[ Autographs ] TITANIC SURVIVOR'S CONTEMPORARY EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT An extremely rare, perhaps unique item, an A.Ms.S. 20pp. 8vo. in pencil,on "Carpathia" letterhead, written onboard the Carpathia, Apr. 15 or 16th, 1912, an eyewitness account of the sinking of the Titanic by first class passenger Washington Dodge just hours after the event! TheCarpathia was the first ship to come to the rescue of the Titanic survivors, arriving several hours after the ship went down. Evidently,Dr. Dodge felt compelled to write down his account of the events he witnessed while his memory was still fresh, and is writing while stillaboard the rescue ship. The dramatic and lengthy account reads, in small part: "...awakened about 11:40 by a violent jar. I had the impression that the ship had been struck on her side with a sufficientforce to move her bodily in a lateral direction ... in the companion way...an officer passing hurriedly answered my query by the statement that he thought something had gone wrong with the propellers ... returned to the stateroom to assure my wife and child ...again returning I went out to the promenade deck and soon learned that we had run into ice, that it was to be seen on the deck forward, and I heard a passenger state that he saw an iceberg pass the stern of the vessel to the height of the promenade deck ... about 70 feet above thewater ... returned to my stateroom, having been told that there was nodanger ... returning to the companion way I asked our steward ... he replied the order has just come down for all passengers to put on lifepreservers. Rushing to my cabin I got my wife and 4 year old son ... rushed them up to the boat deck...on the boat deck I found a crowd gathered ...and the first boat on the starboard side, No 1, being loaded. ... There was no evident desire of those present to get off .. Placed my family aboard ... Lifeboat # 3 ... and stood back while women and children were under command of an officer placed aboard ... I watched the boats lowered on the starboard side, being the odd numbers from 1 to 15. A few were lowered to deck A...The officers in charge of loading the boats were cool and masterful ...enforcing the command to care for women and children first ...When boat 13 was lowered ...after 8 or 10 women had been placed aboard, no other women and children were within hearing ...Some one pushed me from behind andshouted `Get in , Doctor'...In a few moments the boat was filled ...aswe neared the water our boat was being lowered directly into the immense volume of water thrown out from the ship's side by the condenser pump ... a stream 3 feet in diameter, which was thrown with great force...to add to our anxiety, boat 15 had swung directly over our heads, owing to the fact that the steamer had settled several feetinto the water at her bow ...were able to disengage an oar, and push the bow of our boat ... 8 or 10 feet from the ships side ... we dropped into the water & were at once swept away from the steamer's side by great force of the water ... The ocean being as calm as the waters of a smooth flowing river we rowed off ... Having rowed a 1/4 mile we found ourselves in close proximity to five boats. We observed the closing incidents, the gradual submergence of the ship forward, the final extinguishment suddenly of all her lights, the final plunge downward as a shooting star fell from the zenith ... the sea graduallygrowing rougher with a temperature extremely cold ... in the darkness what first appeared to be a ship full-rigged ... to our disappointmentproved to be an iceberg about 1/2 mile distant. About daylight we observed a light which appeared ... this soon appeared above a second light ... confirming our belief that help was approaching ... We reached the Steamer [Carpathia] after about 3/4 of an hour and found her taking aboard the occupants of 3 boats that had reached her ahead of us ... found my son and wife, who were in the second boat ...only three men amongst the First Class passengers whose wives left the steamer before them reached the Carpathia : Mr. Carter of Phil., Mr. Sturgel of Newark & myself...These men all stood back while women and children were being rescued & went to their graves. One lad of 10, Master Carter, told me that after his mother & sister were in a boat, he was refused permission to enter it, and Col. Astor ... picked up a girl's hat & placing it on the lad's head, lifted him up & said to theofficer ... `Let this little girl go with her mother'...". A fantasticfirsthand account, possibly unpublished, without question the most important Titanic item we have ever carried. Fastened at left margin to board with string, and with annotations at the top of the first page by Doctor F. H. Blackmarr, a passenger on the Carpathia when she went to rescue the Titanic, and who subsequently collected numerous accounts of the incident. Very good to excellent condition.