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Sinking of the Titanic and Great Sea Disasters
Edited by Logan Marshall
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Sinking of the Titanic
and Great Sea Disasters
Edited by Logan Marshall
The lists of names of people need to be carefully rechecked!!
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Pre-Frontispiece Caption:
THE TITANIC
The largest and finest steamship in the world; on her maiden voyage,
loaded with a human freight of over 2,300 souls, she collided with
a huge iceberg 600 miles southeast of Halifax, at 11.40 P.M. Sunday
April 14, 1912, and sank two and a half hours later, carrying over
1,600 of her passengers and crew with her.
Frontispiece Caption:
CAPTAIN E. J. SMITH
Of the ill-fated giant of the sea; a brave and seasoned commander
who was carried to his death with his last and greatest ship.}
Sinking of the Titanic
and
Great Sea Disasters
A Detailed and Accurate Account of the Most
Awful Marine Disaster in History, Constructed
from the Real Facts as Obtained from Those on
Board Who Survived .. .. .. .. ..
ONLY AUTHORITATIVE BOOK
INCLUDING
Records of Previous Great Disasters of the Sea,
Descriptions of the Developments of Safety and
Life-saving Appliances, a Plain Statement of
the Causes of Such Catastrophes and How to
Avoid Them, the Marvelous Development of
Shipbuilding, etc.
With a Message of Spiritual Consolation by
REV. HENRY VAN DYKE, D.D.
EDITED BY
LOGAN MARSHALL
Author of "Life of Theodore Roosevelt," etc.
ILLUSTRATED
With Numerous Authentic Photographs and Drawings
Dedication
To the 1635 souls who were lost with the
ill-fated Titanic, and especially to those
heroic men, who, instead of trying to
save themselves, stood aside that women
and children might have their chance; of
each of them let it be written, as it was
written of a Greater One--
"He Died that Others might Live"
"I stood in unimaginable trance
And agony that cannot be remembered."
--COLERIDGE
Dr. Van Dyke's Spiritual Consolation
to the Survivors of the Titanic
The Titanic, greatest of ships, has gone to her ocean
grave. What has she left behind her? Think clearly.
She has left debts. Vast sums of money have been lost.
Some of them are covered by insurance which will be paid.
The rest is gone. All wealth is insecure.
She has left lessons. The risk of running the northern
course when it is menaced by icebergs is revealed. The
cruelty of sending a ship to sea without enough life-boats and
life-rafts to hold her company is exhibited and underlined
in black.
She has left sorrows. Hundreds of human hearts and
homes are in mourning for the loss of dear companions and
friends. The universal sympathy which is written in every
face and heard in every voice proves that man is more than
the beasts that perish. It is an evidence of the divine in
humanity. Why should we care? There is no reason in
the world, unless there is something in us that is different
from lime and carbon and phosphorus, something that makes
us mortals able to suffer together--
"For we have all of us an human heart."
But there is more than this harvest of debts, and lessons,
and sorrows, in the tragedy of the sinking of the Titanic.
There is a great ideal. It is clearly outlined and set before
the mind and heart of the modern world, to approve and follow,
or to despise and reject.
It is, "Women and children first!"
Whatever happened on that dreadful April night among
the arctic ice, certainly that was the order given by the brave
and steadfast captain; certainly that was the law obeyed by
the men on the doomed ship. But why? There is no statute
or enactment of any nation to enforce such an order. There
is no trace of such a rule to be found in the history of ancient
civilizations. There is no authority for it among the heathen
races to-day. On a Chinese ship, if we may believe the report
of an official representative, the rule would have been "Men
First, children next, and women last."
There is certainly no argument against this barbaric
rule on physical or material grounds. On the average, a man
is stronger than a woman, he is worth more than a woman,
he has a longer prospect of life than a woman. There is no
reason in all the range of physical and economic science, no
reason in all the philosophy of the Superman, why he should
give his place in the life-boat to a woman.
Where, then, does this rule which prevailed in the sinking
Titanic come from? It comes from God, through the faith
of Jesus of Nazareth.
It is the ideal of self-sacrifice. It is the rule that "the
strong ought to bear the infirmities of those that are weak."
It is the divine revelation which is summed up in the words:
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down
his life for his friends."
It needs a tragic catastrophe like the wreck of the Titanic
to bring out the absolute contradiction between this ideal
and all the counsels of materialism and selfish expediency.
I do not say that the germ of this ideal may not be found
in other religions. I do not say that they are against it. I
do not ask any man to accept my theology (which grows
shorter and simpler as I grow older), unless his heart leads
him to it. But this I say: The ideal that the strength of
the strong is given them to protect and save the weak, the
ideal which animates the rule of "Women and children first,"
is in essential harmony with the spirit of Christ.
If what He said about our Father in Heaven is true, this
ideal is supremely reasonable. Otherwise it is hard to find
arguments for it. The tragedy of facts sets the question
clearly before us. Think about it. Is this ideal to survive
and prevail in our civilization or not?
Without it, no doubt, we may have riches and power and
dominion. But what a world to live in!
Only through the belief that the strong are bound to
protect and save the weak because God wills it so, can we
hope to keep self-sacrifice, and love, and heroism, and all the
things that make us glad to live and not afraid to die.
HENRY VAN DYKE.
PRINCETON, N. J., April 18, 1912.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
FIRST NEWS OF THE GREATEST MARINE DISASTER IN HISTORY
"The Titanic in collision, but everybody safe"--Another triumph
set down to wireless telegraphy--The world goes to sleep peacefully--The
sad awakening
CHAPTER II
THE MOST SUMPTUOUS PALACE AFLOAT
Dimensions of the Titanic--Capacity--Provisions for the comfort
and entertainment of passengers--Mechanical equipment--The army of
attendants required
CHAPTER III
THE MAIDEN VOYAGE OF THE TITANIC
Preparations for the voyage--Scenes of gayety--The boat sails--
Incidents of the voyage--A collision narrowly averted--The boat on fire--
Warned of icebergs
CHAPTER IV
SOME OF THE NOTABLE PASSENGERS
Sketches of prominent men and women on board, including Major
Archibald Butt, John Jacob Astor, Benjamin Guggenheim, Isidor Straus,
J. Bruce Ismay, Geo. D. Widener, Colonel Washington Roebling, 2d,
Charles M. Hays, W. T. Stead and others
CHAPTER V
THE TITANIC STRIKES AN ICEBERG!
Tardy attention to warning responsible for accident--The danger
not realized at first--An interrupted card game--Passengers joke among
themselves--The real truth dawns--Panic on board--Wireless calls for help.
CHAPTER VI
"WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST"
Cool-headed officers and crew bring order out of chaos--Filling the
life-boats--Heartrending scenes as families are parted--Four life-boats
lost--Incidents of bravery--"The boats are all filled!"
CHAPTER VII
LEFT TO THEIR FATE
Coolness and heroism of those left to perish--Suicide of Murdock--
Captain Smith's end--The ship's band plays a noble hymn as the vessel
goes down.
CHAPTER VIII
THE CALL FOR HELP HEARD
The value of the wireless--Other ships alter their course--Rescuers
on the way.
CHAPTER IX
IN THE DRIFTING LIFE-BOATS
Sorrow and suffering--The survivors see the Titanic go down with
their loved ones on board--A night of agonizing suspense--Women help
to row--Help arrives--Picking up the life-boats.
CHAPTER X
ON BOARD THE CARPATHIA
Aid for the suffering and hysterical--Burying the dead--Vote of
thanks to Captain Rostron of the Carpathia--Identifying those saved--
Communicating with land--The passage to New York.
CHAPTER XI
PREPARATIONS ON LAND TO RECEIVE THE SUFFERERS
Police arrangements--Donations of money and supplies--Hospital
and ambulances made ready--Private houses thrown open--Waiting for
the Carpathia to arrive--The ship sighted!
CHAPTER XII
THE TRAGIC HOME-COMING
The Carpathia reaches New York--An intense and dramatic moment
--Hysterical reunions and crushing disappointments at the dock--Caring
for the sufferers--Final realization that all hope for others is futile--List
of survivors--Roll of the dead.
CHAPTER XIII
THE STORY OF CHARLES F. HURD
How the Titanic sank--Water strewn with dead bodies--
Victims met death with hymn on their lips.
CHAPTER XIV
THRILLING ACCOUNT BY L. BEASLEY
Collision only a slight jar--Passengers could not believe the vessel
doomed--Narrow escape of life-boats--Picked up by the Carpathia.
CHAPTER XV
JACK THAYER'S OWN STORY OF THE WRECK
Seventeen-year-old son of Pennsylvania Railroad official tells moving
story of his rescue--Told mother to be brave--Separated from parents--
Jumped when vessel sank--Drifted on overturned boat--Picked up by Carpathia.
CHAPTER XVI
INCIDENTS RELATED BY JAMES McGOUGH
Women forced into the life-boats--Why some men were saved before
women--Asked to man life-boats.
CHAPTER XVII
WIRELESS OPERATOR PRAISES HEROIC WORK
Story of Harold Bride, the surviving wireless operator of the Titanic,
who was washed overboard and rescued by life-boat--Band played ragtime
and "Autumn".
CHAPTER XVIII
STORY OF THE STEWARD
Passengers and crew dying when taken aboard Carpathia--One woman
saved a dog--English colonel swam for hours when boat with
mother aboard capsized.
CHAPTER XIX
HOW THE WORLD RECEIVED THE NEWS
Nations prostrate with grief--Messages from kings and cardinals--
Disaster stirs world to necessity of stricter regulations.
CHAPTER XX
BRAVERY OF THE OFFICERS AND CREW
Illustrious career of Captain E. J. Smith--Brave to the last--
Maintenance of order and discipline--Acts of heroism--Engineers died at posts
--Noble-hearted band.
CHAPTER XXI
SEARCHING FOR THE DEAD
Sending out the Mackay-Bennett and Minia--Bremen passengers
see bodies--Identifying bodies--Confusion in names--Recoveries.
CHAPTER XXII
CRITICISM OF ISMAY
Criminal and cowardly conduct charged--Proper caution not exercised
when presence of icebergs was known--Should have stayed on board
to help in work of rescue--Selfish and unsympathetic actions on board
the Carpathia--Ismay's defense--William E. Carter's statement.
CHAPTER XXIII
THE FINANCIAL LOSS
Titanic not fully insured--Valuable cargo and mail--No chance for
salvage--Life insurance loss--Loss to the Carpathia.
CHAPTER XXIV
OPINIONS OF EXPERTS
Captain E. K. Roden, Lewis Nixon, General Greely and Robert H.
Kirk point out lessons taught by Titanic disaster and needed changes
in construction.
CHAPTER XXV
OTHER GREAT MARINE DISASTERS.
Deadly danger of icebergs--Dozens of ships perish in collision--
Other disasters.
CHAPTER XXVI
DEVELOPMENT OF SHIPBUILDING
Evolution of water travel--Increases in size of vessels--
Is there any limit?--Achievements in speed--Titanic not the last word.
CHAPTER XXVII
SAFETY AND LIFE-SAVING DEVICES
Wireless telegraphy--Water-tight bulkheads--Submarine signals--
Life-boats and rafts--Nixon's pontoon--Life-preservers and buoys--Rockets.
CHAPTER XXVIII
TIME FOR REFLECTION AND REFORM
Speed and luxury overemphasized--Space needed for life-boats
devoted to swimming pools and squash-courts--Mania for speed records
compels use of dangerous routes and prevents proper caution in foggy
weather--Life more valuable than luxury--Safety more important than
speed--An aroused public opinion necessary--International conference
recommended--Adequate life-saving equipment should be compulsory--
Speed regulations in bad weather--Co-operation in arranging schedules
to keep vessels within reach of each other--Legal regulations.
CHAPTER XXIX
THE SENATORIAL INVESTIGATION
Prompt action of the Government--Senate committee probes disaster
and brings out details--Testimony of Ismay, officers, crew passengers
and other witnesses.
FACTS ABOUT THE WRECK OF THE TITANIC
NUMBER of persons aboard, 2340.
Number of life-boats and rafts, 20.
Capacity of each life-boat, 50 passengers and crew of 8.
Utmost capacity of life-boats and rafts, about 1100.
Number of life-boats wrecked in launching, 4.
Capacity of life-boats safely launched, 928.
Total number of persons taken in life-boats, 711.
Number who died in life-boats, 6.
Total number saved, 705.
Total number of Titanic's company lost, 1635.
The cause of the disaster was a collision with an iceberg in latitude
41.46 north, longitude 50.14 west. The Titanic had had repeated
warnings of the presence of ice in that part of the course.
Two official warnings had been received defining the position of the
ice fields. It had been calculated on the Titanic that she would
reach the ice fields about 11 o'clock Sunday night. The collision
occurred at 11.40. At that time the ship was driving at a speed
of 21 to 23 knots, or about 26 miles, an hour.
There had been no details of seamen assigned to each boat.
Some of the boats left the ship without seamen enough to man
the oars.
Some of the boats were not more than half full of passengers.
The boats had no provisions, some of them had no water stored,
some were without sail equipment or compasses.
In some boats, which carried sails wrapped and bound, there
was not a person with a knife to cut the ropes. In some boats the
plugs in the bottom had been pulled out and the women passengers
were compelled to thrust their hands into the holes to keep the
boats from filling and sinking.
The captain, E. J. Smith, admiral of the White Star fleet, went
down with his ship.
CHAPTER I
FIRST NEWS OF THE GREATEST MARINE DISASTER IN HISTORY
"THE TITANIC IN COLLISION, BUT EVERYBODY SAFE"--
ANOTHER TRIUMPH SET DOWN TO WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY--
THE WORLD GOES TO SLEEP PEACEFULLY--THE SAD AWAKENING.
LIKE a bolt out of a clear sky came the wireless message
on Monday, April 15, 1912, that on Sunday night
the great Titanic, on her maiden voyage across the
Atlantic, had struck a gigantic iceberg, but that all the
passengers were saved. The ship had signaled her distress and
another victory was set down to wireless. Twenty-one
hundred lives saved!
Additional news was soon received that the ship had collided
with a mountain of ice in the North Atlantic, off Cape Race,
Newfoundland, at 10.25 Sunday evening, April 14th. At
4.15 Monday morning the Canadian Government Marine
Agency received a wireless message that the Titanic was sinking
and that the steamers towing her were trying to get her into
shoal water near Cape Race, for the purpose of beaching her.
Wireless despatches up to noon Monday showed that the
passengers of the Titanic were being transferred aboard the
steamer Carpathia, a Cunarder, which left New York, April
13th, for Naples. Twenty boat-loads of the Titanic's passengers
were said to have been transferred to the Carpathia
then, and allowing forty to sixty persons as the capacity of
each life-boat, some 800 or 1200 persons had already been
transferred from the damaged liner to the Carpathia. They
were reported as being taken to Halifax, whence they would
be sent by train to New York.
Another liner, the Parisian, of the Allan Company, which
sailed from Glasgow for Halifax on April 6th, was said to be
close at hand and assisting in the work of rescue. The Baltic,
Virginian and Olympic were also near the scene, according to
the information received by wireless.
While badly damaged, the giant vessel was reported as
still afloat, but whether she could reach port or shoal water
was uncertain. The White Star officials declared that the
Titanic was in no immediate danger of sinking, because of
her numerous water-tight compartments.
"While we are still lacking definite information," Mr.
Franklin, vice-president of the White Star Line, said later
in the afternoon, "we believe the Titanic's passengers will
reach Halifax, Wednesday evening. We have received no
further word from Captain Haddock, of the Olympic, or from
any of the ships in the vicinity, but are confident that there
will be no loss of life."
With the understanding that the survivors would be taken
to Halifax the line arranged to have thirty Pullman cars,
two diners and many passenger coaches leave Boston Monday
night for Halifax to get the passengers after they were landed.
Mr. Franklin made a guess that the Titanic's passengers
would get into Halifax on Wednesday. The Department of
Commerce and Labor notified the White Star Line that customs
and immigration inspectors would be sent from Montreal
to Halifax in order that there would be as little delay as
possible in getting the passengers on trains.
Monday night the world slept in peace and assurance.
A wireless message had finally been received, reading:
"All Titanic's passengers safe."
It was not until nearly a week later that the fact was
discovered that this message had been wrongly received in
the confusion of messages flashing through the air, and that
in reality the message should have read:
"Are all Titanic's passengers safe?"
With the dawning of Tuesday morning came the awful news
of the true fate of the Titanic.
CHAPTER II
THE MOST SUMPTUOUS PALACE AFLOAT
DIMENSIONS OF THE TITANIC--CAPACITY--PROVISIONS FOR
THE COMFORT AND ENTERTAINMENT OF PASSENGERS--
MECHANICAL EQUIPMENT THE ARMY OF ATTENDANTS REQUIRED.
THE statistical record of the great ship has news value
at this time.
Early in 1908 officials of the White Star Company
announced that they would eclipse all previous records in
shipbuilding with a vessel of staggering dimensions. The
Titanic resulted.
The keel of the ill-fated ship was laid in the summer of
1909 at the Harland & Wolff yards, Belfast. Lord Pirrie,
considered one of the best authorities on shipbuilding in the
world, was the designer. The leviathan was launched on
May 31, 1911, and was completed in February, 1912, at a
cost of $10,000,000.
SISTER SHIP OF OLYMPIC
The Titanic, largest liner in commission, was a sister ship
of the Olympic. The registered tonnage of each vessel is
estimated as 45,000, but officers of the White Star Line say
that the Titanic measured 45,328 tons. The Titanic was
commanded by Captain E. J. Smith, the White Star admiral,
who had previously been on the Olympic.
She was 882 1/2 long, or about four city blocks, and
was 5000 tons bigger than a battleship twice as large as the
dreadnought Delaware.
Like her sister ship, the Olympic, the Titanic was a four-
funneled vessel, and had eleven decks. The distance from
the keel to the top of the funnels was 175 feet. She had an
average speed of twenty-one knots.
The Titanic could accommodate 2500 passengers. The
steamship was divided into numerous compartments, separated
by fifteen bulkheads. She was equipped with a gymnasium,
swimming pool, hospital with operating room, and
a grill and palm garden.
CARRIED CREW OF 860
The registered tonnage was 45,000, and the displacement
tonnage 66,000. She was capable of carrying 2500 passengers
and the crew numbered 860.
The largest plates employed in the hull were 36 feet long,
weighing 43 1/2 tons each, and the largest steel beam used was
92 feet long, the weight of this double beam being 4 tons.
The rudder, which was operated electrically, weighed 100
tons, the anchors 15 1/2 tons each, the center (turbine) propeller
22 tons, and each of the two "wing" propellers 38
tons each. The after "boss-arms," from which were sus-
pended the three propeller shafts, tipped the scales at 73 1/2
tons, and the forward "boss-arms" at 45 tons. Each link
in the anchor-chains weighed 175 pounds. There were more
than 2000 side-lights and windows to light the public rooms
and passenger cabins.
Nothing was left to chance in the construction of the
Titanic. Three million rivets (weighing 1200 tons) held the
solid plates of steel together. To insure stability in binding
the heavy plates in the double bottom, half a million rivets,
weighing about 270 tons, were used.
All the plating of the hulls was riveted by hydraulic power,
driving seven-ton riveting machines, suspended from traveling
cranes. The double bottom extended the full
length of the vessel, varying from 5 feet 3 inches to 6 feet 3
inches in depth, and lent added strength to the hull.
MOST LUXURIOUS STEAMSHIP
Not only was the Titanic the largest steamship afloat but
it was the most luxurious. Elaborately furnished cabins
opened onto her eleven decks, and some of these decks were
reserved as private promenades that were engaged with the
best suites. One of these suites was sold for $4350 for the
boat's maiden and only voyage. Suites similar, but which
were without the private promenade decks, sold for $2300.
The Titanic differed in some respects from her sister ship.
The Olympic has a lower promenade deck, but in the Titanic's
case the staterooms were brought out flush with the outside
of the superstructure, and the rooms themselves made much
larger. The sitting rooms of some of the suites on this deck
were 15 x 15 feet.
The restaurant was much larger than that of the Olympic
and it had a novelty in the shape of a private promenade deck
on the starboard side, to be used exclusively by its patrons.
Adjoining it was a reception room, where hosts and hostesses
could meet their guests.
Two private promenades were connected with the two most
luxurious suites on the ship. The suites were situated about
amidships, one on either side of the vessel, and each was about
fifty feet long. One of the suites comprised a sitting room,
two bedrooms and a bath.
These private promenades were expensive luxuries. The
cost figured out something like forty dollars a front foot for
a six days' voyage. They, with the suites to which they are
attached, were the most expensive transatlantic accommodations
yet offered.
THE ENGINE ROOM
The engine room was divided into two sections, one given
to the reciprocating engines and the other to the turbines.
There were two sets of the reciprocating kind, one working each
of the wing propellers through a four-cylinder triple expansion,
direct acting inverted engine. Each set could generate 15,000
indicated horse-power at seventy-five revolutions a minute.
The Parsons type turbine takes steam from the reciprocating
engines, and by developing a horse-power of 16,000 at 165
revolutions a minute works the third of the ship's propellers,
the one directly under the rudder. Of the four funnels of the
vessel three were connected with the engine room, and the
fourth or after funnel for ventilating the ship including the
gallery.
Practically all of the space on the Titanic below the upper
deck was occupied by steam-generating plant, coal bunkers
and propelling machinery. Eight of the fifteen water-tight
compartments contained the mechanical part of the vessel. There
were, for instance, twenty-four double end and five single end
boilers, each 16 feet 9 inches in diameter, the larger 20 feet long
and the smaller 11 feet 9 inches long. The larger boilers had
six fires under each of them and the smaller three furnaces.
Coal was stored in bunker space along the side of the ship
between the lower and middle decks, and was first shipped
from there into bunkers running all the way across the vessel
in the lowest part. From there the stokers handed it into
the furnaces.
One of the most interesting features of the vessel was the
refrigerating plant, which comprised a huge ice-making and
refrigerating machine and a number of provision rooms on the
after part of the lower and orlop decks. There were separate
cold rooms for beef, mutton, poultry, game, fish, vegetables,
fruit, butter, bacon, cheese, flowers, mineral water, wine,
spirits and champagne, all maintained at different temperatures
most suitable to each. Perishable freight had a compartment
of its own, also chilled by the plant.
COMFORT AND STABILITY
Two main ideas were carried out in the Titanic. One was
comfort and the other stability. The vessel was planned to be
an ocean ferry. She was to have only a speed of twenty-one
knots, far below that of some other modern vessels, but she was
planned to make that speed, blow high or blow low, so that
if she left one side of the ocean at a given time she could be
relied on to reach the other side at almost a certain minute
of a certain hour.
One who has looked into modern methods for safeguarding
{illust. caption = LIFE-BOAT AND DAVITS ON THE TITANIC
This diagram shows very clearly the arrangement of the life-boats and
the manner in which they were launched.}
a vessel of the Titanic type can hardly imagine an accident
that could cause her to founder. No collision such as has
been the fate of any ship in recent years, it has been thought
up to this time, could send her down, nor could running against
an iceberg do it unless such an accident were coupled with
the remotely possible blowing out of a boiler. She would
sink at once, probably, if she were to run over a submerged
rock or derelict in such manner that both her keel plates and
her double bottom were torn away for more than half her
length; but such a catastrophe was so remotely possible that
it did not even enter the field of conjecture.
The reason for all this is found in the modern arrangement
of water-tight steel compartments into which all ships now
are divided and of which the Titanic had fifteen so disposed
that half of them, including the largest, could be flooded
without impairing the safety of the vessel. Probably it was
the working of these bulkheads and the water-tight doors
between them as they are supposed to work that saved the
Titanic from foundering when she struck the iceberg.
These bulkheads were of heavy sheet steel and started at the
very bottom of the ship and extended right up to the top side.
The openings in the bulkheads were just about the size of the
ordinary doorway, but the doors did not swing as in a house,
but fitted into water-tight grooves above the opening. They
could be released instantly in several ways, and once closed
formed a barrier to the water as solid as the bulkhead itself.
In the Titanic, as in other great modern ships, these doors
were held in place above the openings by friction clutches.
On the bridge was a switch which connected with an electric
magnet at the side of the bulkhead opening. The turning
of this switch caused the magnet to draw down a heavy weight,
which instantly released the friction clutch, and allowed the
door to fall or slide down over the opening in a second. If,
however, through accident the bridge switch was rendered useless
the doors would close automatically in a few seconds.
This was arranged by means of large metal floats at the side
of the doorways, which rested just above the level of the
double bottom, and as the water entered the compartments
these floats would rise to it and directly release the clutch
holding the door open. These clutches could also be
released by hand.
It was said of the Titanic that liner compartments could be
flooded as far back or as far forward as the engine room and
she would float, though she might take on a heavy list, or
settle considerably at one end. To provide against just such
an accident as she is said to have encountered she had set back
a good distance from the bows an extra heavy cross partition
known as the collision bulkhead, which would prevent water
getting in amidships, even though a good part of her bow should
be torn away. What a ship can stand and still float was
shown a few years ago when the Suevic of the White Star
Line went on the rocks on the British coast. The wreckers
could not move the forward part of her, so they separated her
into two sections by the use of dynamite, and after putting
in a temporary bulkhead floated off the after half of the ship,
put it in dry dock and built a new forward part for her. More
recently the battleship Maine, or what was left of her, was
floated out to sea, and kept on top of the water by her water-
tight compartments only.
CHAPTER III
THE MAIDEN VOYAGE OF THE TITANIC
PREPARATIONS FOR THE VOYAGE--SCENES OF GAYETY--THE
BOAT SAILS--INCIDENTS OF THE VOYAGE---A COLLISION
NARROWLY AVERTED--THE BOAT ON FIRE--WARNED OF
ICEBERGS.
EVER was ill-starred voyage more auspiciously begun
than when the Titanic, newly crowned empress of
the seas, steamed majestically out of the port of
Southampton at noon on Wednesday, April 10th, bound for
New York.
Elaborate preparations had been made for the maiden
voyage. Crowds of eager watchers gathered to witness the
departure, all the more interested because of the notable
people who were to travel aboard her. Friends and relatives
of many of the passengers were at the dock to bid Godspeed
to their departing loved ones. The passengers themselves
were unusually gay and happy.
Majestic and beautiful the ship rested on the water,
marvel of shipbuilding, worthy of any sea. As this new queen
of the ocean moved slowly from her dock, no one questioned
her construction: she was fitted with an elaborate system of
{illust. caption = STEAMER "TITANIC" COMPARED WITH THE LARGEST STRUCTURES IN THE WORLD
1. Bunker Hill Monument. Boston, 221 feet high. 2. Public
{illust. caption = J. BRUCE ISMAY
Managing director of the International Mercantile
Marine, and managing director of the White....}
{illust. caption = CHARLES M. HAYS
President of the Grand Trunk
Pacific Railways, numbered among the heroic men....}
water-tight compartments, calculated to make her unsinkable;
she had been pronounced the safest as well as the most sumptuous
Atlantic liner afloat.
There was silence just before the boat pulled out--the
silence that usually precedes the leave-taking. The heavy
whistles sounded and the splendid Titanic, her flags flying
and her band playing, churned the water and plowed heavily
away.
Then the Titanic, with the people on board waving handkerchiefs
and shouting good-byes that could be heard only
as a buzzing murmur on shore, rode away on the ocean,
proudly, majestically, her head up and, so it seemed, her
shoulders thrown back. If ever a vessel seemed to throb
with proud life, if ever a monster of the sea seemed to "feel
its oats" and strain at the leash, if ever a ship seemed to
have breeding and blue blood that would keep it going until
its heart broke, that ship was the Titanic.
And so it was only her due that as the Titanic steamed
out of the harbor bound on her maiden voyage a thousand
"God-speeds" were wafted after her, while every other vessel
that she passed, the greatest of them dwarfed by her colossal
proportions, paid homage to the new queen regnant with the
blasts of their whistles and the shrieking of steam sirens.
THE SHIP'S CAPTAIN
In command of the Titanic was Captain E. J. Smith,
a veteran of the seas, and admiral of the White Star Line
fleet. The next six officers, in the order of their rank, were
Murdock, Lightollder,{sic} Pitman, Boxhall, Lowe and Moody.
Dan Phillips was chief wireless operator, with Harold Bride
as assistant.
From the forward bridge, fully ninety feet above the sea,
peered out the benign face of the ship's master, cool of aspect,
deliberate of action, impressive in that quality of confidence
that is bred only of long experience in command.
From far below the bridge sounded the strains of the ship's
orchestra, playing blithely a favorite air from "The Chocolate
Soldier." All went as merry as a wedding bell. Indeed,
among that gay ship's company were two score or more at
least for whom the wedding bells had sounded in truth not
many days before. Some were on their honeymoon tours,
others were returning to their motherland after having passed
the weeks of the honeymoon, like Colonel John Jacob Astor
and his young bride, amid the diversions of Egypt or other
Old World countries.
What daring flight of imagination would have ventured
the prediction that within the span of six days that stately
ship, humbled, shattered and torn asunder, would lie two
thousand fathoms deep at the bottom of the Atlantic, that
the benign face that peered from the bridge would be set in
the rigor of death and that the happy bevy of voyaging brides
would be sorrowing widows?
ALMOST IN A COLLISION
The big vessel had, however, a touch of evil fortune before
she cleared the harbor of Southampton. As she passed down
stream her immense bulk--she displaced 66,000 tons--drew
the waters after her with an irresistible suction that tore the
American liner New York from her moorings; seven steel
hawsers were snapped like twine. The New York floated
toward the White Star ship, and would have rammed the new
ship had not the tugs Vulcan and Neptune stopped her and
towed her back to the quay.
When the mammoth ship touched at Cherbourg and later
at Queenstown she was again the object of a port ovation, the
smaller craft doing obeisance while thousands gazed in wonder
at her stupendous proportions. After taking aboard some
additional passengers at each port, the Titanic headed her
towering bow toward the open sea and the race for a record
on her maiden voyage was begun.
NEW BURST OF SPEED EACH DAY
The Titanic made 484 miles as her first day's run, her powerful
new engines turning over at the rate of seventy revolutions.
On the second day out the speed was hit up to seventy-three
revolutions and the run for the day was bulletined as 519
miles. Still further increasing the speed, the rate of revolution
of the engines was raised to seventy-five and the day's
run was 549 miles, the best yet scheduled.
But the ship had not yet been speeded to her capacity
she was capable of turning over about seventy-eight revolutions.
Had the weather conditions been propitious, it was
intended to press the great racer to the full limit of her speed
on Monday. But for the Titanic Monday never came.
FIRE IN THE COAL BUNKERS
Unknown to the passengers, the Titanic was on fire from the
day she sailed from Southampton. Her officers and crew
knew it, for they had fought the fire for days.
This story, told for the first time by the survivors of the
crew, was only one of the many thrilling tales of the fateful
first voyage.
"The Titanic sailed from Southampton on Wednesday,
April 10th, at noon," said J. Dilley, fireman on the Titanic.
"I was assigned to the Titanic from the Oceanic, where I
had served as a fireman. From the day we sailed the Titanic
was on fire, and my sole duty, together with eleven other
men, had been to fight that fire. We had made no headway
against it."
PASSENGERS IN IGNORANCE
"Of course," he went on, "the passengers knew nothing
of the fire. Do you think we'd have let them know about it?
No, sir.
