Olaus Abelseth's Prairie Public TV Interview

Olaus Jørgensen Abelseth

Third-class passenger

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Everything was up to date. It was nice. Even in the steerage, you see. Oh, there was a place, you see, where there were small tables you could sit and play cards. They had a room for the ladies, you see. There was a piano in there [unintelligible] dancing or play and so on. There was a bar there you could go up to the bar order whatever you wanted. Beer, whiskey or wine, whatever you wanted to. It was a wonderful ship, you know. I said to one fellow, I'd give five dollars if that I would be allowed to go through and see the first class. But even third class was good.

When they got through, they got two tugboats to try and get the bow from the dock, you see, away from the dock so that they could go out. Well, it was so big and heavy that it was hard for them to move this here ship, you see. Then they started one of the propellers, you see, to try and help along. And the suction of it in there was so strong that it broke the [unintelligible] line of the steamship New York. And we come awful close to having a collision before we ever get out of there. And there was one woman, I heard it myself. She said, "This ship is never going to see New York."

That night, or it was on a Sunday, you see. Well, in the morning, a lot of them, they didn't get up so early. But then they had breakfast. And then after a while, then they had a church meeting, you see, on there. After, I don't know, probably about 2:30 and so on, you see, when they started. And they had a big party down in the first class, you see. I stayed up till about 10:00 that night and listened to them. I didn't dance or anything, but I wasn't much – never was a dancer. But I was looking at them and listening to the music and so on. About 10:00 I went down to bed.

Yeah, this here Humblen, 1 he woke up, too, when we struck the iceberg. It wasn't a jar of it or anything of that sort, no. But we could hear someone talking in the hall. And this here fellow, he says, "Ole," he says, "what is that?"

"Well," I said, "I don't know," but I said, "I'll sure get up and find out." And I looked at my watch. Of course, it might have been a little later than that, but at my watch it was ten minutes to twelve when we struck the iceberg. Well, I told him. I said, "No," I said, "I'll go upstairs," I said, "and find out."

So I went up the three stairs, up to the main deck. On the front part there, you see, to see what was going on. And there was a few of the sailors there. And I asked them, "What is wrong?" "Oh," they said, "it's nothing." They said, "Just go down again," they said, "there's nothing." But I saw this ice, you know, and I was just wondering.

So I went down again and I went down to the room of my brother-in-law and my cousin 2 (they had a room together) and I said, "You better get up," I said, "I guess there's something wrong. I don't know if there's any danger over it or not." Well, my cousin said, "I'd like to sleep." "No," I said, "you get up."

Then we went up together there, up on deck. Well, by this time, you see, in the stairways. And some of them took it as a joke. They were laughing and all there, and some was crying and it's a lot of commotion, you see, all this here going on.

We came up then. We didn't know exactly what was going on. But I tried to get upstairs, but they locked the door, you see. And this door, well you see, they locked up that door when I first got up there so no one else could come up. They didn't me want to see this. [unintelligible]

So they locked that door. Well, then the door, you see, where we were really on the poop deck or on the main deck there, you see, and there was a door up the stairs, up to the upper decks, you see, they locked that. Couldn't get up there.

I saw a woman there, she had two small children, and they were hanging on to a skirt. And there was a fellow on the top deck. He said, "Just be quiet," he said, "there is another ship coming." Well, I could see the light of it myself.

All the boats was gone then and so on and I stayed as long as probably very few – That there was lot of – there was hundreds of them in the water when I jumped off.

I'm looking at the people. And that's the moments that I can never forget. Oh, hundreds and hundreds, you see. And they joined together, man, they kind of kept away from the railing, but they were standing together just packed, and they joined the hands, man, and they hollered in different lives. "Save us! Save us! Save us!" That is a picture I can never forget as long as I live.

I had a fur-lined coat, and I took that off and I took a pair of gloves out of there and stuck it in my pocket and threw it back on the deck. And then I took a hold of this rope and let myself down. I don't know how far, but they let me down a ways and then I let go and I went down into the water, of course, and I went under and I could feel a rope around me, probably some of this here little part of the ropes, you see. And I tried to get away from that as much as I could.

Then I tried to swim, you see, away from the ship because I was afraid of the suction, but there wasn't much suction. If it had went down fast and flat, you see, well there'd have been suction at least for half a mile, you know. But I probably wasn't a hundred yards away from it when it went down. You see, there was still a lot of people in the water, you know.

I tried to swim and get away from the boat, which I did. And at the last I saw the Titanic. Now, some of them, even in the books, just tell that the lights went out, but that isn't so. There was still light when I was in the water looking at it. And the propellers, I could see them way out. And more than half of the ship was underwater.

I had an idea I wasn't going to die. I don't know, for some reason, but I kind of had that idea. But I thought, well, it's so cold, boy, I could feel my hands getting cold. If I should get unconscious. I tried the life preserver and you actually wouldn't need to swim at all and your head and all this, it was out of it. You could float on that, you know.

So I thought, if I get unconscious, then I'll probably float anyway. But of course, you would have went. There was no human being that could stand that for any length of time, you know. There wasn't – probably some there hung on to something, you see, for about an hour, but that's the longest. You couldn't hear nothing after that.

Curator's Note: This interview was aired on Prairie Public Television as part of the special "Spin" on November 12, 1978 and is courtesy of the State Historical Society of North Dakota.