Karl Midtsjø's Letter to His Brother

Dear Brother,

I have now arrived in New York, and am now in a hospital. We have been given lodging here by some higher authorities. It is not that I am ill, but they probably didn't have any other place for us, I imagine. I had a lucky escape with the Titanic affair. It is pure chance that I survived, because things were quite chaotic. I can't really say I was afraid at all, although only just over a hundred third class passengers were saved, 210 of the crew and the rest from first and second class. But some millionaires also went down the drain from what I hear. I have lost everything I had of clothes and money, so I don't have anything other than what I am wearing at the moment. It is no fun being in a little boat out on the Atlantic Ocean.

We sat in the lifeboats and thought, "Now it is their turn and soon it will be ours." It isn't a joke when such a big ship is sinking. It was a serious situation when the rockets went were fired. It was a clear, starry night and the stars shone just as they do at home, even though it was a four-day voyage by steamer to reach land.  It would take a whole day to tell it all, but I must be content with a few words.

We are being treated as earls and looked up to – almost as if we were unnatural – and there are plenty of people who want to help us. I am thus in the best of health and haven't suffered from the disaster. However, you can be quite solemn when you have seen something as terrible as this. I can still hear the cries for help. And someone was shot when they tried to force their way up into the boats.

But there is at least something I cannot forget – a whole lot who bent their knees on deck and prayed to God, but there was no one who made fun of them then, even though there had been dancing and card playing the whole way and one felt as safe on board as on land. And then she sank in a couple of hours. Give my love to father and all my nearest. Send this letter home when you have read it, because I haven't got time to write to anybody else.

My regards to all, Karl

Curator's note: The original letter was provided to Per Kristian Sebak by Øyvind Sollie and Tone Bunæs of Norway. This translation is sourced from George Behe's On Board the RMS Titanic and from the Norwegian American Weekly from April 13, 2012.