"The fire started in bunker No. 6. There were hundreds
of tons of coal stored there. The coal on top of the bunker
was wet, as all the coal should have been, but down at the
bottom of the bunker the coal had been permitted to get dry.
"The dry coal at the bottom of the pile took fire, and
smoldered for days. The wet coal on top kept the flames from
coming through, but down in the bottom of the bunkers the
flames were raging.
"Two men from each watch of stokers were tolled off, to
fight that fire. The stokers worked four hours at a time,
so twelve of us were fighting flames from the day we put out
of Southampton until we hit the iceberg.
"No, we didn't get that fire out, and among the stokers
there was talk that we'd have to empty the big coal bunkers
after we'd put our passengers off in New York, and then call
on the fire-boats there to help us put out the fire.
"The stokers were alarmed over it, but the officers told
us to keep our mouths shut--they didn't want to alarm the
passengers."
USUAL DIVERSION
Until Sunday, April 14th, then, the voyage had apparently
been a delightful but uneventful one. The passengers had
passed the time in the usual diversions of ocean travelers,
amusing themselves in the luxurious saloons, promenading
on the boat deck, lolling at their ease in steamer chairs and
making pools on the daily runs of the steamship. The
smoking rooms and card rooms had been as well patronized
as usual, and a party of several notorious professional gamblers
had begun reaping their usual easy harvest.
As early as Sunday afternoon the officers of the Titanic
must have known that they were approaching dangerous
ice fields of the kind that are a perennial menace to the safety
of steamships following the regular transatlantic lanes off
the Great Banks of Newfoundland.
AN UNHEEDED WARNING
On Sunday afternoon the Titanic's wireless operator
forwarded to the Hydrographic office in Washington, Baltimore,
Philadelphia and elsewhere the following dispatch:
"April 14.--The German steamship Amerika (Hamburg-
American Line) reports by radio-telegraph passing two large
icebergs in latitude 41.27, longitude 50.08.--Titanic, Br.
S. S."
Despite this warning, the Titanic forged ahead Sunday
night at her usual speed--from twenty-one to twenty-five
knots.
CHAPTER IV
SOME OF THE NOTABLE PASSENGERS
SKETCHES OF PROMINENT MEN AND WOMEN ON BOARD, INCLUDING
MAJOR ARCHIBALD BUTT, JOHN JACOB ASTOR, BENJAMIN
GUGGENHEIM, ISIDOR STRAWS, J. BRUCE ISMAY, GEORGE D.
WIDENER, COLONEL WASHINGTON ROEBLING, 2D, CHARLES
M. HAYS, W. T. STEAD AND OTHERS
THE ship's company was of a character befitting the
greatest of all vessels and worthy of the occasion
of her maiden voyage. Though the major part of
her passengers were Americans returning from abroad, there
were enrolled upon her cabin lists some of the most distinguished
names of England, as well as of the younger nation.
Many of these had purposely delayed sailing, or had hastened
their departure, that they might be among the first passengers
on the great vessel.
There were aboard six men whose fortunes ran into tens
of millions, besides many other persons of international
note. Among the men were leaders in the world of commerce,
finance, literature, art and the learned professions.
Many of the women were socially prominent in two hemispheres.
Wealth and fame, unfortunately, are not proof against
fate, and most of these notable personages perished as pitiably
as the more humble steerage passengers.
The list of notables included Colonel John Jacob Astor,
head of the Astor family, whose fortune is estimated at
$150,000,000; Isidor Straus, merchant and banker ($50,000,000);
J. Bruce Ismay, managing director of the International
Mercantile Marine ($40,000,000); Benjamin Guggenheim,
head of the Guggenheim family ($95,000,000):
George D. Widener, son of P. A. B. Widener, traction magnate
and financier ($5,000,000); Colonel Washington Roebling,
builder of the great Brooklyn Bridge; Charles M.
Hays, president of the Grand Trunk Railway; W. T. Stead.
famous publicist; Jacques Futrelle, journalist; Henry S.
Harper, of the firm of Harper & Bros.; Henry B. Harris,
theatrical manager; Major Archibald Butt, military aide to
President Taft; and Francis D. Millet, one of the best-
known American painters.
MAJOR BUTT
Major Archibald Butt, whose bravery on the sinking vessel
will not soon be forgotten, was military aide to President
Taft and was known wherever the President traveled. His
recent European mission was apparently to call on the Pope
in behalf of President Taft; for on March 21st he was received
at the Vatican, and presented to the Pope a letter from Mr.
Taft thanking the Pontiff for the creation of three new American
Cardinals.
Major Butt had a reputation as a horseman, and it is said
he was able to keep up with President Roosevelt, be the ride
ever so far or fast. He was promoted to the rank of major
in 1911. He sailed for the Mediterranean on March 2d with
his friend Francis D. Millet, the artist, who also perished on
the Titanic.
COLONEL ASTOR
John Jacob Astor was returning from a trip to Egypt with
his nineteen-year-old bride, formerly Miss Madeline Force, to
whom he was married in Providence, September 9, 1911. He
was head of the family whose name he bore and one of the
world's wealthiest men. He was not, however, one of the
world's "idle rich," for his life of forty-seven years was a well-
filled one. He had managed the family estates since 1891;
built the Astor Hotel, New York; was colonel on the staff of
Governor Levi P. Morton, and in May, 1898, was commissioned
colonel of the United States volunteers. After assisting Major-
General Breckinridge, inspector-general of the United States
army, he was assigned to duty on the staff of Major-General
Shafter and served in Cuba during the operations ending in
the surrender of Santiago. He was also the inventor of a
bicycle brake, a pneumatic road-improver, and an improved
turbine engine.
BENJAMIN GUGGENHEIM
Next to Colonel Astor in financial importance was Benjamin
Guggenheim, whose father founded the famous house
of M. Guggenheim and Sons. When the various Guggen-
heim interests were consolidated into the American Smelting
and Refining Company he retired from active business,
although he later became interested in the Power and Mining
Machinery Company of Milwaukee. In 1894 he married
Miss Floretta Seligman, daughter of James Seligman, the
New York banker.
ISIDOR STRAUS
Isidor Straus, whose wife elected to perish with him in the
ship, was a brother of Nathan and Oscar Straus, a partner
with Nathan Straus in R. H. Macy & Co. and L. Straus &
Sons, a member of the firm of Abraham & Straus in Brooklyn,
and has been well known in politics and charitable work.
He was a member of the Fifty-third Congress from 1893 to
1895, and as a friend of William L. Wilson was in constant
consultation in the matter of the former Wilson tariff bill.
Mr. Straus was conspicuous for his works of charity and was
an ardent supporter of every enterprise to improve the condition
of the Hebrew immigrants. He was president of the
Educational Alliance, vice-president of the J. Hood Wright
Memorial Hospital, a member of the Chamber of Commerce,
on one of the visiting committees of Harvard
University, and was besides a trustee of many financial and
philanthropic institutions.
Mr. Straus never enjoyed a college education. He was,
however, one of the best informed men of the day, his information
having been derived from extensive reading. His
library, said to be one of the finest and most extensive in
New York, was his pride and his place of special recreation.
{illust. caption = ACTUAL PHOTOGRAPH OF THE ICEBERG THAT SUNK THE TITANIC
Lady Duff Gordon, a prominent English woman who was aboard the ...}
{illust. caption = HEART-BREAKING FAREWELLS
Both men and women were loaded into the first boats, but soon the
cry of "Women first" was raised. Then came the real note of tragedy.
Husbands and wives clung to each other in farewell; some refused to be
separated.}
GEORGE D. WIDENER
The best known of Philadelphia passengers aboard the
Titanic were Mr. and Mrs. George D. Widener. Mr.
Widener was a son of Peter A. B. Widener and, like his
father, was recognized as one of the foremost financiers of
Philadelphia as well as a leader in society there. Mr.
Widener married Miss Eleanor Elkins, a daughter of the
late William L. Elkins. They made their home with his
father at the latter's fine place at Eastbourne, ten miles
from Philadelphia. Mr. Widener was keenly interested in
horses and was a constant exhibitor at horse shows. In
business he was recognized as his father's chief adviser in
managing the latter's extensive traction interests. P. A. B.
Widener is a director of the International Mercantile
Marine.
Mrs. Widener is said to be the possessor of one of the
finest collections of jewels in the world, the gift of her husband.
One string of pearls in this collection was reported
to be worth $250,000.
The Wideners went abroad two months previous to the
disaster, Mr. Widener desiring to inspect some of his business
interests on the other side. At the opening of the
London Museum by King George on March 21st last it was
announced that Mrs. Widener had presented to the museum
thirty silver plates once the property of Nell Gwyn. Mr.
Widener is survived by a daughter, Eleanor, and a son,
George D. Widener, Jr. Harry Elkins Widener was with his
parents and went down on the ship.
COLONEL ROEBLING
Colonel Washington Augustus Roebling was president of
the John A. Roebling Sons' Company, manufacturers of
iron and steel wire rope. He served in the Union Army
from 1861 to 1865, resigning to assist his father in the
construction of the Cincinnati and Covington suspension bridge.
At the death of his father in 1869 he took entire charge of
the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, and it is to his
genius that the success of that great work may be said to
be due.
WILLIAM T. STEAD
One of the most notable of the foreign passengers was
William T. Stead. Few names are more widely known to the
world of contemporary literature and journalism than that of
the brilliant editor of the Review of Reviews. Matthew Arnold
called him "the inventor of the new journalism in England."
He was on his way to America to take part in the Men and
Religion Forward Movement and was to have delivered an
address in Union Square on the Thursday after the disaster,
with William Jennings Bryan as his chief associate.
Mr. Stead was an earnest advocate of peace and had written
many books. His commentary "If Christ Came to Chicago"
raised a storm twenty years ago. When he was in this country
in 1907 he addressed a session of Methodist clergymen,
and at one juncture of the meeting remarked that unless the
Methodists did something about the peace movement besides
shouting "amen" nobody "would care a damn about their
amens!"
OTHER ENGLISHMEN ABOARD
Other distinguished Englishmen on the Titanic were
Norman C. Craig, M.P., Thomas Andrews, a representative
of the firm of Harland & Wolff, of Belfast, the ship's builders,
and J. Bruce Ismay, managing director of the White Star
Line.
J. BRUCE ISMAY
Mr. Ismay is president and one of the founders of the
International Mercantile Marine. He has made it a custom
to be a passenger on the maiden voyage of every new ship
built by the White Star Line. It was Mr. Ismay who, with
J. P. Morgan, consolidated the British steamship lines under
the International Mercantile Marine's control; and it is
largely due to his imagination that such gigantic ships as the
Titanic and Olympic were made possible
JACQUES FUTRELLE
Jacques Futrelle was an author of short stories, some of
which have appeared in the Saturday Evening Post, and of
many novels of the same general type as "The Thinking
Machine," with which he first gained a wide popularity.
Newspaper work, chiefly in Richmond, Va., engaged his attention
from 1890 to 1909, in which year he entered the theatrical
business as a manager. In 1904 he returned to his journalistic
career.
HENRY B. HARRIS
Henry B. Harris, the theater manager, had been manager
of May Irwin, Peter Dailey, Lily Langtry, Amelia Bingham,
and launched Robert Edeson as star. He became the manager
of the Hudson Theater in 1903 and the Hackett Theater in
1906. Among his best known productions are "The Lion
and the Mouse," "The Traveling Salesman" and "The Third
Degree." He was president of the Henry B. Harris Company
controlling the Harris Theater.
Young Harris had a liking for the theatrical business from a
boy. Twelve years ago Mr. Harris married Miss Rene Wallach
of Washington. He was said to have a fortune of between
$1,000,000 and $3,000,000. He owned outright the Hudson
and the Harris theaters and had an interest in two other
show houses in New York. He owned three theaters in Chicago,
one in Syracuse and one in Philadelphia.
HENRY S. HARPER
Henry Sleeper Harper, who was among the survivors, is a
grandson of John Wesley Harper, one of the founders of the
Harper publishing business. H. Sleeper Harper was himself
an incorporator of Harper & Brothers when the firm became
a corporation in 1896. He had a desk in the offices of the
publishers, but his hand of late years in the management of
the business has been very slight. He has been active in the
work of keeping the Adirondack forests free from aggression.
He was in the habit of spending about half of his time in foreign
travel. His friends in New York recalled that he
had a narrow escape about ten years ago when a ship in
which he was traveling ran into an iceberg on the Grand
Banks.
FRANCIS DAVID MILLET
Millet was one of the best-known American painters and
many of his canvasses are found in the leading galleries of the
world. He served as a drummer boy with the Sixtieth
Massachusetts volunteers in the Civil War, and from early
manhood took a prominent part in public affairs. He was
director of the decorations for the Chicago Exposition and was,
at the time of the disaster, secretary of the American Academy
in Rome. He was a wide traveler and the author of many
books, besides translations of Tolstoi.
CHARLES M. HAYS
Another person of prominence was Charles Melville Hays,
president of the Grand Trunk and the Grand Trunk Pacific
railways. He was described by Sir Wilfrid Laurier at a dinner
of the Canadian Club of New York, at the Hotel Astor last
year, as "beyond question the greatest railroad genius in
Canada, as an executive genius ranking second only to the
late Edward H. Harriman." He was returning aboard the
Titanic with his wife and son-in-law and daughter; Mr. and
Mrs. Thornton Davidson, of Montreal.
CHAPTER V
THE TITANIC STRIKES AN ICEBERG!
TARDY ATTENTION TO WARNING RESPONSIBLE FOR ACCIDENT--
THE DANGER NOT REALIZED AT FIRST--AN INTERRUPTED
CARD GAME--PASSENGERS JOKE AMONG THEMSELVES--THE
REAL TRUTH DAWNS--PANIC ON BOARD--WIRELESS CALLS
FOR HELP
SUNDAY night the magnificent ocean liner was plunging
through a comparatively placid sea, on the surface
of which there was much mushy ice and here and
there a number of comparatively harmless-looking floes.
The night was clear and stars visible. First Officer William
T. Murdock was in charge of the bridge The first intimation
of the presence of the iceberg that he received was from the
lookout in the crow's nest.
Three warnings were transmitted from the crow's nest
of the Titanic to the officer on the doomed steamship's bridge
15 minutes before she struck, according to Thomas Whiteley,
a first saloon steward.
Whiteley, who was whipped overboard from the ship by a
rope while helping to lower a life-boat, finally reported on the
Carpathia aboard one of the boats that contained, he said,
both the crow's nest lookouts. He heard a conversation between
them, he asserted, in which they discussed the warnings
given to the Titanic's bridge of the presence of the iceberg.
Whiteley did not know the names of either of the lookout
men and believed that they returned to England with the
majority of the surviving members of the crew.
{illust. caption = A GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION OF THE FORCE WITH WHICH A
VESSEL STRIKES AN ICEBERG}
"I heard one of them say that at 11.15 o'clock, 15 minutes
before the Titanic struck, he had reported to First Officer
Murdock, on the bridge, that he fancied he saw an iceberg!"
said Whiteley. "Twice after that, the lookout said, he warned
Murdock that a berg was ahead. They were very indignant
that no attention was paid to their warnings."
TARDY ATTENTION TO WARNING RESPONSIBLE FOR ACCIDENT
Murdock's tardy answering of a telephone call from the
crow's nest is assigned by Whiteley as the cause of the
disaster.
When Murdock answered the call he received the information
that the iceberg was due ahead. This information was
imparted just a few seconds before the crash, and had the
officer promptly answered the ring of the bell it is probable that
the accident could have been avoided, or at least, been reduced
by the lowered speed.
The lookout saw a towering "blue berg" looming up in the
sea path of the Titanic, and called the bridge on the ship's
telephone. When, after the passing of those two or three
fateful minutes an officer on the bridge lifted the telephone
receiver from its hook to answer the lookout, it was too late.
The speeding liner, cleaving a calm sea under a star-studded
sky, had reached the floating mountain of ice, which the
theoretically "unsinkable" ship struck a crashing, if glancing,
blow with her starboard bow.
MURDOCK PAID WITH LIFE
Had Murdock, according to the account of the tragedy
given by two of the Titanic's seamen, known how imperative
was that call from the lookout man, the men at the wheel
of the liner might have swerved the great ship sufficiently
to avoid the berg altogether. At the worst the vessel would
probably have struck the mass of ice with her stern.
Murdock, if the tale of the Titanic sailor be true, expiated
his negligence by shooting himself within sight of all alleged
victims huddled in life-boats or struggling in the icy seas.
When at last the danger was realized, the great ship was
so close upon the berg that it was practically impossible to
avoid collision with it
VAIN TRIAL TO CLEAR BERG
The first officer did what other startled and alert commanders
would have done under similar circumstances, that is
{illust. caption = THE LOCATION OF THE DISASTER}
he made an effort by going full speed ahead on the starboard
propeller and reversing his port propeller, simultaneously
throwing his helm over, to make a rapid turn and clear the
berg. The maneuver was not successful. He succeeded in
saving his bows from crashing into the ice-cliff, but nearly
the entire length of the underbody of the great ship on the
starboard side was ripped. The speed of the Titanic, estimated
to be at least twenty-one knots, was so terrific that
the knife-like edge of the iceberg's spur protruding under
the sea cut through her like a can-opener.
The Titanic was in 41.46 north latitude and 50.14 west
longitude when she was struck, very near the spot on the
wide Atlantic where the Carmania encountered a field of ice,
studded with great bergs, on her voyage to New York which
ended on April 14th. It was really an ice pack, due to an
unusually severe winter in the north Atlantic. No less than
twenty-five bergs, some of great height, were counted.
The shock was almost imperceptible. The first officer did
not apparently realize that the great ship had received her
death wound, and none of the passengers had the slightest
suspicion that anything more than a usual minor sea accident
had happened. Hundreds who had gone to their berths and
were asleep were unawakened by the vibration.
BRIDGE GAME NOT DISTURBED
To illustrate the placidity with which practically all the
men regarded the accident it is related that Pierre Marechal,
son of the vice-admiral of the French navy, Lucien Smith,
Paul Chevre, a French sculptor, and A. F. Ormont, a cotton
broker, were in the Cafe Parisien playing bridge.
The four calmly got up from the table and after walking
on deck and looking over the rail returned to their game.
One of them had left his cigar on the card table, and while
the three others were gazing out on the sea he remarked
that he couldn't afford to lose his smoke, returned for his
cigar and came out again.
They remained only for a few moments on deck, and then
resumed their game under the impression that the ship had
stopped for reasons best known to the captain and not involving
any danger to her. Later, in describing the scene
that took place, M. Marechal, who was among the survivors,
said: "When three-quarters of a mile away we stopped,
the spectacle before our eyes was in its way magnificent.
In a very calm sea, beneath a sky moonless but sown with
millions of stars, the enormous Titanic lay on the water,
illuminated from the water line to the boat deck. The bow
was slowly sinking into the black water."
The tendency of the whole ship's company except the men
in the engine department, who were made aware of the danger
by the inrushing water, was to make light of and in some
instances even to ridicule the thought of danger to so substantial
a fabric.
THE CAPTAIN ON DECK
When Captain Smith came from the chart room onto the
bridge, his first words were, "Close the emergency doors."
"They're already closed, sir," Mr. Murdock replied.
"Send to the carpenter and tell him to sound the ship,"
was the next order. The message was sent to the carpenter,
but the carpenter never came up to report. He was probably
the first man on the ship to lose his life.
The captain then looked at the communicator, which
shows in what direction the ship is listing. He saw that she
carried five degrees list to starboard.
The ship was then rapidly settling forward. All the steam
sirens were blowing. By the captain's orders, given in the
next few minutes, the engines were put to work at pumping
out the ship, distress signals were sent by the Marconi, and
rockets were sent up from the bridge by Quartermaster Rowe.
All hands were ordered on deck.
PASSENGERS NOT ALARMED
The blasting shriek of the sirens had not alarmed the great
company of the Titanic, because such steam calls are an incident
of travel in seas where fogs roll. Many had gone
to bed, but the hour, 11.40 P. M., was not too late for the
friendly contact of saloons and smoking rooms. It was
Sunday night and the ship's concert had ended, but there were
many hundreds up and moving among the gay lights, and
many on deck with their eyes strained toward the mysterious
west, where home lay. And in one jarring, breath-sweeping
moment all of these, asleep or awake, were at the mercy of
chance. Few among the more than 2000 aboard could have
had a thought of danger. The man who had stood up in the
smoking room to say that the Titanic was vulnerable or that
in a few minutes two-thirds of her people would be face to
face with death, would have been considered a fool or a
lunatic. No ship ever sailed the seas that gave her passengers
more confidence, more cool security.
Within a few minutes stewards and other members of the
crew were sent round to arouse the people. Some utterly
refused to get up. The stewards had almost to force the doors
of the staterooms to make the somnolent appreciate their
peril, and many of them, it is believed, were drowned like
rats in a trap.
ASTOR AND WIFE STROLLED ON DECK
Colonel and Mrs. Astor were in their room and saw the
ice vision flash by. They had not appreciably felt the gentle
shock and supposed that nothing out of the ordinary had
happened. They were both dressed and came on deck leisurely.
William T. Stead, the London journalist, wandered
on deck for a few minutes, stopping to talk to Frank Millet.
"What do they say is the trouble?" he asked. "Icebergs,"
was the brief reply. "Well," said Stead, "I guess it is nothing
serious. I'm going back to my cabin to read."
From end to end on the mighty boat officers were rushing
about without much noise or confusion, but giving orders
sharply. Captain Smith told the third officer to rush downstairs
and see whether the water was coming in very fast.
"And," he added, "take some armed guards along to see
that the stokers and engineers stay at their posts."
In two minutes the officer returned. "It looks pretty
bad, sir," he said. "The water is rushing in and filling the
bottom. The locks of the water-tight compartments have
been sprung by the shock."
"Give the command for all passengers to be on deck with
life-belts on."
Through the length and breadth of the boat, upstairs and
downstairs, on all decks, the cry rang out: "All passengers
on deck with life-preservers."
A SUDDEN TREMOR OF FEAR
For the first time, there was a feeling of panic. Husbands
sought for wives and children. Families gathered together.
Many who were asleep hastily caught up their clothing and
rushed on deck. A moment before the men had been joking
about the life-belts, according to the story told by Mrs.
Vera Dick, of Calgary, Canada. "Try this one," one man
said to her, "they are the very latest thing this season.
Everybody's wearing them now."
Another man suggested to a woman friend, who had a
fox terrier in her arms, that she should put a life-saver on
the dog. "It won't fit," the woman replied, laughing.
"Make him carry it in his mouth," said the friend.
CONFUSION AMONG THE IMMIGRANTS
Below, on the steerage deck, there was intense confusion.
About the time the officers on the first deck gave the order
that all men should stand to one side and all women should
go below to deck B, taking the children with them, a similar
order was given to the steerage passengers. The women
were ordered to the front, the men to the rear. Half a dozen
healthy, husky immigrants pushed their way forward and tried
to crowd into the first boat.
"Stand back," shouted the officers who were manning the
boat. "The women come first."
Shouting curses in various foreign languages, the immigrant
men continued their pushing and tugging to climb
into the boats. Shots rang out. One big fellow fell over the
railing into the water. Another dropped to the deck, moaning.
His jaw had been shot away. This was the story told by the
bystanders afterwards on the pier. One husky Italian told
the writer on the pier that the way in which the men were
shot down was horrible. His sympathy was with the men
who were shot.
"They were only trying to save their lives," he said.
WIRELESS OPERATOR DIED AT HIS POST
On board the Titanic, the wireless operator, with a life-belt
about his waist, was hitting the instrument that was sending
out C. Q. D., messages, "Struck on iceberg, C. Q. D."
"Shall I tell captain to turn back and help?" flashed a
reply from the Carpathia.
"Yes, old man," the Titanic wireless operator responded.
"Guess we're sinking."
An hour later, when the second wireless man came into the
boxlike room to tell his companion what the situation was,
he found a negro stoker creeping up behind the operator and
saw him raise a knife over his head. He said afterwards--he
was among those rescued--that he realized at once that the
negro intended to kill the operator in order to take his life-
belt from him. The second operator pulled out his revolver
and shot the negro dead.
"What was the trouble?" asked the operator.
"That negro was going to kill you and steal your life-belt,"
the second man replied.
"Thanks, old man," said the operator. The second man
went on deck to get some more information. He was just in
time to jump overboard before the Titanic went down. The
wireless operator and the body of the negro who tried to steal
his belt went down together.
On the deck where the first class passengers were quartered,
known as deck A, there was none of the confusion that was
taking place on the lower decks. The Titanic was standing
without much rocking. The captain had given an order and
the band was playing.
{illust. caption = WAITING FOR THE NEWS
A Bird's eye view of the great crowds ...}
{illust. caption = WIRELESS STATION AT CAPE RACE
Where the first news of the Titanic disaster was received.}
CHAPTER VI
"WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST!"
COOL-HEADED OFFICERS AND CREW BRING ORDER OUT OF
CHAOS--FILLING THE LIFE-BOATS--HEARTRENDING SCENES
AS FAMILIES ARE PARTED--FOUR LIFE-BOATS LOST--INCIDENTS
OF BRAVERY--"THE BOATS ARE ALL FILLED!"
ONCE on the deck, many hesitated to enter the
swinging life-boats. Tho glassy sea, the starlit
sky, the absence, in the first few moments, of
intense excitement, gave them the feeling that there was
only some slight mishap; that those who got into the boats
would have a chilly half hour below and might, later, be
laughed at.
It was such a feeling as this, from all accounts, which
caused John Jacob Astor and his wife to refuse the places
offered them in the first boat, and to retire to the gymnasium.
In the same way H. J. Allison, a Montreal banker, laughed at
the warning, and his wife, reassured by him, took her time
dressing. They and their daughter did not reach the Carpathia.
Their son, less than two years old, was carried into
a life-boat by his nurse, and was taken in charge by Major
Arthur Peuchen.
THE LIFE-BOATS LOWERED
The admiration felt by the passengers and crew for the
matchlessly appointed vessel was translated, in those first
few moments, into a confidence which for some proved
deadly. The pulsing of the engines had ceased, and the
steamship lay just as though she were awaiting the order
to go on again after some trifling matter had been adjusted.
But in a few minutes the canvas covers were lifted from
the life-boats and the crews allotted to each standing by,
ready to lower them to the water.
Nearly all the boats that were lowered on the port side
of the ship touched the water without capsizing. Four of
the others lowered to starboard, including one collapsible,
were capsized. All, however, who were in the collapsible
boats that practically went to pieces, were rescued by the
other boats.
Presently the order was heard: "All men stand back and
all women retire to the deck below." That was the smoking-
room deck, or the B deck. The men stood away and remained
in absolute silence, leaning against the rail or pacing up and
down the deck slowly. Many of them lighted cigars or cigarettes
and began to smoke.
LOADING THE BOATS
The boats were swung out and lowered from the A deck
above. The women were marshaled quietly in lines along
the B deck, and when the boats were lowered down to the
level of the latter the women were assisted to climb into them.
As each of the boats was filled with its quota of passengers
the word was given and it was carefully lowered down to the
dark surface of the water.
Nobody seemed to know how Mr. Ismay got into a boat,
but it was assumed that he wished to make a presentation of
the case of the Titanic to his company. He was among those
who apparently realized that the splendid ship was doomed.
All hands in the life-boats, under instructions from officers
and men in charge, were rowed a considerable distance from
the ship herself in order to get far away from the possible
suction that would follow her foundering.
COOLEST MEN ON BOARD
Captain Smith and Major Archibald Butt, military aide to
the President of the United States, were among the coolest
men on board. A number of steerage passengers were
yelling and screaming and fighting to get to the boats.
Officers drew guns and told them that if they moved towards
the boats they would be shot dead. Major Butt had a gun
in his hand and covered the men who tried to get to the boats.
The following story of his bravery was told by Mrs. Henry
B. Harris, wife of the theatrical manager:
"The world should rise in praise of Major Butt. That
man's conduct will remain in my memory forever. The American
army is honored by him and the way he taught some of
the other men how to behave when women and children were
suffering that awful mental fear of death. Major Butt was
near me and I noticed everything that he did.
"When the order to man the boats came, the captain whispered
something to Major Butt. The two of them had become
friends. The major immediately became as one in supreme
command. You would have thought he was at a White
House reception. A dozen or more women became hysterical
all at once, as something connected with a life-boat went
wrong. Major Butt stepped over to them and said:
" `Really, you must not act like that; we are all going to
see you through this thing.' He helped the sailors rearrange
the rope or chain that had gone wrong and lifted some of the
women in with a touch of gallantry. Not only was there a
complete lack of any fear in his manner, but there was the
action of an aristocrat.
"When the time came he was a man to be feared. In one
of the earlier boats fifty women, it seemed, were about to
be lowered, when a man, suddenly panic-stricken, ran to the
stern of it. Major Butt shot one arm out, caught him by
the back of the neck and jerked him backward like a pillow.
His head cracked against a rail and he was stunned.
" `Sorry,' said Major Butt, `women will be attended to
first or I'll break every damned bone in your body.'
FORCED MEN USURPING PLACES TO VACATE
"The boats were lowered one by one, and as I stood by, my
husband said to me, `Thank God, for Archie Butt.' Perhaps
Major Butt heard it, for he turned his face towards us for a
second and smiled. Just at that moment, a young man was
arguing to get into a life-boat, and Major Butt had a hold
of the lad by the arm, like a big brother, and was telling him
to keep his head and be a man.
"Major Butt helped those poor frightened steerage people
so wonderfully, so tenderly and yet with such cool and manly
firmness that he prevented the loss of many lives from panic.
He was a soldier to the last. He was one of God's greatest
noblemen, and I think I can say he was an example of bravery
even to men on the ship."
LAST WORDS OF MAJOR BUTT
Miss Marie Young, who was a music instructor to President
Roosevelt's children and had known Major Butt during
the Roosevelt occupancy of the White House, told this
story of his heroism.
"Archie himself put me into the boat, wrapped blankets
about me and tucked me in as carefully as if we were starting
on a motor ride. He, himself, entered the boat with me,
performing the little courtesies as calmly and with as smiling
a face as if death were far away, instead of being but a few
moments removed from him.
"When he had carefully wrapped me up he stepped upon
the gunwale of the boat, and lifting his hat, smiled down at
me. `Good-bye, Miss Young,' he said. `Good luck to
you, and don't forget to remember me to the folks back home.'
Then he stepped back and waved his hand to me as the boat
was lowered. I think I was the last woman he had a chance
to help, for the boat went down shortly after we cleared the
suction zone."
COLONEL ASTOR ANOTHER HERO
Colonel Astor was another of the heroes of the awful night.
Effort was made to persuade him to take a place in one of
the life-boats, but he emphatically refused to do so until every
woman and child on board had been provided for, not excepting
the women members of the ship's company.
One of the passengers describing the consummate courage
of Colonel Astor said:
"He led Mrs. Astor to the side of the ship and helped her
to the life-boat to which she had been assigned. I saw that
she was prostrated and said she would remain and take her
chances with him, but Colonel Astor quietly insisted and
tried to reassure her in a few words. As she took her place
in the boat her eyes were fixed upon him. Colonel Astor
smiled, touched his cap, and when the boat moved safely
away from the ship's side he turned back to his place among
the men."
Mrs. Ida S. Hippach and her daughter Jean, survivors of
the Titanic, said they were saved by Colonel John Jacob
Astor, who forced the crew of the last life-boat to wait for
them.
"We saw Colonel Astor place Mrs. Astor in a boat and
assure her that he would follow later," said Mrs. Hippach.
