‘I was gradually getting frozen up, and by the grace of God I came across a lifeboat and they pulled me in.’
Those were the words of Titanic survivor Frank Prentice, speaking 67 years after the ship sank on this day in April 1912 with the loss of more than 1,500 passengers and crew.
Mr Prentice, then just 23, was serving as assistant purser on the ship when it fatefully hit an iceberg.
He told BBC documentary series The Great Liners in 1979: ‘There was no impact as such.
‘It was just like jamming your brakes on the car and that was that – she stopped.
‘We had a porthole open and I looked out and the sky was clear, stars were shining, the sea was dead calm and I thought, I couldn’t understand it.’
‘I was gradually getting frozen up, and by the grace of God I came across a lifeboat and they pulled me in.’ Those were the words of Titanic survivor Frank Prentice, speaking 67 years after the ship sank on this day in April 1912 with the loss of more than 1,500 passengers and crew
RMS Titanic departing Southampton on April 10, 1912. The vessel was sailing to New York on its maiden voyage
After the Titanic hit the iceberg, Mr Prentice left his cabin to investigate.
But there was no sign of damage because the point of impact had been below the waterline.
Unbeknown to him, the ship was catastrophically crippled and sank within three hours of the collision.
Despite an order for women and children to get into the lifeboats, many were reluctant because of the 70foot drop into the water and their faith in the ship’s status as an ‘unsinkable’ vessel.
As a result, many more people lost their lives than if all 16 lifeboats had been filled to capacity.
Mr Prentice said: ‘Don’t forget we had 16 lifeboats and they each carried 50, and if they’d been filled we could’ve saved 800 whereas we only saved 500.’
Describing the moment the Titanic broke in two, he added: ‘All of a sudden, she lifted up quickly and you could hear everything crashing through her.’
The caption of the Titanic, Edward Smith (pictured) tragically died the night the Titanic went down
The ship tragically sank within three hours of the collision. Pictured: American passenger businessman Benjamin Guggenheim whose body was never found
As half of the ship rose out of the water, Mr Prentice was clinging on to a board. He realised that he had no option but to let go and plunge into the freezing water.
‘I had a lifebelt on and I hit the water with a terrific crack,’ he said. As bodies floated ‘all over the place’, Mr Prentice watched the ship disappear beneath the water.
Mr Prentice escaped death when he was pulled from the water into a lifeboat.
He found himself sat next to Virginia Estelle Clark, who he had helped with her lifejacket on deck.
Newly-married Ms Clark, who was on her honeymoon, had been persauded by Mr Prentice to leave her new husband Walter behind and get into a lifeboat.
Ms Clark had asked Mr Prentice if he had seen her husband but it later emerged he had died.
Mr Prentice believed the woman had probably saved his life by wrapping a cloak around him.
‘I saved hers – I think I might have done, I think I did, and she saved mine,’ he said.
Along with the rest of the survivors, the pair were rescued by the RMS Carpathia, which was nearly 60 miles away when it picked up the Titanic’s distress call.
The survivors were carried to safety in New York, where an initial inquiry into the disaster was held.
Mr Prentice escaped death when he was pulled from the water into a lifeboat
The RMS Titanic was the largest ship afloat at the time and is pictured setting off on its voyage in 1912
Mr Prentice died in 1982 at the age of 93. For the rest of his life he kept the watch he had been carrying on the day the Titanic sank.
It was frozen in time at 2.20am, the time it fell into the water.
‘It was frozen up like I was – I think it lasted for about 20 minutes in the water,’ Mr Prentice said.
He admitted that giving an interview about his ordeal meant he would probably ‘have another nightmare’.
‘You’d think I’m too old for that, but you’d be amazed. You lie in bed at night and the whole thing comes round again,’ he added.
DISASTER IN THE ATLANTIC: HOW MORE THAN 1,500 LOST THEIR LIVES WHEN THE TITANIC SANK
The RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on April 15, 1912, after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York.
More than 1,500 people died when the ship, which was carrying 2,224 passengers and crew, sank under the command of Captain Edward Smith.
Some of the wealthiest people in the world were on board, including property tycoon John Jacob Astor IV, great grandson of John Jacob Astor, founder of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
Constructed by Belfast-based shipbuilders Harland and Wolff between 1909 and 1912, the RMS Titanic was the largest ship of her time
Millionaire Benjamin Guggenheim, heir to his family’s mining business, also perished, along with Isidor Straus, the German-born co-owner of Macy’s department store.
The ship was the largest afloat at the time and was designed in such a way that it was meant to be ‘unsinkable’.
It had an on-board gym, libraries, swimming pool and several restaurants and luxury first-class cabins.
There were not enough lifeboats on board for all the passengers due to out-of-date maritime safety regulations.
After leaving Southampton on April 10, 1912, Titanic called at Cherbourg in France and Queenstown in Ireland before heading to New York.
On April 14, 1912, four days into the crossing, she hit an iceberg at 11:40pm local time.
James Moody was on night watch when the collision happened and took the call from the watchman, asking him: ‘What do you see?’ The man responded: ‘Iceberg, dead ahead.’
By 2.20am, with hundreds of people still on board, the ship plunged beneath the waves, taking many, including Moody, with it.
Despite repeated distress calls being sent out and flares launched from the decks, the first rescue ship, the RMS Carpathia, arrived nearly two hours later, pulling more than 700 people from the water.
It was not until 1985 that the wreck of the ship was discovered in two pieces on the ocean floor.
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