Twenty pages, handwritten and dated the same April 15, 1912, the tragic date of the sinking of the Titanic in the Atlantic after colliding with an iceberg, bring together the experience of the best-known maritime tragedy. This is the first documented testimony from one of the survivors, Washington Dodge, a doctor who was returning to the United States with his family after dealing with an illness in France.
It is a descriptive story in which fear is superimposed on the horror of the tragedy and indignation at the meager means for the rescue that the ocean liner had, on which Dodge already abounded on the mainland in several interventions, both in public forums such as before the United States Senate committee that investigated the event.
In any case, from that first moment, on the deck of the Carpathia – the ship that rescued him along with his wife and their son – the Titanic survivor bore the guilt of being one of the few men who came out alive. of the shipwreck. He already confesses it in this document, which we reproduce in its entirety, and he reiterated it in his subsequent interventions until he took his own life in 1917 in an event that was defined as a “nervous attack.”
This first testimony already affects what the historians of the mediatic shipwreck have ended up determining beyond the fiction surrounding the incident: the disparate criteria that were used for the operation to evacuate the ship on the starboard and port decks -where it was located. the captain, a large part of the officers and most of the men–, the insufficient capacity of the lifeboats on board, despite complying with British regulations, and the late reaction of the crew before a certain sinking.
“I retired to my cabin at 10:30 p.m. and was awakened around 11:40 p.m. by a violent jolt. I had the impression that the ship had been hit on the side with enough force to move it in a sideways direction. I quickly put on a long coat and left my cabin to find a large number of passengers in the aisles, all anxiously asking what had happened.
”Nobody seemed to have any information. A few moments later, a hastily passing officer responded by explaining that he believed something had happened to one of the propellers. Since no one seemed alarmed, I returned to my cabin to reassure my wife and son.
“Shortly afterwards I went out on deck for a walk and soon learned that we had collided with an iceberg, which could be seen on the foredeck, and heard a passenger say that he saw the block of ice go over the stern of the ship.” ship at the height of the recreation deck, on which it was located, and which emerged more than 20 meters above the water.
Walking quickly forward, I saw ice on the deck and returned to my cabin. As they had assured me that there was no danger and believing that this was indeed the case due to the general behavior of the passengers and the officers I met, I insisted that my family remain in bed awaiting further news.
”I went back out and asked our butler, who was there, what he had heard. He replied that the order had just come in for all passengers to put on life jackets. Rushing to my cabin, I hauled my wife and four-year-old son up and, hardly letting them get dressed, hurried them up on deck and over to the boat that was just on our deck.
”There were already passengers there assembled and the first boat on the starboard side was being loaded. There was no clear desire on the part of those present to get on that boat and I could have easily put my family on board if I had wanted to do so without them donning their life jackets. We waited while other women and children followed the orders of an officer already on board to get on.
”I watched as this boat went safely down into the water 20 or 25 meters below. Then other boats went down to starboard, odd numbers 1 through 15, some stopping on the lower deck, where they filled. The officers in charge of loading the boats acted calmly and professionally, preventing any disorder as far as possible and enforcing the order to embark women and children first.
”When boat number 13 was lowered on deck to be loaded, I went there and after 8 or 10 women had been embarked and there were no other women or children, I waited for my turn and the order of the officers. Other men were waiting and someone pushed me from behind and yelled at me to come inside. I went up and in a few moments, when the boat was full, the orders were given to lower it.
”As we approached the water we were able to observe the immense volume of water thrown from the side of the ship by the condenser pump. A great flow of water, one meter in diameter, came out of the ship with great force. It threatened to swamp our boat, and to add to the fear of the situation, we watched boat number 15 swing directly over our heads as the boat sank a few yards forward.
“Both boats were going down when our loud warning cries were heard from above and the operation was halted. We had neither officer nor seaman in our boat, but fortunately we were able to loose an oar and with it we managed to get the bow out of the threatening waters of the pump. When we released the trigger we fell into the water and were immediately dragged over the side of the boat by the great force of that flow. The ocean was as calm as the waters of a gently flowing river.
“We rowed past a boat that had a lantern on board, we couldn’t find any in ours. After rowing approximately 400 meters and meeting close to five other boats we observed the final incidents the gradual plunge of the ship towards the bow: the final sudden extinction of all her lights and the final plunge downward, like a shooting star falling from the visible zenith almost to the horizon.
“From this time until just after 4:00 a.m., in a gradually roughening sea, struck by extreme cold temperatures, we rowed gazing in the dark at what first appeared to be a fully rigged ship, but which to our disappointment turned out to be an iceberg, about half a mile away.
”At dawn we observed a light that seemed to be more reddish than those around us, from other lifeboats, and soon appeared on a second light that became visible, confirming our hope that help was approaching.
“We arrived at this boat about three quarters of an hour later and we saw that it had already rescued the occupants of three boats that had arrived before us. After boarding it, I found my wife and my son, who were in the second rescued boat. I later found that only three men among the first-class passengers whose wives had been rescued had made it off the ship and were aboard the Carpathia: Carter, from Philadelphia; Stengel, of Newark, and myself.
“The number of women in the Carpathia whose husbands, fathers or brothers were missing must be more than 50. All those men backed away while the women or children were rescued and searched for their graves.
“A 10-year-old boy told me that after his mother and sister got on a boat he was refused permission to enter and Colonel Astor, who was waiting and knew the boy, a moment later picked up a hat from a little girl, put it on, lifted it up and told the officer as he lowered the boat to allow that girl to go with her mother.”