"He turned to us with a smile and said, `Ladies, you are
next.' The officer in charge of the boat protested that the
craft was full, and the seamen started to lower it.
"Colonel Astor exclaimed, `Hold that boat,' in the voice
of a man accustomed to be obeyed, and they did as he ordered.
The boat had been lowered past the upper deck and the
colonel took us to the deck below and put us in the boat,
one after the other, through a port-hole."
{illust. caption = LOADING THE LIFE-BOATS
Here occurred the heart-
rending separation of husbands
and wives, as the women
were given precedence in the
boats.}
HEART-BREAKING SCENES
There were some terrible scenes. Fathers were parting from
their children and giving them an encouraging pat on the
shoulders; men were kissing their wives and telling them
that they would be with them shortly. One man said there
was absolutely no danger, that the boat was the finest ever
built, with water-tight compartments, and that it could not
sink. That seemed to be the general impression.
A few of the men, however, were panic-stricken even
when the first of the fifty-six foot life-boats was being filled.
Fully ten men threw themselves into the boats already
crowded with women and children. These men were dragged
back and hurled sprawling across the deck. Six of them,
screamed with fear, struggled to their feet and made a second
attempt to rush to the boats.
About ten shots sounded in quick succession. The six
cowardly men were stopped in their tracks, staggered and
collapsed one after another. At least two of them vainly
attempted to creep toward the boats again. The others lay
quite still. This scene of bloodshed served its purpose.
In that particular section of the deck there was no further
attempt to violate the rule of "women and children first."
"I helped fill the boats with women," said Thomas Whiteley,
who was a waiter on the Titanic. "Collapsible boat No. 2
on the starboard jammed. The second officer was hacking
at the ropes with a knife and I was being dragged around the
deck by that rope when I looked up and saw the boat, with all
aboard, turn turtle. In some way I got overboard myself
and clung to an oak dresser. I wasn't more than sixty feet
from the Titanic when she went down. Her big stern rose
up in the air and she went down bow first. I saw all the machinery
drop out of her."
HENRY B. HARRIS
Henry B. Harris, of New York, a theatrical manager, was
one of the men who showed superb courage in the crisis.
When the life-boats were first being filled, and before there
was any panic, Mr. Harris went to the side of his wife before
the boat was lowered away.
"Women first," shouted one of the ship's officers. Mr.
Harris glanced up and saw that the remark was addressed
to him.
"All right," he replied coolly. "Good-bye, my dear,"
he said, as he kissed his wife, pressed her a moment to his
breast, and then climbed back to the Titanic's deck.
THREE EXPLOSIONS
Up to this time there had been no panic; but about one hour
before the ship plunged to the bottom there were three
separate explosions of bulkheads as the vessel filled.
These were at intervals of about fifteen minutes. From that
time there was a different scene. The rush for the remaining
boats became a stampede.
The stokers rushed up from below and tried to beat a path
through the steerage men and women and through the sailors
and officers, to get into the boats. They had their iron bars
and shovels, and they struck down all who stood in their
way.
The first to come up from the depths of the ship was an
engineer. From what he is reported to have said it is probable
that the steam fittings were broken and many were scalded
to death when the Titanic lifted. He said he had to dash
through a narrow place beside a broken pipe and his back
was frightfully scalded.
Right at his heels came the stokers. The officers had pistols,
but they could not use them at first for fear of killing the
women and children. The sailors fought with their fists and
many of them took the stoke bars and shovels from the stokers
and used them to beat back the others.
Many of the coal-passers and stokers who had been driven
back from the boats went to the rail, and whenever a boat was
filled and lowered several of them jumped overboard and
swam toward it trying to climb aboard. Several of the
survivors said that men who swam to the sides of their boats
were pulled in or climbed in.
Dozens of the cabin passengers were witnesses of some of the
frightful scenes on the steerage deck. The steerage survivors
said that ten women from the upper decks were the
only cool passengers in the life-boat, and they tried to quiet the
steerage women, who were nearly all crazed with fear and grief.
OTHER HEROES
Among the chivalrous young heroes of the Titanic disaster
were Washington A. Roebling, 2d, and Howard Case, London
representative of the Vacuum Oil Company. Both were
urged repeatedly to take places in life-boats, but scorned the
opportunity, while working against time to save the women
aboard the ill-fated ship. They went to their death, it is
said by survivors, with smiles on their faces.
Both of these young men aided in the saving of Mrs. William
T. Graham, wife of the president of the American Can Company,
and Mrs. Graham's nineteen-year-old daughter, Margaret.
Afterwards relating some of her experiences Mrs. Graham
said:
"There was a rap at the door. It was a passenger whom
we had met shortly after the ship left Liverpool, and his name
was Roebling--Washington A. Roebling, 2d. He was a
gentleman and a brave man. He warned us of the danger and
told us that it would be best to be prepared for an emergency.
We heeded his warning, and I looked out of my window and
saw a great big iceberg facing us. Immediately I knew what
had happened and we lost no time after that to get out into
the saloon.
"In one of the gangways I met an officer of the ship.
" `What is the matter?' I asked him.
" `We've only burst two pipes,' he said. `Everything is
all right, don't worry.'
" `But what makes the ship list so?' I asked.
" `Oh, that's nothing,' he replied, and walked away.
"Mr. Case advised us to get into a boat.
" `And what are you going to do?' we asked him.
" `Oh,' he replied, `I'll take a chance and stay here.'
"Just at that time they were filling up the third life-boat
on the port side of the ship. I thought at the time that it
was the third boat which had been lowered, but I found out
later that they had lowered other boats on the other side,
where the people were more excited because they were sinking
on that side.
"Just then Mr. Roebling came up, too, and told us to
hurry and get into the third boat. Mr. Roebling and Mr.
Case bustled our party of three into that boat in less time than
it takes to tell it. They were both working hard to help the
women and children. The boat was fairly crowded when we
three were pushed into it, and a few men jumped in at the last
moment, but Mr. Roebling and Mr. Case stood at the rail
and made no attempt to get into the boat.
"They shouted good-bye to us. What do you think Mr.
Case did then? He just calmly lighted a cigarette and waved
us good-bye with his hand. Mr. Roebling stood there, too--
I can see him now. I am sure that he knew that the ship
would go to the bottom. But both just stood there."
IN THE FACE OF DEATH
Scenes on the sinking vessel grew more tragic as the remaining
passengers faced the awful certainty that death must be the
portion of the majority, death in the darkness of a wintry sea
studded with its ice monuments like the marble shafts in
some vast cemetery.
In that hour, when cherished illusions of possible safety
had all but vanished, manhood and womanhood aboard the
Titanic rose to their sublimest heights. It was in that crisis
of the direst extremity that many brave women deliberately
rejected life and chose rather to remain and die with the men
whom they loved.
DEATH FAILS TO PART MR. AND MRS. STRAUS
"I will not leave my husband," said Mrs. Isidor Straus.
"We are old; we can best die together," and she turned from
those who would have forced her into one of the boats and
clung to the man who had been the partner of her joys and
sorrows. Thus they stood hand in hand and heart to heart,
comforting each other until the sea claimed them, united in
death as they had been through a long life.
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his
life for his friends."
Miss Elizabeth Evans fulfilled this final test of affection
laid down by the Divine Master. The girl was the niece of
the wife of Magistrate Cornell, of New York. She was placed
in the same boat with many other women. As it was about
to be lowered away it was found that the craft contained one
more than its full quota of passengers.
The grim question arose as to which of them should surrender
her place and her chance of safety. Beside Miss
Evans sat Mrs. J. J. Brown, of Denver, the mother of several
children. Miss Evans was the first to volunteer to yield to
another.
GIRL STEPS BACK TO DOOM
"Your need is greater than mine," said she to Mrs. Brown.
"You have children who need you, and I have none."
So saying she arose from the boat and stepped back upon
the deck. The girl found no later refuge and was one of those
who went down with the ship. She was twenty-five years
old and was beloved by all who knew her.
Mrs. Brown thereafter showed the spirit which had made
her also volunteer to leave the boat. There were only three
men in the boat and but one of them rowed. Mrs. Brown,
who was raised on the water, immediately picked up one
of the heavy sweeps and began to pull.
In the boat which carried Mrs. Cornell and Mrs. Appleton
there were places for seventeen more than were carried.
This too was undermanned and the two women at once took
their places at the oars.
The Countess of Rothes was pulling at the oars of her
boat, likewise undermanned because the crew preferred to
stay behind.
Miss Bentham, of Rochester, showed splendid courage.
She happened to be in a life-boat which was very much
crowded--so much so that one sailor had to sit with his feet
dangling in the icy cold water, and as time went on the sufferings
of the man from the cold were apparent. Miss Bentham
arose from her place and had the man turn around while
she took her place with her feet in the water.
Scarcely any of the life-boats were properly manned.
Two, filled with women and children, capsized immediately,
while the collapsible boats were only temporarily useful.
They soon filled with water. In one boat eighteen or
twenty persons sat in water above their knees for six hours.
{illust. caption =
In the darkness and
confusion, punctuated
by screams, sobs and
curses, the boats were
lowered after being filled
with women, children
and a few men. The
sketch, drawn from description
of eye-witnesses,
shows the lofty side of
the stricken vessel and
the laden boats descending.
THE
LIFE-BOATS
BEING
LOWERED}
{illust. caption = Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.
{illust. caption = Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.
LIFE-BOATS, AS SEEN FROM THE CARPATHIA
Photographs taken from the rescue ship as she reached the first boats
carrying the Titanic's sufferers.}
heard it, but have forgotten it. But I saw an order for five
pounds which this man gave to each of the crew of his boat
after they got aboard the Carpathia. It was on a piece of
ordinary paper addressed to the Coutts Bank of England.
"We called that boat the `money boat.' It was lowered
from the starboard side and was one of the first off. Our
orders were to load the life-boats beginning forward on the
port side, working aft and then back on the starboard.
This man paid the firemen to lower a starboard boat before
the officers had given the order."
Whiteley's own experience was a hard one. When the
uncoiling rope, which entangled his feet, threw him into the
sea, it furrowed the flesh of his leg, but he did not feel the
pain until he was safe aboard the Carpathia.
"I floated on my life-preserver for several hours," he said,
"then I came across a big oak dresser with two men clinging
to it. I hung on to this till daybreak and the two men
dropped off. When the sun came up I saw the collapsible
raft in the distance, just black with men. They were all
standing up, and I swam to it--almost a mile, it seemed to me
--and they would not let me aboard. Mr. Lightoller, the
second officer, was one of them.
" `It's thirty-one lives against yours,, he said, `you can't
come aboard. There's not room.' "
"I pleaded with him in vain, and then I confess I prayed
that somebody might die, so I could take his place. It was
only human. And then some one did die, and they let me
aboard.
"By and by, we saw seven life-boats lashed together, and
we were taken into them."
MEN SHOT DOWN
The officers had to assert their authority by force, and three
foreigners from the steerage who tried to force their way in
among the women and children were shot down without
mercy.
Robert Daniel, a Philadelphia passenger, told of terrible
scenes at this period of the disaster. He said men fought
and bit and struck one another like madmen, and exhibited
wounds upon his face to prove the assertion. Mr. Daniel
said that he was picked up naked from the ice-cold water
and almost perished from exposure before he was rescued.
He and others told how the Titanic's bow was completely
torn away by the impact with the berg.
K. Whiteman, of Palmyra, N. J., the Titanic's barber,
was lowering boats on deck after the collision, and declared
the officers on the bridge, one of them First Officer Murdock,
promptly worked the electrical apparatus for closing the water-
tight compartments. He believed the machinery was in some
way so damaged by the crash that the front compartments
failed to close tightly, although the rear ones were secure.
Whiteman's manner of escape was unique. He was blown
off the deck by the second of the two explosions of the boilers,
and was in the water more than two hours before he was
picked up by a raft.
"The explosions," Whiteman said; "were caused by the
rushing in of the icy water on the boilers. A bundle of deck
chairs, roped together, was blown off the deck with me, and I
struck my back, injuring my spine, but it served as a temporary
raft.
"The crew and passengers had faith in the bulkhead system
to save the ship and we were lowering a collapsible boat,
all confident the ship would get through, when she took a
terrific dip forward and the water swept over the deck and
into the engine rooms.
"The bow went clean down, and I caught the pile of chairs
as I was washed up against the rim. Then came the explosions
which blew me fifteen feet.
"After the water had filled the forward compartments,
the ones at the stern could not save her, although they did
delay the ship's going down. If it wasn't for the compartments
hardly anyone could have got away."
A SAD MESSAGE
One of the Titanic's stewards, Johnson by name, carried
this message to the sorrowing widow of Benjamin Guggenheim:
"When Mr. Guggenheim realized that there was grave
danger," said the room steward, "he advised his secretary,
who also died, to dress fully and he himself did the same.
Mr. Guggenheim, who was cool and collected as he was pulling
on his outer garments, said to the steward:--
PREPARED TO DIE BRAVELY
" `I think there is grave doubt that the men will get off
safely. I am willing to remain and play the man's game, if
there are not enough boats for more than the women and
children. I won't die here like a beast. I'll meet my end as
man.'
"There was a pause and then Mr. Guggenheim continued:
" `Tell my wife, Johnson, if it should happen that my secretary
and I both go down and you are saved, tell her I played
the game out straight and to the end. No woman shall be
left aboard this ship because Ben Guggenheim was a coward.
" `Tell her that my last thoughts will be of her and of our
girls, but that my duty now is to these unfortunate women
and children on this ship. Tell her I will meet whatever fate
is in store for me, knowing she will approve of what I do.' "
In telling the story the room steward said the last he saw
of Mr. Guggenheim was when he stood fully dressed upon
the upper deck talking calmly with Colonel Astor and Major
Butt.
Before the last of the boats got away, according to some of
the passengers' narratives, there were more than fifty shots
fired upon the decks by officers or others in the effort to maintain
the discipline that until then had been well preserved.
THE SINKING VESSEL
Richard Norris Williams, Jr., one of the survivors of the
Titanic, saw his father killed by being crushed by one of the
tremendous funnels of the sinking vessel.
"We stood on deck watching the life-boats of the Titanic
being filled and lowered into the water," said Mr. Williams.
"The water was nearly up to our waists and the ship was
about at her last. Suddenly one of the great funnels fell.
I sprang aside, endeavoring to pull father with me. A
moment later the funnel was swept overboard and the body
of father went with it.
"I sprang overboard and swam through the ice to a life-
raft, and was pulled aboard. There were five men and one
woman on the raft. Occasionally we were swept off into the
sea, but always managed to crawl back.
"A sailor lighted a cigarette and flung the match carelessly
among the women. Several screamed, fearing they would
be set on fire. The sailor replied: `We are going to hell anyway
and we might as well be cremated now as then.' "
A huge cake of ice was the means of aiding Emile Portaleppi,
of Italy, in his hairbreadth escape from death when
the Titanic went down. Portaleppi, a second class passenger,
was awakened by the explosion of one of the bulkheads of
the ship. He hurried to the deck, strapped a life-preserver
around him and leaped into the sea. With the aid of the
preserver and by holding to a cake of ice he managed to
keep afloat until one of the life-boats picked him up. There
were thirty-five other people in the boat, he said, when he was
hauled aboard.
THE COWARD
Somewhere in the shadow of the appalling Titanic disaster
slinks--still living by the inexplicable grace of God--a cur
in human shape, to-day the most despicable human being in
all the world.
In that grim midnight hour, already great in history, he
found himself hemmed in by the band of heroes whose watchword
and countersign rang out across the deep--"Women
and children first!"
What did he do? He scuttled to the stateroom deck, put
on a woman's skirt, a woman's hat and a woman's veil, and
picking his crafty way back among the brave and chivalric
men who guarded the rail of the doomed ship, he filched a
seat in one of the life-boats and saved his skin.
His name is on that list of branded rescued men who were
neither picked up from the sea when the ship went down
nor were in the boats under orders to help get them safe away.
His identity is not yet known, though it will be in good time.
So foul an act as that will out like murder.
The eyes of strong men who have read this crowded record
of golden deeds, who have read and re-read that deathless
roll of honor of the dead, are still wet with tears of pity and
of pride. This man still lives. Surely he was born and saved
to set for men a new standard by which to measure infamy
and shame.
It is well that there was sufficient heroism on board the
Titanic to neutralize the horrors of the cowardice. When
the first order was given for the men to stand back, there were
a dozen or more who pushed forward and said that men would
be needed to row the life-boats and that they would volunteer
for the work.
The officers tried to pick out the ones that volunteered
merely for service and to eliminate those who volunteered
merely to save their own lives. This elimination process
however, was not wholly successful.
THE DOOMED MEN
As the ship began to settle to starboard, heeling at an angle
of nearly forty-five degrees, those who had believed it was all
right to stick by the ship began to have doubts, and a few
jumped into the sea. They were followed immediately by
others, and in a few minutes there were scores swimming
around. Nearly all of them wore life-preservers. One man,
who had a Pomeranian dog, leaped overboard with it and
striking a piece of wreckage was badly stunned. He recovered
after a few minutes and swam toward one of the life-boats
and was taken aboard.
Said one survivor, speaking of the men who remained on
the ship. "There they stood--Major Butt, Colonel Astor
waving a farewell to his wife, Mr. Thayer, Mr. Case,
Mr. Clarence Moore, Mr. Widener, all multimillionaires, and
hundreds of other men, bravely smiling at us all. Never have I
seen such chivalry and fortitude. Such courage in the face of
fate horrible to contemplate filled us even then with wonder
and admiration."
Why were men saved? ask: others who seek to make the
occasional male survivor a hissing scorn; and yet the testimony
makes it clear that for a long time during that ordeal
the more frightful position seemed to many to be in the frail
boats in the vast relentless sea, and that some men had to be
tumbled into the boats under orders from the officers. Others
express the deepest indignation that 210 sailors were rescued,
the testimony shows that most of these sailors were in the
welter of ice and water into which they had been thrown from
the ship's deck when she sank; they were human beings and
so were picked up and saved.
"WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST"
The one alleviating circumstance in the otherwise immitigable
tragedy is the fact that so many of the men stood aside
really with out the necessity for the order, "Women and
children first," and insisted that the weaker sex should first
have places in the boats.
There were men whose word of command swayed boards
of directors, governed institutions, disposed of millions. They
were accustomed merely to pronounce a wish to have it gratified.
Thousands "posted at their bidding"; the complexion
of the market altered hue when they nodded; they bought
what they wanted, and for one of the humblest fishing smacks
or a dory they could have given the price that was paid to
build and launch the ship that has become the most imposing
mausoleum that ever housed the bones of men since the
Pyramids rose from the desert sands.
But these men stood aside--one can see them!--and gave
place not merely to the delicate and the refined, but to the
scared Czech woman from the steerage, with her baby at her
breast; the Croatian with a toddler by her side, coming
through the very gate of Death and out of the mouth of Hell
to the imagined Eden of America.
To many of those who went it was harder to go than to
stay there on the vessel gaping with its mortal wounds and
ready to go down. It meant that tossing on the waters they
must wait in suspense, hour after hour even after the lights of
the ship were engulfed in appalling darkness, hoping against
hope for the miracle of a rescue dearer to them than their
own lives.
It was the tradition of Anglo-Saxon heroism that was fulfilled
in the frozen seas during the black hours of Sunday
night. The heroism was that of the women who went, as well
as of the men who remained!
CHAPTER VII
LEFT TO THEIR FATE
COOLNESS AND HEROISM OF THOSE LEFT TO PERISH--SUICIDE
OF MURDOCK--CAPTAIN SMITH'S END--THE SHIP'S BAND
PLAYS A NOBLE HYMN AS THE VESSEL GOES DOWN
THE general feeling aboard the ship after the boats
had left her sides was that she would not survive
her wound, but the passengers who remained aboard
displayed the utmost heroism.
William T. Stead, the famous English journalist, was so
litt{l}e alarmed that he calmly discussed with one of the passengers
the probable height of the iceberg after the Titanic
had shot into it.
Confidence in the ability of the Titanic to remain afloat
doubtlessly led many of the passengers to death. The theory
that the great ship was unsinkable remained with hundreds
who had entrusted themselves to the gigantic hulk, long
after the officers knew that the vessel could not survive.
The captain and officers behaved with superb gallantry,
and there was perfect order and discipline among those who
were aboard, even after all hope had been abandoned for the
salvation of the ship.
Many women went down, steerage women who were unable
to get to the upper decks where the boats were launched,
maids who were overlooked in the confusion, cabin passengers
who refused to desert their husbands or who reached the decks
after the last of the life-boats was gone and the ship was
settling for her final plunge to the bottom of the Atlantic.
Narratives of survivors do not bear out the supposition
that the final hours upon the vessel's decks were passed in
darkness. They say the electric lighting plant held out
until the last, and that even as they watched the ship sink,
from their places in the floating life-boats, her lights were
gleaming in long rows as she plunged under by the head.
Just before she sank, some of the refugees say, the ship broke
in two abaft the engine room after the bulkhead explosions
had occurred.
COLONEL ASTOR'S DEATH
To Colonel Astor's death Philip Mock bears this testimony.
"Many men were hanging on to rafts in the sea. William
T. Stead and Colonel Astor were among them. Their
feet and hands froze and they had to let go. Both were
drowned."
The last man among the survivors to speak to Colonel
Astor was K. Whiteman, the ship's barber.
"I shaved Colonel Astor Sunday afternoon," said Whiteman.
"He was a pleasant, affable man, and that awful
night when I found myself standing beside him on the passenger
deck, helping to put the women into the boats, I
spoke to him.
" `Where is your life-belt?' I asked him.
" `I didn't think there would be any need of it,' he said.
" `Get one while there is time,' I told him. `The last boat
is gone, and we are done for.'
" `No,' he said, `I think there are some life-boats to be
launched, and we may get on one of them.'
" `There are no life-rafts,' I told him, `and the ship is going
to sink. I am going to jump overboard and take a chance
on swimming out and being picked up by one of the boats.
Better come along.'
" `No, thank you,' he said, calmly, `I think I'll have to
stick.'
"I asked him if he would mind shaking hands with me.
He said, `With pleasure,' gave me a hearty grip, and then I
climbed up on the rail and jumped overboard. I was in the
water nearly four hours before one of the boats picked me up."
CAPTAIN WASHED OVERBOARD
Murdock's last orders were to Quartermaster Moody and
a few other petty officers who had taken their places in the
rigid discipline of the ship and were lowering the boats.
Captain Smith came up to him on the bridge several times
and then rushed down again. They spoke to one another
only in monosyllables.
There were stories that Captain Smith, when he saw the
ship actually going down, had committed suicide. There is
no basis for such tales. The captain, according to the testimony
of those who were near him almost until the last, was
admirably cool. He carried a revolver in his hand, ready
to use it on anyone who disobeyed orders.
"I want every man to act like a man for manhood's sake,"
he said, "and if they don't, a bullet awaits the coward."
With the revolver in his hand--a fact that undoubtedly
gave rise to the suicide theory--the captain moved up and
down the deck. He gave the order for each life-boat to make
off and he remained until every boat was gone. Standing
on the bridge he finally called out the order: "Each man
save himself." At that moment all discipline fled. It was
the last call of death. If there had been any hope among
those on board before, the hope now had fled.
The bearded admiral of the White Star Line fleet, with
every life-saving device launched from the decks, was returning
to the deck to perform the sacred office of going down
with his ship when a wave dashed over the side and tore
him from the ladder.
The Titanic was sinking rapidly by the head, with the
twisting sidelong motion that was soon to aim her on her
course two miles down. Murdock saw the skipper swept out;
but did not move. Captain Smith was but one of a multitude
of lost at that moment. Murdock may have known that the
last desperate thought of the gray mariner was to get upon
his bridge and die in command. That the old man could not
have done this may have had something to do with Murdock's
suicidal inspiration. Of that no man may say or safely guess.
The wave that swept the skipper out bore him almost to the
thwart of a crowded life-boat. Hands reached out, but he
wrenched himself away, turned and swam back toward the
ship.
Some say that he said, "Good-bye, I'm going back to the
ship."
He disappeared for a moment, then reappeared where a
rail was slipping under water. Cool and courageous to the
end, loyal to his duty under the most difficult circumstances,
he showed himself a noble captain, and he died a noble
death.
SAW BOTH OFFICERS PERISH
Quartermaster Moody saw all this, watched the skipper
scramble aboard again onto the submerged decks, and then
vanish altogether in a great billow.
As Moody's eye lost sight of the skipper in this confusion
of waters it again shifted to the bridge, and just in time to see
Murdock take his life. The man's face was turned toward
him, Moody said, and he could not mistake it. There were
still many gleaming lights on the ship, flickering out like
little groups of vanishing stars, and with the clear starshine
on the waters there was nothing to cloud or break the quartermaster's
vision.
"I saw Murdock die by his own hand," said Moody, "saw
the flash from his gun, heard the crack that followed the
flash and then saw him plunge over on his face."
Others report hearing several pistol shots on the decks
below the bridge, but amid the groans and shrieks and cries,
shouted orders and all that vast orchestra of sounds that broke
upon the air they must have been faint periods of punctuation
BAND PLAYED ITS OWN DIRGE
The band had broken out in the strains of "Nearer, My
God, to Thee," some minutes before Murdock lifted the
revolver to his head, fired and toppled over on his face.
Moody saw all this in a vision that filled his brain, while his
ears drank in the tragic strain of the beautiful hymn that
the band played as their own dirge, even to the moment when
the waters sucked them down.
Wherever Murdock's eye swept the water in that instant,
before he drew his revolver, it looked upon veritable seas of
drowning men and women. From the decks there came to
him the shrieks and groans of the caged and drowning, for
whom all hope of escape was utterly vanished. He evidently
never gave a thought to the possibility of saving himself, his
mind freezing with the horrors he beheld and having room
for just one central idea--swift extinction.
The strains of the hymn and the frantic cries of the dying
blended in a symphony of sorrow.
Led by the green light, under the light of stars, the boats
drew away, and the bow, then the quarter, then the stacks
and last the stern of the marvel ship of a few days before
passed beneath the waters. The great force of the ship's
sinking was unaided by any violence of the elements, and the
suction, not so great as had been feared, rocked but mildly
the group of boats now a quarter of a mile distant from it.
Just before the Titanic disappeared from view men and
women leaped from the stern. More than a hundred men,
according to Colonel Gracie, jumped at the last. Gracie
was among the number and he and the second officer were
of the very few who were saved.
As the vessel disappeared, the waves drowned the majestic
{illust. caption = DEPTH OF OCEAN WHERE THE TITANIC WENT DOWN
The above etching shows a diagram of the ocean depths between the
shore of Newfoundland (shown at the top to the left, by the heavily shaded
part) to 800 miles out, where the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank. Over
the Great Bank of Newfoundland the greatest depth is about 35 fathoms, or
210 feet. Then there is a sudden drop to 105 fathoms, or 630 feet, and then
there is a falling away to 1650 fathoms or 9900 feet, then 2000 fathoms or
12,000 feet, and about where the Titanic sank 2760 fathoms or 16,560 feet.}
hymn which the musicians played as they went to their watery
grave. The most authentic accounts agree that this hymn
was not "Nearer, My God, to Thee," which it seems had been
{illust. caption = CARPATHIA
The Cunard liner which brought the survivors of the Titanic to New York.}
{illust. caption = THE HERO WIRELESS OPERATOR OF THE TITANIC
Photograph of Harold ...}
played shortly before, but "Autumn," which is found in
the Episcopal hymnal and which fits appropriately the
situation on the Titanic in the last moments of pain and
darkness there. One line, "Hold me up in mighty waters,"
particularly may have suggested the hymn to some minister
aboard the doomed vessel, who, it has been thought, thereupon
asked the remaining passengers to join in singing the
hymn, in a last service aboard the sinking ship, soon to be
ended by death itself.
Following is the hymn:
God of mercy and compassion!
Look with pity on my pain:
Hear a mournful, broken spirit
Prostrate at Thy feet complain;
Many are my foes, and mighty;
Strength to conquer I have none;
Nothing can uphold my goings
But Thy blessed Self alone.
Saviour, look on Thy beloved;
Triumph over all my foes;
Turn to heavenly joy my mourning,
Turn to gladness all my woes;
Live or die, or work or suffer,
Let my weary soul abide,
In all changes whatsoever
Sure and steadfast by Thy side.
When temptations fierce assault me,
When my enemies I find,
Sin and guilt, and death and Satan,
All against my soul combined,
Hold me up in mighty waters,
Keep my eyes on things above,
Righteousness, divine Atonement,
Peace, and everlasting Love.
It was a little lame schoolmaster, Tyrtaeus, who aroused the
Spartans by his poetry and led them to victory against the
foe.
It was the musicians of the band of the Titanic--poor men,
paid a few dollars a week--who played the music to keep up
the courage of the souls aboard the sinking ship.
"The way the band kept playing was a noble thing," says
the wireless operator. "I heard it first while we were working
the wireless, when there was a rag-time tune for us, and the
last I saw of the band, when I was floating, struggling in the
icy water, it was still on deck, playing `Autumn.' How those
brave fellows ever did it I cannot imagine."
Perhaps that music, made in the face of death, would not
have satisfied the exacting critical sense. It may be that the
chilled fingers faltered on the pistons of the cornet or at the
valves of the French horn, that the time was irregular and
that by an organ in a church, with a decorous congregation,
the hymns they chose would have been better played and
sung. But surely that music went up to God from the souls
of drowning men, and was not less acceptable than the song
of songs no mortal ear may hear, the harps of the seraphs
and the choiring cherubim. Under the sea the music-makers
lie, still in their fingers clutching the broken and battered
means of melody; but over the strident voice of warring
winds and the sound of many waters there rises their chant
eternally; and though the musicians lie hushed and cold at
the sea's heart, their music is heard forevermore.
LAST MOMENTS
That great ship, which started out as proudly, went down
to her death like some grime silent juggernaut, drunk with
carnage and anxious to stop the throbbing of her own heart
at the bottom of the sea. Charles H. Lightoller, second
officer of the Titanic, tells the story this way:
"I stuck to the ship until the water came up to my ankles.
There had been no lamentations, no demonstrations either
from the men passengers as they saw the last life-boat go,
and there was no wailing or crying, no outburst from the men
who lined the ship's rail as the Titanic disappeared from sight.
"The men stood quietly as if they were in church. They
knew that they were in the sight of God; that in a moment
judgment would be passed upon them. Finally, the ship
took a dive, reeling for a moment, then plunging. I was
sucked to the side of the ship against the grating over the
blower for the exhaust. There was an explosion. It blew
me to the surface again, only to be sucked back again by the
water rushing into the ship
"This time I landed against the grating over the pipes,
which furnish a draught for the funnels, and stuck there.
There was another explosion, and I came to the surface. The
ship seemed to be heaving tremendous sighs as she went down.
I found myself not many feet from the ship, but on the other
side of it. The ship had turned around while I was under
the water.
"I came up near a collapsible life-boat and grabbed it.
Many men were in the water near me. They had jumped
at the last minute. A funnel fell within four inches of me
and killed one of the swimmers. Thirty clung to the capsized
boat, and a life-boat, with forty survivors in it already,
finally took them off.
"George D. Widener and Harry Elkins Widener were among
those who jumped at the last minute. So did Robert Williams
Daniel. The three of them went down together. Daniel
struck out, lashing the water with his arms until he had made
a point far distant from the sinking monster of the sea. Later
he was picked up by one of the passing life-boats.
