Titanic Explorer

Narrator: Mrs. Johanna Stunke, a first class passenger on the North German Lloyd liner Bremen, sailed past a fateful iceberg on April 20th, one week after the disaster.

Johanna Stunke: "It was between 4 and 5 o'clock on Saturday when our ship sighted off the bow to the starboard, an iceberg. As we drew nearer, and could make out small dots floating around in the sea, a feeling of awe and sadness crept over everyone and the ship proceeded in absolute silence. Looking down over the rail we distinctly saw a number of bodies so clearly that we could make out what they were wearing and whether they were men or women. We saw one woman in her night dress, with a baby clasped closely to her breast. Several of the women passengers screamed and left the rail in a fainting condition. There was another woman, fully dressed, with her arms tight around the body of a shaggy dog that looked like a St. Bernard. The bodies of three men in a group, all clinging to one steamer chair, floated close by, and just beyond them were a dozen bodies of men, all of them encased in life-preservers, clinging together as though in a last desperate struggle for life. Those were the only bodies we passed near enough to distinguish but we could see the white life preservers of many more dotting the sea, all the way to the iceberg." -Bremen First Class Passenger Johanna Stunke.