15 at the time, McGowan recalls the sacrifice and chaos of that ngiht.

“Women wouldn’t leave their husbands. They were screaming, and I could hear gunshots in the background. Apparently, some of the men had tried to dress like women in order to be rescued, and they were shot.”

She also recalls a man jumping into their lifeboat, though the call was for women and children first, and telling the boat crew, “Let me in or I’ll tip the whole lifeboat over.”