Sale of rare account of Titanic sinking

Jul 8 2008 by Laura Sharpe, Liverpool Daily Post

A RARE account of the night the Titanic sank is being sold alongside the hero's medal given to the seaman who wrote it.

The Carpathia bronze medal presented to Liverpool able-seaman George Gardner is being auctioned today with his handwritten account of that fateful night in 1912.

Mr Gardner was one of the crew of Cunard’s RMS Carpathia, which became famous for rescuing 705 survivors of the Titanic.

For the rescue, the 140 crew were awarded bronze medals, 14 officers were awarded silver and Captain Arthur Roston received a gold medal, along with seven other high-ranking officers.

In his 16-page account of the night, George Gardner remembers the distress call being received at 11.40pm by the captain.

He writes: “The stokehold watches were doubled and steam was called for, news of the emergency acting as a spur to her fireman as to all others on board, she proceeded to show what she could do when human lives are at stake.”

After 3½ hours travelling at 15 knots “taking the ship through ice-littered water at a higher speed than they had ever before compassed” they reached the Titanic.

He writes the regrettable fact that the SS California, which was only 20 miles away from the “scene of death”, never received the signal because the wireless had just gone off duty.

In poetic words, Mr Gardner recalls the inevitable end as the ship’s bow dipped slowly into the water.

“Two sixteen and all of a sudden the lights were instantly quenched as if a mighty hand had touched a mighty switch. She’s gone.

“And the world’s miracle ship tiredly slid to her eternal rest, a moment of hushed silence then a new sound, the screams and stern cries of hundreds and hun-dreds of human beings struggling desperately in the icy waters.

“The people who had remained on board, the strong cry of a gallant swimmer, the gurgle, as hands reached him selfishly and bore him under in a struggle where reason could not prevail.”

When the Carpathia arrived and her lights flooded the area, he writes: “Dead men were everywhere, but they were dead and they were left to the sea.

“Remained then on the living and to these the Carpathia turned her attention, in her was warmed cabins, blankets, refreshments provided, stoking of fires was eager, everything that could be done was done.”

He later writes: “There the bitter roll call was taken and the full magnitude of the casualties became known.

“Five hundred and four passengers and two hundred and one of the crew survived. The percentage of the crew was too high: it was then their duty to remain behind and give place to those who had trusted them-selves to professional keeping.”

Later, he comments on the brave captain and officers who stayed at their posts and died with their ship.

Looking back on the disaster, he praises the new Merchant Shipping Laws: “No passenger boat may leave a British port today without sufficient life boats to hold all the hands and in them allow an ample margin for emergency.”

John Crane, of Liverpool’s Cato Crane and Company, who are handling the lot said it had attracted a lot of international attention.

The lot will be sold later on today, and could fetch between £1,000-£3,000.

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laurasharpe