After the water closed over Titanic, hundreds of people remained struggling for their lives in the
freezing water. Their screams were unbearable and unforgettable for those who listened to them from the
safety of the lifeboats. Nevertheless, as hundreds of men, women, and children froze to death during
the next hour. None of the boats rowed back to offer any help.
It was only after the dreadful
cries had died down that Fifth Officer Lowe transferred passengers out of lifeboat 14 and rowed it back
to the site of Titanic's sinking. Masses of dead bodies buoyed by the lifebelts they wore in the freezing
water. Lowe and Able Seaman Joseph Scarrett were only able to pull 14 people out of the water, and only
half of those survived the cold exposure.
As dawn began to break at 4:30 a.m. the lifeboats drifted
in rough seas, surrounded by huge icebergs, some of them more than 200 feet high. Slowly they made their
way toward a rescue ship that had finally arrived. The Cunard liner Carpathia had steamed through the
night speeding 58 miles to the Titanic's position after receiving her wireless plea for help: "Come at
once. We have struck an iceberg."
Four hours later, all 705 Titanic survivors had come aboard
the Carpathia, climbing up rope ladders and nets or being hauled up in slings to the Ship's deck. Children
had been placed in canvas sacks and pulled aboard. Before leaving the site, the Carpathia searched for
more survivors, but found none. The Carpathia's Captain Arthur Rostron ordered the ships flag lowered
to half mas, and assembled a Memorial Service as the ship steamed over the patch of sea where the Titanic
sank. Thirteen of the liner's lifeboats were taken aboard. Three of the survivors who perished after
being picked up were released into the sea.
For the next three day's, the survivors were cared
for and comforted by the Carpathia's Passengers and Crew. As they steamed West across the Atlantic to
New York the ships Wireless Operator, Harold Cottam, and the Titanic's rescued Marconi Operator, Harold
Bride transmitted the names of the survivors to an anxious press and public. The Carpathia finally arrived
in New York Harbor on Thursday April 18, 1912. The stunned survivors were greeted by mobs of Reporters
and Photographers desperate for details of the Titanic's loss and the terrible disaster that they had
survived.
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