"The Wideners were not seen again, nor was John B. Thayer,
who went down on the boat. `Jack' Thayer, who was literally
thrown off the Titanic by an explosion, after he had
refused to leave the men to go with his mother, floated around
on a raft for an hour before he was picked up."
AFLOAT WITH JACK THAYER
Graphic accounts of the final plunge of the Titanic were
related by two Englishmen, survivors by the merest chance.
One of them struggled for hours to hold himself afloat on an
overturned collapsible life-boat, to one end of which John B.
Thayer, Jr., of Philadelphia, whose father perished, hung
until rescued.
The men gave their names as A. H. Barkworth, justice of
the peace of East Riding, Yorkshire, England, and W. J.
Mellers, of Christ Church Terrace, Chelsea, London. The
latter, a young man, had started for this country with his
savings to seek his fortune, and lost all but his life.
Mellers, like Quartermaster Moody, said Captain Smith
did not commit suicide. The captain jumped from the bridge,
Mellers declares, and he heard him say to his officers and crew:
"You have done your duty, boys. Now every man for himself."
Mellers and Barkworth, who say their names have
been spelled incorrectly in most of the lists of survivors, both
declare there were three distinct explosions before the Titanic
broke in two, and bow section first, and stern part last, settled
with her human cargo into the sea.
Her four whistles kept up a deafening blast until the explosions,
declare the men. The death cries from the shrill throats
of the blatant steam screechers beside the smokestacks so
rent the air that conversation among the passengers was possible
only when one yelled into the ear of a fellow-unfortunate.
"I did not know the Thayer family well," declared Mr.
Barkworth, "but I had met young Thayer, a clear-cut chap,
and his father on the trip. The lad and I struggled in the
water for several hours endeavoring to hold afloat by grabbing
to the sides and end of an overturned life-boat. Now and
again we lost our grip and fell back into the water. I did
not recognize young Thayer in the darkness, as we struggled
for our lives, but I did recall having met him before when
we were picked up by a life-boat. We were saved by the
merest chance, because the survivors on a life-boat that
rescued us hesitated in doing so, it seemed, fearing perhaps
that additional burdens would swamp the frail craft.
"I considered my fur overcoat helped to keep me afloat.
I had a life preserver over it, under my arms, but it would
not have held me up so well out of the water but for the
coat. The fur of the coat seemed not to get wet through,
and retained a certain amount of air that added to buoyance.
I shall never part with it.
"The testimony of J. Bruce Ismay, managing director of
the White Star Line, that he had not heard explosions before
the Titanic settled, indicates that he must have gotten some
distance from her in his life-boat. There were three distinct
explosions and the ship broke in the center. The bow settled
headlong first, and the stern last. I was looking toward
her from the raft to which young Thayer and I had clung."
HOW CAPTAIN SMITH DIED
Barkworth jumped, just before the Titanic went down.
He said there were enough life-preservers for all the
passengers, but in the confusion many may not have known
where to look for them. Mellers, who had donned a life-
preserver, was hurled into the air, from the bow of the ship
by the force of the explosion, which he believed caused the
Titanic to part in the center.
"I was not far from where Captain Smith stood on the
bridge, giving full orders to his men," said Mellers. "The
brave old seaman was crying, but he had stuck heroically
to the last. He did not shoot himself. He jumped from
the bridge when he had done all he could. I heard his final
instructions to his crew, and recall that his last words were:
`You have done your duty, boys. Now every man for himself.'
"I thought I was doomed to go down with the rest. I
stood on the deck, awaiting my fate, fearing to jump from
the ship. Then came a grinding noise, followed by two
others, and I was hurled into the deep. Great waves engulfed
me, but I was not drawn toward the ship, so that I believe
there was little suction. I swam about for more than one
hour before I was picked up by a boat."
A FAITHFUL OFFICER
Charles Herbert Lightoller, previously mentioned, stood
by the ship until the last, working to get the passengers
away, and when it appeared that he had made his last trip
he went up high on the officers' quarters and made the best
dive he knew how to make just as the ship plunged down to
the depths. This is an excerpt from his testimony before
the Senate investigating committee:
"What time did you leave the ship?"
"I didn't leave it."
"Did it leave you?"
"Yes, sir."
Children shall hear that episode sung in after years and
his own descendants shall recite it to their bairns. Mr.
Lightoller acted as an officer and gentleman should, and he
was not the only one.
A MESSAGE FROM A NOTORIOUS GAMBLER
That Jay Yates, gambler, confidence man and fugitive
from justice, known to the police and in sporting circles as
J. H. Rogers, went down with the Titanic after assisting many
women aboard life-boats, became known when a note, written
on a blank page torn from a diary: was delivered to his
sister. Here is a fac-simile of the note:
{illust.}
This note was given by Rogers to a woman he was helping
into a life-boat. The woman, who signed herself "Survivor,"
inclosed the note with the following letter.
"You will find note that was handed to me as I was leaving
the Titanic. Am stranger to this man, but think he was
a card player. He helped me aboard a life-boat and I saw
him help others. Before we were lowered I saw him jump
into the sea. If picked up I did not recognize him on the
Carpathia. I don't think he was registered on the ship under
his right name."
Rogers' mother, Mrs. Mary A. Yates, an old woman,
broke down when she learned son had perished.
"Thank God I know where he is now," she sobbed. "I
have not heard from him for two years. The last news I
had from him he was in London."
FIFTY LADS MET DEATH
Among the many hundreds of heroic souls who went bravely
and quietly to their end were fifty happy-go-lucky youngsters
shipped as bell boys or messengers to serve the first cabin
passengers. James Humphreys, a quartermaster, who commanded
life-boat No. 11, told a li{t}tle story that shows
how these fifty lads met death.
Humphreys said the boys were called to their regular posts
in the main cabin entry and taken in charge by their captain,
a steward. They were ordered to remain in the cabin and not
get in the way. Throughout the first hour of confusion and
terror these lads sat quietly on their benches in various parts
of the first cabin.
Then, just toward the end when the order was passed around
that the ship was going down and every man was free to save
himself, if he kept away from the life-boats in which the women
{illust. caption =
"WHO HATH MEASURED THE WATERS IN THE HOLLOW OF HIS HAND."--Isaiah XL:xii}
were being taken, the bell boys scattered to all parts of the
ship.
Humphreys said he saw numbers of them smoking cigarettes
and joking with the passengers. They seemed to think that
their violation of the rule against smoking while on duty was
a sufficient breach of discipline.
Not one of them attempted to enter a life-boat. Not one
of them was saved.
THE HEROES WHO REMAINED
The women who left the ship; the men who remained--
there is little to choose between them for heroism. Many of
the women compelled to take to the boats would have stayed,
had it been possible, to share the fate of their nearest and
dearest, without whom their lives are crippled, broken and
disconsolate.
The heroes who remained would have said, with Grenville.
"We have only done our duty, as a man is bound to do."
They sought no palms or crowns of martyrdom. "They also
serve who only stand and wait," and their first action was
merely to step aside and give places in the boats to women
and children, some of whom were too young to comprehend
or to remember.
There was no debate as to whether the life of a financier,
a master of business, was rated higher in the scale of values
than that of an ignorant peasant mother. A woman was a
woman, whether she wore rags or pearls. A life was given for
a life, with no assertion that one was priceless and the other
comparatively valueless.
Many of those who elected to remain might have escaped.
"Chivalry" is a mild appellation for their conduct. Some
of the vaunted knights of old were desperate cowards by comparison.
A fight in the open field, or jousting in the tournament,
did not call out the manhood in a man as did the waiting
till the great ship took the final plunge, in the knowledge that
the seas round about were covered with loving and yearning
witnesses whose own salvation was not assured.
When the roll is called hereafter of those who are "purged
of pride because they died, who know the worth of their days,"
let the names of the men who went down with the Titanic
be found written there in the sight of God and men.
THE OBVIOUS LESSON
And, whatever view of the accident be taken, whether the
moralist shall use it to point the text of a solemn or denunciatory
warning, or whether the materialist, swinging to the
other extreme, scouts any other theory than that of the
"fortuitous concurrence of atoms," there is scarcely a thinking
mortal who has heard of what happened who has not been
deeply stirred, in the sense of a personal bereavement, to a
profound humility and the conviction of his own insignificance
in the greater universal scheme.
Many there are whom the influences of religion do not move,
and upon whose hearts most generous sentiments knock in
vain, who still are overawed and bowed by the magnitude of
this catastrophe. No matter what they believe about it,
the effect is the same. The effect is to reduce a man from the
swaggering braggart--the vainglorious lord of what he sees--
the self-made master of fate, of nature, of time, of space, of
everything--to his true microscopic stature in the cosmos.
He goes in tears to put together again the fragments of the
few, small, pitiful things that belonged to him.
"Though Love may pine, and Reason chafe,
There came a Voice without reply."
The only comfort, all that can bring surcease of sorrow, is
that men fashioned in the image of their Maker rose to the
emergency like heroes, and went to their grave as bravely as
any who have given their lives at any time in war. The hearts
of those who waited on the land, and agonized, and were impotent
to save, have been laid upon the same altars of sacrifice.
The mourning of those who will not be comforted rises from
alien lands together with our own in a common broken intercession.
How little is the 882 feet of the "monster" that we
launched compared with the arc of the rainbow we can see
even in our grief spanning the frozen boreal mist!
"The best of what we do and are,
Just God, forgive!"
THE ANCIENT SACRIFICE
And still our work must go on. It is the business of men
and women neither to give way to unavailing grief nor to
yield to the crushing incubus of despair, but to find hope
that is at the bottom of everything, even at the bottom
of the sea where that glorious virgin of the ocean is dying.
"And when she took unto herself a mate
She must espouse the everlasting sea."
Even so, for any progress of the race, there must be the
ancient sacrifice of man's own stubborn heart, and all his pride.
He must forever "lay in dust life's glory dead." He cannot
rise to the height it was intended he should reach till he has
plumbed the depths, till he has devoured the bread of the
bitterest affliction, till he has known the ache of hopes deferred,
of anxious expectation disappointed, of dreams that are not
to be fulfilled this side of the river that waters the meads of
Paradise. There still must be a reason why it is not an unhappy
thing to be taken from "the world we know to one a
wonder still," and so that we go bravely, what does it matter,
the mode of our going? It was not only those who stood
back, who let the women and children go to the boats, that
died. There died among us on the shore something of the
fierce greed of bitterness, something of the sharp hatred of
passion, something of the mad lust of revenge and of knife-
edge competition. Though we are not aware of it, perhaps,
we are not quite the people that we were before out of the
mystery an awful hand was laid upon us all, and what we had
thought the colossal power of wealth was in a twinkling shown
to be no more than the strength of an infant's little finger,
or the twining tendril of a plant.
"Lest we forget; lest we forget!"
{"illustration", really "music" Lyrics =
God of mercy and compassion, Look with pity on my pain;
Hear a mournful, broken spirit Prostrate at Thy feet complain;
Many are my foes and mighty; Strength to conquer I have none;
Nothing can uphold my goings But they blessed Self alone. AMEN
{2nd Stanza}
Saviour, look on Thy beloved,
Triumph over all my foes,
Turn to heavenly joy my mourning,
Turn to gladness all my woes;
Live or die, or work or suffer
Let my weary soul abide,
In all changes whatsoever,
Sure and steadfast by Thy side:
{3rd Stanza}
When temptations fierce assault me,
When my enemies I find,
Sin and guilt, and death and Satan,
All against my soul combined,
Hold me up in mighty waters,
Keep my eyes on things above--
Rightousness,{sic} divine atonement
Peace and everlasting love,}
{illust. caption = LATITUDE 41.46 NORTH, LONGITUDE 50.14 WEST
WHERE MANHOOD PERISHED NOT}
{illust. caption = LOWERING OF THE LIFE-BOATS FROM THE TITANIC
It is easy to understand why...}
{illust. caption = PASSENGERS LEAVING THE TITANIC IN THE LIFE-BOATS
The agony and despair which possessed the occupants of these boats
as they were carried away from the doomed giant, leaving husbands and
brothers behind, is almost beyond description. It is little wonder that the
strain of these moments, with the physical and mental suffering which
followed during the early morning hours, left many of the women still
hysterical when they reached New York.}
WHERE MANHOOD PERISHED NOT
Where cross the lines of forty north
And fifty-fourteen west
There rolls a wild and greedy sea
With death upon its crest.
No stone or wreath from human hands
Will ever mark the spot
Where fifteen hundred men went down,
But Manhood perished not.
Old Ocean takes but little heed
Of human tears or woe.
No shafts adorn the ocean graves,
Nor weeping willows grow.
Nor is there need of marble slab
To keep in mind the spot
Where noble men went down to death,
But manhood perished not!
Those men who looked on death and smiled,
And trod the crumbling deck,
Have saved much more than precious lives
From out that awful wreck.
Though countless joys and hopes and fears
Were shattered at a breath,
'Tis something that the name of Man
Did not go down to death.
'Tis not an easy thing to die,
E'en in the open air,
Twelve hundred miles from home and friends,
In a shroud of black despair.
A wreath to crown the brow of man,
And hide a former blot
Will ever blossom o'er the waves
Where Manhood perished not.
HARVEY P. THEW{spelling uncertain due to poor printing}
CHAPTER VIII
THE CALL FOR HELP HEARD
THE VALUE OF THE WIRELESS--OTHER SHIPS ALTER THEIR
COURSE--RESCUERS ON THE WAY
"WE have struck an iceberg. Badly damaged.
Rush aid."
Seaward and landward, J. G. Phillips, the
Titanic's wireless man, had hurled the appeal for help. By fits
and starts--for the wireless was working unevenly and blurringly
--Phillips reached out to the world, crying the Titanic's
peril. A word or two, scattered phrases, now and then a
connected sentence, made up the message that sent a thrill
of apprehension for a thousand miles east, west and south
of the doomed liner.
The early despatches from St. John's, Cape Race, and
Montreal, told graphic tales of the race to reach the Titanic,
the wireless appeals for help, the interruption of the calls, then
what appeared to be a successful conclusion of the race when
the Virginian was reported as having reached the giant liner.
MANY LINES HEAR THE CALL
Other rushing liners besides the Virginian heard the call
and became on the instant something more than cargo carriers
and passenger greyhounds. The big Baltic, 200 miles to the
eastward and westbound, turned again to save life, as she did
when her sister of the White Star fleet, the Republic, was
cut down in a fog in January, 1909. The Titanic's mate, the
Olympic, the mightiest of the seagoers save the Titanic herself,
turned in her tracks. All along the northern lane the miracle
of the wireless worked for the distressed and sinking White
Star ship. The Hamburg-American Cincinnati, the Parisian
from Glasgow, the North German Lloyd Prinz Friedrich
Wilhelm, the Hamburg-American liners Prinz Adelbert and
Amerika, all heard the C. Q. D. and the rapid, condensed
explanation of what had happened.
VIRGINIAN IN DESPERATE HASTE
But the Virginian was nearest, barely 170 miles away, and
was the first to know of the Titanic's danger. She went about
and headed under forced draught for the spot indicated in one
of the last of Phillips' messages--latitude 41.46 N. and longitude
50.14 W. She is a fast ship, the Allan liner, and her
wireless has told the story of how she stretched through the
night to get up to the Titanic in time. There was need for
all the power of her engines and all the experience and skill
of her captain. The final fluttering Marconigrams that were
released from the Titanic made it certain that the great ship
with 2340 souls aboard was filling and in desperate peril.
Further out at sea was the Cunarder, Carpathia, which
left New York for the Mediterranean on April 13th. Round
she went and plunged back westward to take a hand in
saving life. And the third steamship within short sailing of
the Titanic was the Allan liner Parisian away to the eastward,
on her way from Glasgow to Halifax.
While they sped in the night with all the drive that steam
could give them, the Titanic's call reached to Cape Race and
the startled operator there heard at midnight a message
which quickly reached New York:
"Have struck an iceberg. We are badly damaged. Titanic
latitude 41.46 N., 50.14 W."
Cape Race threw the appeal broadcast wherever his apparatus
could carry.
Then for hours, while the world waited for a crumb of news
as to the safety of the great ship's people, not one thing more
was known save that she was drifting, broken and helpless
and alone in the midst of a waste of ice. And it was not until
seventeen hours after the Titanic had sunk that the words
came out of the air as to her fate. There was a confusion
and tangle of messages--a jumble of rumors. Good tidings
were trodden upon by evil. And no man knew clearly what
was taking place in that stretch of waters where the giant
icebergs were making a mock of all that the world knew best
in ship-building.
TITANIC SENT OUT NO MORE NEWS
It was at 12.17 A. M., while the Virginian was still plunging
eastward, that all communication from the Titanic ceased.
The Virginian's operator, with the Virginian's captain at his
elbow, fed the air with blue flashes in a desperate effort to
know what was happening to the crippled liner, but no message
came back. The last word from the Titanic was that
she was sinking. Then the sparking became fainter. The
call was dying to nothing. The Virginian's operator labored
over a blur of signals. It was hopeless. So the Allan ship
strove on, fearing that the worst had happened.
It was this ominous silence that so alarmed the other
vessels hurrying to the Titanic and that caused so much
suspense here.
CHAPTER IX
IN THE DRIFTING LIFE-BOATS
SORROW AND SUFFERING--THE SURVIVORS SEE THE TITANIC
GO DOWN WITH THEIR LOVED ONES ON BOARD--A NIGHT
OF AGONIZING SUSPENSE--WOMEN HELP TO ROW--HELP
ARRIVES--PICKING UP THE LIFE-BOATS
SIXTEEN boats were in the procession which entered
on the terrible hours of rowing, drifting and suspense.
Women wept for lost husbands and sons, sailors sobbed
for the ship which had been their pride. Men choked back
tears and sought to comfort the widowed. Perhaps, they
said, other boats might have put off in another direction.
They strove, though none too sure themselves, to convince
the women of the certainty that a rescue ship would appear.
In the distance the Titanic looked an enormous length,
her great bulk outlined in black against the starry sky, every
port-hole and saloon blazing with light. It was impossible
to think anything could be wrong with such a leviathan, were
it not for that ominous tilt downwards in the bows, where
the water was now up to the lowest row of port-holes. Presently,
about 2 A. M., as near as can be determined, those in
the life-boats observed her settling very rapidly with the
bows and the bridge completely under water, and concluded
it was now only a question of minutes before she went. So
it proved She slowly tilted straight on end with the stern
vertically upwards, and as she did, the lights in the cabins
and saloons, which until then had not flickered for a moment,
died out, came on again for a single flash, and finally went
altogether. At the same time the machinery roared down
through the vessel with a rattle and a groaning that could
be heard for miles, the weirdest sound surely that could be
heard in the middle of the ocean, a thousand miles away from
land. But this was not yet quite the end.
TITANIC STOOD UPRIGHT
To the amazement of the awed watchers in the life-boats,
the doomed vessel remained in that upright position for a time
estimated at five minutes; some in the boat say less, but it
was certainly some minutes that at least 150 feet of the Titanic
towered up above the level of the sea and loomed black against
the sky.
SAW LAST OF BIG SHIP
Then with a quiet, slanting dive she disappeared beneath
the waters, and the eyes of the helpless spectators had looked
for the last time upon the gigantic vessel on which they had
set out from Southampton. And there was left to the survivors
only the gently heaving sea, the life-boats filled
with men and women in every conceivable condition of
dress and undress, above the perfect sky of brilliant stars
with not a cloud, all tempered with a bitter cold that made
each man and woman long to be one of the crew who toiled
away with the oars and kept themselves warm thereby--a
curious, deadening; bitter cold unlike anything they had
felt before.
"ONE LONG MOAN"
And then with all these there fell on the ear the most appalling
noise that human being has ever listened to--the cries of
hundreds of fellow-beings struggling in the icy cold water,
crying for help with a cry that could not be answered.
Third Officer Herbert John Pitman, in charge of one of
the boats, described this cry of agony in his testimony before
the Senatorial Investigating Committee, under the questioning
of Senator Smith:
"I heard no cries of distress until after the ship went
down," he said.
"How far away were the cries from your life-boat?"
"Several hundred yards, probably, some of them."
"Describe the screams."
"Don't, sir, please! I'd rather not talk about it."
"I'm sorry to press it, but what was it like? Were the
screams spasmodic?"
"It was one long continuous moan."
The witness said the moans and cries continued an hour.
Those in the life-boats longed to return and pick up some of
the poor drowning souls, but they feared this would mean
swamping the boats and a further loss of life.
Some of the men tried to sing to keep the women from hearing
the cries, and rowed hard to get away from the scene of
the wreck, but the memory of those sounds will be one of the
things the rescued will find it difficult to forget.
The waiting sufferers kept a lookout for lights, and several
times it was shouted that steamers' lights were seen, but they
turned out to be either a light from another boat or a star
low down on the horizon. It was hard to keep up hope.
WOMEN TRIED TO COMMIT SUICIDE
"Let me go back--I want to go back to my husband--I'll
jump from the boat if you don't," cried an agonized voice
in one life-boat.
"You can do no good by going back--other lives will be
lost if you try to do it. Try to calm yourself for the sake of
the living. It may be that your husband will be picked up
somewhere by one of the fishing boats."
The woman who pleaded to go back, according to Mrs.
Vera Dick, of Calgary, Canada, later tried to throw herself
from the life-boat. Mrs. Dick, describing the scenes in the
life-boats, said there were half a dozen women in that one boat
who tried to commit suicide when they realized that the
Titanic had gone down.
"Even in Canada, where we have such clear nights," said
Mrs. Dick, "I have never seen such a clear sky. The stars
were very bright and we could see the Titanic plainly, like a
great hotel on the water. Floor after floor of the lights went
out as we watched. It was horrible, horrible. I can't bear
to think about it. From the distance, as we rowed away,
we could hear the band playing `Nearer, My God to Thee.'
"Among the life-boats themselves, however, there were
scenes just as terrible, perhaps, but to me nothing could outdo
the tragic grandeur with which the Titanic went to its death.
To realize it, you would have to see the Titanic as I saw it
the day we set sail--with the flags flying and the bands playing.
Everybody on board was laughing and talking about the
Titanic being the biggest and most luxurious boat on the ocean
and being unsinkable. To think of it then and to think of it
standing out there in the night, wounded to death and gasping
for life, is almost too big for the imagination.
SCANTILY CLAD WOMEN IN LIFE-BOATS
"The women on our boat were in nightgowns and bare feet
--some of them--and the wealthiest women mingled with the
poorest immigrants. One immigrant woman kept shouting:
`My God, my poor father! He put me in this boat and would
not save himself. Oh, why didn't I die, why didn't I die?
Why can't I die now?'
"We had to restrain her, else she would have Jumped over-
board. It was simply awful. Some of the men apparently
had said they could row just to get into the boats. We paid
no attention to cowardice, however. We were all busy with
our own troubles. My heart simply bled for the women who
were separated from their husbands.
"The night was frightfully cold, although clear. We had
to huddle together to keep warm. Everybody drank sparingly
of the water and ate sparingly of the bread. We did not
know when we would be saved. Everybody tried to remain
cool, except the poor creatures who could think of nothing
but their own great loss. Those with the most brains seemed
to control themselves best."
PHILADELPHIA WOMEN HEROINES
How Mrs. George D. Widener, whose husband and son
perished after kissing her good-bye and helping her into one of
the boats, rowed when exhausted seamen were on the verge
of collapse, was told by Emily Geiger, maid of Mrs. Widener,
who was saved with her.
The girl said Mrs. Widener bravely toiled throughout the
night and consoled other women who had broken down under
the strain.
Mrs. William E. Carter and Mrs. John B. Thayer were in
the same life-boat and worked heroically to keep it free from
the icy menace. Although Mrs. Thayer's husband remained
aboard the Titanic and sank with it, and although she had
no knowledge of the safety of her son until they met, hours
later, aboard the Carpathia, Mrs. Thayer bravely labored at
the oars throughout the night.
In telling of her experience Mrs. Carter said:
"When I went over the side with my children and got in
the boat there were no seamen in it. Then came a few men,
but there were oars with no one to use them. The boat had
been filled with passengers, and there was nothing else for
me to do but to take an oar.
"We could see now that the time of the ship had come. She
was sinking, and we were warned by cries from the men above
to pull away from the ship quickly. Mrs. Thayer, wife of
the vice-president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, was in my
boat, and she, too, took an oar.
"It was cold and we had no time to clothe ourselves with
warm overcoats. The rowing warmed me. We started to
pull away from the ship. We could see the dim outlines of the
decks above, but we could not recognize anybody."
MANY WOMEN ROWING
Mrs. William R. Bucknell's account of the part women
played in the rowing is as follows:
"There were thirty-five persons in the boat in which the
captain placed me. Three of these were ordinary seamen,
supposed to manage the boat, and a steward.
"One of these men seemed to think that we should not
start away from the sinking ship until it could be learned
whether the other boats would accommodate the rest of the
women. He seemed to think that; more could be crowded
into ours, if necessary.
" `I would rather go back and go down with the ship than
leave under these circumstances.' he cried.
"The captain shouted to him to obey orders and to pull
for a little light that could just be discerned miles in the
distance. I do not know what this little light was. It may have
been a passing fishing vessel, which, of course could not know
our predicament. Anyway, we never reached it.
"We rowed all night, I took an oar and sat beside the Countess
de Rothes. Her maid had an our and so did mine. The
air was freezing cold, and it was not long before the only man
that appeared to know anything about rowing commenced
to complain that his hands were freezing: A woman back of
him handed him a shawl from about her shoulders.
"As we rowed we looked back at the lights of the Titanic.
There was not a sound from her, only the lights began to get
lower and lower, and finally she sank. Then we heard a
muffled explosion and a dull roar caused by the great suction
of water.
"There was not a drop of water on our boat. The last
minute before our boat was launched Captain Smith threw
aboard a bag of bread. I took the precaution of taking a good
drink of water before we started, so I suffered no inconvenience
from thirst."
Mrs. Lucien Smith, whose young husband perished, was
another heroine. It is related by survivors that she took
turns at the oars, and then, when the boat was in danger of
sinking, stood ready to plug a hole with her finger if the cork
stopper became loose.
In another boat Mrs. Cornell and her sister, who had a
slight knowledge of rowing, took turns at the oars, as did
other women.
The boat in which Mrs. J. J. Brown, of Denver, Col., was
saved contained only three men in all, and only one rowed.
He was a half-frozen seaman who was tumbled into the boat
at the last minute. The woman wrapped him in blankets
and set him at an oar to start his blood. The second man
was too old to be of any use. The third was a coward.
Strange to say, there was room in this boat for ten other
people. Ten brave men would have received the warmest
welcome of their lives if they had been there. The coward,
being a quartermaster and the assigned head of the boat,
sat in the stern and steered. He was terrified, and the women
had to fight against his pessimism while they tugged at the
oars.
The women sat two at each oar. One held the oar in place,
the other did the pulling. Mrs. Brown coached them and
cheered them on. She told them that the exercise would
keep the chill out of their veins, and she spoke hopefully of
the likelihood that some vessel would answer the wireless calls.
Over the frightful danger of the situation the spirit of this
woman soared.
THE PESSIMIST
And the coward sat in his stern seat, terrified, his tongue
loosened with fright. He assured them there was no chance
in the world. He had had fourteen years' experience, and he
knew. First, they would have to row one and a half miles
at least to get out of the sphere of the suction, if they did not
want to go down. They would be lost, and nobody would
ever find them.
"Oh, we shall be picked up sooner or later," said some of
the braver ones. No, said the man, there was no bread in
the boat, no water; they would starve--all that big boatload
wandering the high seas with nothing to eat, perhaps for days.
"Don't," cried Mrs. Brown. "Keep that to yourself,
if you feel that way. For the sake of these women and chil-
dren, be a man. We have a smooth sea and a fighting chance.
Be a man."
But the coward only knew that there was no compass and
no chart aboard. They sighted what they thought was a
fishing smack on the horizon, showing dimly in the early
dawn. The man at the rudder steered toward it, and the
women bent to their oars again. They covered several miles
in this way--but the smack faded into the distance. They
could not see it any longer. And the coward said that everything
was over.
They rowed back nine weary miles. Then the coward
thought they must stop rowing, and lie in the trough of the
waves until the Carpathia should appear. The women tried
it for a few moments, and felt the cold creeping into their
bodies. Though exhausted from the hard physical labor they
thought work was better than freezing.
"Row again!" commanded Mrs. Brown.
"No, no, don't," said the coward.
"We shall freeze," cried several of the women together.
"We must row. We have rowed all this time. We must
keep on or freeze."
When the coward still demurred, they told him plainly
and once for all that if he persisted in wanting them to stop
rowing, they were going to throw him overboard and be done
with him for good. Something about the look in the eye of
that Mississippi-bred oarswoman, who seemed such a force
among her fellows, told him that he had better capitulate.
And he did.
COUNTESS ROTHES AN EXPERT OARSWOMAN
Miss Alice Farnam Leader, a New York physician, escaped
from the Titanic on the same boat which carried the Countess
Rothes. "The countess is an expert oarswoman," said
Doctor Leader, "and thoroughly at home on the water. She
practically took command of our boat when it was found that
the seaman who had been placed at the oars could not row
skilfully. Several of the women took their place with the
countess at the oars and rowed in turns, while the weak and
unskilled stewards sat quietly in one end of the boat."
MEN COULD NOT ROW
"With nothing on but a nightgown I helped row one of the
boats for three hours," said Mrs. Florence Ware, of Bristol,
England.
"In our boat there were a lot of women, a steward and a
fireman. None of the men knew anything about managing
a small boat, so some of the women who were used to boats
took charge.
"It was cold and I worked as hard as I could at an oar
until we were picked up. There was nothing to eat or drink
on our boat."
DEATHS ON THE LIFE-BOATS
"The temperature must have been below freezing," testified
another survivor, "and neither men nor women in my boat
were warmly clothed. Several of them died. The officer
in charge of the life-boat decided it was better to bury the
{illust. caption = SURVIVORS OF THE GREAT MARINE DISASTER
The first authentic photograph, ...}
{illust. caption =
Copyright by Campbell Studio. N. Y.
COLONEL AND MRS. JOHN JACOB ASTOR
Mrs, Astor, nee Miss Madeline Force, was rescued. Colonel Astor
who bravely refused to take a place in the life-boats, went down with the
Titanic.}
bodies. Soon they were weighted so they would sink and were
put overboard. We could also see similar burials taking
place from other life-boats that were all around us."
GAMBLERS WERE POLITE
In one boat were two card sharps. With the same cleverness
that enabled them to win money on board they obtained
places in the boats with the women.
In the boat with the gamblers were women in their night-
gowns and women in evening dress. None of the boats were
properly equipped with food, but all had enough bread and
water to keep the rescued from starving until the expected
arrival of help.
To the credit of the gamblers who managed to escape, it
should be said that they were polite and showed the women
every courtesy. All they wanted was to be sure of getting
in a boat. That once accomplished, they reverted to their
habitual practice of politeness and suavity. They were even
willing; to do a little manual labor, refusing to let women do
any rowing.
The people on that particular boat were a sad group.
Fathers had kissed their daughters good-bye and husbands
had parted from their wives. The card sharps, however
philosophized wonderfully about the will of the Almighty and
how strange His ways. They said that one must be prepared
for anything; that good always came from evil, and that
every cloud had a silvery lining{.}
"Who knows?" said one. "It may be that everybody on
board will be saved." Another added: "Our duty is to the
living. You women owe it to your relatives and friends not
to allow this thing to wreck your reason or undermine your
health." And they took pains to see that all the women who
were on the life-boat had plenty of covering to keep them from
the icy blasts of the night.
