Interview with Nelle Snyder

Nelle Snyder

First-class passenger

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Nelle Snyder:
And we thought, "Well, let's go up and see if we got the tickets. Maybe they've forgotten us all this time. We stayed so long around this whole place." And they said, "Oh," They were so glad to see us. They said, "We've got a surprise for you. We're not going to give you a ticket." We asked if they had our tickets ready. He said, "We've got your tickets ready alright and you'll be so glad you won't know what you're doing. We're going to put you on the Titanic." We didn't look. We literally just said, "What's the Titanic?" And they said, "Oh, it's a wonderful ship. Which is true. It's the first time it's ever been out, but then it's the most wonderful ship that ever happened." So they talked us into changing our tickets and going on that. And I fussed a little bit about it because I didn't like the captain that was on our other boat. That's why we got off. We hadn't made the rounds yet, but when I got off I went to dry land and took an automobile and had some fun. I said, "Who's the captain?" And they said, "We don't know." I said, "Why don't you know?"

And they said, "We never allowed a new captain until you're at sea. It's always a surprise who the captain is." And he said, "Oh, but he's one of the most wonderful captains, so we don't know either," they said, "But you'll find it on your plate when you come in to dinner." So we waited about three or four days until the boat was really ready. And then we went in and we go out there and they took us.

That was a beautiful boat. They put us up way up in the upper part and all the brides and grooms were there. It was really quite thrilling and nice and we were very pleased. But then we waited till we went down for dinner. We said, "Well, we aren't sure we're going to stay here anyway. If there's a captain here that we know, we're going to get off." And they said, "You can. You can go back with the mail." So then we calmed down and, lo and behold, we went up...down to the dinner and turned over our plate and it was Captain Smith. We nearly dropped dead.

We'd gone upstairs because it was so cold. They didn't have any heater downstairs. The boat really wasn't ready to go. Everybody that was downstairs went up to their rooms, and then they sent lanterns in with us, or electric things or something, whatever it was, and we heated our rooms. So we just sat there, and there were the brides and grooms, and they'd go to each other's rooms and chatter for a while, then come back. But we were just so cold that we just decided we'd go to bed anyway. So we did.

He was over the other end and I was right in the place where it hit, but I didn't know it. So I didn't know I was really on the outside. I didn't think that anything there hit me anyway. Well, anyway, we were so cold that we just stayed up there, and all the brides and grooms did. Finally, we decided to go to bed and forget it. We turned on our little lantern. Then the first thing we knew this awful wham bang. And we got out of bed so quick, you never saw anything like it and everybody had their heads out the doors then. Then the sailors come around and they said, "Never mind, we just hit a...", what did we hit? "Iceberg."

They said, "Just harmless. Just don't worry. Everything will be all right." And we said, "Well, we want to go down and see. We want to get up and see it. Wherever it is, we want to see it." And don't you know when you're that young, you want to see anywhere, whether you're cold or hot or what. So we put on our clothes and away we went up there, and were we afraid then. It was so cold and the place was so awful. The boat was already tipping and the iceberg was just shattered in front of us. I think the picture in there showed it. That was down. So we thought, "Well, let's get out of here." They say, "Oh, it's going to be fixed. It's going to be all right. Don't worry." And the captain would come around and tell us. But he said, "I think we'll call for the boats and you people go up there and get in the boats and try to pacify us." We went down in the basement and there they were up to their knees, shoveling, trying to get the water out. The poor sailors, they were just...what did they say? They said, "There's the biggest hole here. No use of doing this. Might as well let it in now." Well, anyway, we went up. That's how we looked all through the place and saw how bad it was. Then we went up there and we stayed until they finally decided that they would go.

Gerald Skelly [Interviewer]:
It was about an hour, about an hour then.

Nelle Snyder:
They tried to make us get in the boat. Then they didn't know how to lower them. First, they'd get down. We said, well we'd go when the men said they could go because you had to have men to row. So they came to us finally. We didn't want to do it if the men weren't allowed. We thought, "Well, no, we'd rather stay together out there." But they begged and pleaded with us because they said, "If you lower one boat, they'll all get in (the others) and they'll know better." So we had to set an example and we did. Wasn't that fortunate? So we were lowered down. But I tell you, it was hard on our husbands. But we got down. Of course, there was nothing but ice. We could hardly move. And cold. And I just had that coat on that I had there.

We weren't dressed for winter. And we bailed with our men's hats. So we'd stay there until we nearly froze to death, too. They had to lower us, too. We get down, tipped, and when we'd yell and scream, we'd get down and then nobody knew where the thing was. We took everything, finally we found it. We women just...we were right up to here anyway, so we just held our hands all around and tried to catch that thing that we put in there to block out this ocean. We found it too.

Then we started moving away. And the poor...We got finally when we were rowing away and they keep saying, "Don't come back. Don't come back. Stay around. We'll have a pilot man in a boat to show you where to keep yourself." So we did. We did what they did. The men were rowing. You can imagine the ocean and then the icicles, I mean, the ice, it was just like going through – I don't know what – just chopped ice up to your neck. But they struggled and struggled and struggled, and we finally made it.

