Bernice Palmer was sleeping with her mother in their first-class cabin when she was awakened by the cold temperature. Per Vintage Everyday, she looked through a window in her cabin and immediately knew that something was wrong. The young woman headed to the deck with her camera in tow, and that's when she saw the crew of Carpathia pulling up Titanic survivors from lifeboats. Palmer recalled seeing the terrified faces of the survivors and the debris and furniture from the Titanic that bobbed up and down the ocean. She used her new camera and took photos of the events in front of her.
Captain Rostron canceled the trip to the Mediterranean and headed back to New York after the rescue mission. The return trip took three days, and Rostron ordered a news blackout and prevented communications to his ship to avoid details of the disaster from reaching the press until the survivors were safely on land.