HELP IN SIGHT
The survivors were in the life-boats until about 5.30 A. M.
About 3 A. M. faint lights appeared in the sky and all rejoiced
to see what was supposed to be the coming dawn, but after
watching for half an hour and seeing no change in the intensity
of the light, the disappointed sufferers realized it was the Northern
Lights. Presently low down on the horizon they saw a
light which slowly resolved itself into a double light, and they
watched eagerly to see if the two lights would separate and
so prove to be only two of the boats, or whether these lights
would remain together, in which case they should expect
them to be the lights of a rescuing steamer.
To the inexpressible joy of all, they moved as one! Immediately
the boats were swung around and headed for the lights.
Someone shouted: "Now, boys, sing!" and everyone not
too weak broke into song with "Row for the shore, boys."
Tears came to the eyes of all as they realized that safety was
at hand. The song was sung, but it was a very poor imitation
of the real thing, for quavering voices make poor songs. A
cheer was given next, and that was better--you can keep in
tune for a cheer.
THE "LUCKY THIRTEEN"
"Our rescuer showed up rapidly, and as she swung round
we saw her cabins all alight, and knew she must be a large
steamer. She was now motionless and we had to row to her.
Just then day broke, a beautiful quiet dawn with faint pink
clouds just above the horizon, and a new moon whose crescent
just touched the horizon. `Turn your money over, boys,'
said our cheery steersman, `that is, if you have any with you,'
he added.
"We laughed at him for his superstition at such a time, but
he countered very neatly by adding: `Well, I shall never
say again that 13 is an unlucky number; boat 13 has been the
best friend we ever had.' Certainly the 13 superstition is
killed forever in the minds of those who escaped from the
Titanic in boat 13.
"As we neared the Carpathia we saw in the dawning light
what we thought was a full-rigged schooner standing up near
her, and presently behind her another, all sails set, and we
said: `They are fisher boats from the Newfoundland bank
and have seen the steamer lying to and are standing by to
help.' But in another five minutes the light shone pink on
them and we saw they were icebergs towering many feet in
the air, huge, glistening masses, deadly white, still, and peaked
in a way that had easily suggested a schooner. We glanced
round the horizon and there were others wherever the eye
could reach. The steamer we had to reach was surrounded
by them and we had to make a detour to reach her, for between
her and us lay another huge berg."
A WONDERFUL DAWN
Speaking of the moment when the Carpathia was sighted.
Mrs. J. J. Brown, who had cowed the driveling quartermaster,
said:
"Then, knowing that we were safe at last, I looked about
me. The most wonderful dawn I have ever seen came upon
us. I have just returned from Egypt. I have been all over
the world, but I have never seen anything like this. First
the gray and then the flood of light. Then the sun came up
in a ball of red fire. For the first time we saw where we were.
Near us was open water, but on every side was ice. Ice ten
feet high was everywhere, and to the right and left and back
and front were icebergs. Some of them were mountain high.
This sea of ice was forty miles wide, they told me. We did
not wait for the Carpathia to come to us, we rowed to it.
We were lifted up in a sort of nice little sling that was lowered
to us. After that it was all over. The passengers of the
Carpathia were so afraid that we would not have room enough
that they gave us practically the whole ship to ourselves."
It had been learned that some of the passengers, in fact all
of the women passengers of the Titanic who were rescued,
refer to "Lady Margaret," as they called Mrs. Brown as the
strength of them all.
TRANSFERRING THE RESCUED
Officers of the Carpathia report that when they reached
the scene of the Titanic's wreck there were fifty bodies or
more floating in the sea. Only one mishap attended the transfer
of the rescued from the life-boats. One large collapsible
life-boat, in which thirteen persons were seated, turned turtle
just as they were about to save it, and all in it were lost.
THE DOG HERO
Not the least among the heroes of the Titanic disaster was
Rigel, a big black Newfoundland dog, belonging to the first
officer, who went down with the ship. But for Rigel the fourth
boat picked up might have been run down by the Carpathia.
For three hours he swam in the icy water where the Titanic
went down, evidently looking for his master, and was instrumental
in guiding the boatload of survivors to the gangway
of the Carpathia.
Jonas Briggs, a seaman abroad the Carpathia, now has
Rigel and told the story of the dog's heroism. The Carpathia
was moving slowly about, looking for boats, rafts or anything
which might be afloat. Exhausted with their efforts, weak
from lack of food and exposure to the cutting wind and terror-
stricken, the men and women in the fourth boat had drifted
under the Carpathia's starboard bow. They were dangerously
close to the steamship, but too weak to shout a warning loud
enough to reach the bridge.
The boat might not have been seen were it not for the sharp
barking of Rigel, who was swimming ahead of the craft, and
valiantly announcing his position. The barks attracted the
attention of Captain Rostron; and he went to the starboard
end of the bridge to see where they came from and saw the
boat. He immediately ordered the engines stopped, and the
boat came alongside the starboard gangway.
Care was taken to get Rigel aboard, but he appeared little
affected by his long trip through the ice-cold water. He
stood by the rail and barked until Captain Rostron called
Briggs and had him take the dog below.
A THRILLING ACCOUNT OF RESCUE
Mr. Wallace Bradford, of San Francisco, a passenger
aboard the Carpathia, gave the following thrilling account
of the rescue of the Titanic's passengers.
"Since half-past four this morning I have experienced one
of those never-to-be-forgotten circumstances that weighs
heavy on my soul and which shows most awfully what poor
things we mortals are. Long before this reaches you the news
will be flashed that the Titanic has gone down and that our
steamer, the Carpathia, caught the wireless message when
seventy-five miles away, and so far we have picked up twenty
boats estimated to contain about 750 people.
"None of us can tell just how many, as they have been
hustled to various staterooms and to the dining saloons to be
warmed up. I was awakened by unusual noises and imagined
that I smelled smoke. I jumped up and looked out of my
port-hole, and saw a huge iceberg looming up like a rock off
shore. It was not white, and I was positive that it was a
rock, and the thought flashed through my mind, how in the
world can we be near a rock when we are four days out
from New York in a southerly direction and in mid-ocean.
"When I got out on deck the first man I encountered told
me that the Titanic had gone down and we were rescuing the
passengers. The first two boats from the doomed vessel
were in sight making toward us. Neither of them was crowded.
This was accounted for later by the fact that it was impossible
to get many to leave the steamer, as they would not believe
that she was going down. It was a glorious, clear morning
and a quiet sea. Off to the starboard was a white area of ice
plain, from whose even surface rose mammoth forts, castles
and pyramids of solid ice almost as real as though they had
been placed there by the hand of man.
"Our steamer was hove to about two and a half miles from
the edge of this huge iceberg. The Titanic struck about
11.20 P. M. and did not go down until two o'clock. Many
of the passengers were in evening dress when they came
aboard our ship, and most of these were in a most bedraggled
condition. Near me as I write is a girl about eighteen years
old in a fancy dress costume of bright colors, while in another
seat near by is a women in a white dress trimmed with lace
and covered with jaunty blue flowers.
"As the boats came alongside after the first two all of them
contained a very large proportion of women. In fact, one
of the boats had women at the oars, one in particular containing,
as near as I could estimate, about forty-five women and
only about six men. In this boat two women were handling
one of the oars. All of the engineers went down with the
steamer. Four bodies have been brought aboard. One
is that of a fireman, who is said to have been shot by one
of the officers because he refused to obey orders. Soon after
I got on deck I could, with the aid of my glasses, count seven
boats headed our way, and they continued to come up to half
past eight o'clock. Some were in sight for a long time and
moved very slowly, showing plainly that the oars were being
handled by amateurs or by women.
"No baggage of any kind was brought by the survivors.
In fact, the only piece of baggage that reached the Carpathia
from the Titanic is a small closed trunk about twenty-four
inches square, evidently the property of an Irish female
immigrant. While some seemed fully dressed, many of the
men having their overcoats and the women sealskin and other
coats, others came just as they had jumped from their berths,
clothed in their pajamas and bath robes."
THE SORROW OF THE LIVING
Of the survivors in general it may be said that they escaped
death and they gained life. Life is probably sweet to them as it
is to everyone, but what physical and mental torture has been
the price of life to those who were brought back to land on the
Carpathia--the hours in life-boats, amid the crashing of ice,
the days of anguish that have succeeded, the horrors of body
and mind still experienced and never to he entirely absent
until death affords them its relief.
The thought of the nation to-day is for the living. They
need our sympathy, our consolation more than do the dead,
and, perhaps, in the majority of the cases they need our
protecting care as well.
CHAPTER X
ON BOARD THE CARPATHIA
AID FOR THE SUFFERING AND HYSTERICAL--BURYING THE DEAD
--VOTE OF THANKS TO CAPTAIN ROSTRON OF THE CARPATHIA--
IDENTIFYING THOSE SAVED--COMMUNICATING WITH LAND--
THE PASSAGE TO NEW YORK.
IF the scenes in the life-boats were tear-bringing, hardly
less so was the arrival of the boats at the Carpathia
with their bands of terror-stricken, grief-ridden survivors,
many of them too exhausted to know that safety was
at hand. Watchers on the Carpathia were moved to tears.
"The first life-boat reached the Carpathia about half-past
five o'clock in the morning," recorded one of the passengers
on the Carpathia. "And the last of the sixteen boats was
unloaded before nine o'clock. Some of the life-boats were
only half filled, the first one having but two men and eleven
women, when it had accommodations for at least forty.
There were few men in the boats. The women were the gamest
lot I have ever seen. Some of the men and women were in
evening clothes, and others among those saved had nothing
on but night clothes and raincoats."
After the Carpathia had made certain that there were no
more passengers of the Titanic to be picked up, she threaded
her way out of the ice fields for fifty miles. It was dangerous
work, but it was managed without trouble.
AID FOR THE SUFFERING AND HYSTERICAL
The shrieks and cries of the women and men picked up in
life-boats by the Carpathia were horrible. The women were
clothed only in night robes and wrappers. The men were in
their night garments. One was lifted on board entirely nude.
All the passengers who could bear nourishment were taken
into the dining rooms and cabins by Captain Rostron and given
food and stimulants. Passengers of the Carpathia gave up
their berths and staterooms to the survivors.
As soon as they were landed on the Carpathia many of the
women became hysterical, but on the whole they behaved
splendidly. Men and women appeared to be stunned all day
Monday, the full force of the disaster not reaching them until
Tuesday night. After being wrapped up in blankets and
filled with brandy and hot coffee, the first thoughts were for
their husbands and those at home. Most of them imagined
that their husbands had been picked up by other vessels, and
they began flooding the wireless rooms with messages. It
was almost certain that those who were not on board the Carpathia
had gone down to death.
One of the most seriously injured was a woman who had
lost both her children. Her limbs had been severely torn;
but she was very patient.
WOMEN SEEKING NEWS
In the first cabin library women of wealth and refinement
mingled their grief and asked eagerly for news of the possible
arrival of a belated boat, or a message from other steamers
telling of the safety of their husbands. Mrs. Henry B. Harris,
wife of a New York theatrical manager, checked her tears
long enough to beg that some message of hope be sent to her
father-in-law. Mrs. G. Thorne, Miss Marie Young, Mrs
Emil Taussig and her daughter, Ruth, Mrs. Martin Rothschild,
Mrs. William Augustus Spencer, Mrs. J. Stewart White
and Mrs. Walter M. Clark were a few of those who lay back,
exhausted, on the leather cushions and told in shuddering
sentences of their experiences.
Mrs. John Jacob Astor and the Countess of Rothes had been
taken to staterooms soon after their arrival on shipboard.
Before noon, at the captain's request, the first cabin
passengers of the Titanic gathered in the saloon and the passengers
of other classes in corresponding places on the rescue ship.
Then the collecting of names was begun by the purser and
the stewards. A second table was served in both cabins for
the new guests, and the Carpathia's second cabin, being
better filled than its first, the second class arrivals had be to
sent to the steerage.
TEARS THEIR ONLY RELIEF
Mrs. Jacques Futrelle, wife of the novelist, herself a writer
of note, sat dry eyed in the saloon, telling her friends that she
had given up hope for her husband. She joined with the rest
in inquiries as to the chances of rescue by another ship, and
no one told her what soon came to be the fixed opinion of the
men--that all those saved were on the Carpathia.
"I feel better," Mrs. Futrelle said hours afterward, "for
I can cry now."
Among the men conversation centered on the accident
and the responsibility for it. Many expressed the belief
that the Titanic, in common with other vessels, had had
warning of the ice packs, but that in the effort to establish
a record on the maiden run sufficient heed had not been paid
to the warnings
"God knows I'm not proud to be here," said a rich New
York man. "I got on a boat when they were about to lower
it and when, from delays below, there was no woman to take
the vacant place. I don't think any man who was saved is
deserving of censure, but I realize that, in contrast with those
who went down, we may be viewed unfavorably." He showed
a picture of his baby boy as he spoke.
PITIFUL SCENES OF GRIEF
As the day passed the fore part of the ship assumed some
degree of order and comfort, but the crowded second sabin
and rear decks gave forth the incessant sound of lamentation.
A bride of two months sat on the floor and moaned her widowhood.
An Italian mother shrieked the name of her lost son.
A girl of seven wept over the loss of her Teddy bear and
two dolls, while her mother, with streaming eyes, dared not
tell the child that her father was lost too, and that the money
for which their home in England had been sold had gone down
with him. Other children clung to the necks of the fathers
who, because carrying them, had been permitted to take the
boats.
In the hospital and the public rooms lay, in blankets, several
others who had been benumbed by the water. Mrs.
Rosa Abbott, who was in the water for hours, was restored
during the day. K. Whiteman, the Titanic's barber, who
declared he was blown off the ship by the second of the two
explosions after the crash, was treated for bruises. A passenger,
who was thoroughly ducked before being picked up,
caused much amusement on this ship, soon after the doctors
were through with him, by demanding a bath.
SURVIVORS AID THE DESTITUTE
Storekeeper Prentice, the last man off the Titanic to reach
this ship, was also soon over the effects of his long swim in
the icy waters into which he leaped from the poop deck.
The physicians of the Carpathia were praised, as was Chief
Steward Hughes, for work done in making the arrivals comfortable
and averting serious illness.
Monday night on the Carpathia was one of rest. The wailing
and sobbing of the day were hushed as widows and orphans
slept. Tuesday, save for the crowded condition of the ship,
matters took somewhat their normal appearance.
The second cabin dining room had been turned into a
hospital to care for the injured, and the first, second and third
class dining rooms were used for sleeping rooms at night for
women, while the smoking rooms were set aside for men.
All available space was used, some sleeping in chairs and some
on the floor, while a few found rest in the bathrooms.
Every cabin had been filled, and women and children were
sleeping on the floors in the dining saloon, library and smoking
rooms. The passengers of the Carpathia had divided their
clothes with the shipwrecked ones until they had at least
kept warm. It is true that many women had to appear on
deck in kimonos and some in underclothes with a coat thrown
over them, but their lives had been spared and they had not
thought of dress. Some children in the second cabin were
entirely without clothes, but the women had joined together,
and with needles and thread they could pick up from passenger
to passenger, had made warm clothes out of the blankets
belonging to the Carpathia.
WOMEN BEFRIENDED ONE ANOTHER
The women aboard the Carpathia did what they could by
word and act to relieve the sufferings of the rescued. Most
of the survivors were in great need of clothing, and this the
women of the Carpathia supplied to them as long as their
surplus stock held out.
J. A. Shuttleworth, of Louisville, Ky., befriended Mrs.
Lucien Smith, whose husband went down with the Titanic.
Mrs. Smith was formerly Miss Eloise Hughes, daughter of
Representative and Mrs. James A. Hughes, of Huntington, W.
Va., and was on her wedding trip. Mr. Shuttleworth asked
her if there wasn't something he could do for her. She said
that all the money she had was lost on the Titanic, so
Mr. Shuttleworth gave her $500
DEATHS ON THE CARPATHIA
Two of the rescued from the Titanic died from shock and
exposure before they reached the Carpathia, and another
died a few minutes after being taken on board. The dead
were W. H. Hoyte, first cabin; Abraham Hormer, third
class, and S. C. Sirbert, steward, and they were buried at
sea the morning of April 15th, latitude 41.14 north,
longitude 51.24 west. P. Lyon, able seaman, died and
was buried at sea the following morning.
An assistant steward lost his mind upon seeing one of the
Titanic's rescued firemen expire after being lifted to the deck
of the Carpathia.
An Episcopal bishop and a Catholic priest from Montreal
read services of their respective churches over the dead.
The bodies were sewed up in sacks, heavily weighted at the
feet, and taken to an opening in the side of the ship on the
lower deck not far above the water line. A long plank tilted
at one end served as the incline down which the weighted
sacks slid into the sea.
"After we got the Titanic's passengers on board our ship,"
said one of the Carpathia's officers, "it was a question as to
where we should take them. Some said the Olympic would
come out and meet us and take them on to New York, but
others said they would die if they had to be lowered again
into small boats to be taken up by another, so we finally
turned toward New York, delaying the Carpathia's passengers
eight days in reaching Gibraltar."
SURVIVORS WATCH NEW BOATS
There were several children on board, who had lost their
parents--one baby of eleven months with a nurse who, coming
on board the Carpathia with the first boat, watched with
eagerness and sorrow for each incoming boat, but to no avail.
The parents had gone down.
There was a woman in the second cabin who lost seven
children out of ten, and there were many other losses quite as
horrible.
MR. ISMY "PITIABLE SIGHT"
Among the rescued ones who came on board the Carpathia
was the president of the White Star Line.
"Mr. Ismay reached the Carpathia in about the tenth
life-boat," said an officer. "I didn't know who he was, but
afterward heard the others of the crew discussing his desire
to get something to eat the minute he put his foot on deck.
The steward who waited on him, McGuire, from London,
says Mr. Ismay came dashing into the dining room, and throwing
himself in a chair, said: `Hurry, for God's sake, and get
me something to eat; I'm starved. I don't care what it
costs or what it is; bring it to me.'
"McGuire brought Mr. Ismay a load of stuff and when he
had finished it, he handed McGuire a two dollar bill. `Your
money is no good on this ship,' McGuire told him. `Take it,'
{illust. caption = DIAGRAM OF THE TITANIC'S ARRANGEMENT AND EQUIPMENT
The Titanic was far and away the largest and finest vessel ever built,
excepting only her sister-ship, the Olympic. Her dimensions were: Length,
882 1/2 feet; Beam, 92 feet, Depth (from keel to tops of funnels), 175 feet
Tonnage, 45,000. Her huge hull, divided into thirty watertight compartments,
contained nine steel decks, and provided accommodation for 2,500
passengers, besides a crew of 890.}
{illust. caption = UPPER DECK OF THE TITANIC, LOOKING FORWARD}
insisted Mr. Ismay, shoving the bill in McGuire's hand. I
am well able to afford it. I will see to it that the boys of the
Carpathia are well rewarded for this night's work.' This
promise started McGuire making inquiries as to the identity
of the man he had waited on. Then we learned that he was
Mr. Ismay. I did not see Mr. Ismay after the first few hours.
He must have kept to his cabin."
A passenger on the Carpathia said there was no wonder
that none of the wireless telegrams addressed to Mr. Ismay
were answered until the one that he sent yesterday afternoon
to his line, the White Star.
"Mr. Ismay was beside himself," said this woman passenger,
"and on most of the voyage after we had picked him up
he was being quieted with opiates on orders of the ship's
doctor.
FIVE DOGS AND ONE PIG SAVED
"Five women saved their pet dogs, carrying them in their
arms. Another woman saved a little pig, which she said
was her mascot. Though her husband is an Englishman and
she lives in England she is an American and was on her way
to visit her folks here. How she cared for the pig aboard ship
I do not know, but she carried it up the side of the ship in a
big bag. I did not mind the dogs so much, but it seemed to
me to be too much when a pig was saved and human beings
went to death.
"It was not until noon on Monday that we cleared the last
of the ice, and Monday night a dense fog came up and con-
tinued until the following morning, then a strong wind, a
heavy sea, a thunderstorm and a dense fog Tuesday night,
caused some uneasiness among the more unnerved, the fog
continuing all of Tuesday.
"A number of whales were sighted as the Carpathia was
clearing the last of the ice, one large one being close by, and
all were spouting like geysers."
VOTE OF THANKS TO CARPATHIA
"On Tuesday afternoon a meeting of the uninjured survivors
was called in the main saloon for the purpose of devising
means of assisting the more unfortunate, many of whom had
lost relatives and all their personal belongings, and thanking
Divine Providence for their deliverance. The meeting was
called to order and Mr. Samuel Goldenberg was elected chairman.
Resolutions were then passed thanking the officers, surgeons,
passengers and crew of the Carpathia for their splendid
services in aiding the rescued and like resolutions for the
admirable work done by the officers, surgeons and crew of the
Titanic.
"A committee was then appointed to raise funds on board
the Carpathia to relieve the immediate wants of the destitute
and assist them in reaching their destinations and also
to present a loving cup to the officers of the Carpathia and also
a loving cup to the surviving officers of the Titanic.
"Mr. T. G. Frauenthal, of New York, was made chairman
of the Committee on Subscriptions.
"A committee, consisting of Mrs. J. J. Brown, Mrs William
Bucknell and Mrs. George Stone, was appointed to look after
the destitute. There was a subscription taken up and up
to Wednesday the amount contributed totaled $15,000.
"The work of the crew on board the Carpathia in rescuing
was most noble and remarkable, and these four days that the
ship has been overcrowded with its 710 extra passengers
could not have been better handled. The stewards have
worked with undying strength--although one was overcome
with so much work and died and was put to his grave at sea.
"I have never seen or felt the benefits of such royal treatment.
I have heard the captain criticised because he did not
answer telegrams, but all that I can say is that he showed us
every possible courtesy, and if we had been on our own boats,
having paid our fares there, we could not have had better
food or better accommodations.
"Men who had paid for the best staterooms on the
Carpathia left their rooms so that we might have them. They
fixed up beds in the smoking rooms, and mattresses everywhere.
All the women who were rescued were given the best
staterooms, which were surrendered by the regular passengers.
None of the regular passengers grumbled because their trip
to Europe was interrupted, nor did they complain that they
were put to the inconvenience of receiving hundreds of strangers.
"The women on board the Carpathia were particularly
kind. It shows that for every cruelty of nature there is a
kindness, for every misfortune there is some goodness. The
men and women took up collections on board for the rescued
steerage passengers. Mrs. Astor, I believe, contributed $2000,
her check being cashed by the Carpathia. Altogether something
like $15,000 was collected and all the women were provided
with sufficient money to reach their destination after
they were landed in New York."
Under any other circumstances the suffering would
have been intolerable. But the Good Samaritans on the
Carpathia gave many women heart's-ease.
The spectacle on board the Carpathia on the return trip
to New York at times was heartrending, while at other times
those on board were quite cheerful.
CHAPTER XI
PREPARATIONS ON LAND TO RECEIVE THE SUFFERERS
POLICE ARRANGEMENTS--DONATIONS OF MONEY AND SUPPLIES
--HOSPITALS AND AMBULANCES MADE READY--PRIVATE
HOUSES THROWN OPEN--WAITING FOR THE CARPATHIA TO
ARRIVE--THE SHIP SIGHTED!
NEW YORK CITY, touched to the heart by the great
ocean calamity and desiring to do what it could
to lighten the woes and relieve the sufferings of
the pitiful little band of men and women rescued from the
Titanic, opened both its heart and its purse.
The most careful and systematic plans were made for the
reception and transfer to homes, hotels or institutions of the
Titanic's survivors. Mayor Gaynor, with Police Commissioner
Waldo, arranged to go down the bay on the police boat
Patrol, to come up with the Carpathia and take charge of
the police arrangements at the pier.
In anticipation of the enormous number that would, for
a variety of reasons, creditable or otherwise, surge about the
Cunard pier at the coming of the Carpathia, Mayor Gaynor
and the police commissioner had seen to it that the streets
should be rigidly sentineled by continuous lines of policemen
Under Inspector George McClusky, the man of most experience,
perhaps, in handling large crowds, there were 200 men,
including twelve mounted men and a number in citizens'
clothes. For two blocks to the north, south and east of the
docks lines were established through which none save those
bearing passes from the Government and the Cunard Line
could penetrate.
With all arrangements made that experience or information
could suggest, the authorities settled down to await the docking
of the Carpathia. No word had come to either the White
Star Line or the Cunard Line, they said, that any of the Titanic's
people had died on that ship or that bodies had been
recovered from the sea, but in the afternoon Mayor Gaynor
sent word to the Board of Coroners that it might be well for
some of that body to meet the incoming ship. Coroners
Feinberg and Holtzhauser with Coroner's Physician Weston
arranged to go down the bay on the Patrol, while Coroner
Hellenstein waited at the pier. An undertaker was notified
to be ready if needed. Fortunately there was no such need.
EVERY POSSIBLE MEASURE THOUGHT OF
Every possible measure of relief for the survivors that
could be thought of by officials of the city, of the Federal
Government, by the heads of hospitals and the Red Cross
and relief societies was arranged for. The Municipal Lodging
House, which has accommodations for 700 persons, agreed
to throw open its doors and furnish lodging and food to any
of the survivors as long as they should need it. Commis-
sioner of Charities Drummond did not know, of course,
just how great the call would be for the services of his
department. He went to the Cunard pier to direct his part
of the work in person. Meanwhile he had twenty ambulances
ready for instant movement on the city's pier at the
foot of East Twenty-sixth Street. They were ready to take
patients to the reception hospital connected with Bellevue
or the Metropolitan Hospital on Blackwell's Island.
Ambulances from the Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn were
also there to do their share. All the other hospitals in the
city stood ready to take the Titanic's people and those that
had ambulances promised to send them. The Charities
ferryboat, Thomas S. Brennan, equipped as a hospital craft,
lay off the department pier with nurses and physicians ready
to be called to the Cunard pier on the other side of the city.
St. Vincent's Hospital had 120 beds ready, New York Hospital
twelve, Bellevue and the reception hospital 120 and Flower
Hospital twelve.
The House of Shelter maintained by the Hebrew Sheltering
and Immigrant Aid Society announced that it was able to
care for at least fifty persons as long as might be necessary.
The German Society of New York, the Irish Immigrant
Society, the Italian Society, the Swedish Immigrant Society
and the Young Men's Christian Association were among the
organizations that also offered to see that no needy survivor
would go without shelter.
Mrs. W. A. Bastede, whose husband is a member of the
staff of St. Luke's Hospital, offered to the White Star Line
the use of the newly opened ward at St. Luke's,
which will accommodate from thirty to sixty persons. She
said the hospital would send four ambulances with nurses
and doctors and that she had collected clothing enough for
fifty persons. The line accepted her offer and said that the
hospital would be kept informed as to what was needed.
A trustee of Bellevue also called at the White Star offices to
offer ambulances. He said that five or six, with two or three
doctors and nurses on each, would be sent to the pier if required.
Many other hospitals as well as individuals called at the
mayor's office, expressing willingness to take in anybody
that should be sent to them. A woman living in Fiftieth
Street just off Fifth Avenue wished to put her home at
the disposal of the survivors. D. H. Knott, of 102 Waverley
Place, told the mayor that he could take care of 100 and give
them both food and lodging at the Arlington, Holly and Earl
Hotels. Commissioner Drummond visited the City Hall
and arranged with the mayor the plans for the relief to be
extended directly by the city. Mr. Drummond said that
omnibuses would be provided to transfer passengers from the
ship to the Municipal Lodging House.
MRS. VANDERBILT'S EFFORTS
Mrs. W. K. Vanderbilt, Jr., spent the day telephoning to
her friends, asking them to let their automobiles be used to
meet the Carpathia and take away those who needed surgical
care. It was announced that as a result of Mrs.
Vanderbilt's efforts 100 limousine automobiles and all the Fifth
Avenue and Riverside Drive automobile buses would be at
the Cunard pier.
Immigration Commissioner Williams said that he
would be at the pier when the Carpathia came in. There
was to be no inspection of immigrants at Ellis Island. Instead,
the commissioner sent seven or eight inspectors to
the pier to do their work there and he asked them to do it
with the greatest possible speed and the least possible bother
to the shipwrecked aliens. The immigrants who had no
friends to meet them were to be provided for until their cases
could be disposed of. Mr. Williams thought that some of
them who had lost everything might have to be sent back
to their homes. Those who were to be admitted to the United
States were to be cared for by the Women's Relief Committee.
RED CROSS RELIEF
Robert W. de Forest, chairman of the Red Cross Relief
Committee of the Charity Organization Society, after
conferring with Mayor Gaynor, said that in addition to an
arrangement that all funds received by the mayor should
be paid to Jacob H. Schiff, the New York treasurer of
the American Red Cross, the committee had decided
that it could turn over all the immediate relief work to the
Women's Relief Committee.
The Red Cross Committee announced that careful plans
had been made to provide for every possible emergency.
The emergency committee received a telegram that Ernest
P. Bicknell, director of the American Red Cross, was coming
from Washington. The Red Cross Emergency Relief Committee
was to have several representatives at the pier to look
out for the passengers on the Carpathia. Mr. Persons and Dr.
Devine were to be there and it was planned to have others.
The Salvation Army offered, through the mayor's office,
accommodation for thirty single men at the Industrial Home,
533 West Forty-eighth Street, and for twenty others at its
hotel, 18 Chatham Square. The army's training school at
124 West Fourteenth Street was ready to take twenty or
thirty survivors. R. H. Farley, head of the White Star
Line's third class department, said that the line would give all
the steerage passengers railroad tickets to their destination.
Mayor Gaynor estimated that more than 5000 persons
could be accommodated in quarters offered through his orders.
Most of these offers of course would have to be rejected.
The mayor also said that Colonel Conley of the Sixty-ninth
Regiment offered to turn out his regiment to police the pier,
but it was thought that such service would be unnecessary.
CROWDS AT THE DOCKS
Long before dark on Thursday night a few people passed
the police lines and with a yellow card were allowed to go on
the dock; but reports had been published that the Carpathia
would not be in till midnight, and by 8 o'clock there were
not more than two hundred people on the pier. In the next
hour the crowd with passes trebled in number. By 9 o'clock
the pier held half as many as it could comfortably contain.
The early crowd did not contain many women relatives of the
survivors. Few nervous people could be seen, but here and
there was a woman, usually supported by two male escorts,
weeping softly to herself.
On the whole it was a frantic, grief-crazed crowd. Laborers
rubbed shoulders with millionaires.
The relatives of the rich had taxicabs waiting outside the
docks. The relatives of the poor went there on foot in the
rain, ready to take their loved ones.
A special train was awaiting Mrs. Charles M. Hays, widow
of the president of the Grand Trunk Railroad. A private
car also waited Mrs. George D. Widener.
EARLY ARRIVALS AT PIER
Among the first to arrive at the pier was a committee from
the Stock Exchange, headed by R. H. Thomas, and composed
of Charles Knoblauch, B. M. W. Baruch, Charles Holzderber
and J. Carlisle. Mr. Thomas carried a long black
box which contained $5000 in small bills, which was to be
handed out to the needy steerage survivors of the Titanic
as they disembarked.
