Interview with Eleanor Johnson Shuman

Eleanor Ileen Johnson

Third-class passenger

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Eleanor Johnson:
Well, it struck the iceberg at 11:40, and my brother 1 was asleep in the bunk, and he was thrown on the floor. And then the ladies went out on the deck to see what was going on. And here was ice all over the deck and they were kicking it around having a good time and an officer came down and said, "Everybody get back to your cabins. We'll be getting underway shortly." And so they came back in the cabin, and after that, the table steward came and rapped in the door. He said, "Get your coats on." He said, "Get your coats on. The Titanic is sinking."

We got up on deck just about two o'clock and there was a ring of officers around the lifeboat. One of them beckoned to Mom to come over. And so she went through the ring, and then she was standing on the edge of the boat, the Titanic. And she became frightened because it was such a height. And she said there was a space between the ship and the lifeboat. So the man in the lifeboat says, "Don't look down. Close your eyes and fall forward and I'll help you." So he did, and he helped her to a seat.

Jeff Myers [Interviewer]:
And your four-year-old brother, how does he get to the lifeboat?

Eleanor Johnson:
Well, Mom looked to see if she [the lady] followed, but she was still up on deck and the lifeboat was being lowered. So she called to her and told her to drop Harold. And she was so frightened she couldn't let go. So a man standing next to her took Harold out of her arms and dropped him into the lifeboat. And he passed him back to Mom, and she took her lifejacket off and put it on my brother because she said, "I had you to care for, and he might get through and tell what happened."

Jeff Myers [Interviewer]:
And what happened to the lady that dropped Harold down?

Eleanor Johnson:
She went down with the ship. She was very fond of this girl. Her name was Elin Braf, and she said she had the most pathetic expression on her face hanging onto the rail when they left the ship. 2 And Mom couldn't get that out of her mind, that she had to die.

Jeff Myers [Interviewer]:
How long are you in the water? Do you recall?

Eleanor Johnson:
I think they said about five hours.

Jeff Myers [Interviewer]:
Five hours? And describe how you got picked up.

Eleanor Johnson:
We got picked up by the Carpathia. My brother and I were raised up to the Carpathia in mail bags, and my mother had to climb a rope ladder. They were very kind to us on the Carpathia because here we were, just coats on over nightwear, and I was bare-footed, so they cut up blankets and made coats for us and booties for me and people came forward with all kinds of clothing. And after hours in the lifeboat and the ice water, Mom's shoes were soaking. So they took them down below decks and put them near a heat vent, and they returned to her. The leather was so hard and the toes were turned up, she couldn't get them on her feet. So I had to get her a pair of shoes when we got back to New York.

My mother was quite ill because she, after being exposed so much to all that ice water, she had laryngitis so bad she couldn't talk. So it was four days before...We were taken to St. Luke's Hospital. It was four days before she could communicate and tell where she was going. At first, they wanted to send her back to Sweden because they thought she was immigrating. So then my father was notified in St. Charles, and he came to New York and took us back home.