“For the two days previous, as well as I remember, the mileage was 506 and 501, and on Thursday the mileage was 488.  On Friday I was playing bridge when the pool was put up on the day’s run and I heard twenty numbers go from 480 to 499.  I thought it would be a grand speculation to buy the lowest number, as we were going so slow.  I did buy it, and paid $100.  The amount in the pool was between $300 and $350, and when the pool was declared, I was the winner.

“The steward offered to hand over the money if I would go to his cabin, but I said that he could pay me later.

“Shortly after the steward had left me I was on the upper deck and looking out to sea.  I saw all at once the wash of a torpedo, indicated by a snake-like churn of the surface of the water.  It may have been about thirty feet away.  And then came a thud.”

Mr. Kessler told of the general rush for the deck and the second explosion.  Then he continued:

“Mr. Berth and his wife, from New York, first-class passengers, were the last ones I spoke to.  I should say that all the passengers in the dining saloon had come up on deck.  The upper deck was crowded, and, of course, the passengers were wondering what was the matter, few really believing what it proved to be.  Still they began to lower boats, and then things began to happen very quickly.

“Mr. Berth was trying to persuade his wife to get into a boat.  She said she would not do so without him.  He said, ’Oh, come along, my darling; I will be all right,’ and I added to his persuasions.

“I saw him help her into the boat with the ropes of the davits.  I fell into the same boat, and we were slipped down into the water over the side of the liner, which was bulging out, the list being the other way.  The boat struck the water, and after some seconds (it may have been a minute) I looked up and cried out, ‘My God, the Lusitania is gone!’

“We saw the entire bulk, which had been almost upright just a few seconds before, suddenly lurch over away from us.  Then she seemed to stand upright in the water, and the next instant the keel of the vessel caught the keel of the boat in which we were floating, and we were thrown into the water.  There were only about thirty people in the boat, and I should say that all were stokers or third-class passengers.  There may have been one or two first class; I cannot recall who they were.

“When the boat was overturned I sank fifteen or twenty feet.  I thought I was gone.  However, I had my lifebelt around me, and managed to rise again to the surface.  There I floated for possibly ten or fifteen minutes, when I saw and made a grab at a collapsible lifeboat at which other passengers were also grabbing.  We managed to get it shipshape and clamber in.  There were eight or nine in the boat, all stokers except one or two third-class passengers.

“It was partly filled with water and in the scramble which occurred the boat was overturned, and once more we were pitched into the water.  This occurred, I should say, eight times, the boat usually righting itself.  Before we were picked up by the Bluebell six of the party of eight or nine were lying drowned in the bilge water which was in the bottom.”