Jason- Canada newspapers come through! Here's the newspaper article with Tom Home's brief account:
"I saw the torpedo coming, watched it, and did not turn to run away until it hit. The explosion threw up water and splinters in showers. I was struck twice on the heel and on my left leg. My foot is still swollen, so that I have not been able to get away from here. However I am one of the very fortunate. After the explosion, the ship listed and I limped around to the port and high side. There were a few excited ones, but they were easily controlled. The worst was when relatives parted- mothers and their babies. You can see how natural that would be. One the whole that would be quite natural. It was remarkable how cool the passengers were. I went down to my cabin ( B-32 ) but could not find a lifebelt. The steward met me and told me she would be alright. He got me a lifebelt from another stateroom and I went on deck again with it in my hand. I did not feel any fear while I was standing. A woman told me she could not find her baby and asked if we would be saved and where the lifebelts were. I told her we would be alright and gave her my belt and tied it on to her. I said, ' You are alright, go and look for your baby. ' Poor woman, few found them again on this earth. Such a strange calmness with it all. No hope. She was sinking, yet no fear. A young lady came and spoke to me about the terrible deed as calmly as if we were in the saloon and yet in a few minutes we were to go down. At the last moment when she was disappearing I slid down to the side near the water. There was a scream and I plunged with others to find ourselves in a seething mass drawn down by suction, but not too deep to rise, and down and down, again and again, to seize anything. Sometimes a foot, but everyone trying to rise but not knowing by what ladder they climbed. Strange as it may seem, I thought how cosy it was under the water and was surprised I did not feel the shock, yet without hope of coming to the surface. But I came up and struck out to get away from the mass of floating debris and grasping hands. I found a box, a man climbed on and about six clung to it a long time. I do not know how long I hung on, but I felt I could not last and a woman told me she could not hang on longer. I determinded to get away so I asked a man to shove me a floating lifebelt. He did so and I told one of the men on the box to reach with an oar and put it on himself. I struck out on two spars and presently founc the Cuban counsel ( Julian de Ayala ) in two lifebelts, one in front of him. I asked him if he could spare it, but the poor fellow could not swim and was acting frantically. I suppose at that moment if the ship had come up under him again, he would still think he had to struggle. I did not think he would last long but he is still alive and without a brusie. I came to a floating corpse with a belt that could help him no further, so unfastened the front, cut the lower straps near the knots at the back and managed to get it on with a struggle, for by this time I was feeling it a good deal, and then held on as long as I could, realizing that I had gone my limit and that it was only a matter of moments. I knew no more till I found myself in a bunk with strange surroundings. They had picked me up for dead in a small boat and trasferred me to a tug."
