The officers tried to pick out the ones that volunteered
merely for service and to eliminate those who volunteered
merely to save their own lives. This elimination process
however, was not wholly successful.
THE DOOMED MEN
As the ship began to settle to starboard, heeling at an angle
of nearly forty-five degrees, those who had believed it was all
right to stick by the ship began to have doubts, and a few
jumped into the sea. They were followed immediately by
others, and in a few minutes there were scores swimming
around. Nearly all of them wore life-preservers. One man,
who had a Pomeranian dog, leaped overboard with it and
striking a piece of wreckage was badly stunned. He recovered
after a few minutes and swam toward one of the life-boats
and was taken aboard.
Said one survivor, speaking of the men who remained on
the ship. "There they stood--Major Butt, Colonel Astor
waving a farewell to his wife, Mr. Thayer, Mr. Case,
Mr. Clarence Moore, Mr. Widener, all multimillionaires, and
hundreds of other men, bravely smiling at us all. Never have I
seen such chivalry and fortitude. Such courage in the face of
fate horrible to contemplate filled us even then with wonder
and admiration."
Why were men saved? ask: others who seek to make the
occasional male survivor a hissing scorn; and yet the testimony
makes it clear that for a long time during that ordeal
the more frightful position seemed to many to be in the frail
boats in the vast relentless sea, and that some men had to be
tumbled into the boats under orders from the officers.
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