With the early arrivals at the pier were the relatives of
Frederick White, who was not reported among the survivors,
though Mrs. White was; Harry Mock, who came to look
for a brother and sister; and Vincent Astor, who arrived in a
limousine with William A. Dobbyn, Colonel Astor's secretary,
and two doctors. The limousine was kept waiting outside
to take Mrs. Astor to the Astor home on Fifth Avenue.
EIGHT LIMOUSINE CARS
The Waldorf-Astoria had sent over eight limousine car
to convey to the hotel these survivors:
Mrs. Mark Fortune and three daughters, Mrs. Lucien P.
Smith, Mrs. J. Stewart White, Mrs. Thornton Davidson, Mrs.
George C. Douglass, Mrs. George D. Widener and maid, Mrs.
George Wick, Miss Bonnell, Miss E. Ryerson, Mrs. Susan
P. Ryerson, Mrs. Arthur Ryerson, Miss Mary Wick, the Misses
Howell, Mrs. John P. Snyder and Mr. and Mrs. D. H. Bishop.
THIRTY-FIVE AMBULANCES AT THE PIER
At one time there were thirty-five ambulances drawn up;
outside the Cunard pier. Every hospital in Manhattan,
Brooklyn and the Bronx was represented. Several of the
ambulances came from as far north as the Lebanon Hospital,
in the Bronx, and the Brooklyn Hospital, in Brooklyn.
Accompanying them were seventy internes and surgeons
from the staffs of the hospitals, and more than 125 male and
female nurses.
St. Vincent's sent the greatest number of ambulances, at
one time, eight of them from this hospital being in line at the
pier.
Miss Eva Booth, direct head of the Salvation Army, was
at the pier, accompanied by Miss Elizabeth Nye and a corps
of her officers, ready to aid as much as possible. The Sheltering
Society and various other similar organizations also were
represented, all ready to take care of those who needed them.
An officer of the Sixty-ninth Regiment, N. G. N. Y., offered
the White Star Line officials, the use of the regiment's armory
for any of the survivors.
Mrs. Thomas Hughes, Mrs. August Belmont and Mgrs.
Lavelle and McMahon, of St. Patrick's Cathedral, together
with a score of black-robed Sisters of Charity, representing
the Association of Catholic Churches, were on the pier long
before the Carpathia was made fast, and worked industriously
in aiding the injured and ill.
The Rev. Dr. William Carter, pastor of the Madison Avenue
Reformed Church, was one of those at the pier with a
private ambulance awaiting Miss Sylvia Caldwell, one of
the survivors, who is known in church circles as a mission
worker in foreign fields
FREE RAILROAD TRANSPORTATION
The Pennsylvania Railroad sent representatives to the pier,
who said that the railroad had a special train of nine cars in
which it would carry free any passenger who wanted to go
immediately to Philadelphia or points west. The Pennsylvania
also had eight taxicabs at the pier for conveyance of
the rescued to the Pennsylvania Station, in Thirty-third
Street.
Among those who later arrived at the pier before the Carpathia
docked were P. A. B. Widener, of Philadelphia, two
women relatives of J. B. Thayer, William Harris, Jr., the
theatrical man, who was accompanied by Dr Dinkelspiel, and
Henry Arthur Jones, the playwright.
RELATIVES OF SAVED AND LOST
Commander Booth, of the Salvation Army, was there
especially to meet Mrs. Elizabeth Nye and Mrs. Rogers
Abbott, both Titanic survivors. Mrs. Abbott's two sons were
supposed to be among the lost. Miss Booth had received a
cablegram from London saying that other Salvation Army
people were on the Titanic. She was eager to get news of
them.
Also on the pier was Major Blanton, U. S. A., stationed at
Washington, who was waiting for tidings of Major Butt,
supposedly at the instance of President Taft.
Senator William A. Clark and Mrs. Clark were also in the
company. Dr. John R. MacKenty was waiting for Mr. and
Mrs. Henry S. Harper. Ferdinand W. Roebling and Carl G.
Roebling, cousins of Washington A. Roebling, Jr., whose
name is among the list of dead, went to the pier to see what
they could learn of his fate.
J. P. Morgan, Jr., arrived at the pier about half an hour
before the Carpathia docked. He said he had many friends
on the Titanic and was eagerly awaiting news of all of them.
Fire Commissioner Johnson was there with John Peel, of
Atlanta, Gal, a brother of Mrs. Jacques Futrelle. Mrs. Futrelle
has a son twelve years old in Atlanta, and a daughter
Virginia, who has been in school in the North and is at present
with friends in this city, ignorant of her father's death.
A MAN IN HYSTERICS
There was one man in that sad waiting company who
startled those near him about 9 o'clock by dancing across the
pier and back. He seemed to be laughing, but when he was
stopped it was found that he was sobbing. He said that he
had a relative on the Titanic and had lost control of his nerves.
H. H. Brunt, of Chicago, was at the gangplank waiting
for A. Saalfeld, head of the wholesale drug firm of Sparks,
White & Co., of London, who was coming to this country on
the Titanic on a business trip and whose life was saved.
WAITING FOR CARPATHIA
During the afternoon and evening tugboats, motor boats
and even sailing craft, had been waiting off the Ambrose
Light for the appearance of the Carpathia.
Some of the waiting craft contained friends and anxious
relatives of the survivors and those reported as missing.
The sea was rough and choppy, and a strong east wind was
blowing. There was a light fog, so that it was possible to
see at a distance of only a few hundred yards. This lifted
later in the evening.
First to discover the incoming liner with her pitiful cargo
was one of the tugboats. From out of the mist there loomed
far out at sea the incoming steamer.
RESCUE BOAT SIGHTED
"Liner ahead!" cried the lookout on the tug to the captain.
"She must be the Carpathia," said the captain, and then
he turned the nose of his boat toward the spot on t he horizon.
Then the huge black hull and one smokestack could be
distinguished.
"It's the Carpathia," said the captain. "I can tell her
by the stack."
The announcement sent a thrill through those who heard
it. Here, at the gate of New York, was a ship whose record
for bravery and heroic work would be a famuliar{sic} name in
history.
{illust. caption = Copyright by G. V. Buck.
MRS. LUCIEN P. SMITH
Formerly Miss Eloise Hughes, daughter of Representative and Mrs.
James A. Hughes, of West Virginia. Mrs. Smith and her husband were
passengers on the Titanic. Mrs. Smith was saved, but her husband went
to a watery grave. Mr. and Mrs. Smith were married only a few months
ago.}
{illust. caption = MAJOR ARCHIBALD BUTT
Military Aide to President Taft. Of Major Butt, who was one of the
victims of the Titanic, one of the survivors said: "Major Butt was the real
leader in all of that rescue work. He made the men stand back and helped
the women and children into the boats. He was surely one of God's
noblemen."}
CHAPTER XII
THE TRAGIC HOME-COMING
THE CARPATHIA REACHES NEW YORK--AN INTENSE AND
DRAMATIC MOMENT--HYSTERICAL REUNIONS AND CRUSHING
DISAPPOINTMENTS AT THE DOCK--CARING FOR THE SUFFERERS
--FINAL REALIZATION THAT ALL HOPE FOR OTHERS IS
FUTILE--LIST OF SURVIVORS--ROLL OF THE DEAD
IT was a solemn moment when the Carpathia heaved in
sight. There she rested on the water, a blur of black--
huge, mysterious, awe-inspiring--and yet withal a thing
to send thrills of pity and then of admiration through the
beholder.
It was a few minutes after seven o'clock when she arrived
at the entrance to Ambrose Channel. She was coming fast
steaming at better than fifteen knots an hour, and she was
sighted long before she was expected. Except for the usual
side and masthead lights she was almost dark, only the upper
cabins showing a glimmer here and there.
Then began a period of waiting, the suspense of which
proved almost too much for the hundreds gathered there
to greet friends and relatives or to learn with certainty at
last that those for whom they watched would never come
ashore.
There was almost complete silence on the pier. Doctors
and nurses, members of the Women's Relief Committee, city
and government officials, as well as officials of the line, moved
nervously about.
Seated where they had been assigned beneath the big
customs letters corresponding to the initials of the names of
the survivors they came to meet, sat the mass of 2000 on the
pier.
Women wept, but they wept quietly, not hysterically, and
the sound of the sobs made many times less noise than the
hum and bustle which is usual on the pier among those
awaiting an incoming liner.
Slowly and majestically the ship slid through the water,
still bearing the details of that secret of what happened and
who perished when the Titanic met her fate.
Convoying the Carpathia was a fleet of tugs bearing men
and women anxious to learn the latest news. The Cunarder
had been as silent for days as though it, too, were a ship of
the dead. A list of survivors had been given out from its
wireless station and that was all. Even the approximate
time of its arrival had been kept a secret.
NEARING PORT
There was no response to the hail from one tug, and as
others closed in, the steamship quickened her speed a little
and left them behind as she swung up the channel.
There was an exploding of flashlights from some of the
tugs, answered seemingly by sharp stabs of lightning in the
northwest that served to accentuate the silence and absence
of light aboard the rescue ship. Five or six persons, apparently
members of the crew or the ship's officers, were seen along
the rail; but otherwise the boat appeared to be deserted.
Off quarantine the Carpathia slowed down and, hailing
the immigration inspection boat, asked if the health officer
wished to board. She was told that he did, and came to a
stop while Dr. O'Connell and two assistants climbed on
board. Again the newspaper men asked for some word of
the catastrophe to the Titanic, but there was no answer,
and the Carpathia continued toward her pier.
As she passed the revenue cutter Mohawk and the derelict
destroyer Seneca anchored off Tompkinsville the wireless on
the Government vessels was seen to flash, but there was no
answering spark from the Carpathia. Entering the North
River she laid her course close to the New Jersey side in
order to have room to swing into her pier.
By this time the rails were lined with men and women.
They were very silent. There were a few requests for news
from those on board and a few answers to questions shouted
from the tugs.
The liner began to slacken her speed, and the tugboat soon
was alongside. Up above the inky blackness of the hull
figures could be made out, leaning over the port railing, as
though peering eagerly at the little craft which was bearing
down on the Carpathia.
Some of them, perhaps, had passed through that inferno
of the deep sea which sprang up to destroy the mightiest
steamship afloat.
"Carpathia, ahoy!" was shouted through a megaphone.
There was an interval of a few seconds, and then, "Aye,
aye," came the reply.
"Is there any assistance that can be rendered?" was the
next question.
"Thank you, no," was the answer in a tone that carried
emotion with it. Meantime the tugboat was getting nearer
and nearer to the Carpathia, and soon the faces of those leaning
over the railing could be distinguished.
TALK WITH SURVIVORS
More faces appeared, and still more.
A woman who called to a man on the tugboat was asked?
"Are you one the Titanic survivors?"
"Yes," said the voice, hesitatingly.
"Do you need help?"
"No," after a pause.
"If there is anything you want done it will be attended to."
"Thank you. I have been informed that my relatives will
meet me at the pier."
"Is it true that some of the life-boats sank with the Titanic?"
"Yes. There was some trouble in manning them. They
were not far enough away from her."
All of this questioning and receiving replies was carried
on with the greatest difficulty. The pounding of the liner's
engines, the washing of the sea, the tugboat's engines, made it
hard to understand the woman's replies.
ALL CARED FOR ON BOARD
"Were the women properly cared for after the crash?"
she was asked.
"Oh, yes," came the shrill reply. "The men were brave--
very brave." Here her voice broke and she turned and left
the railing, to reappear a few moments later and cry:
"Please report me as saved."
"What name?" was asked. She shouted a name that could
not be understood, and, apparently believing that it had been,
turned away again and disappeared.
"Nearly all of us are very ill," cried another woman. Here
several other tugboats appeared, and those standing at the
railing were besieged with questions.
"Did the crash come without warning?" a voice on one of
the smaller boats megaphoned.
"Yes," a woman answered. "Most of us had retired. We
saved a few of our belongings."
"How long did it take the boat to sink?" asked the voice.
TITANIC CREW HEROES
"Not long," came the reply? "The crew and the men were
very brave. Oh, it is dreadful--dreadful to think of!"
"Is Mr. John Jacob Astor on board?"
"No."
"Did he remain on the Titanic after the collision?"
"I do not know."
Questions of this kind were showered at the few survivors
who stood at the railing, but they seemed too confused to
answer them intelligibly, and after replying evasively to some
they would disappear.
RUSHES ON TO DOCK
"Are you going to anchor for the night?" Captain Rostron
was asked by megaphone as his boat approached Ambrose
Light. It was then raining heavily.
"No," came the reply. "I am going into port. There
are sick people on board."
"We tried to learn when she would dock," said Dr. Walter
Kennedy, head of the big ambulance corps on the mist-
shrouded pier, "and we were told it would not be before midnight
and that most probably it would not be before dawn
to-morrow. The childish deception that has been practiced
for days by the people who are responsible for the Titanic has
been carried up to the very moment of the landing of the
survivors."
She proceeded past the Cunard pier, where 2000 persons
were waiting her, and steamed to a spot opposite the White
Star piers at Twenty-first Street.
The ports in the big inclosed pier of the Cunard Line were
opened, and through them the waiting hundreds, almost
frantic with anxiety over what the Carpathia might reveal,
watched her as with nerve-destroying leisure she swung about
in the river, dropping over the life-boats of the Titanic that
they might be taken to the piers of the White Star Line.
THE TITANIC LIFE-BOATS
It was dark in the river, but the lowering away of the life-
boats could be seen from the Carpathia's pier, and a deep
sigh arose from the multitude there as they caught this first
glance of anything associated with the Titanic.
Then the Carpathia started for her own pier. As she
approached it the ports on the north side of pier 54 were
closed that the Carpathia might land there, but through the
two left open to accommodate the forward and after gangplanks
of the big liner the watchers could see her looming
larger and larger in the darkness till finally she was directly
alongside the pier.
As the boats were towed away the picture taking and shouting
of questions began again. John Badenoch, a buyer for
Macy & Co., called down to a representative of the firm that
neither Mr. nor Mrs. Isidor Straus were among the rescued
on board the Carpathia. An officer of the Carpathia called
down that 710 of the Titanic's passengers were on board, but
refused to reply to other questions.
The heavy hawsers were made fast without the customary
shouting of ship's officers and pier hands. From the
crowd on the pier came a long, shuddering murmur. In it
were blended sighs and hundreds of whispers. The burden
of it all was: "Here they come."
ANXIOUS MEN AND WOMEN
About each gangplank a portable fence had been put in
place, marking off some fifty feet of the pier, within which
stood one hundred or more customs officials. Next to the
fence, crowded close against it, were anxious men and women,
their gaze strained for a glance of the first from the ship,
their mouths opened to draw their breaths in spasmodic,
quivering gasps, their very bodies shaking with suppressed
excitement, excitement which only the suspense itself was
keeping in subjection.
These were the husbands and wives, children, parents,
sweethearts and friends of those who had sailed upon the
Titanic on its maiden voyage.
They pressed to the head of the pier, marking the boats
of the wrecked ship as they dangled at the side of the Carpathia
and were revealed in the sudden flashes of the photographers
upon the tugs. They spoke in whispers, each group
intent upon its own sad business. Newspaper writers, with
pier passes showing in their hat bands, were everywhere.
A sailor hurried outside the fence and disappeared,
apparently on a mission for his company. There was a deep-
drawn sigh as he walked away, shaking his head toward
those who peered eagerly at him. Then came a man and
woman of the Carpathia's own passengers, as their orderly
dress showed them to be.
Again a sigh like a sob swept over the crowd, and again
they turned back to the canopied gangplank.
THE FIRST SURVIVORS
Several minutes passed and then out of the first cabin
gangway; tunneled by a somber awning, streamed the first
survivors. A young woman, hatless, her light brown hair
disordered and the leaden weight of crushing sorrow heavy
upon eyes and sensitive mouth, was in the van. She stopped,
perplexed, almost ready to drop with terror and exhaustion,
and was caught by a customs official.
"A survivor?" he questioned rapidly, and a nod of the
head answering him, he demanded:
"Your name."
The answer given, he started to lead her toward that section
of the pier where her friends would be waiting.
When she stepped from the gangplank there was quiet
on the pier. The answers of the woman could almost be
heard by those fifty feet away, but as she staggered, rather
than walked, toward the waiting throng outside the fence, a
low wailing sound arose from the crowd.
"Dorothy, Dorothy!" cried a man from the number. He
broke through the double line of customs inspectors as though
it was composed of wooden toys and caught the woman to
his breast. She opened her lips inarticulately, weakly raised
her arms and would have pitched forward upon her face had
she not been supported. Her fair head fell weakly to one
side as the man picked her up in his arms, and, with tears
streaming down his face, stalked down the long avenue of
the pier and down the long stairway to a waiting taxicab.
The wailing of the crowd--its cadences, wild and weird--
grew steadily louder and louder till they culminated in a
mighty shriek, which swept the whole big pier as though at
the direction of some master hand.
RUMORS AFLOAT
The arrival of the Carpathia was the signal for the most
sensational rumors to circulate through the crowd on the
pier.
First, Mrs. John Jacob Astor was reported to have died
at 8.06 o'clock, when the Carpathia was on her way up the
harbor.
Captain Smith and the first engineer were reported to
have shot themselves when they found that the Titanic was
doomed to sink. Afterward it was learned that Captain
Smith and the engineer went down with their ship in perfect
courage and coolness.
Major Archibald Butt, President Taft's military aide, was
said to have entered into an agreement with George D.
Widener, Colonel John Jacob Astor and Isidor Straus to
kill them first and then shoot himself before the boat sank.
It was said that this agreement had been carried out.
Later it was shown that, like many other men on the ship,
they had gone down without the exhibition of a sign of fear.
MRS. CORNELL SAFE
Magistrate Cornell's wife and her two sisters were among
the first to leave the ship. They were met at the first cabin
pier entrance by Magistrate Cornell and a party of friends.
None of the three women had hats. One of those who met
them was Magistrate Cornell's son. One of Mrs. Cornell's
sisters was overheard to remark that "it would be a dreadful
thing when the ship began really to unload."
The three women appeared to be in a very nervous state.
Their hair was more or less dishevelled. They were apparently
fully dressed save for their hats. Clothing had been
supplied them in their need and everything had been done
to make them comfortable. One of the party said that the
collision occurred at 9.45.
Following closely the Cornell party was H. J. Allison of
Montreal, who came to meet his family. One of the party,
who was weeping bitterly as he left the pier, explained that
the only one of the family that was rescued was the young
brother.
MRS. ASTOR APPEARED
In a few minutes young Mrs. Astor with her maid
appeared. She came down the gangplank unassisted. She
was wearing a white sweater. Vincent Astor and William
Dobbyn, Colonel Astor's secretary, greeted her and hurried
her to a waiting limousine which contained clothing and
other necessaries of which it was thought she might be in
need. The young woman was white-faced and silent.
Nobody cared to intrude upon her thoughts. Her stepson
said little to her. He did not feel like questioning her at
such a time, he said.
LAST SEEN OF COLONEL ASTOR
Walter M. Clark, a nephew of the senator, said that he
had seen Colonel Astor put his wife in a boat, after assuring
her that he would soon follow her in another. Mr. Clark
and others said that Colonel and Mrs. Astor were in their
suite when the crash came, and that they appeared quietly
on deck a few minutes afterward.
Here and there among the passengers of the Carpathia
and from the survivors of the Titanic the story was gleaned
of the rescue. Nothing in life will ever approach the joy
felt by the hundreds who were waiting in little boats on the
spot where the Titanic foundered when the lights of the
Carpathia were first distinguished. That was at 4 o'clock
on Monday morning.
DR. FRAUENTHAL WELCOMED
Efforts were made to learn from Dr. Henry Franenthal{sic}
something about the details of how he was rescued. Just
then, or as he was leaving the pier, beaming with evident
delight, he was surrounded by a big crowd of his friends.
"There's Harry! There he is!" they yelled and made a
rush for him.
All the doctor's face that wasn't covered with red beard
was aglow with smiles as his friends hugged him and slapped
him on the back. They rushed him off bodily through the
crowd and he too was whirled home.
A SAD STORY
How others followed--how heartrending stories of partings
and of thrilling rescues were poured out in an amazing stream--
this has all been told over and over again in the news that
for days amazed, saddened and angered the entire world.
It is the story of a disaster that nations, it is hoped, will make
impossible in the years to come.
In the stream of survivors were a peer of the realm, Sir
Cosmo Duff Gordon, and his secretary, side by side with
plain Jack Jones, of Birmingham, able seaman, millionaires
and paupers, women with bags of jewels and others with nightgowns
their only property.
MORE THAN SEVENTY WIDOWS
More than seventy widows were in the weeping company.
The only large family that was saved in its entirety was that
of the Carters, of Philadelphia. Contrasting with this remarkable
salvage of wealthy Pennsylvanians was the sleeping
eleven-months-old baby of the Allisons, whose father, mother
and sister went down to death after it and its nurse had been
placed in a life-boat.
Millionaire and pauper, titled grandee and weeping immigrant,
Ismay, the head of the White Star Company, and Jack
Jones from the stoke hole were surrounded instantly. Some
would gladly have escaped observation. Every man among
the survivors acted as though it were first necessary to explain
how he came to be in a life-boat. Some of the stories smacked
of Munchausen. Others were as plain and unvarnished as
a pike staff. Those that were most sincere and trustworthy
had to be fairly pulled from those who gave their sad testimony.
Far into the night the recitals were made. They were
told in the rooms of hotels, in the wards of hospitals and upon
trains that sped toward saddened homes. It was a symposium
of horror and heroism, the like of which has not been known
in the civilized world since man established his dominion over
the sea.
STEERAGE PASSENGERS
The two hundred and more steerage passengers did not
leave the ship until 11 o'clock. They were in a sad condition.
The women were without wraps and the few men there were
wore very little clothing. A poor Syrian woman who said
she was Mrs. Habush, bound for Youngstown, Ohio, carried
in her arms a six-year-old baby girl. This woman had lost
her husband and three brothers. "I lost four of my men
folks," she cried.
TWO LITTLE BOYS
Among the survivors who elicited a large measure of sympathy
were two little French boys who were dropped, almost
naked, from the deck of the sinking Titanic into a life-boat.
From what place in France did they come and to what place
in the New World were they bound? There was not one iota
of information to be had as to the identity of the waifs of the
deep, the orphans of the Titanic.
The two baby boys, two and four years old, respectively,
were in charge of Miss Margaret Hays, who is a fluent speaker
of French, and she had tried vainly to get from the lisping lips
of the two little ones some information that would lead to
the finding of their relatives.
Miss Hays, also a survivor of the Titanic, took charge of
the almost naked waifs on the Carpathia. She became
warmly attached to the two boys, who unconcernedly played
about, not understanding the great tragedy that had come
into their lives.
The two little curly-heads did not understand it all. Had
not their pretty nineteen-year-old foster mother provided
them with pretty suits and little white shoes and playthings
a-plenty? Then, too, Miss Hays had a Pom dog that she
brought with her from Paris and which she carried in her
arms when she left the Titanic and held to her bosom
through the long night in the life-boat, and to which the
children became warmly attached. All three became aliens
on an alien shore.
Miss Hays, unable to learn the names of the little fellows,
had dubbed the older Louis and the younger "Lump."
"Lump" was all that his name implies, for he weighed almost
as much as his brother. They were dark-eyed and brown
curly-haired children, who knew how to smile as only French
children can.
On the fateful night of the Titanic disaster and just as the
last boats were pulling away with their human freight, a
man rushed to the rail holding the babes under his arms.
He cried to the passengers in one of the boats and held the
children aloft. Three or four sailors and passengers held up
their arms. The father dropped the older boy. He was
safely caught. Then he dropped the little fellow and saw
him folded in the arms of a sailor. Then the boat pulled
away.
The last seen of the father, whose last living act was
to save his babes, he was waving his hand in a final parting.
Then the Titanic plunged to the ocean's bed.
BABY TRAVERS
Still more pitiable in one way was the lot of the baby survivor,
eleven-months-old Travers Allison, the only member
of a family of four to survive the wreck. His father, H. J.
Allison, and mother and Lorraine, a child of three, were
victims of the catastrophe. Baby Travers, in the excitement
following the crash, was separated from the rest of the family
just before the Titanic went down. With the party were
two nurses and a maid.
Major Arthur Peuchen, of Montreal, one of the survivors,
standing near the little fellow, who, swathed in blankets,
lay blinking at his nurse, described the death of Mrs. Allison.
She had gone to the deck without her husband, and, frantically
seeking him, was directed by an officer to the other
side of the ship.
She failed to find Mr. Allison and was quickly hustled
into one of the collapsible life-boats, and when last seen by
Major Peuchen she was toppling out of the half-swamped
boat. J. W. Allison, a cousin of H. J. Allison, was at the
pier to care for Baby Travers and his nurse. They were
taken to the Manhattan Hotel.
Describing the details of the perishing of the Allison family,
the rescued nurse said they were all in bed when the Titanic
hit the berg.
"We did not get up immediately," said she, "for we had
{illust. caption = WHITE STAR STEAMER TITANIC GYMNASIUM}
{illust. caption =
Copyright, 1912, Underwood & Underwood.
CAPTAIN A. H. ROSTROM
Commander of the Carpathia, which rescued the survivors of the Titanic
from the life-boats in the open sea and brought them to New York. After
the Senatorial Investigating Committee had examined Captain Rostrom, at
which time this specially posed photograph was taken, Senator William
Alden Smith, chairman of the committee, said of Captain Rostrom: "His
conduct of the rescue shows that he is not only an efficient seaman, but one
of nature's noblemen."}
not thought of danger. Later we were told to get up, and
I hurriedly dressed the baby. We hastened up on deck,
and confusion was all about. With other women and children
we clambered to the life-boats, just as a matter of precaution,
believing that there was no immediate danger. In
about an hour there was an explosion and the ship appeared
to fall apart. We were in the life-boat about six hours before
we were picked up."
THE RYERSON FAMILY
Probably few deaths have caused more tears than Arthur
Ryerson's, in view of the sad circumstances which called him
home from a lengthy tour in Europe. Mr. Ryerson's eldest
son, Arthur Larned Ryerson, a Yale student, was killed in
an automobile accident Easter Monday, 1912.
A cablegram announcing the death plunged the Ryerson
family into mourning and they boarded the first steamship
for this country. If{sic} happened to be the Titanic, and the
death note came near being the cause of the blotting out of
the entire family.
The children who accompanied them were Miss Susan P.
Ryerson, Miss Emily B. Ryerson and John Ryerson. The
latter is 12 years old.
They did not know their son intended to spend the Easter
holidays at their home at Haverford, Pa. until they were
informed of his death. John Lewis Hoffman, also of Haverford
and a student of Yale, was killed with young Ryerson.
The two were hurrying to Philadelphia to escort a fellow-
student to his train. In turning out of the road to pass a cart
the motor car crashed into a pole in front of the entrance to the
estate of Mrs. B. Frank Clyde. The college men were picked
up unconscious and died in the Bryn Mawr Hospital.
G. Heide Norris of Philadelphia, who went to New York
to meet the surviving members of the Ryerson family, told
of a happy incident at the last moment as the Carpathia
swung close to the pier. There had been no positive information
that young "Jack" Ryerson was among those saved--
indeed, it was feared that he had gone down with the Titanic,
like his father, Arthur Ryerson.
Mr. Norris spoke of the feeling of relief that came over
him as, watching from the pier, he saw "Jack" Ryerson
come from a cabin and stand at the railing. The name of
the boy was missing from some of the lists and for two days
it was reported that he had perished.
CAPTAIN ROSTRON'S REPORT
Less than 24 hours after the Cunard Line steamship Carpathia
came in as a rescue ship with survivors of the Titanic
disaster, she sailed again for the Mediterranean cruise which
she originally started upon last week. Just before the liner
sailed, H. S. Bride, the second Marconi wireless operator of
the Titanic, who had both of his legs crushed on a life-boat,
was carried off on the shoulders of the ship's officers to St.
Vincent's Hospital.
Captain A. H. Rostron, of the Carpathia, addressed an
official report, giving his account of the Carpathia's rescue
work, to the general manager of the Cunard Line, Liverpool.
The report read: "I beg to report that at 12.35 A. M. Monday
18th inst. I was informed of urgent message from Titanic
with her position. I immediately ordered ship turned around
and put her in course for that position, we being then 58
miles S. 52--E. `T' from her; had heads of all departments
called and issued what I considered the necessary orders, to
be in preparation for any emergency.
"At 2.40 A. M. saw flare half a point on port bow. Taking
this for granted to be ship, shortly after we sighted our first
iceberg. I had previously had lookouts doubled, knowing
that Titanic had struck ice, and so took every care and precaution.
We soon found ourselves in a field of bergs, and had
to alter course several times to clear bergs; weather fine, and
clear, light air on sea, beautifully clear night, though dark.
"We stopped at 4 A. M., thus doing distance in three hours
and a half, picking up the first boat at 4.10 A. M.; boat in charge
of officer, and he reported that Titanic had foundered. At
8.30 A. M. last boat picked up. All survivors aboard and all
boats accounted for, viz., fifteen life-boats, one boat abandoned,
two Berthon boats alongside (saw one floating upwards
among wreckage), and according to second officer (senior officer
saved) one Berthon boat had not been launched, it having
got jammed, making sixteen life-boats and four Berthon boats
accounted for. By the time we had cleared first boat it was
breaking day, and I could see all within area of four miles.
We also saw that we were surrounded by icebergs, large and
small, huge field of drift ice with large and small bergs in it,
the ice field trending from N. W. round W. and S. to S. E., as
far as we could see either way.
"At 8 A. M. the Leyland S. S. California came up. I gave
him the principal news and asked him to search and I would
proceed to New York; at 8.50 proceeded full speed while
researching over vicinity of disaster, and while we were getting
people aboard I gave orders to get spare hands along and swing
in all our boats, disconnect the fall and hoist up as many
Titanic boats as possible in our davits; also get some on forecastle
heads by derricks. We got thirteen lifeboats, six on forward
deck and seven in davits. After getting all survivors aboard
and while searching I got a clergyman to offer a short prayer
of thankfulness for those saved, and also a short burial service
for their loss, in saloon.
"Before deciding definitely where to make for, I conferred
with Mr. Ismay, and as he told me to do what I thought
best, I informed him, I considered New York best. I knew
we should require clean blankets, provisions and clean linen,
even if we went to the Azores, as most of the passsengers{sic}
saved were women and children, and they hysterical, not
knowing what medical attention they might require. I
thought it best to go to New York. I also thought it would
be better for Mr. Ismay to go to New York or England as
soon as possible, and knowing I should be out of wireless
communication very soon if I proceeded to Azores, it left
Halifax, Boston and New York, so I chose the latter.
"Again, the passengers were all hysterical about ice, and I
pointed out to Mr. Ismay the possibilities of seeing ice if I
went to Halifax. Then I knew it would be best to keep in
touch with land stations as best I could. We have experienced
great difficulty in transmitting news, also names of survivors.
Our wireless is very poor, and again we have had so
many interruptions from other ships and also messages from
shore (principally press, which we ignored). I gave instructions
to send first all official messages, then names of passengers, then
survivors' private messages. We had haze early Tuesday
morning for several hours; again more or less all Wednesday
from 5.30 A. M. to 5 P. M.; strong south-southwesterly
winds and clear weather Thursday, with moderate rough sea.
