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The Loss of the S. S. Titanic - Its Story and Its Lessons by Lawrence Beesley
page 21 of 154 (13%)
motion instead of the straight up-and-down swing of the Titanic. I
then called the attention of our table to the way the Titanic listed
to port (I had noticed this before), and we all watched the sky-line
through the portholes as we sat at the purser's table in the saloon:
it was plain she did so, for the sky-line and sea on the port side
were visible most of the time and on the starboard only sky. The
purser remarked that probably coal had been used mostly from the
starboard side. It is no doubt a common occurrence for all vessels to
list to some degree; but in view of the fact that the Titanic was cut
open on the starboard side and before she sank listed so much to port
that there was quite a chasm between her and the swinging lifeboats,
across which ladies had to be thrown or to cross on chairs laid flat,
the previous listing to port may be of interest.

Returning for a moment to the motion of the Titanic, it was
interesting to stand on the boat-deck, as I frequently did, in the
angle between lifeboats 13 and 15 on the starboard side (two boats I
have every reason to remember, for the first carried me in safety to
the Carpathia, and it seemed likely at one time that the other would
come down on our heads as we sat in 13 trying to get away from the
ship's side), and watch the general motion of the ship through the
waves resolve itself into two motions--one to be observed by
contrasting the docking-bridge, from which the log-line trailed away
behind in the foaming wake, with the horizon, and observing the long,
slow heave as we rode up and down. I timed the average period occupied
in one up-and-down vibration, but do not now remember the figures. The
second motion was a side-to-side roll, and could be calculated by
watching the port rail and contrasting it with the horizon as before.
It seems likely that this double motion is due to the angle at which
our direction to New York cuts the general set of the Gulf Stream
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