The Titanic and a cause célèbre of cowardice, by one who was there

Published on Thursday 7 October 2010 18:24

A GRIPPING first-person account of the sinking of the Titanic by a woman who worked for a Scottish aristocrat whose escape from the ship was described as "cowardice" has been published for the first time nearly 100 years after the disaster.

• Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon at the 1908 Olympics. Picture: Getty Images

Laura Francatelli's signed affidavit given to a British board of inquiry into the disaster has emerged after it was put up for auction.

In it she wrote of hearing an "awful rumbling" as the famous liner went down and "then came screams and cries" from 1,500 drowning passengers.

Miss Francatelli was 31 and working as a secretary for Scottish baronet and landowner Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon and his wife Lady Lucy Christiana while travelling with them on the Titanic.

Sir Cosmo and his fashion-designer wife were part of a glittering social set and often hosted grand parties at their country seat at Maryculter near Aberdeen. The old Etonion had represented Great Britain in the Olympics, winning silver in the team epee fencing event. In 1772 his family founded the Duff Gordon sherry bodega in Spain.

Miss Francatelli's letter told of how the three of them boarded one of the last lifeboats containing just five passengers and seven crew - and admitted they did not consider going back for survivors.

An extract from the letter, written soon after the sinking:

Just as they were lowering the boat, two American gentlemen came along the deck and got in also.

The Officers gave orders to us to row away from ship.

We kept on rowing and stopping and rowing again . . . I heard some talk going on all about the suction if the ship went down.

I do not know who joined in the conversation. We were a long way off when we saw the Titanic go right up at the back and plunge down.

There was an awful rumbling when she went. Then came the screams and cries. I do not know how long they lasted. We had hardly any talk. The men spoke about God and prayers and wives. We were all in the darkness.

Wealthy Sir Cosmo later paid the crew members 5 each - worth about 300 in today's money - and some say this was "blood money" for saving their lives.

The historic document is expected to sell for between 10,000 and 15,000. Miss Francatelli stated how she woke her employers when water seeped into her cabin after the liner struck an iceberg the night of 14 April 1912.

She wrote: "A man came to me and put a life preserver on me, assuring me it was only taking precautions and not to be alarmed.

"When we got on the top deck, the lifeboats were being lowered on the starboard side.

"I then noticed that the sea was nearer to us than during the day, and I said to Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon 'We are sinking' and he said 'Nonsense, come away'."

The party initially refused to go into a lifeboat as Sir Cosmo was not allowed on as only women and children were permitted. They were then offered places on a smaller rowing boat.

"There were no other women there by that time. The Officer ordered us in, and we said we would go if Sir Cosmo could come also," Miss Francatelli said.

"The officer said to Sir Cosmo 'I should be pleased if you would go'. We were dropped into this boat and lowered into the sea.

"There were seven sailors in the boat, Lady Duff-Gordon, myself, Sir Cosmo and two American gentlemen.Twelve in all."

Miss Francatelli wrote that they kept on rowing fearing that as the Titanic sank they would be sucked in as well.

"We were a long way off when we saw the Titanic go right up at the back and plunge down.

"There was an awful rumbling when she went. Then came the screams and cries. I do not know how long they lasted."

Andrew Aldridge, of auctioneers Henry Aldridge and Son, of Devizes, Wiltshire, which is selling the document, said: "Numerous books have been written about the Titanic disaster but this is a first-person eye witness account written in the weeks after the sinking."

Rumours of Sir Cosmo's alleged cowardice circulated and he found himself largely shunned. Although exonerated by the inquiry, the incident cast a shadow over the rest of his life which he spent mostly in seclusion at Maryculter.

Sir Cosmo died in 1931 and his wife four years later. Miss Francatelli, from London, died in 1967.

The auction takes place on 16 October.