waited for dawn to come. As often as we saw the other
boats in a distance we would yell, 'Ship ahoy!' But they could not
distinguish our cries from any of the others, so we all gave it up,
thinking it useless. It was very cold and none of us were able to move
around to keep warm, the water washing over her almost all the time.
"Toward dawn the wind sprang up, roughening up the water and making it
difficult to keep the boat balanced. The wireless man raised our hopes
a great deal by telling us that the Carpathia would be up in about three
hours. About 3.30 or 4 o'clock some men on our boat on the bow sighted
her mast lights. I could not see them, as I was sitting down with a man
kneeling on my leg. He finally got up and I stood up. We had the second
officer, Mr. Lightoller, on board. We had an officer's whistle and
whistled for the boats in the distance to come up and take us off.
"It took about an hour and a half for the boats to draw near. Two boats
came up. The first took half and the other took the balance, including
myself. We had great difficulty about this time in balancing the boat,
as the men would lean too far, but we were all taken aboard the already
crowded boat, and in about a half or three-quarters of an hour later we
were picked up by the Carpathia.
"I have noticed Second Officer Lightoller's statement that 'J. B. Thayer
was on our overturned boat,' which would give the impression that it was
father, when he really meant it was I, as he only learned my name in
a subsequent conversation on the Carpathia, and did not know I was
'junior'."
CHAPTER XVI. INCIDENTS RELATED BY JAMES McGOUGH
WOMEN FORCED INTO THE LIFE-BOATS--WHY SOME MEN WERE SAVED BEFORE
WOMEN--ASKED TO MAN LIFE-BOATS
SURROUNDED by his wife and members of his family, James McGough, of
Philadelphia, a buyer for the Gimbel Brothers, whose fate had been in
doubt, recited a most thrilling and graphic picture of the disaster.
As the Carpathia docked, Mrs. McGough, a brother and several friends of
the buyer, met him, and after the touching reunion had taken place the
party proceeded to Philadelphia.
Vivid in detail, Mr. McGough's story differs essentially from one the
imagination would paint. He declared that the boat was driving at a high
rate of speed at the time of the accident, and seemed impressed by the
calmness and apathy displayed by the survivors as they tossed on the
frozen seas in the little life-boats until the Carpathi
|