Maude Sincock
Maude Sincock was born on 17 April 1891 in Toronto. She traveled to Southampton and boarded Titanic, as a Second Class passenger, along with friends of her mother's, Mrs Elizabeth Agnes Mary Davies and her sons John Morgan Davies, Jr. and Joseph Charles Nicholls. She and her friends had been booked on another ship, however the coal strike had forced other ships to transfer their coal and passengers to the Titanic. Maude was clearly not dismayed by this sudden change. "It was a lovely ship."
They boarded at noon and were very excited. Sincock, Mrs Davis, and young John Davis shared a room in Second Class with Alice Phillips. Maude was 20 years old, almost 21 at the time. She held ticket C.A. 33112. Lunch was being served as the Titanic left dock. It was a lovely day and Maude found the other Second Class passengers to be very friendly. The next days were wonderful, they had excellent weather all of the way.
Disaster[]
On the night of 14 April, Maude was in bed. The Titanic struck the iceberg and according to Miss Sincock, "It didn't seem so bad to me, but very soon after a steward came along banging on every door calling, 'Everyone on deck with lifebelts!'" Maude got up quickly and put a rain coat over her nightgown. She opened the door and watched people ask the steward if the Titanic was going to sink. He told them it was only a precaution. She went down the passage toward the Second Class elevator, only to find the Lift Boy gone. She then had to climb five or six decks up before reaching the Boat Deck. Crowds of passengers were on deck, jostling each other as they tried to find friends. Maude found it useless to try to get through the crowds and stayed put, although she went to the railing and watched the lifeboats being filled. Maude carried her lifebelt, rather than putting it on. She waited her turn. A sailor said, "This boat is full enough," but Maude came along and got into that one. She turned and looked back toward the deck and saw the firemen coming up, wearing their working clothes. She realised then that the situation was bad. In the distance, Maude could hear the band playing.
The boat lowered into the water. It is uncertain which boat this was, but the most likely was lifeboat 11. The ocean was calm, the air very cold. A sailor told her, "She's going fast." Looking back, she could see the lights disappearing as the bow sank down, water pouring into open portholes. Flares were being fired, although they failed to bring help. As the Titanic sank and broke apart, Maude thought the loud noise she heard was the boilers exploding.
The lifeboat rowed around all night long among the icebergs. As morning came a sailor called out, "That's a ship," as he saw a speck appear on the horizon. The lifeboat rowed toward the Carpathia, everyone was very thankful. Getting aboard the Carpathia involved getting into a bosun's chair, facing the side of the ship, and "walking" up the side as two sailors hoisted you up. Maude found the passengers aboard the Carpathia to be very helpful. "They did all they could for us." On board the Carpathia, she discovered that Mrs Davis' son, Joseph Nichols, had been among those who perished. Maude spent her 21st birthday aboard the ship.