Lucky to be alive

Nothing is more powerful than the words of those who were actually there as Titanic sank below the cold waters of the Atlantic.

Jack Podesta and James Crimmins, both from Southampton, were firemen on Titanic and somehow they were among the lucky ones who, against all the odds, escaped to tell the most famous story in shipping history.

Mr Podesta died at the age of 80 in the city, but not before he completed a graphic first-hand account of that terrible night 90 years ago.

It was in 1956 that Mr Crimmins died aged 65 at the Salvation Army Hostel in Southampton and he too carried vivid memories of that fateful night in 1912.

As Titanic headed towards New York she came closer and closer to the danger of icebergs.

"Some of us passed remarks about the persisting cold,'' said Mr Podesta, as he told of his survival back in Southampton.

"My mate and I put on our 'go ashore' coats and then went along to the mess room, which was up a flight of stairs, just inside the whale deck. We finished our meal and coming from the mess room to our living quarters, we heard a man in the crow's nest shout 'Ice ahead, sir.'

"With my mate I went on deck and looked around but saw nothing. It was a lovely calm night and pitch black."

Mr Podesta and his friend went back down below, stayed up talking for an hour and then turned in for the night.

"We laid in our bunks for about five minutes. Several times the man in the crow's nest shouted 'Ice ahead, sir.' Nothing was done from the bridge to slow down or alter course. So, the crash came, sounding like tearing a strip off a piece of calico, nothing more, only a quiver.

"The few of us who were awake went out of our room to the spiral ladder of number one hatch. We saw some men running from the starboard side, about where the ship struck the iceberg. They must have been flooded out as we could hear water rushing into the forward hold.

"Going back to our room, we began shaking one or two men up from their bunks.

"The bo'sun came to our door and shouted 'Get your life-belts and man your boats."

Mr Podesta and his friend followed the bo'sun's commands but found the boat they were allotted was already full, and they were ordered to help lower it.

As they looked for something to make a raft they were ordered into another boat.

"There were about three able seamen in the boat and we two firemen. The rest were passengers, including women and children, 72 in all. So we took hold of the ropes and lowered ourselves into the water.

"I should imagine we were about five or six hundred yards away from the ship, watching her settling down. She was going down at the head all the time. But there was once when she seemed to hang in the same place for a long time, so naturally we thought her watertight doors would hold her.

"Then all of a sudden, she swerved and her bow went under. The stern rose up in the air. Out went her lights and the rumbling noise was terrible. It must have been her boilers and engines as well as her bulkheads, all giving way. Then she disappeared altogether. This was followed by the groans and screams of the poor souls in the water.

"Soon it was all silent. I think she ship was about two hours sinking and we were drifting in the boats until dawn.

"We could see small black objects, bodies and ice floating around, and later, we saw some lifeboats a good distance away. They were burning some things as signals to one another. Some passengers in our boat burned handkerchiefs or anything as well.''

Eventually the boat was picked up by the liner Carpathia which took the survivors to New York.

Mr Crimmins was deep down inside Titanic in the ship's engine room when the vessel hit the iceberg.

"I was on shift from 8pm to midnight when there was a big bump. It threw us off our feet but we were told to stay at our posts. No one seemed excited and it never occurred to anyone that the ship would sink. Afterwards I found that almost everyone else felt that way too because Titanic was supposed to be the ship that would not sink.

"We knew she had hit an iceberg and the situation took a more serious turn when we were ordered to draw the fires in the boilers.

"I was in the stokehole, working in just a vest and short pants, when there was a shout 'Every man for himself.' I dashed up to the boat deck, where there were crowds of passengers milling about near lifeboats being lowered.

"I helped where I could and got away myself among those in the last lifeboat. I was the only one in the lifeboat who was half-naked, and a woman passenger, the wealthy Mrs Astor, ripped her big fur muff down the middle to wrap around me. I reckon that saved my life for we had to wait four-and-a-half hours before we were picked up by the liner Carpathia.''

- Originally published April 2004.