"I am pleased to say that all survivors have been very
plucky. The majority of women, first, second and third
class, lost their husbands, and, considering all, have been
wonderfully well. Tuesday our doctor reported all survivors
physically well. Our first class passengers have behaved
splendidly, given up their cabins voluntarily and supplied
the ladies with clothes, etc. We all turned out of our cabins
and gave them to survivors--saloon, smoking room, library,
etc., also being used for sleeping accommodation. Our crew,
also turned out to let the crew of the Titanic take their
quarters. I am pleased to state that owing to preparations made
for the comfort of survivors, none were the worse for exposure,
etc. I beg to specially mention how willing and cheerful the
whole of the ship's company behaved, receiving the highest
praise from everybody. And I can assure you I am very
proud to have such a company under my command.
"A. H. ROSTRON."
The following list of the survivors and dead contains the latest revisions and
corrections of the White Star Line officials, and was furnished by them exclusively
for this book.
LIST OF SURVIVORS
FIRST CABIN
ANDERSON, HARRY.
ANTOINETTE, MISS.
APPIERANELT, MISS.
APPLETON. MRS. E. D.
ABBOTT, MRS. ROSE.
ALLISON, MASTER, and nurse.
ANDREWS, MISS CORNELIA I.
ALLEN, MISS. E. W.
ASTOR, MRS. JOHN JACOB, and maid.
AUBEART, MME. N., and maid.
BARRATT, KARL B.
BESETTE, MISS.
BARKWORTH, A. H.
BUCKNELL, MRS. W.
BOWERMAN, MISS E.
BROWN, MRS. J. J.
BURNS, MISS C. M.
BISHOP, MR. AND MRS. D. H.
BLANK, H.
BESSINA, MISS A.
BAXTER, MRS. JAMES.
BRAYTON, GEORGE.
BONNELL, MISS LILY.
BROWN, MRS. J. M.
BOWEN, MISS G. C.
BECKWITH, MR. AND MRS. R. L.
BISLEY, MR. AND MRS.
BONNELL, MISS C.
CASSEBEER, MRS. H. A.
CARDEZA, MRS. J. W.
CANDELL, MRS. CHURCHILL.
CASE, HOWARD B.
CAMARION, KENARD.
CASSEBORO, MISS D. D.
CLARK, MRS. W. M.
CHIBINACE, MRS. B. C.
CHARLTON, W. M.
CROSBY, MRS E. G.
CARTER, MISS LUCILLE.
CALDERHEAD, E. P.
CHANDANSON, MISS VICTOTRINE.
CAVENDISH, MRS. TURRELL, and maid.
CHAFEE, MRS. H. I.
CARDEZA, MR. THOMAS.
CUMMINGS, MRS. J.
CHEVRE, PAUL.
CHERRY, MISS GLADYS.
CHAMBERS, MR. AND MRS. N. C.
CARTER, MR. AND MRS. W. E.
CARTER, MASTER WILLIAM.
COMPTON, MRS. A. T.
COMPTON, MISS S. R.
CROSBY, MRS. E. G.
CROSBY, MISS HARRIET.
CORNELL, MRS. R. C.
CHIBNALL, MRS. E.
DOUGLAS, MRS. FRED.
DE VILLIERS, MME.
DANIEL, MISS SARAH.
DANIEL, ROBERT W.
DAVIDSON, MR. AND MRS. THORNTON,
and family.
DOUGLAS, MRS. WALTER, and maid.
DODGE, MISS SARAH.
DODGE, MRS. WASHINGTON, and son.
DICK, MR. AND MRS. A. A.
DANIELL, H. HAREN.
DRACHENSTED, A.
DALY, PETER D.
ENDRES, MISS CAROLINE.
ELLIS, MISS
LIST OF SURVIVORS--FIRST CABIN (CONTINUED)
EARNSHAW, MRS. BOULTON.
EUSTIS, MISS E.
EMMOCK, PHILIP E.
FLAGENHEIM, MRS. ANTOINETTE.
FRANICATELLI, MISY.
FYNN, J. I.
FORTUNE, MISS ALICE
FORTUNE, MISS ETHEL.
FORTUNE, MRS. MARK.
FORTUNE, MISS MABEL.
FRAUENTHAL, DR. AND MRS. H. W.
FRAUENTHAL, MR. AND MRS. T. G
FROLICHER, MISS MABGARET.
FROLICHER, MAY AND MRS.
FROLICHER, MISS N.
FUTRELLE, MRS. JACQUES.
GRACIE, COLONEL ARCHIBALD.
GRAHAM, MR. AND MRS. WILLIAM.
GRAHAM, MISS M.
GORDON, SIR COSMO DUFF.
GORDON, LADY.
GIBSON, MISS DOROTHY.
GOLDENBERG, MR. AND MRS. SAMUEL.
GOLDENBERG, MISS ELLA.
GREENFIELD, MRS. L. P.
GREENFIELD, G. B.
GREENFIELD, WILLIAM.
GIBSON, MRS. LEONARD.
GOOGHT, JAMES.
HAVEN, MR. HENRY B.
HARRIS, MRS. H. B.
HOLVERSON, MRS. ALEX.
HOGEBOOM, MRS. J. C.
HAWKSFORD, W. J.
HARPER, HENRY, and man servant.
HARPER, MRS. H. S.
HOLD, MISS J. A.
HOPE, NINA.
HOYT, MR. AND Mrs. FRED.
HORNER, HENRY R.
HARDER, MR. AND MRS. GEORGE.
HAYS, MRS. CHARLES M., and daughter.
HIPPACH, MISS JEAN.
HIPPACH, MRS. IDA S.
ISMAY, J. BRUCE.
JENASCO, MRS. J.
KIMBALL, MR. AND MRS. ED. N.
KENNYMAN, F. A.
KENCHEN, MISS EMILE.
LONGLEY, MISS G. F.
LEADER, MRS. A. F.
LEAHY, MISS NORA.
LAVORY, MISS BERTHA.
LINES, MRS. ERNEST.
LINES, MISS MARY.
LINDSTROM, MRS. SINGIRD.
LESNEUR, GUSTAVE, JR.
MADILL, MISS GEORGETTE A.
MAHAN, MRS.
MELICARD, MME.
MENDERSON, MISS LETTA.
MAIAIMY, MISS ROBERTA.
MARVIN, MRS. D. W.
MARECHELL, PIERRE.
MARONEY, MRS. R.
MEYER, MRS. E. I.
MOCK, MR. P. E.
MIDDLE, MME. M. OIJVE.
MINAHAN, MISS DAISY.
MINAHAN, MRS. W. E.
MCGOUGH, JAMES.
NEWELL, MISS ALICE.
NEWELL, MISS MADELINE.
NEWELL, WASHINGTON.
NEWSON, MISS HELEN.
O'CONNELL, MISS R.
OSTBY, E. C.
LIST OF SURVIVORS--FIRST CABIN (CONTINUED)
OSTBY, MISS HELEN.
OMUND, FIEUNAM.
PANHART, MISS NINETTE.
PEARS, MRS. E.
POMROY, MISS ELLEN.
POTTER, MRS. THOMAS, JR.
PEUCHEN, MAJOR ARTHUR.
PEERCAULT, MISS A.
RYERSON, JOHN.
RENAGO, MRS. MAMAM.
RANELT, MISS APPIE.
ROTHSCHILD, MRS. LORD MARTIN.
ROSENBAHM, MISS EDITH.
RHEIMS, MR. AND MRS GEORGE.
ROSIBLE, MISS H.
ROTHES, COUNTESS.
ROBERT, MRS. EDNA.
ROLMANE, C.
RYERSON, AIISS SUSAN P.
RYERSON, MISS EMILY.
RYERSON, MRS. ARTHUR, and maid.
STONE, MRS. GEORGE M.
SKELLER, MRS. WILLIAM.
SEGESSER, MISS EMMA.
SEWARD, FRED. K.
SHUTTER, MISS.
SLOPER, WILLIAM T.
SWIFT, MRS. F. JOEL.
SCHABERT, MRS. PAUL.
SHEDDEL, ROBERT DOUGLASS.
SNYDER, MR. AND MRS. JOHN.
SEREPECA, AIISS AUGHSTA.
SILVERTIIORN, R. SPENCER.
SAALFELD, ADOLF.
STAHELIN, MAX.
SIMOINUS, ALFONSIU8.
SMITH, MRS. LUCIEN P.
STEPHENSON, MRS. WALTER.
SOLOMON, ABRAHAM.
SILVEY, MRS. WILLIAM B
STENMEL, MR. AND MRS. HELEERY
SPENCER, MBS. W. A., and maid.
SLAYTER, MISS HILDA.
SPEDDEN, MR. AND MRS. F. O., and child.
STEFFANSON, H. B.
STRAUS, MRS., maid of.
SCHABERT, MRS. EMMA.
SLINTER, MRS. E.
SIMMONS, A.
TAYLOR, MISS.
TUCKER, MRS., and maid.
THAYER, MBS. J. B.
THAYER, J. B., JR.
TAUSSIG, MISS RHTH.
TAUSSIG. MRS. E.
THOR, MISS ELLA.
THORNE, MRS. G.
TAYLOR, MR. AND MRS. E. Z
TROUT, MISS JESSIE.
TUCKER, GILBERT.
WOOLNER, HUGH.
WARD, MISS ANNA.
WILLIAMS, RICHARD M., JB.
WARREN, MRS. P.
WILSON, MISS HELEN A.
WILLIARD, MISS C.
WICK, MISS MARY.
WICK, GEO.
WIDENER, valet of.
WIDENER, MRS. GEORGE D., and maid.
WHITE, MRS. J. STUART.
YOUNG, MISS MARIE.
LIST OF SURVIVORS--SECOND CABIN
ABESSON, MRS. MANNA.
ABBOTT, MRS. R.
ARGENIA, MRS., and two children.
ANGEL, F.
ANGLE, WILLIAM.
BAUMTHORPE, MRS. L.
BALLS, MRS. ADA E.
BUSS, MISS KATE.
BECKER, MRS. A. O., and three children
BEANE, EDWARD.
BEANE, MRS. ETHEL,
BRYHI, MISS D.
BEESLEY, MR. L.
BROWN, MR. T. W. S.
BROWN, MISS E.
BROWN, MRS.
BENTHAN, LILLIAN W.
BYSTRON, KAROLINA
BRIGHT, DAGMAR.
BRIGHT, DAISY.
CLARKE, MRS. ADA.
CAMERON, MISS. C.
CALDWELL, ALBERT F.
CALDWELL, MRS. SYLVAN
CALDWELL, ALDEN, infant.
CRISTY, MR. AND MRS.
COLLYER, MRS. CHARLOTTE.
COLLYER, MISS MARJORIE
CHRISTY, MRS. ALICE.
COLLET, STITART.
CHRISTA, MISS DIJCIA.
CHARLES, WILLIAM.
CROFT, MILLIE MALL.
DOLING, MRS. ELSIE.
DREW, MRS. LULU.
DAVIS, MRS. AGNES.
DAVIS, MISS MARY.
DAVIS, JOHN M.
DUVAN, FLORENTINE.
DUVAN, MIBS A.
DAVIDSON, MISS MARY.
DOLING, MISS ADA.
DRISCOLL, MRS. B.
DEYSTROM, CAROLINE.
EMCARMACION, MRS. RINALDO.
FAUNTHORPE, MRS. LIZZIE
FORMERY, MISS ELLEN.
GARSIDE, ETHEL.
GERRECAI, MRS. MARCY.
GENOVESE, ANGERE.
HART, MRS. ESTHER.
HART, EVA.
HARRIS, GEORGE.
HEWLETT, MRS. MARY.
HEBBER, MISS S.
HOFFMAN, LOLA.
HOFFMAN, LOUIS.
HARPER, NINA.
HOLD, STEPHEN.
HOLD, MRS. ANNA.
HOSONO, MASABTJMI.
HOCKING, MR. AND MRS. GEORGE.
HOCKING, MISS NELLIE.
HERMAN, MRS. JANE, 2 daughters
HEALY, NORA.
HANSON, JENNIE.
HAMATAINEN, W.
HAMATAINEN, ANNA.
HARNLIN, ANNA, and Chjld
ILETT, BERTHA.
JACKSON, MRS. AMY.
JULIET, LlnVCHE.
JERWAN, MARY.
JUHON, PODRO.
JACOBSON, MRS.
KEANE, MISS NORA H.
KELLY, MRS. F.
KANTAR, MRS. S.
LEITCH, JESSIE.
LAROCHE, MRS. AND MISS SIMMONE.
LIST OF SURVIVORS--SECOND CABIN (CONTINITED)
LAROCHE, MISS LOUISE.
LEHMAN, BERTHA.
LAUCH, MRS. ALEX.
LANIORE, AMELIA.
LYSTROM, MRS. C.
MELLINGER, ELIZABETH.
MELLINGER, child.
MARSHALL, MRS. KATE.
MALLETT, A.
MALLETT, MRS. and child.
MANGE, PAULA.
MARE, MRS. FLORENCE.
MELLOR, W. J.
McDEARMONT, MISS LELA.
McGOWAN, ANNA.
NYE, ELTZABETB.
NASSER, MRS. DELIA.
NUSSA, MRS. A.
OXENHAM, PEBCY J.
PHILLIPS, ALICE.
PALLAS, EMILIO.
PADRO, JITLIAN.
PRINSKY, ROSA.
PORTALTTPPI, EMILIO.
PARSH, MRS. L.
PLETT, B.
QUICK, MRS. JANE.
QUICK, MRS. VERA W.
QUICK, MISS PHYLLIS.
REINARDO, MISS E.
RIDSDALE, LUCY.
RENOUF, MRS. LILY.
RUGG, MISS EMILY.
RICHARDS, M.
ROGERS, MISS SELINA.
RICHARDS, MRS. EMILIA, two boys, and
MR. RICHARDS, JR.
SIMPSON, MISS.
SINCOCK, MISS MAUDE.
SINKKONNEN, ANNA.
SMITH, MISS MARION.
SILVEN, LYLLE.
TRANT, MRS J.
TOOMEY, MISS. E.
TROUTT, MISS E.
TROUTT, MISS CECELIA.
WARE, MISS H.
WATTER, MISS N.
WILHELM, CB AS.
WAT, MRS. A., and two children.
WILLIAMS, RICBARD M., JR.
WEISZ, MATBILDE.
WEBBER, MISS SIJSDD.
WRIGHT, MISS MARION.
WATT, MISS BESSIE.
WATT, MISS BEKTHA.
WEST, MRS. E. A.
WEST, MISS CONSTANCE.
WEST, MISS BARBARA.
WELLS, ADDIE.
WELLS, MASTER.
A list of surviving third cabin passengers and crew is omitted owing to the impossibility
of obtaining the correct names of many.
ROLL OF THE DEAD
FIRST CABIN
ALLISON, H. J.
ALLISON, MRS., and maid.
ALLISON, MISS.
ANDREWS, THOMAS.
ARTAGAVEYTIA, MR. RAMON.
ASTOR, COL. J. J., and servant.
ANDERSON, WALKER.
ROLL OF THE DEAD--FIRST CABIN (CONTINUED)
BEATTIE, T.
BRANDEIS, E.
BVCKNELL, MRS. WlLLIAM, maid of.
BAHMANN, J.
BAXTER, MR. AND MRS. QUIGG.
BJORNSTROM, H.
BIRNBAHM, JACOB.
BLACKWELL, S. W.
BOREBANK, J. J.
BOWEN, MISS.
BRADY, JOHN B.
BREWE, ARLBLIR J.
BUTT, MAJOR A.
CLARK, WALTER M.
CLLFFORD, GEORGE Q.
COLLEY, E. P.
CARDEZA, T. D. M., servant of.
CARDEZA, MRS. J. W., maid of.
CARLSON, FRANK.
CORRAN, F. M.
CORRAN, J. P.
CHAFEE, MR. H. I.
CHISHOLM, ROBERT.
COMPTON, A. T.
CRAFTON, JOHN B.
CROSBY, EDWARD G.
CUMMINGS, JOBN BRADLEY.
DULLES, WILLIAM C.
DOUGLAS, W. D.
DOUGLAS, MASTER R., nurse of.
EVANS, MISS E.
FORTUNE, MARK.
FOREMAN, B. L.
FORTUNE, CHARLES.
FRANKLIN, T. P.
FUTRELLE, J.
GEE, ARTHUR.
GOLDENBERG, E. L.
GOLDSCHMIDT, G. B.
GIGLIO, VICTOR.
GUGGENHEIM, BENJAMIN,
HAYS, CHARLES M.
HAYS, MRS. CHARLES, maid of.
HEAD, CHRISTOPITER.
HILLIARD, H. H.
HIPKINS, W. E.
HOGENHEIM, MRS. A.
HARRI3, HENRY B.
HARP, MR. AND MRS. CHARLES M.
HARP, MISS MARGARET, and maid.
HOLVERSON, A. M.
ISLAM, MISS A. E.
ISMAY, J. BRUCE, servant of.
JULIAN, H. F.
JONES, C. C.
KENT, EDWARD A.
KENYON, MR. AND MRS. F. R.
KLABER, HERMAN.
LAMBERTH, WILLIAM, F. F.
LAWRENCE, ARTHUR.
LONG, MILTON.
LEWY, E. G.
LOPING, J. H.
LINGREY, EDWARD.
MAGUIRE, J. E.
McCAFFRY, T.
McCAFFRY, T., JR.
McCARTHY, T.
MIDDLETON, J. C.
MILLET, FRANK D.
MINAHAN, DR.
MEYER, EDGAR J.
MOLSON, H. M.
MOORE, C., servant.
NATSCH, CHARLES.
NEWALL, MISS T.
NICHOLSON, A. S.
OVIES, S.
OBNOUT, ALFRED T.
ROLL OF THE DEAD--FIRST CABIN (CONTINUED)
PARR, M. H. W.
PEARS, MR. AND MRS. THOMAS.
PENASCO, MR. AND MRS. VICTOR.
PARTNER, M. A.
PAYNE, Y.
POND, FLORENCE, and maid.
PORTER, WALTER.
PUFFER, C. C.
REUCHLIN, J.
ROBERT, MRS. E., maid of.
ROEBLING, WASHINGTON A., 2d.
ROOD, HUGH R.
ROES, J. HUGO.
ROTHES, COUNTESS, maid of.
ROTHSCHILD, M.
ROWE, ARTHUR.
RYERSON, A.
SILVEY, WILLIAM B.
SPEDDEN, MRS. F. O., maid of
SPENCER, W. A.
STEAD, W. T.
STEHLI, MR. AND MRS. MAX FBOLICHER.
STONE, MRS. GEORGE, maid of.
STRAUS, MR. AND MRS. ISIDOR.
SUTTON, FREDERICK.
SMART, JOHN M.
SMITH, CLINCH.
SMITET, R. W.
SMITH, L. P.
TAUSSIC,, EMIL.
THAYER, MRS., maid of.
THAYER, JOHN B.
THORNE, G.
VANDERHOOF, WYCKOFF.
WALKER, W. A.
WARREN, F. M.
WHITE, PERCIVAL A.
WHITE, RICHARD F.
WIDENER, G. D.
WIDENER, HARRY.
WOOD, MR. AND MRS. FRANK P.
WEIR, J.
WILLIAMS, DUANE.
WRIGHT, GEORGE.
SECOND CABIN
ABELSON, SAMSON.
ANDREW, FRANK.
ASHBY, JOHN.
ALDWORTH, C.
ANDREW, EDGAR.
BRACKEN, JAMES H.
BROWN, MRS.
BANFIELD, FRED.
BRIGHT, NARL.
BRAILY, bandsman.
BREICOUX, bandsman.
BAILEY, PERCY.
BAINBRIDGE, C. R.
BYLES, THE REV. THOMAS.
BEAUCHAMP, H. J.
BERG, MISS E.
BENTHAN, I.
BATEMAN, ROBERT J.
BUTLER, REGINALD.
BOTSFORD, HULL.
BOWEENER, SOLOMON.
BERRIMAN, WILLIAM.
CLARKE, CHARLES.
CLARK, bandsman.
COREY, MRS. C. P.
CARTER, THE REV. ERNEST.
CARTER, MRS.
COLERIDGE, REGINALD,
CHAPMAN, CHARLES.
CUNNINGHAM, ALFRED.
CAMPBELL, WILLIAM.
COLLYER, HARVEY.
CORBETT, MRS. IRENE.
ROLL OF THE DEAD--SECOND CABIN (CONTINUED)
CHAPMAN, JOHN E.
CHAPMAN, MRS. E.
COLANDER, ERIC.
COTTERILL, HARBY.
DEACON, PERCY.
DAVIS, CHARLES.
DIBBEN, WILLIAM.
DE BRITO, JOSE.
DENBORNY, H.
DREW, JAMES.
DREW, MASTER M.
DAVID, MASTER J. W.
DOUNTON, W. J.
DEL VARLO, S.
DEL VARLO, MRS.
ENANDER, INGVAR.
EITEMILLER, G. F.
FROST, A.
FYNNERY, MR.
FAUNTHORPE, H.
FILLBROOK, C.
FUNK, ANNIE.
FAHLSTROM, A.
FOX, STANLEY W.
GREENBERG, S.
GILES, RALPH.
GASKELL, ALFRED.
GILLESPIE, WILLIAM.
GILBERT, WILLIAM.
GALL, S.
GLLL, JOHN.
GILES, EDGAR.
GILES, FRED.
GALE, HARRY.
GALE, PHADRUCH.
GARVEY, LAWRENCE,
HICKMAN, LEONARD.
HICKMAN, LENVIS.
HUME, bandsman.
HICKMAN, STANLEY.
HOOD, AMBROSE,
HODGES, HENRY P.
HART, BENJAMIN.
HARRIS, WALTER.
HARPER, JOHN.
HARBECK, W. H.
HOFFMAN, MR.
HERMAN, MRS. S.
HOWARD, B.
HOWARD, MRS. E. T.
HALE, REGINALD.
HILTUNEN, M.
HUNT, GEORGE.
JACOBSON, MR.
JACOBSON, SYDNEY.
JEFFERY, CLIFFORD.
JEFFERY, ERNEST.
JENKIN, STEPHEN.
JARVIS, JOHN D.
KEANE, DANIEL.
KIRKLAND, REV. C.
KARNES, MRS. F. G.
KEYNALDO, MISS.
KRILLNER, J. H.
KRINS, bandsman.
KARINES, MRS.
KANTAR, SELNA.
KNIGHT, R.
LENGAM, JOHN.
LEVY, R. J.
LAHTIMAN, WILLIAM.
LAUCH, CHARLES.
LEYSON, R. W. N.
LAROCHE, JOSEPH.
LAMB, J. J
McKANE, PETER.
MILLING, JACOB.
MANTOILA, JOSEPEI,
MALACHARD, NOLL.
MORAWECK, DR.
ROLL OF THE DEAD--SECOND CABIN (CONTINUED)
MANGIOVACCHI, E.
McCRAE, ARTHUR G.
McCRIE, JAMES M.
McKANE, PETER D.
MUDD, THOMAS.
MACK, MRS. MARY.
MARSHALL, HENRY.
MAYBERG, FRANK H.
MEYER, AUGUST.
MYLES, THOMAS.
MITCHELL, HENRY.
MATTHEWS, W. J.
NESSEN, ISRAEL.
NICHOLLS, JOSEPH C.
NORMAN, ROBERT D.
OTTER, RICHARD.
PHILLIPS, ROBERT.
PONESELL, MARTIN.
PAIN, DB. ALFRED.
PARKES, FRANK.
PENGELLY, F.
PERNOT, RENE.
PERUSCHITZ, REV.
PARKER, CLIFFORD.
PULBAUM, FRANK
RENOUF, PETER H.
ROGERS, HARRY.
REEVES, DAVID.
SLEMEN, R. J.
SOBEY, HAYDEN.
SLATTER, MISS H. M.
STANTON, WARD.
SWORD, HANS K.
STOKES, PHILIP J.
SHARP, PERCIVAL.
SEDGWICK, MR. F. W.
SMITH, AUGUSTUS.
SWEET, GEORGE.
SJOSTEDT, ERNST.
TAYLOR, bandsman.
TURPIN, WILLIAM J.
TURPIN, MRS. DOROTHY.
TURNER, JOHN H.
TROUPIANSKY, M.
TIRVAN, MRS. A.
VEALE, JAMES.
WATSON, E.
WOODWARD, bandsman.
WARE, WILLIAM J.
WEISZ, LEOPOLD.
WHEADON, EDWARD.
WARE, JOHN J.
WEST, E. ARTHUR.
WHEELER, EDWIN.
WERMAN, SAMUEL.
The total death list was 1635. Third cabin passengers and crew are not included
in the list here given owing to the impossibility of obtaining the exact names of many.
CHAPTER XIII
THE STORY OF CHARLES F. HURD
HOW THE TITANIC SANK--WATER STREWN WITH DEAD BODIES
--VICTIMS MET DEATH WITH HYMN ON THEIR LIPS
THE Story of how the Titanic sank is told by Charles
F. Hurd, who was a passenger on the Carpathia.
He praised highly the courage of the crew, hundreds
of whom gave their lives with a heroism which equaled
but could not exceed that of John Jacob Astor, Henry B.
Harris, Jacques Futrelle and others in the long list of first-
cabin passengers. The account continues:
"The crash against the iceberg, which had been sighted
at only a quarter mile distance, came almost simultaneously
with the click of the levers operated from the bridge, which
stopped the engines and closed the water-tight doors. Captain
Smith was on the bridge a moment later, summoning all on
board to put on life preservers and ordering the life-boats
lowered.
"The first boats had more male passengers, as the men
were the first to reach the deck. When the rush of frightened
men and women and crying children to the decks began, the
`women first' rule was rigidly enforced.
"Officers drew revolvers, but in most cases there was no
use for them. Revolver shots heard shortly before the Titanic
went down caused many rumors, one that Captain Smith
had shot himself, another that First Officer Murdock had
ended his life, but members of the crew discredit these rumors.
"Captain Smith was last seen on the bridge just before the
ship sank, leaping only after the decks had been washed
away.
"What became of the men with the life-preservers was a
question asked by many since the disaster. Many of these
with life-preservers were seen to go down despite the preservers,
and dead bodies floated on the surface as the boats moved
away.
"Facts which I have established by inquiries on the Carpathia,
as positively as they could be established in view of the
silence of the few surviving officers, are:
"That the Titanic's officers knew, several hours before the
crash, of the possible nearness of the icebergs.
"That the Titanic's speed, nearly 23 knots an hour, was
not slackened.
"That the number of life-boats on the Titanic was insufficient
to accommodate more than one-third of the passengers,
to say nothing of the crew. Most members of the crew say
there were sixteen life-boats and two collapsibles; none say
there were more than twenty boats in all. The 700 escaped
filled most of the sixteen life-boats and the one collapsible
which got away, to the limit of their capacity.
"Had the ship struck the iceberg head on at whatever
{illust. caption = MRS. GEORGE D. WIDENER
Mrs. Widener was saved,....}
{illust. caption = George D. WIDENER
Who with his son....}
{illust. caption = Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.
WILLIAM T. STEAD
The great English writer, who was a passenger on board the ill-fated
White Star Line Steamer Titanic.}
speed and with whatever resulting shock, the bulkhead system
of water-tight compartments would probably have saved the
vessel. As one man expressed it, it was the impossible that
happened when, with a shock unbelievably mild, the ship's
side was torn for a length which made the bulkhead system
ineffective."
After telling of the shock and the lowering of the boats
the account continues:
"Some of the boats, crowded too full to give rowers a
chance, drifted for a time. Few had provisions or water,
there was lack of covering from the icy air, and the only
lights were the still undimmed arcs and incandescents of the
settling ship, save for one of the first boats. There a steward,
who explained to the passengers that he had been shipwrecked
twice before, appeared carrying three oranges and
a green light.
"That green light, many of the survivors say, was to the
shipwrecked hundreds as the pillar of fire by night. Long
after the ship had disappeared, and while confusing false
lights danced about the boats, the green lantern kept them
together on the course which led them to the Carpathia.
"As the end of the Titanic became manifestly but a matter
of moments, the oarsmen pulled their boats away, and the
chilling waters began to echo splash after splash as passengers
and sailors in life-preservers leaped over and started
swimming away to escape the expected suction.
"Only the hardiest of constitutions could endure for more
than a few moments such a numbing bath. The first vigor-
ous strokes gave way to heart-breaking cries of `Help! Help!'
and stiffened forms were seen floating on the water all
around us.
"Led by the green light, under the light of the stars, the
boats drew away, and the bow, then the quarter, then the
stacks and at last the stern of the marvel-ship of a few days
before, passed beneath the waters. The great force of the
ship's sinking was unaided by any violence of the elements,
and the suction, not so great as had been feared, rocked but
mildly the group of boats now a quarter of a mile distant
from it.
"Early dawn brought no ship, but not long after 5 A. M.
the Carpathia, far out of her path and making eighteen knots,
instead of her wonted fifteen, showed her single red and black
smokestack upon the horizon. In the joy of that moment,
the heaviest griefs were forgotten.
"Soon afterward Captain Rostron and Chief Steward
Hughes were welcoming the chilled and bedraggled arrivals
over the Carpathia's side.
"Terrible as were the San Francisco, Slocum and Iroquois
disasters, they shrink to local events in comparison with this
world-catastrophe.
"True, there were others of greater qualifications and
longer experience than I nearer the tragedy--but they, by
every token of likelihood, have become a part of the tragedy.
The honored--must I say the lamented--Stead, the adroit
Jacques Futrelle, what might they not tell were their hands
able to hold pencil?
"The silence of the Carpathia's engines, the piercing cold,
the clamor of many voices in the companionways, caused me
to dress hurriedly and awaken my wife, at 5.40 A. M. Monday.
Our stewardess, meeting me outside, pointed to a
wailing host in the rear dining room and said. `From the
Titanic. She's at the bottom of the ocean.'
"At the ship's side, a moment later, I saw the last of the
line of boats discharge their loads, and saw women, some
with cheap shawls about their heads, some with the costliest
of fur cloaks, ascending the ship's side. And such joy as the
first sight of our ship may have given them had disappeared
from their faces, and there were tears and signs of faltering
as the women were helped up the ladders or hoisted aboard
in swings. For lack of room to put them, several of the
Titanic's boats, after unloading, were set adrift.
"At our north was a broad ice field, the length of hundreds
of Carpathias. Around us on other sides were sharp and
glistening peaks. One black berg, seen about 10 A. M., was
said to be that which sunk the Titanic."
CHAPTER XIV
THRILLING ACCOUNT BY L. BEASLEY
COLLISION ONLY A SLIGHT JAR--PASSENGERS COULD NOT
BELIEVE THE VESSEL DOOMED--NARROW ESCAPE OF LIFE-
BOATS--PICKED UP BY THE CARPATHIA
AMONG the most connected and interesting stories
related by the survivors was the one told by L. Beasley,
of Cambridge, England. He said:
"The voyage from Queenstown had been quite uneventful;
very fine weather was experienced, and the sea was quite
calm. The wind had been westerly to southwesterly the
whole way, but very cold, particularly the last day; in fact
after dinner on Saturday evening it was almost too cold to
be out on deck at all.
ONLY A SLIGHT JAR
"I had been in my berth for about ten minutes, when,
at about 11.15 P. M., I felt a slight jar, and then soon after a
second one, but not sufficiently violent to cause any anxiety
to anyone, however nervous they may have been. However,
the engines stopped immediately afterward, and my first,
thought was, `She has lost a propeller.'