The women and children, they said, "Get in." Down we went. We set the example, finally. Then they wouldn't come. [inaudible 00:07:59] would never think that was advertised, but I think weeks and months before it was even the end. But it took us a long time to get away from there. We couldn't get out of the ice.

Gerald Skelly [Interviewer]:
So it was difficult to get through the ice away from the Titanic.

Nelle Snyder:
Yes. And then it was all... It was just as if halfway up to...because it was up to our knees anyway in the boat, in the water. And it was just as if we'd just taken this and piled a whole lot of chopped ice in it. That's where we were sitting all the time. We did this much with our men's hats.

Gerald Skelly [Interviewer]:
You used the men's hats to bail the boat.

Nelle Snyder:
Tried to bail.

Gerald Skelly [Interviewer]:
When you were moving away from the Titanic, were there lights on the Titanic? You could still see it, I suppose.

Nelle Snyder:
Yeah, you could see it partially, if you've seen some of the pictures. Then when it was really tipped up, the orchestra was right up there. The orchestra kept going up and up and up. They were right up there and they were playing, "Nearer My God to Thee" all the time. We knew it. We thought, "Well, they don't need to give themselves up for us because we know we'll be the first ones in there." But pretty soon, when it was hours, when I looked around and I said, "I see a light over there." And they said, "Oh, no, you don't." I said, "I do." And they said, "That's a star." I said, "I don't believe it. I've been watching it a long time before I mentioned it." So, two or three people, we got the men looking too. Sure enough, that's what the Carpathia was. So we started rowing for that then. That was, of course, three or four hours after the other sank, because we were rowing all the time.

Gerald Skelly [Interviewer]:
And you pulled right up alongside of it then and then they –

Nelle Snyder:
Took us quite a while. We were a long time doing it. The men were rowing. I was afraid they'd all have heart attacks. Just think how long they've been in that icy water, sitting in water up to knees. The men, of course, they were warm enough, they said, because they were working so hard. There was one man, there was a great big fella, and he had his coat on and he had his hat on. He was sitting in the back of the boat and just watching what they do, and he'd yell at them once in a while. We finally asked him not to yell, and they were trying to do all right. He was some German. I think we were against the Germans at that time weren't we? So we said, "Oh, goodness gracious, don't get him mad because he'd probably shoot us all." And he did, he was [inaudible 00:10:54] his revolver at us all the time. Scared us to death. But he calmed down when we really saw the boat. When we saw the light, it was a long way off and they told me I was crazy. I couldn't see that far. I said, "You just look." And people watched, and we were all agreed, so we aimed for it.

But then when we got there, of course, to the Carpathia, they just lowered a big basket. They let their boats down and came and got us kind of, and said they have help now and don't worry anymore and so on and so forth. So they put down a basket and they threw me in that basket. I was so much smaller than some of these other people with all the fur coats on me, and that was about as big as a minute. I said, "Well, don't put anybody on top of me." I had that once before when I got in. So they took us on and all the people, of course, on board were all up and dressed and everything because it took them a long time to row to us. That's how far we could see them. And they were firing at us, too. So we all sat there, the brides and grooms.

Gerald Skelly [Interviewer]:
Sat on the floor.

Nelle Snyder:
We sat there right on the floor and everybody that would get downstairs to get some breakfast went. They finally brought us up some. We told them not to. We wouldn't eat. We weren't hungry anyway, we said. So just let us stay here and we don't want anything. We were so afraid somebody would take our place and then we where would we be? We would be scattered you know? But here we were, right square in the middle, just as if that was a downstairs way there and then the other rooms were the people's rooms. We never moved.

Finally, one of the brides said, "I don't know what I'm sitting here and crying all the time for. I had my fortune told in Cairo and they said I was going to be in a shipwreck. Then I was going to be in an automobile accident, and I was finally going to be killed on a bicycle." So we laughed and we said, "Why didn't you tell us this before? We've got to get to dry land now." So then we started eating and we did everything to get there, so we get to dry land. And, lo and behold, every one of those things happened to her. Can you believe it? The fortune teller in Cairo?

We sat there like we were, not moving for pretty much two days, I think. A lot of people wanted to go on their cruise and then a lot of people said they wouldn't think of going. They felt so sorry for all of us. So many of them lost their husbands you know and their children. A lot of children though were running around, but the people took them into their rooms with them and tried to play with the children. And the children didn't know what it was all about anyway, but the women that were saved, it was very sad. It was awful.

So there we sat for two days, for near a day and a half, deciding what to do. The captain didn't know what to do. He said they hired this boat to take a cruise, but he said, "I think we should go up to New York, but it's up to them. I've got to do what they say." Finally, they all decided to go. We all said, "Well, if you go back to New York, you better telephone ahead or something and tell them we're going to be there for life. We wouldn't get into another boat for anything." So they got to laughing about that.