Selma Asplund's Skandinavia Account

... Several relatives of the Asplund family... were to meet the shipwrecked at the arrival of the Carpathia last Thursday evening and bring them to Worcester. Mrs. Asplund and her two small children had however been taken to St. Vincent Hospital, where Mr. Charles E. Carlson after much searching found them, and last Saturday, the severely tested family arrived in Worcester and were taken to the home of Mrs. Asplund's brother-in-law and sister, Mr. and Mrs. Olof Ahlquist's, on 151 Vernon St. Many relatives and friends of the Asplunds and others, who had been drawn to the train station, became deeply touched at the sight of the unfortunate wife, pale and drawn, supported on the arm of her brother-in-law.... Among the friends who met Mrs. Asplund when she stepped off the train was Pastor J. A. Eckstrom, who pressed her hand and offered a few words of comfort. Mrs. Asplund's face was distorted by a bruise that she had suffered when a half-crazed man jumped down in the lifeboat. His shoe hit her in the face and his body knocked her so hard on her shoulder that she was almost lame. She was pressed into a corner of the lifeboat. Before she could scream, the man placed his hand over her mouth and ordered her to be quiet. Then he stretched out face down on the bottom of the boat....

Mrs. Asplund recalled how her husband had awakened at the collision with the iceberg, and run up on deck. He soon came back saying that an accident had occurred..... It took a while before she had dressed herself and her four [five] young children. When they came up on deck, it was very cold. Mr. Asplund put lifebelts on all of them. Mrs. Asplund ran over to the other side of the ship to see about lifeboats there. She stopped by the first and saw how women and children were squeezed in. A sailor took the baby boy from her arms and gave him to a woman who was already in the boat. The mother did not know if she should call out to get her child back or if she should step into the boat, but in the same moment her husband came and hurried to take the little girl from her. "We will find room in one of the other boats," he said encouragingly to her.

There were about 40 people in the boat.... When she turned to the ship, she could see her husband and their three boys at his side, waving to her with a handkerchief. This was the last she saw of her husband and her three boys. It was bitingly cold in the open boat and she and her children were thinly dressed. A man took off his coat and swept it around the little boy, who was the only who didn't seem to be freezing. It seemed like it took forever before they were brought on board the Carpathia....

We had gone to bed at the usual time in the evening in our family cabin. It was at this time that my husband had a premonition. Before retiring, he sat down on the edge of the bed and uttered in all seriousness, "The noise is terrible. Ever since we left England they haven't done anything but drink. dance, and play cards. If everything goes well, it's remarkable, and if we make it to land, it will probably be the last time we travel over the Atlantic."

Curator's note: This translation from the original Swedish article is sourced from Not my Time to Die, by Lilly Setterdahl.