Lowering the Boats

George Frederick Crow

Steward

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One young chap, so bronzed and sturdy that I mistook him for an out-and-out seaman, gave a very telling account of the services rendered by the lifeboat in charge of Mr. Lowe, the fifth officer, and of various incidents which he witnessed. He said:"I was awakened in my bunk by the collision, and went to see what was wrong. Having been told that there was nothing serious, I returned to my bunk and fell asleep again. Afterwards – I could not say how long – I was aroused by orders being shouted that everyone was to put on lifebelts and go on deck. I got two lifebelts, one for myself and another for my chum, whom I went to find. Going on deck the two of us stood by the bulkhead until Mr. Murdoch, who was directing the lowering of the boats on the port side, called upon us to help. Mr. Lowe, who was off duty at the time, came and lent a hand. No one could have worked harder than he did. I helped him get three lifeboats, with women and children, into the water. The first boat could only be lowered within four feet of the water, so it had to be allowed to fall the remainder of the distance. I was directed to get into the third boat to assist Mr. Lowe in taking charge. There were about fifty women in the boat. Another steward was also put into it. I did not see my chum again. When we were on deck the vessel was dipping at the bow, but there was no perceptible movement downwards. When the lifeboat got on the level of the water, however, it was possible to see the ship sinking inch by inch quite plainly. We rowed away from the Titanic some little distance, and Mr. Lowe was able to get several other boats into a bunch. He then transferred all the women and children from one of the boats, and, taking six men, including myself, with him, we rowed towards the Titanic, leaving the women and children in the rest of the boats in the care of two or three men.

The Last Plunge.

"When we got within a hundred yards of the ship we saw her make a sharp tilt downwards at the bow. The other end was lifted into the air. Then the ship broke in two at the centre, and the aft got more into the horizontal. Next moment the Titanic disappeared from sight. Just before I saw all the people on board crowding aft as far as possible. They had been ordered there by the captain as the vessel was slowly moving down by the bow. From the moment when the ship broke in halves I thought the after-part would be saved by the watertight compartments. There was a dreadful sound of groans and shrieks as hundreds of passengers and crew were drawn into the water. It was a mass of floating people.

"There was very little suction from the sinking vessel, but it would have meant the sacrifice of all the lives in the boat if we had gone on to the spot where the vessel disappeared. We should certainly have been swamped. We kept around all night, picking up anyone we could find into the boat. Some were half-frozen. One was a German passenger, a rather big man. 1 We could not draw him up into the boat, and he was quite unable to help himself. At last I got into the water and hoisted him in. We tried our hardest to restore him, but he died within five minutes."

Curator's note: Though this article does not give a name of a survivor, part this account was more than likely given by steward George Crow, who gave testimony at the US Inquiry that closely resembles this account in general detail as well as his confusion as to the identity of the officer on the port side and the breakup of Titanic as she sank. 

Another potential attribution for the content of this article may be to Frank Morris, as he said in his testimony at the British Inquiry that the women and children were transferred to other boats before the Titanic sank. Morris also stated that Boat 14 was rowing towards the Titanic when it sank.

As such, the first part of this article was most likely given by Crow, while the rest may be attributed to Morris or a combination of the two. Perhaps it can be ascertained that the two men were interviewed at the same time, and their separate testimony was treated as one account in print. 

We would like to thank Wolfric Rogers for contributing this article and the insight into its attribution to the Archive. If you would like to contribute a primary source to Titanic Archive, please contact us.