Titanic lifeboat 16. The fourth/fifth/sixth boat lowered on the port side. Strangely few testimonies tell the story of boat 16. Or, rather, there probably are some interviews pertaining to No. 16, but they have not been established as such. Third class passenger Carla Andersen/Jensen, who lost brother, uncle and fiancé was very likely in this boat. She said the boat was lowered so badly that the occupants believed they would be thrown out of it when it was lowered away. It is not easy to say how many people there were in this boat, but there were at least six male crew, three stewardesses and perhaps 30 passengers, mainly third class. It is possible that Mrs. Wells, a second class passenger, describes what happened in and near No. 16:
It is a thrilling story that Mrs. Wells tells of her night ride to safety. Like so many others she did not realize her peril and had she not been literally forced into a life boat might have shared the fate of 1,600 others. "We were all in bed, "Mrs. Wells said, "Joan was asleep, but I was not.
When the crash came I took the children and went on deck. I hadn't more than got there when someone grabbed me, saying: "This way," and hustled me and the children up to the lifeboat. "An officer was shouting, "'Come on here, lively now, this way, women and children' and before I knew what was happening we were in a lifeboat, and the boat was going down the side while the men stood back serious and sober, watching us. "I thought even then it was some sort of a drill or something, except that just as we went down I saw a revolver in an officer's hand. "A Mrs. Davis and a little boy were in the boat with us, and she asked me what it was all about. "As soon as the boat struck water, the seaman began pulling away with all their might. As we got away, we saw a lot of wild eyed men come rushing up from steerage, but they were met by a man with a gun who pushed them back into a crowd of men and said, "Stand back there now, the first word out of you and I'll ----" I didn't catch the rest. Some of the men from the first and second class cabins were standing beside the officer. "There were 40 or 50 in our boat and I couldn't get a chance to sit down, but stood up keeping the babies warm and dry in my skirts. The sailors pulled at the oars for all they were worth, but the boat kept drifting back against the ship. Finally we got away a hundred feet and we didn't have any more trouble. We spent the night in the boat and were picked up at daybreak." (Akron Beacon Journal, April 20, 1912)
Boat 16 stayed clear of the other boats, but encountered boat 6 and gave them a fireman for rowing. As most of the port boats, it was late in reaching the Carpathia and it was commanded by master-at-arms Bailey.
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