Archie Jewell's Letter to His Sister

Archie Jewell

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"...she went down little by little by the bows then at last her stern went right up in the air and then she went right down straight...I was in my bunk when it happened but I was soon on deck. I looked down in the hold and saw the water rushing in, she was just over two hours before she went down..."

"...we was in the boats for six hours before the steam boat came to us we was very thankful to get onboard for when it came daylight there was iceburghs [sic] all around us and about 20 miles stretch of small ice. If she had not come when she did we should have drifted amongst the ice and been frozen to death. I shall never forget the sight of that lovely big ship goin down and the alfull crys [sic] of the people in the water and you could hear them dying out one by one it was enough to make anyone jump over board and be out of the way. I can't help crying when I thinks about it. I think it is a shame to let them big boats go to sea with such a small lot of boats, had there been boats enough nearly every one would have been saved. If the watertights [sic] doors had worked she would not have went down..."

"...one boat picked up one of the sailors and he went mad in the boat and wanted to go overboard again but he died in the boat..."

"it was a fine night...not an air of wind and the water as smooth as glass"

Curator's note: These excerpts of the letter, which was written onboard the Lapland by Archie Jewell, was pulled from images and the description provided by Sotheby's in their auction listing. The original letter was four pages long. If you would like to contribute the contents of the full letter to Titanic Archive, please contact us.