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Lake County Times

Survivor of Titanic Now in Indiana Harbor Owes Life to Mrs. Astor
Sees Sister and Baby Drown

  Ernst Persson, a survivor of the Titanic wreck is in Indiana Harbor having arrived yesterday in company with William Strom of 3905 Grapevine street, an employee of the Standard Forging company. Mr. Strom had gone to New York to search for his little daughter Thelma, age 3, who in company with Mrs. Strom and the latter's brother Mr. Persson, had taken passage on the ill-fated steamship. Mr. Strom knew that his wife had perished, but he had hoped that he might find the girl among the unidentified children rescued. His search for the little one proved fruitless and has now given up all hope of ever seeing her again. Persson was one of a number of men saved through the intercession of Mrs. John Jacob Astor, who pleaded that they be taken into the lifboat on which she was a passenger. Probably none of the survivors of the awful disaster had a more harrowing experience than Person. Arriving on deck after the last of the lifeboats had been lowered away, he saw his sister and little niece swept to their doom by a swell caused by the sinking ship, which carried him down with it. He never saw either the women or the child again, although he himself came up to the surface after what seemed to him to have been a plunge of 10 feet down into the water. He seized a floating plank which happened to be near him and looked about for his sister and the baby, but although scores of men, women and children were strugling in the water about him, buoyed up by life preservers, he failed to distinguish the ones he sought.

    He had not been in this position long when he noticed an overturned life boat nearby, with a number of men clinging to it. He made for it as best he could and managed to get a hold on it. Others to whom the disabled craft represented a possible means of escape, also made for the boat, but with less success. A score or more who grabbed for the boat, were beaten back by those already in possession who feared for their own safety if they permitted any more to weigh it.