SUCKED DOWN WITH THE TITANIC.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXX, Issue 3551, 17 June 1912, Page 3

SUCKED DOWN WITH THE TITANIC.

STORY OF THE LAST MAN

SAVED

Of all the recitals of personal adventure in the Titanic disaster, that of Colonel Gracia, of the United States Army, who jumped from the topmost deck of the Titanic when she sank, and was sucked down with her, is the. most extraordinary. Colonel Grade, on reaching the surface again, swam until he found a cork raft, ancl then helped to rescue others. He gives the exact time- of the sinking of the Titanic as 2.22 a.m., which was the hour at which his watch was stopped by his leap into the sea. “After sinking with the ship.” he said, “it- appeared to me as if I was propelled by some great force through the water. Tlii-s might have been occasioned by explosions under the water, and I remembered fearful stories of people being boiled to death. The second officer lias told me that he has had a similar experience. “Innumerable thoughts of a persona] nature having relation to mental telepathy flashed through my brain. I thought of those at home, as if my spirit might go to them to say Goodbye for ever. Again and again I prayed for deliverance, although I felt sure that the end had come. I had the greatest difficulty in holding my breath until I came to the surface. I knew that once I inhaled the water -would suffocate me. When I got under water I struck out with all my strength for the surface- I got to the air again after a time which seemed unending. There was nothing in sight save the ocean, dotted with 10 1

“Tho second officer and Mr. J. B. Thayer, jun., who were swimming near me, told me that just before my head appeared above the water one of the Titanic’s funnels separated and fell apart near me, scattering the bodies in the water. I saw wreckage everywhere, and all that come within reach I clung to.” Colonel Grade relates how at last by moving from one piece of wreckage to another, he reached the raft. “Soon,” he continued, “the raft became so full that it seemed as if she would sink if more came on board her. The crew, for self-preservation, had, therefore, to refuse to permit any others to climb on board. This was the most pathetic and horrible scene of all. The piteous cries of those around ms ring in. my ears, and I will remember them to my dying day. “ ‘Hold on to what you have, old boy, 1 we shouted to each man who tried to get on board. ‘One more of you would sink us all.’ Many of thosfe whom we refused answered as they went to their death, ‘Good luck! God bless you!’ All the time we were buoyed up and sustained by the hope of rescue- Particularly frequent .were some green lights, which, as we learned later, were .rockets fired in the air by one of the Titanic’s boats. So we passed the night with tire waves washing over and burying the raft deep in water. “We prayed through all the weary night, and there never was a moment when our prayers did not rise above the waves. Men who seemed long ago to have forgotten how to address their Creator recalled the prayers of their childhood, and murmured them over and over again. Together we said the Lord’s Prayer again and again,”