An account of Titanic second class passenger Marshall Drew

A picture of Marshall Drew from the Record-Journal of Meriden, Connecticut, April 14, 1982 via newspapers.com

“Titanic Survivor Remembers He Was Hungry”

The Raleigh Register, Beckley, West Virginia

April 14, 1977

“They dropped the lifeboats toward the freezing water in see-saw lurches. Marshall Drew wondered if they’d all be dumped in the ocean. 

“It was 65 years ago  tonight the British ocean liner Titanic-the ‘unsinkable’ Titanic-struck a n iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic on its maiden voyage, carrying 1.517 persons to their deaths. 

“Drew was only 8 at the time when the rescue came, all he thought about was his empty tummy. 

“‘When we were picked up by the Carpathia the next morning, adults were hoisted up out of the lifeboats in swings, the children went up in canvas bags, so we were separated,’ he recalled. ‘The minute I was dumped on deck, being a kid, I made one beeline for the saloon, because I was hungry. I don’t think anybody asked me my name.’

“And so, early accounts of the sinking listed Drew among the dead. Now 73, the retired art teacher is every bit as alive as his memories of the Titanic’s first-and last-voyage. 

“‘I was in bed. But I wasn’t asleep because I remember the thud when it struck the iceberg and there was a cessation of motion, engines,’ he recalled. ‘We dressed, put life preservers on, started up on deck. 

“‘It was 11:40 p.m. when we hit the iceberg and it was the next morning when it sank. We had plenty of time.’

“The passengers were ordered into lifeboats which had space for only two-thirds of the 2,307 aboard. 

“‘Everything was orderly,’ Drew said. ‘The crew was British and they set the tone. It’s hard to get them excited. They still have tea in the middle of war.’

“‘My aunt and I were in lifeboat No. 11.,’ Drew said. ‘Going down the side of the liner was like going down the side of a big skyscraper. They never intended those lifeboats to be used. THey thought it was an unsinkable ship. Nobody thought of drilling ahead of time. So the ropes and pulleys and everything stuck. It shook me up a little bit.’

“Drew said the lifeboats dropped toward the freezing water to see-saw lurches. ‘I don’t know whether we would be dumped in the ocean or not.’

“Twenty boats made it, one was swamped and the rest lined up in the dim starlight to watch the Titanic sink.

“‘I remember seeing the rows of porthole lights sink into the sea, row after row, until the first deck was swash. And then came a tremendous explosion, steam, smok, a flash of light. And then everything blacked out. I didn’t see anything after that, but I heard cries of the people across the water. Then all was quiet. That was it.’ 

“Among the dead was Drew’s uncle, James Drew.

“‘This was 1912, Little boys didn’t cry. You were a little man. You kept a stiff upper lip. I went to sleep on the life preservers. I woke up in daylight and 360 (around) there were icebergs. You would think you were in the Arctic circle. They couldn’t miss.”