Frank Prentice - "Some of them didn't leave their cabins even, and they must have died in their cabins."
Steward John Hart was instructed to take the women and children to the boat deck. He said, "Some were not willing to go to the boat deck, and stayed behind. Some of them went to the boat deck, and found it rather cold, and saw the boats being lowered away, and thought themselves more secure on the ship, and consequently returned to their cabin."
Q - You say they thought themselves more secure on the ship? Did you hear any of them say so?
A - "Yes, I heard two or three say they preferred to remain on the ship than be tossed about on the water like a cockle shell."
Colonel Gracie was at the forward boat deck. Just moments before the bridge went underwater he saw the following - "My friend Clinch Smith made the proposition that we should leave and go toward the stern, but there arose before us from the decks below a mass of humanity several lines deep converging on the boat deck facing us and completely blocking our passage to the stern. There were women in the crowd as well as men and these seemed to be steerage passengers who had just come up from the decks below. Even among these people there was no hysterical cry, no evidence of panic. Oh the agony of it."
I think a number of passengers were inside the ship at least until her final moments and with "no evidence of panic" they probably were not aware the Titanic was really going to sink.
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