Thomas William
Jones
Able Bodied Seaman
In command of lifeboat 8.
The captain asked me if the plug was in the
boat
and I answered "Yes, Sir"
"All right," he said "any more ladies?"
He shouted twice again, "any more ladies?"
In all I had thirty-five ladies, and three stewards.
There were no men who offered to get in the boat.
I did not see any children, and very few women when
we left the ship. There was one old lady there
and an old gentleman, her husband.
( this was most likely
Mr.
and Mrs. Strauss)
She wanted him to enter the boat with her
but he backed away. She never said anything,
if she did, we could not hear it.
Senator Newlands:
Can you give the names of any
passengers
on this boat?
Witness:
One lady—she had a lot to
say and I put her
to steering the boat.
Senator Newlands:
What was her name?
Witness:
Lady
Rothes, she was a countess or something.
Jones admired the Countess of Rothes very much
indeed.
He later presented her with the brass number plate
of the lifeboat and in later years maintained correspondence.
The countess's cousin Miss Gladys Cherry
was also in boat 8 and later wrote the following letter
which was printed in many Newspapers:
WANTED TO GO BACK
LETTER TO TITANIC HERO
Thomas Jones, a native of Anglesey,
who was an able seaman on the Titanic,
has received the following letter,
dated from the Great Northern Hotel, New York
IT READS:
I feel I must write and tell you how splendidly
you took
charge of our boat on the fatal night.
There were only four English people in it,
my cousin Lady Rothes, her maid, you and myself
and I think you were wonderful.
The dreadful regret I shall always have, and
I know
you share with me, is that we ought to have gone back to
see whom we could pick up,but if you remember,
there was only an American lady, my cousin, myself and you
who wanted to return. I could not hear the discussion very
clearly, as I was at the tiller, but everyone forward and the
three men refused,but I shall always remember your words:
"ladies, if any of us are saved, remember,
I wanted to go back.
I would rather drown with them than leave them."
You did all you could,
and being my own countryman,
I wanted to tell you this.
Yours very truly, Gladys Cherry.
In an interview Jones said there were thirty-five
ladies
and three men in his boat. When he saw that the Titanic
had sunk he wanted to go back and save some of those
struggling in the water, but he was overruled.
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