As The Ship Was Sinking

Dateline:  April 23, 1912

Newspaper: The San Francisco Call, Page 4, Interview with First Class Passenger, George Bradley

*The newspaper quality is very difficult to read. This is a transcript of the article.

New York - According to George Bradley, one of the rescued first class passengers, he and a group of men passengers on the Titanic kept a card game going for three-quarters of an hour after the steamer truck the iceberg, hoping to allay the fears of others.

George Bradley was playing bridge with many other men in a room far aft on the ship and said he and others felt only a slight shock from the collision.


Henry B. Harris was with another group of card players in the same card room and he left his game to go up on deck with George Bradley to investigate.  Bradley said that Harris found his wife, helped her into one of the lifeboats and then came back to the card room where he and Bradley met up again.


Bradley said, "Harris told me that there was danger, but for the sake of the women and children to make no sign.  The orchestra struck up "Alexander's Ragtime Band" and we went on playing cards.  There was not a man in the game who did not realize what was at stake. There was not a man who did not know why those musicians were playing those songs.  As they played on, they played anything that came into their mind until they finally struck up the old hymn 'Nearer, My God To Thee.'"

And the band played on

"Then we knew that the time had come and that it was no use to bluff any longer. People crowded around us and watched us play the game out, feeling that there was no danger."

Bradley said, "While the old hymn played, a different feeling came over each of us.  We knew it was time to go, if any of us hoped for a chance to get off the ship.  How any man was going to save himself, none of us knew.  It took only a few minutes up on deck to realize that the last of the lifeboats was being lowered but since not many people were in them, we realized we were too late to get in a lifeboat."

Bradley said he ran between the decks and managed to get into a boat as it was being lowered.  The boat was not in the least bit crowded, he said, but after the lifeboat was no more than 100 yards away from the Titanic, the steamer went down.

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