows, where the water was by now up to the lowest row of portholes. We were now about two miles from her and all the crew insisted that such a tremendous wave would be formed by suction as she went down that we ought to get as far away as possible. The captain agreed, and all lay to their oars and widened the distance between us and the sinking vessel."

"Presently, about 2 am, as near as I can remember, we observed her settling very rapidly, with the bows and the bridge completely under water. She slowly tilted straight on end with the stern vertically upwards, and as she did so the lights in the cabins and saloons, which had not flickered for a moment since we left, died out, came on again for a single flash, and finally went altogether. At the same time the machinery roared down through the vessel with a rattle and a groaning that could be heard for miles. But this was not quite the end. To our amazement she remained in that upright position for a time, which I estimate as five minutes, others in the boat say less, but it was certainly some minutes while we watched at least 150 feet of the Titanic towering up above the level of the sea and looming black against the sky."

"Then, with a quiet, slanting dive, she disappeared beneath the waters and our eyes had looked for the last time on the gigantic vessel we had set out on from Southampton last Wednesday." --From the story of Lawrence Busley (sic), of London, a survivor of the disaster.