Titanic: The Novelization (110th Anniversary Edition)

The Rescue

Between the sinking and the dawn, Titanic's lifeboats drifted and rowed aimlessly on the calm, dark sea. The survivors were stunned by the loss of their loved ones. They sat silently or bickered miserably while others tried to signal each other as the boats gradually scattered. In Number 15, men made an unsuccessful torch with rags and flannel wrapped around the end of a boat hook. In Number 2, Fourth Officer Boxhall lit green flares, inspiring other boats with false hopes of an approaching ship. In Number 8, Ella White used the light of her electric cane to guide her boatmates through the darkness.

The overturned Collapsible B was gradually sinking, riding lower and lower under the weight of the thirty men who clung to its curved hull. Inspired by the commanding prescience of Second Officer Lightoller, and by Wireless Operator Harold Bride's news that ships were sailing to the rescue, the passengers on B stood and shifted their weight to keep afloat. Even with a strategy for survival, some of the men died from cold and exhaustion.

The situation in Collapsible A was just as bad. Swamped with 14 inches of freezing water, the passengers stood for hours, singing, praying and counting. Norris Williams and Olaus Abelseth both had men die in their arms. As dawn broke, the people in these two foundering craft caught the attention of other lifeboats, which rowed to their rescue.

Then Archibald Gracie noticed a slow-approaching glimmer of hope in the distance:

"It was at quite an early stage that I had seen far in the distance the unmistakable mast lights of a steamer about four or five points away on the port side, as our course was directed toward the green-colored lights of the imaginary ship which we hoped was coming to our rescue, but which, in fact, was the already-mentioned Titanic lifeboat of Officer Boxhall. I recall our anxiety, as we had no lights, that this imaginary ship might not see us and might run over our craft and swamp us. But my eyes were fixed for hours that night on the lights of that steamer, far away in the distance, which afterwards proved to be those of the Carpathia. To my great disappointment, they seemed to make no progress towards us to our rescue. This we were told later was due to meeting an iceberg as she was proceeding full speed toward the scene of the Titanic's wreck. She had come to a stop in sight of the lights of our lifeboats (or such as had them). The first boat to come to her sides was Boxhall's with its green lights. Finally dawn appeared and there on the port side of our upset boat where we had been looking with anxious eyes, glory be to God, we saw the steamer Carpathia about four or five miles away, with other Titanic lifeboats rowing towards her."

As Gracie described, dawn had brought the Cunard Liner Carpathia, which steamed toward them from the southwest. Captain Arthur Rostron had reached Titanic's last known position, only to find an empty, icy sea as well as lifeboats scattered over three to four miles. Many in the lifeboats had heard and seen her signal rockets as she steamed over to the horizon, maneuvering around icebergs in her race to rescue the passengers on the sinking Titanic. The crew noticed one of Boxhall's green flares close at hand. Rostron stopped Carpathia's engines and let down a rope ladder for Lifeboat 2, ready to take onboard the first survivors. At 4:10 a.m., Elisabeth Allen of St. Louis was the first Titanic survivor to set foot on Carpathia's deck. Boxhall, as the first officer to come aboard, had the grim honor of announcing Titanic's loss to the captain.

Meanwhile in Lifeboat 6, Maggie and Mrs. Candee, still in charge, rowed towards Carpathia. Ruth held onto the hope of seeing Rose again, unaware that she and the steerage man she liked least of all had already left Collapsible D. Now they were warm and safe with the other Third Class passengers, served with hot tea.

Lifeboat 14, commanded by Fifth Officer Lowe, hoisted sail and towed Collapsible D to safety. Along with Numbers 12 and 4, they stopped to rescue the passengers from the two foundering collapsibles. Even as the boats became overloaded, the wind and surf began to pick up after an unusually calm night.