George Lane, 26, was a member of the Welsh Choir.
From the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Monday, 10 May 1915, page 3:
G.B. Lane, a youthful but cool headed second cabin passenger who was returning to Wales from New York was in a life boat capsized from the davits as the Lusitania keeled over.
Stops, Helps Children Clamber to Boat Deck“I was on the B Deck,” he said, “when I saw the wake of a torpedo. I quickly realized what it meant when the big ship seemed to stagger and almost immediately listed to starboard. I rushed to get a lifebelt, but stopped to help get children to the boat deck. The second cabin was a veritable nursery. Many youngsters must have drowned, but I had the satisfaction of seeing one boat get away with women and children. When the water reached the deck, I saw another life boat with a vacant seat, which I took as no one else was in sight. The Lusitania reeled so suddenly our boat was swamped, but we righted her again.
“We witnessed the most horrible scene of human futility it is possible to imagine. When the Lusitania had turned almost over she suddenly plunged bow foremost into the water, leaving her stern high in the air. People on the aft deck were fighting with wild desperation to retain a footing on the almost perpendicular deck, while they fell over the slippery stern like crippled flies. Their cries and shrieks could be heard above the hiss of escaping steam and the crash of bursting boilers. Then the water closed over them and the big liner disappeared, leaving scarcely a ripple behind her.
“Twelve lifeboats were all that were left of our floating home. In a few seconds swimmers, bodies and wreckage appeared in the space where she went down. We were almost exhausted by the work of rescue when taken aboard a trawler. It all seems like a horrible dream now.”
References:
“Americans Say Crew Was Slow.” Cleveland Plain Dealer, Monday, 10 May 1915, page 3.
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