Alice Williams' Letter to Walter Lord

I was acting as nurse to the two children of Mr. & Mrs. Allison, having taken the position two weeks before we sailed as their nurse decided not to go at the last moment.

Lorraine was 3 years old at the time and Trevor 10 months. I had some difficulty in persuading Mr. Allison to get up and go to see what had happened after the crash, which they did not hear at all and thought it was my imagination. Some long time after the engines had stopped, he decided to go and find out the trouble. While he was away, I was warned we would have to leave the ship, so [I] prepared the children and Mrs. Allison, but she became hysterical and I had to calm her. About that time, an officer came round to close the cabins and advised us to go on deck.

We met Mr. Allison outside the cabin, but he seemed too dazed to speak. I handed him some brandy and asked him to look after Mrs. Allison and Lorraine and I would keep [the] baby. The child [and] I managed to get off the ship. Some confusion occurred outside as to which deck we should go and that is how we became separated and afterward I heard from one of the staff that Mrs. Allison was hysterical again and that Mr. Allison had difficulty with her and I can only surmise that is how they lost their lives, as there was plenty of room in the lifeboats, because people refused to leave thinking it was safer on the ship.

Curator's note: This transcription is an excerpt from the full letter that is preserved in the archive of the collections of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. This transcription has been lightly edited for readability. Line breaks, punctuation, grammar, and capitalization have been adjusted to conform to modern conventions. These changes have been made solely to enhance clarity, and the original intent, tone, and content of the letter have been carefully preserved.