FUTRELLE SMOKED AS TITANIC SANK
The New York Tribune, Saturday, June 26, 1915:
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Widow Tells of Conduct on Deck in Survivors' Testimonies at Claim Limits Trial.
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Tales of the sinking of the Titanic were continued yesterday by survivors before Judge Meyer in the United States District annex in the Woolworth Building. Three persons who had sailed on the steamer were called yesterday in the suit against the White Star Line by the survivors: they were Karl H. Behr, the tennis player; Mrs. Jacques Futrelle, whose husband, the novelist, was lost, and Eugene Daly, of Newark, N.J. The steamship line is seeking to limit the claims to about $98,000.
The testimony showed that it was from thirty-five to forty minutes after the ship struck before passengers received any warning of danger; that men were threatened when they attempted to board lifeboats; and that shots were fired when they persisted.
In the afternoon session Captains Robert Niss, of the Hamburg-American Liner Bohemia, and Henry Meyerdiercks, of the President Grant, and Adrian I. Keagan, of the United States Hydrographic Bureau, were on the stand. The latter placed in evidence charts for March and April 1907 to 1912.
Captain Meyerdiercks said that if he had received the warnings that were sent to the Titanic he would have gone at least fifty miles south of the danger zone that they indicated. Captain Niss told of the difficulty of seeing icebergs in mid-ocean. He testified that if he had entered an ice zone described to be similar to that in which the Titanic met her fate, he would have slowed down.
Mrs. Futrelle told a graphic story of the sinking, and related how her husband was calmly smoking when she last saw him. He was chatting with a number of me, after he had assured her there was no danger, but persuaded her to enter a boat.
The survivors will probably close their case today.