to get to the upper decks where the boats were launched,
maids who were overlooked in the confusion, cabin passengers
who refused to desert their husbands or who reached the decks
after the last of the life-boats was gone and the ship was
settling for her final plunge to the bottom of the Atlantic.

Narratives of survivors do not bear out the supposition
that the final hours upon the vessel's decks were passed in
darkness. They say the electric lighting plant held out
until the last, and that even as they watched the ship sink,
from their places in the floating life-boats, her lights were
gleaming in long rows as she plunged under by the head.
Just before she sank, some of the refugees say, the ship broke
in two abaft the engine room after the bulkhead explosions
had occurred.

COLONEL ASTOR'S DEATH


To Colonel Astor's death Philip Mock bears this testimony.

"Many men were hanging on to rafts in the sea. William
T. Stead and Colonel Astor were among them. Their
feet and hands froze and they had to let go. Both were
drowned."

The last man among the survivors to speak to Colonel
Astor was K. Whiteman, the ship's barber.

"I shaved Colonel Astor Sunday afternoon," said Whiteman.