Then the Carpathia started for her own pier. As she
approached it the ports on the north side of pier 54 were
closed that the Carpathia might land there, but through the
two left open to accommodate the forward and after gangplanks
of the big liner the watchers could see her looming
larger and larger in the darkness till finally she was directly
alongside the pier.
As the boats were towed away the picture taking and shouting
of questions began again. John Badenoch, a buyer for
Macy & Co., called down to a representative of the firm that
neither Mr. nor Mrs. Isidor Straus were among the rescued
on board the Carpathia. An officer of the Carpathia called
down that 710 of the Titanic's passengers were on board, but
refused to reply to other questions.
The heavy hawsers were made fast without the customary
shouting of ship's officers and pier hands. From the
crowd on the pier came a long, shuddering murmur. In it
were blended sighs and hundreds of whispers. The burden
of it all was: "Here they come."
ANXIOUS MEN AND WOMEN
About each gangplank a portable fence had been put in
place, marking off some fifty feet of the pier, within which
stood one hundred or more customs officials. Next to the
fence, crowded close against it, were anxious men and women,
their gaze strained for a glance of the first from the ship,
their mouths opened to draw their breaths in spasmodic,
quivering gasps, their very bodies shaking with suppressed
excitement, excitement which only the suspense itself was
keeping in subjection.
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