Still they began to lower boats, and then things
began to happen very quickly.
"Mr. Berth was trying to persuade his wife to get into a boat. She said
she would not do so without him. He said, 'Oh, come along, my darling; I
will be all right,' and I added to his persuasions.
"I saw him help her into the boat with the ropes of the davits. I fell
into the same boat, and we were slipped down into the water over the
side of the liner, which was bulging out, the list being the other way.
The boat struck the water, and after some seconds (it may have been a
minute) I looked up and cried out, 'My God, the Lusitania is gone!'
"We saw the entire bulk, which had been almost upright just a few
seconds before, suddenly lurch over away from us. Then she seemed to
stand upright in the water, and the next instant the keel of the vessel
caught the keel of the boat in which we were floating, and we were
thrown into the water. There were only about thirty people in the boat,
and I should say that all were stokers or third-class passengers. There
may have been one or two first class; I cannot recall who they were.
"When the boat was overturned I sank fifteen or twenty feet.
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