First class Titanic survivor and wife of prominent US businessman and president of the Cincinnati Bell Telephone Company, George Nelson Stone. Mrs. Stone and her maid Rose Icard were rescued by the Carpathia in lifeboat 6. Unsigned typed testimony of Martha Stone, three pages, 8.5 x 11, dated May 1912. Sent to William L. Finch, British Vice Consul in Cincinnati, the testimony reads, in part: “I had gone to bed and was asleep when the crash came. It did not seem to me that it was very severe but I knew we had met with an accident…Someone said we had struck an ice-berg. As a cabin steward was standing near I inquired of him ‘What shall we do?’ He replied ‘Go back to bed and go to sleep, there is no danger.’…The daughter of the lady in the cabin opposite came running down the corridor calling to her mother to put on a life-preserver quickly as we all must get into the life-boats…There seemed to be no head or system to the arrangement. I did not see any men waiting to take charge of the boats…There was not the slightest evidence of panic. I saw there was room in the boat they were lowering and I said to my maid ‘Let us go now.’…The Captain came and stood in front of us saying ‘Women and children first.’…As soon as we were in the water the man steering said ‘You must row for your lives; if we are not a half mile away in twenty minutes we will be sucked down by the steamer when she goes down.’ Then four or five women got on the oars and rowed. We watched the ‘Titanic.’ The water kept creeping higher and higher until the lights went out. The music sounded fainter and fainter until at last the waves covered the steamer ‘that could not sink.’ Then came the screams that seemed like one continuous groan which lasted for a long time…Had we some good strong men to do the rowing I feel sure we should have returned and been able to save some that were drowned, as other boats brought fifty odd to the Carpathia…I was in the second boat that put off, but while I was there every woman I saw was calm and willing to enter the boat. This is my personal experience on board the ‘Titanic.’” In very good condition, with intersecting folds, a few small pinholes and separations along a few folds, and scattered toning, creasing, and soiling. Accompanied by Stone’s period black leather case. A precise and chilling firsthand account of the last moments of the Titanic. Transcript originates directly from the great grandson of Martha Stone.
