Lisa Wilkinson

And there was a lot of arguments going on on the lifeboats between those who wanted to go back

and those that didn't.

So they were all looking back and many of them were counting the rows of lights as they were starting to disappear down because the engines were still going.

Many of the crew on board were desperately still trying to keep this ship afloat and alive until a rescue ship could get to them.

And so Evelyn describes looking back and seeing row upon row of

of what looked like, you know, it was lit for a ball that nobody would survive.

And they were counting the number of rows of lights that they could see and they were noticing that they were seeing fewer and fewer and fewer.

And in the distance...

They could hear from the ship the band led by Wallace Hartley, the magnificent Wallace Hartley, and his magnificent orchestra.

There was eight of them.

And they were initially asked by Captain Smith to go up to the boat deck and play cheery tunes that would lift the spirits of all those who might be feeling anxious about what's going on.

And over the course of the evening, the sort of tunes that they're playing...

you know, waver between something joyous and something magnificent.

And one of the last tunes that was ever heard by those in the lifeboats was Nearer My God to Thee.

Well, initially there was a ship called the Californian that was very close to them.

And the first officer...

recognized that it was the Titanic, and he described to his captain, I'm sure those are distress rockets that are going up.

And the lights on the ship seemed to be at a strange angle.

But the captain of the Californian is unconvinced.

And the way it works at sea, the captain has the final say.