Frank Prentice's Great Liners Interview

Frank Winnold Prentice

Storekeeper

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Frank Prentice:
When we pulled away from Southampton dock, there was the New York moored in front of us, and as we pulled away, she nearly bumped us with her stern, but the tugs came along and pushed her back.

We left Southampton water and went over to Cherbourg, picked up passengers there and mail. From there we went to Queenstown and picked up mail, [unintelligible], and passengers. Then we went flat out for New York, speed about 22, 23, 24 knots.

She was a beautiful ship and we had the cream of the White Star officials on board. We had Bruce Ismay aboard, we had the designer aboard, and we had 12 millionaires aboard and their wives. And, well, everybody was set to enjoy themselves. And after the third day, we had messages coming in about ice and icebergs. Although we didn't seem to take much notice of that. We went flat out. And of course on the night of the 14th, she hit a berg. And really we should have been 300 miles away from where we were.

I was in my cabin then. We had a cabin for six. And we were discussing what we would do when we arrived back in Southampton. All of a sudden she came to a halt. There was no impact as such. It was just like jamming your brakes on a car. And that was that, she stopped. We had a porthole open and I looked out and the sky was clear, the stars were shining, the sea was dead calm. And I thought, "I don't know." I couldn't understand it. So I came out of my cabin and I thought, "Well, I'd go forward."

And I went forward to the Well Deck on the starboard side and I could see ice in the Well Deck. And no sign of iceberg then because she'd passed us. And the lights were shining on the water from the portholes. No sign of damage above waterline. And of course, what had happened, we slipped over the iceberg and although she was supposed to be unsinkable with a double bottom, the iceberg cut her from forward on the starboard side to the Engine Room, almost amidships, right through her two bottoms.

Andrews and Bruce Ismay and the Captain were together discussing this and Bruce said to Andrews, "How are things down below?" And Andrews said, "She's going to sink, sir." Then things did begin to happen because the water was rushing in.

And we had orders to get the lifeboats out. And of course, the order, the same old order, women and children, and we swung the lifeboats out and gradually filled them up. First boats were away on the port side. The first boats away didn't have many passengers on board. They were afraid to go down. There was a 70-foot drop to the water and they didn't think she was going to sink. And a few of the first boats on the port side got away were half filled. And don't forget we had 16 lifeboats and they each carried 50. And if they'd been filled, we could have saved 800, whereas we only saved 500. So you can imagine there were many seats in the first lifeboats vacant.

Then I had orders to go down the Store Room with a gang of men and get all the biscuits we could find and bring them up to the boats and distribute around to the boats. Well, when we got back up onto the Boat Deck, we couldn't get near the lifeboats. There were three boats up there that were full of passengers and mixture of crew, I suppose, and we couldn't get them down because she had a sort of list to port. You can imagine halfway down she would have hit the ship's side.

Some people were scrambling to get in and being pushed back. By that time she was listing very badly to port and we couldn't get the starboard boats down. But before I got my lifebelt on, I met a young couple, and I can tell you her name, it was a Mrs. Clark. 1 They'd spent their honeymoon in France and we picked them up at Cherbourg and she was having trouble with her lifebelt, so I fixed that on to her and I said, "I think you better get into a lifeboat." And there was one on the port side. So she said, "No, I don't want to go there. I don't want to leave my husband." So I said, "Well, it's just a precautionary measure. You get in, your husband will follow later on." And I got her away and that was that. And then I picked up my own lifebelt and put it on.

Well, things went there and then the third class passengers were coming up. There were 700 of them. They swarmed the decks and filled up the decks and I thought, "Well, I'd done all I possibly could. I'd helped them all I could." And I thought, "Well, now I'll go up and get out of all this scrumming and go on the Poop Deck."

There were about four of us up there, and whilst I was up there, we sent up these lights – rockets – which burst up very high in the sky and you could see our boats spread out all over the place. And I had that in mind somehow. And Ricks 2 went and Kieran 3 went and I was there by myself then, thinking.

And she was sinking fast then, and all of a sudden she lifted up quickly and you could hear everything crashing through her. Everything that was movable was going through her. And then she went down and seemed to come up again. So I thought, "Well, now I'm going to leave." And I was hanging on to a board. We had two boards, starboard and port, which said, "Keep clear of propeller blades."

And I was hanging onto one of these and I was getting higher and higher in the air. And I thought, "Well, now I'll go." And I dropped in, I had a lifebelt on. And I hit the water with a terrific crack. Luckily, I didn't hit anything when I dropped in. There were bodies all over the place. And then I looked up at the Titanic. The propellers were right out of water, the rudder was right out, and I could see the bottom. And then gradually, she glided away and that was that. That was the last of the Titanic.

I didn't want to die. I mean, I didn't see much chance of living, but I was gradually getting frozen up. And by the grace of God, I came across a lifeboat and they pulled me in and there was a fireman dead in the bottom. There was about a foot of water in this boat. There was another man who seemed to be trying to get away from it again. I don't know what was the matter with him. They were tying him down. And the rest were women and children. And I sat on a seat and who should be...I sat next to Mrs. Clark, the girl I'd put into a lifeboat. And she said, the first thing she said, "Have you seen my husband?" I said, "No, I haven't, but I expect he'd be all right." Anyway, I was in a pretty bad way then, as you can imagine. Frozen solid almost. And she wrapped me around with a cloak. She had some sort of blanket or a coat on. Anyway, I think she probably saved my life, I don't know. But I saved hers. Usually I think I might have done, I think I did. And she saved mine.

Interviewer:
I believe you've even got a watch that you were wearing at the time when you went into the water.

Frank Prentice:
Yes, yes. Oh, [unintelligible] old gun metal watch, but I couldn't afford anything better in those early days. Here it is. This one here.

Interviewer:
What does it show us? That says 20 past two. What time was it when you went into the water do you think?

Frank Prentice:
I think about two o'clock. I think it lasted. It was frozen up like I was. I think it lasted for about 20 minutes in the water.

Interviewer:
Does talking about this incident bother you like you have been today?

Frank Prentice:
Talking about it? I should probably dream of that tonight. Have another nightmare. You think I'm too old for that, but you'd be amazed. You lie in bed at night and the whole thing comes around again.

Curator's Note: This interview was pieced together from a combination of archival video footage and audio clips from the BBC Archive. This interview reflects the known contents of the interview between those two sources.