"I went up on the top (boat) deck in a dressing gown,
and found only a few persons there, who had come up similarly
to inquire why we had stopped, but there was no sort of
anxiety in the minds of anyone.
"We saw through the smoking room window a game of
cards going on, and went in to inquire if they knew anything;
it seems they felt more of the jar, and, looking through the
window, had seen a huge iceberg go by close to the side of
the boat. They thought we had just grazed it with a glancing
blow, and that the engines had been stopped to see if
any damage had been done. No one, of course, had any
conception that the vessel had been pierced below by part
of the submerged iceberg.
"The game went on without any thought of disaster and
I retired to my cabin, to read until we went on again. I
never saw any of the players or the onlookers again.
SOME WERE AWAKENED
"A little later, hearing people going upstairs, I went out
again and found everyone wanting to know why the engines
had stopped. No doubt many were awakened from sleep
by the sudden stopping of a vibration to which they had
become accustomed during the four days we had been on
board. Naturally, with such powerful engines as the
Titanic carried, the vibration was very noticeable all the time,
and the sudden stopping had something the same effect as
the stopping of a loud-ticking grandfather's clock in a
room.
"On going on deck again I saw that there was an undoubted
list downward from stern to bows, but, knowing nothing of
what had happened, concluded some of the front compartments
had filled and weighed her down. I went down again to put
on warmer clothing, and as I dressed heard an order shouted,
`All passengers on deck with life-belts on.'
"We all walked slowly up, with the belts tied on over our
clothing, but even then presumed this was only a wise precaution
the captain was taking, and that we should return
in a short time and retire to bed.
"There was a total absence of any panic or any expressions
of alarm, and I suppose this can be accounted for by the
exceedingly calm night and the absence of any signs of the
accident.
"The ship was absolutely still, and except for a gentle
tilt downward, which I don't think one person in ten would
have noticed at that time, no signs of the approaching disaster
were visible. She lay just as if she were waiting the order
to go on again when some trifling matter had been adjusted.
"But in a few moments we saw the covers lifted from the
boats and the crews allotted to them standing by and coiling
up the ropes which were to lower them by the pulley blocks
into the water.
"We then began to realize it was more serious than had been
supposed, and my first thought was to go down and get some
more clothing and some money, but, seeing people pouring
up the stairs, decided it was better to cause no confusion to
people coming up. Presently we heard the order:
" `All men stand back away from the boats, and all ladies
retire to next deck below'--the smoking-room deck or B deck.
MEN STOOD BACK
"The men all stood away and remained in absolute silence
leaning against the end railings of the deck or pacing slowly
up and down.
"The boats were swung out and lowered from A deck.
When they were to the level of B deck, where all the women
were collected, they got in quietly, with the exception of some
who refused to leave their husbands.
"In some cases they were torn from them and pushed into
the boats, but in many instances they were allowed to remain
because there was no one to insist they should go.
"Looking over the side, one saw boats from aft already in
the water, slipping quietly away into the darkness, and
presently the boats near me were lowered, and with much
creaking as the new ropes slipped through the pulley blocks
down the ninety feet which separated them from the water.
An officer in uniform came up as one boat went down and
shouted, "When you are afloat row round to the companion
ladder and stand by with the other boats for orders.'
" `Aye, aye, sir,' came up the reply; but I don't think
any boat was able to obey the order. When they were afloat
and had the oars at work, the condition of the rapidly settling
boat was so much more a sight for alarm for those in the boats
than those on board, that in common prudence the sailors saw
they could do nothing but row from the sinking ship to save
at any rate some lives. They no doubt anticipated that
suction from such an enormous vessel would be more dangerous
than usual to a crowded boat mostly filled with women.
"All this time there was no trace of any disorder; no panic
or rush to the boats and no scenes of women sobbing hysterically,
such as one generally pictures as happening at such
times everyone seemed to realize so slowly that there was
imminent danger. When it was realized that we might all
be presently in the sea with nothing but our life-belts to
support us until we were picked up by passing steamers, it
was extraordinary how calm everyone was and how completely
self-controlled.
"One by one, the boats were filled with women and children,
lowered and rowed away into the night. Presently the word
went round among the men, `the men are to be put in boats
on the starboard side.'
"I was on the port side, and most of the men walked across
the deck to see if this was so I remained where I was and
soon heard the call:
" `Any more ladies?'
"Looking over the side of the ship, I saw the boat, No. 13,
swinging level with B deck, half full of ladies. Again the
call was repeated, `Any more ladies?'
"I saw none come on, and then one of the crew, looking up,
said:
" `Any more ladies on your deck, sir?'
" `No,' I replied.
" `Then you had better jump.'
"I dropped in, and fell in the bottom, as they cried `lower
away.' As the boat began to descend two ladies were pushed
hurriedly through the crowd on B deck and heaved over into
the boat, and a baby of ten months passed down after them.
Down we went, the crew calling to those lowering each end
to `keep her level,' until we were some ten feet from the water,
and here occurred the only anxious moment we had during
the whole of our experience from leaving the deck to reaching
the Carpathia.
"Immediately below our boat was the exhaust of the condensers,
a huge stream of water pouring all the time from the
ship's side just above the water line. It was plain we ought
to be quickly away from this, not to be swamped by it when
we touched water.
NO OFFICER ABOARD
"We had no officer aboard, nor petty officer or member of
the crew to take charge. So one of the stokers shouted:
`Someone find the pin which releases the boat from the ropes
and pull it up!' No one knew where it was. We felt on
the floor and sides, but found nothing, and it was hard to
move among so many people--we had sixty or seventy on
board.
"Down we went and presently floated, with our ropes still
holding us, the exhaust washing us away from the side of
the vessel and the swell of the sea urging us back against the
side again. The result of all these forces was an impetus
which carried us parallel to the ship's side and directly under
boat 14, which had filled rapidly with men and was coming
down on us in a way that threatened to submerge our boat.
" `Stop lowering 14,' our crew shouted, and the crew of
No. 14, now only twenty feet above, shouted the same. But
the distance to the top was some seventy feet and the creaking
pulleys must have deadened all sound to those above, for
down she came, fifteen feet, ten feet, five feet and a stoker
and I reached up and touched her swinging above our heads.
The next drop would have brought her on our heads, but just
before she dropped another stoker sprang to the ropes, with
his knife.
JUST ESCAPED ANOTHER BOAT
" `One,' I heard him say, `two,' as his knife cut through the
pulley ropes, and the next moment the exhaust stream had
carried us clear, while boat 14 dropped into the water, into
the space we had the moment before occupied, our gunwales
almost touching.
"We drifted away easily, as the oars were got out, and
headed directly away from the ship. The crew seemed to
me to be mostly stewards or cooks in white jackets, two to
an oar, with a stoker at the tiller. There was a certain
amount of shouting from one end of the boat to the other,
and discussion as to which way we should go, but finally it
was decided to elect the stoker, who was steering, as captain,
and for all to obey his orders. He set to work at once to get
into touch with the other boats, calling to them and getting
as close as seemed wise, so that when the search boats came
in the morning to look for us, there would be more chance
for all to be rescued by keeping together.
"It was now about 1 A. M.; a beautiful starlight night, with
no moon, and so not very light. The sea was as calm as a
pond, just a gentle heave as the boat dipped up and down
in the swell; an ideal night, except for the bitter cold, for
anyone who had to be out in the middle of the Atlantic
ocean in an open boat. And if ever there was a time when
such a night was needed, surely it was now, with hundreds
of people, mostly women and children, afloat hundreds of
miles from land.
WATCHED THE TITANIC
"The captain-stoker told us that he had been at sea twenty-
six years, and had never yet seen such a calm night on the
Atlantic. As we rowed away from the Titanic, we looked
back from time to time to watch her, and a more striking
spectacle it was not possible for anyone to see.
"In the distance it looked an enormous length, its great
bulk outlined in black against the starry sky, every port-hole
and saloon blazing with light. It was impossible to think
anything could be wrong with such a leviathan, were it not
for that ominous tilt downward in the bows, where the water
was by now up to the lowest row of port-holes.
"Presently, about 2 A. M., as near as I can remember, we
observed it settling very rapidly, with the bows and the
bridge completely under water, and concluded it was now
only a question of minutes before it went; and so it proved."
Mr. Beasley went on to tell of the spectacle of the sinking
of the Titanic, the terrible experiences of the survivors in
the life-boats and their final rescue by the Carpathia as already
related.
CHAPTER XV
JACK THAYER'S OWN STORY OF THE WRECK
SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD SON OF PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD OFFICIAL
TELLS MOVING STORY OF HIS RESCUE--TOLD MOTHER TO
BE BRAVE--SEPARATED FROM PARENTS--JUMPED WHEN
VESSEL SANK--DRIFTED ON OVERTURNED BOAT PICKED UP
BY CARPATHIA
ONE of the calmest of the passengers was: young Jack
Thayer, the seventeen-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs.
John B. Thayer. When his mother was put into
the life-boat he kissed her and told her to be brave, saying
that he and his father would be all right. He and Mr. Thayer
stood on the deck as the small boat in which Mrs. Thayer
was a passenger made off from the side of the Titanic over
the smooth sea.
The boy's own account of his experience as told to one of
his rescuers is one of the most remarkable of all the wonderful
ones that have come from the tremendous catastrophe:
"Father was in bed, and mother and myself were about
to get into bed. There was no great shock, I was on my
feet at the time and I do not think it was enough to throw
anyone down. I put on an overcoat and rushed up on A
deck on the port side. I saw nothing there. I then went
forward to the bow to see if I could see any signs of ice. The
only ice I saw was on the well deck. I could not see very
far ahead, having just come out of a brightly lighted room.
"I then went down to our room and my father and mother
came on deck with me, to the starboard side of A deck.
We could not see anything there. Father thought he saw
small pieces of ice floating around, but I could not see any
myself. There was no big berg. We walked around to the
port side, and the ship had then a fair list to port. We stayed
there looking over the side for about five minutes. The list
seemed very slowly to be increasing.
"We then went down to our rooms on C deck, all of us
dressing quickly, putting on all our clothes. We all put on
life-preservers, and over these we put our overcoats. Then
we hurried up on deck and walked around, looking out at
different places until the women were all ordered to collect
on the port side.
SEPARATED FROM PARENTS
"Father and I said good-bye to mother at the top of the
stairs on A deck. She and the maid went right out on A
deck on the port side and we went to the starboard side.
As at this time we had no idea the boat would sink we walked
around A deck and then went to B deck. Then we thought
we would go back to see if mother had gotten off safely, and
went to the port side of A deck. We met the chief steward
of the main dining saloon and he told us that mother had
not yet taken a boat, and he took us to her.
"Father and mother went ahead and I followed. They
went down to B deck and a crowd got in front of me and
I was not able to catch them, and lost sight of them. As
soon as I could get through the crowd I tried to find them
on B deck, but without success. That is the last time I
saw my father. This was about one half an hour before
she sank. I then went to the starboard side, thinking that
father and mother must have gotten off in a boat. All of
this time I was with a fellow named Milton C. Long, of
New York, whom I had just met that evening.
"On the starboard side the boats were getting away quickly.
Some boats were already off in a distance. We thought of
getting into one of the boats, the last boat to go on the forward
part of the starboard side, but there seemed to be such
a crowd around I thought it unwise to make any attempt
to get into it. He and I stood by the davits of one of the
boats that had left. I did not notice anybody that I knew
except Mr. Lindley, whom I had also just met that evening.
I lost sight of him in a few minutes. Long and I then stood
by the rail just a little aft of the captain's bridge.
THOUGHT SHIP WOULD FLOAT
"The list to the port had been growing greater all the time.
About this time the people began jumping from the stern.
I thought of jumping myself, but was afraid of being stunned
on hitting the water. Three times I made up my mind to
jump out and slide down the davit ropes and try to make the
boats that were lying off from the ship, but each time Long
got hold of me and told me to wait a while. He then sat down
and I stood up waiting to see what would happen. Even
then we thought she might possibly stay afloat.
"I got a sight on a rope between the davits and a star and
noticed that she was gradually sinking. About this time she
straightened up on an even keel and started to go down
fairly fast at an angle of about 30 degrees. As she started
to sink we left the davits and went back and stood by the rail
about even with the second funnel.
"Long and myself said good-bye to each other and jumped
up on the rail. He put his legs over and held on a minute
and asked me if I was coming. I told him I would be with
him in a minute. He did not jump clear, but slid down the
side of the ship. I never saw him again.
"About five seconds after he jumped I jumped out, feet
first. I was clear of the ship; went down, and as I came up
I was pushed away from the ship by some force. I came up
facing the ship, and one of the funnels seemed to be lifted off
and fell towards me about 15 yards away, with a mass of
sparks and steam coming out of it. I saw the ship in a sort
of a red glare, and it seemed to me that she broke in two just
in front of the third funnel.
"This time I was sucked down, and as I came up I was
pushed out again and twisted around by a large wave, coming
up in the midst of a great deal of small wreckage. As I pushed
my hand from my head it touched the cork fender of an over-
{illust. caption = READING ROOM OF THE TITANIC}
{illust. caption = Copyright, 1912. International News Service.
THE SENATORIAL INVESTIGATION--ISMAY ON THE GRILL
J. Bruce Ismay, Managing Director of the........}
turned life-boat. I looked up and saw some men on the
top and asked them to give me a hand. One of them, who was
a stoker, helped me up. In a short time the bottom was covered
with about twenty-five or thirty men. When I got on
this I was facing the ship.
{illust. caption = SKETCHES OF THE TITANIC BY "JACK" THAYER
These sketches were outlined by John B. Thayer, Jr., on the day of the
disaster, and afterwards filled in by L. D. Skidmon, of Brooklyn.}
"The stern then seemed to rise in the air and stopped at
about an angle of 60 degrees. It seemed to hold there for a
time and then with a hissing sound it shot right down out
of sight with people jumping from the stern. The stern
either pivoted around towards our boat, or we were sucked
towards it, and as we only had one oar we could not keep
away. There did not seem to be very much suction and most
of us managed to stay on the bottom of our boat.
"We were then right in the midst of fairly large wreckage,
with people swimming all around us. The sea was very calm
and we kept the boat pretty steady, but every now and then
a wave would wash over it.
SAID THE LORD'S PRAYER
"The assistant wireless operator was right next to me, holding
on to me and kneeling in the water. We all sang a hymn
and said the Lord's Prayer, and then waited for dawn to come.
As often as we saw the other boats in a distance we would
yell, `Ship ahoy!' But they could not distinguish our cries
from any of the others, so we all gave it up, thinking it useless.
It was very cold and none of us were able to move around to
keep warm, the water washing over her almost all the time.
"Toward dawn the wind sprang up, roughening up the
water and making it difficult to keep the boat balanced. The
wireless man raised our hopes a great deal by telling us that
the Carpathia would be up in about three hours. About
3.30 or 4 o'clock some men on our boat on the bow sighted
her mast lights. I could not see them, as I was sitting down
with a man kneeling on my leg. He finally got up and I stood
up. We had the second officer, Mr. Lightoller, on board.
We had an officer's whistle and whistled for the boats in the
distance to come up and take us off.
"It took about an hour and a half for the boats to draw
near. Two boats came up. The first took half and the other
took the balance, including myself. We had great difficulty
about this time in balancing the boat, as the men would
lean too far, but we were all taken aboard the already crowded
boat, and in about a half or three-quarters of an hour later
we were picked up by the Carpathia.
"I have noticed Second Officer Lightoller's statement that
`J. B. Thayer was on our overturned boat,' which would give
the impression that it was father, when he really meant it was
I, as he only learned my name in a subsequent conversation
on the Carpathia, and did not know I was `junior'."
CHAPTER XVI
INCIDENTS RELATED BY JAMES McGOUGH
WOMEN FORCED INTO THE LIFE-BOATS--WHY SOME MEN
WERE SAVED BEFORE WOMEN--ASKED TO MAN LIFE-
BOATS
SURROUNDED by his wife and members of his family,
James McGough, of Philadelphia, a buyer for the Gimbel
Brothers, whose fate had been in doubt, recited a
most thrilling and graphic picture of the disaster.
As the Carpathia docked, Mrs. McGough, a brother and
several friends of the buyer, met him, and after the touching
reunion had taken place the party proceeded to Philadelphia.
Vivid in detail, Mr. McGough's story differs essentially
from one the imagination would paint. He declared that the
boat was driving at a high rate of speed at the time of the
accident, and seemed impressed by the calmness and apathy
displayed by the survivors as they tossed on the frozen seas
in the little life-boats until the Carpathia picked them up.
The Titanic did not plunge into the water suddenly, he
declared, but settled slowly into the deep with its hundreds of
passengers.
"The collision occurred at 20 minutes of 12," said Mr.
McGough. "I was sleeping in my cabin when I felt a wrench,
not severe or terrifying.
"It seemed to me to be nothing more serious than the
racing of the screw, which often occurs when a ship plunges
her bow deep into a heavy swell, raising the stern out of water.
We dressed hurriedly and ran to the upper deck. There was
little noise or tumult at the time.
"The promenade decks being higher from the base of the
ship and thus more insecure, strained and creaked; so we went
to the lower decks. By this time the engines had been reversed,
and I could feel the ship backing off. Officers and
stewards ran through the corridors, shouting for all to be calm,
that there was no danger. We were warned, however, to dress
and put life-preservers on us. I had on what clothing I
could find and had stuffed some money in my pocket.
PARTING OF ASTOR AND BRIDE
"As I passed the gymnasium I saw Colonel Astor and his
young wife together. She was clinging to him, piteously
pleading that he go into the life-boat with her. He refused
almost gruffly and was attempting to calm her by saying that
all her fears were groundless, that the accident she feared
would prove a farce. It proved different, however.
"None, I believe, knew that the ship was about to sink.
I did not realize it just then. When I reached the upper
deck and saw tons of ice piled upon our crushed bow the full
realization came to me.
"Officers stood with drawn guns ordering the women into
the boats. All feared to leave the comparative safety of a
broad and firm deck for the precarious smaller boats. Women
clung to their husbands, crying that they would never leave
without them, and had to be torn away.
"On one point all the women were firm. They would not
enter a Life-boat until men were in it first. They feared to
trust themselves to the seas in them. It required courage to
step into the frail crafts as they swung from the creaking
davits. Few men were willing to take the chance. An officer
rushed behind me and shouted:
" `You're big enough to pull an oar. Jump into this boat
or we'll never be able to get the women off.' I was forced to
do so, though I admit that the ship looked a great deal safer
to me than any small boat.
"Our boat was the second off. Forty or more persons were
crowded into it, and with myself and members of the crew at
the oars, were pulled slowly away. Huge icebergs, larger than
the Pennsylvania depot at New York, surrounded us. As we
pulled away we could see boat after boat filled and lowered
to the waves. Despite the fact that they were new and supposedly
in excellent working order, the blocks jammed in
many instances, tilting the boats, loaded with people, at
varying angles before they reached the water.
BAND CONTINUED PLAYING
"As the life-boats pulled away the officers ordered the bands
to play, and their music did much to quell panic. It was a
heart-breaking sight to us tossing in an eggshell three-fourths
of a mile away, to see the great ship go down. First she listed
to the starboard, on which side the collision had occurred, then
she settled slowly but steadily, without hope of remaining
afloat.
"The Titanic was all aglow with lights as if for a function.
First we saw the lights of the lower deck snuffed out. A
while later and the second deck illumination was extinguished
in a similar manner. Then the third and upper decks were
darkened, and without plunging or rocking the great ship
disappeared slowly from the surface of the sea.
"People were crowded on each deck as it lowered into the
water, hoping in vain that aid would come in time. Some of
the life-boats caught in the merciless suction were swallowed
with her.
"The sea was calm--calm as the water in a tumbler. But
it was freezing cold. None had dressed heavily, and all,
therefore, suffered intensely. The women did not shriek or
grow hysterical while we waited through the awful night for
help. We men stood at the oars, stood because there was no
room for us to sit, and kept the boat headed into the swell to
prevent her capsizing. Another boat was at our side, but all
the others were scattered around the water.
"Finally, shortly before 6 o'clock, we saw the lights of the
Carpathia approaching. Gradually she picked up the survivors
in the other boats and then approached us. When we
were lifted to the deck the women fell helpless. They were
carried to whatever quarters offered themselves, while the
men were assigned to the smoking room.
"Of the misery and suffering which was witnessed on the
rescue ship I know nothing. With the other men survivors
I was glad to remain in the smoking room until New York
was reached, trying to forget the awful experience.
"To us aboard the Carpathia came rumors of misstatements
which were being made to the public. The details of the wreck
were wofully misunderstood.
"Let me emphasize that the night was not foggy or cloudy.
There was just the beginning of the new moon, but every star
in the sky was shining brightly, unmarred by clouds. The
boats were lowered from both sides of the Titanic in time to
escape, but there was not enough for all.
CHAPTER XVII
WIRELESS OPERATOR PRAISES HEROIC WORK
STORY OF HAROLD BRIDE, THE SURVIVING WIRELESS OPERATOR
OF THE TITANIC, WHO WAS WASHED OVERBOARD AND RESCUED
BY LIFE-BOAT--BAND PLAYED RAG-TIME AND "AUTUMN"
ONE of the most connected and detailed accounts of
the horrible disaster was that told by Harold Bride,
the wireless operator. Mr. Bride said:
"I was standing by Phillips, the chief operator, telling
him to go to bed, when the captain put his head in the cabin.
" `We've struck an iceberg,' the captain said, `and I'm
having an inspection made to tell what it has done for us.
You better get ready to send out a call for assistance. But
don't send it until I tell you.'
"The captain went away and in ten minutes, I should
estimate the time, he came back. We could hear a terrific
confusion outside, but there was not the least thing to indicate
that there was any trouble. The wireless was working
perfectly.
" `Send the call for assistance,' ordered the captain, barely
putting his head in the door.
" `What call shall I send?' Phillips asked.
" `The regulation international call for help. Just that.'
"Then the captain was gone Phillips began to send `C.
Q. D.' He flashed away at it and we joked while he did so.
All of us made light of the disaster.
"The Carpathia answered our signal. We told her our
position and said we were sinking by the head. The operator
went to tell the captain, and in five minutes returned and told
us that the captain of the Carpathia, was putting about and
heading for us
GREAT SCRAMBLE ON DECK
"Our captain had left us at this time and Phillips told
me to run and tell him what the Carpathia had answered.
I did so, and I went through an awful mass of people to his
cabin. The decks were full of scrambling men and women.
I saw no fighting, but I heard tell of it.
"I came back and heard Phillips giving the Carpathia
fuller directions. Phillips told me to put on my clothes.
Until that moment I forgot that I was not dressed.
"I went to my cabin and dressed. I brought an overcoat
to Phillips. It was very cold. I slipped the overcoat upon
him while he worked.
"Every few minutes Phillips would send me to the captain
with little messages. They were merely telling how the
Carpathia was coming our way and gave her speed.
"I noticed as I came back from one trip that they were
putting off women and children in life-boats. I noticed that
the list forward was increasing.
"Phillips told me the wireless was growing weaker. The
captain came and told us our engine rooms were taking
water and that the dynamos might not last much longer.
We sent that word to the Carpathia.
"I went out on deck and looked around. The water was
pretty close up to the boat deck. There was a great scramble
aft, and how poor Phillips worked through it right to the end
I don't know.
"He was a brave man. I learned to love him that night
and I suddenly felt for him a great reverence to see him standing
there sticking to his work while everybody else was raging
about. I will never live to forget the work of Phillips for
the last awful fifteen minutes.
"I thought it was about time to look about and see if there
was anything detached that would float. I remembered
that every member of the crew had a special life-belt and
ought to know where it was. I remembered mine was under
my bunk. I went and got it. Then I thought how cold
the water was.
"I remembered I had an extra jacket and a pair of boots,
and I put them on. I saw Phillips standing out there
still sending away, giving the Carpathia details of just how
we were doing.
"We picked up the Olympic and told her we were sinking
by the head and were about all down. As Phillips was sending
the message I strapped his life-belt to his back. I had
already put on his overcoat. Every minute was precious, so
I helped him all I could.
BAND PLAYS IN RAG-TIME
"From aft came the tunes of the band. It was a rag-time
tune, I don't know what. Then there was `Autumn.' Phillips
ran aft and that was the last I ever saw of him.
"I went to the place where I had seen a collapsible boat on
the boat deck, and to my surprise I saw the boat and the men
still trying to push it off. I guess there wasn't a sailor in the
crowd. They couldn't do it. I went up to them and was just
lending a hand when a large wave came awash of the deck.
"The big wave carried the boat off. I had hold of a row-
lock and I went off with it. The next I knew I was in the
boat.
"But that was not all. I was in the boat and the boat was
upside down and I was under it. And I remember realizing
I was wet through, and that whatever happened I must not
breathe, for I was under water.
"I knew I had to fight for it and I did. How I got out from
under the boat I do not know, but I felt a breath of air at last.
"There were men all around me hundreds of them. The
sea was dotted with them, all depending on their life-belts.
I felt I simply had to get away from the ship. She was a
beautiful sight then.
"Smoke and sparks were rushing out of her funnel, and there
must have been an explosion, but we had heard none. We only
saw the big stream of sparks. The ship was gradually turning
on her nose just like a duck does that goes down for a dive.
I had one thing on my mind--to get away from the suction.
The band was still playing, and I guess they all went down.
"They were playing `Autumn' then. I swam with all my
might. I suppose I was 150 feet away when the Titanic,
on her nose, with her after-quarter sticking straight up in
the air, began to settle slowly.
"When at last the waves washed over her rudder there
wasn't the least bit of suction I could feel. She must have
kept going just as slowly as she had been.
"I forgot to mention that, besides the Olympic and Carpathia,
we spoke some German boat, I don't know which,
and told them how we were. We also spoke the Baltic. I
remembered those things as I began to figure what ships would
be coming toward us.
"I felt, after a little while, like sinking. I was very cold.
I saw a boat of some kind near me and put all my strength
into an effort to swim to it. It was hard work. I was all
done when a hand reached out from the boat and pulled me
aboard. It was our same collapsible.
"There was just room for me to roll on the edge. I lay there,
not caring what happened. Somebody sat on my legs; they
were wedged in between slats and were being wrenched. I
had not the heart left to ask the man to move. It was a terrible
sight all around--men swimming and sinking.
"I lay where I was, letting the man wrench my feet out
of shape. Others came near. Nobody gave them a hand.
The bottom-up boat already had more men than it would
hold and it was sinking.
"At first the larger waves splashed over my head and I had
to breathe when I could.
"Some splendid people saved us. They had a right-side-
up boat, and it was full to its capacity. Yet they came to us
and loaded us all into it. I saw some lights off in the distance
and knew a steamship was coming to our aid.
"I didn't care what happened. I just lay, and gasped when
I could and felt the pain in my feet. At last the Carpathia
was alongside and the people were being taken up a rope
ladder. Our boat drew near, and one b{y} one the men were
taken off of it.
"The way the band kept playing was a noble thing. I
heard it first while we were working wireless, when there was a
rag-time tune for us, and the last I saw of the band, when I
was floating out in the sea, with my life-belt on, it was still
on deck playing `Autumn.' How they ever did it I cannot
imagine.
"That and the way Phillips kept sending after the captain
told him his life was his own, and to look out for himself, are
two things that stand out in my mind over all the rest."
CHAPTER XVIII
STORY OF THE STEWARD
PASSENGERS AND CREW DYING WHEN TAKEN ABOARD CARPATHIA
--ONE WOMAN SAVED A DOG--ENGLISH COLONEL
SWAM FOR HOURS WHEN BOAT WITH MOTHER CAPSIZED
SOME of the most thrilling incidents connected with the
rescue of the Titanic's survivors are told in the following
account given by a man trained to the sea, a
steward of the rescue ship Carpathia:
"At midnight on Sunday, April 14th, I was promenading
the deck of the steamer Carpathia, bound for the Mediterranean
and three days out from New York, when an urgent
summons came to my room from the chief steward, E. Harry
Hughes. I then learned that the White Star liner Titanic,
the greatest ship afloat, had struck an iceberg and was in
serious difficulties.
"We were then already steaming at our greatest power to
the scene of the disaster, Captain Rostron having immediately
given orders that every man of the crew should stand by to
exert his utmost efforts. Within a very few minutes every
preparation had been made to receive two or three thousand
persons. Blankets were placed ready, tables laid with hot
soups and coffee, bedding, etc., prepared, and hospital
supplies laid out ready to attend to any injured.
"The men were then mustered in the saloon and addressed
by the chief steward. He told them of the disaster and
appealed to them in a few words to show the world what stuff
Britishers were made of, and to add a glorious page to the
history of the empire; and right well did the men respond
to the appeal. Every life-boat was manned and ready to be
launched at a moment's notice. Nothing further could be
done but anxiously wait and look out for the ship's distress
signal.
"Our Marconi operator, whose unceasing efforts for many
hours deserve the greatest possible praise, was unable at
this time to get any reply to the urgent inquiries he was
sending out, and he feared the worst.
"At last a blue flare was observed, to which we replied
with a rocket. Day was just dawning when we observed a
boat in the distance.
ICEBERG AND FIRST BOAT SIGHTED
"Eastward on the horizon a huge iceberg, the cause of
the disaster, majestically reared two noble peaks to heaven.
Rope ladders were already lowered and we hove to near the
life-boat, which was now approaching us as rapidly as the
nearly exhausted efforts of the men at the oars could bring
her.
"Under the command of our chief officer, who worked
indefatigably at the noble work of rescue, the survivors in
{illust. caption =
Above: MAIN STAIRWAY ON TITANIC. TOP E DECK
Below: SECOND LANDING. C DECK. GRAND STAIRWAY}
{illust. caption = MRS. JOHN B. THAYER
Mrs. Thayer and her son were....}
{illust. caption = JOHN B. THAYER
Second Vice-President of the...}
the boat were rapidly but carefully hauled aboard and given
into the hands of the medical staff under the organization
of Dr. McGee.
"We then learned the terrible news that the gigantic vessel,
the unsinkable Titanic, had gone down one hour and ten
minutes after striking.
"From this time onward life-boats continued to arrive at
frequent intervals. Every man of the Carpathia's crew was
unsparing in his efforts to assist, to tenderly comfort each
and every survivor. In all, sixteen boatloads were receives,
containing altogether 720 persons, many in simply their
night attire, others in evening dress, as if direct from an
after-dinner reception, or concert. Most conspicuous was
the coolness and self-possession, particularly of the women.
"Pathetic and heartrending incidents were many. There
was not a man of the rescue party who was not moved almost
to tears. Women arrived and frantically rushed from one
gangway to another eagerly scanning the fresh arrivals in
the boats for a lost husband or brother.
A CAPSIZED BOAT
"One boat arrived with the unconscious body of an English
colonel. He had been taking out his mother on a visit,
to three others of her sons. He had succeeded in getting
her away in one of the boats and he himself had found a
place in another. When but a few-yards from the ill-fated
ship the boat containing his mother capsized before his eyes.
"Immediately he dived into the water and commenced a
frantic search for her. But in vain. Boat after boat endeavored
to take him aboard, but he refused to give up, continuing
to swim for nearly three hours until even his great
strength of body and mind gave out and he was hauled unconscious
into a passing boat and brought aboard the Carpathia.
The doctor gives little hope of his recovery.
"There were, I understand, twelve newly married couples
aboard the big ship. The twelve brides have been saved,
but of the husbands all but one have perished. That one
would not have been here, had he not been urged to assist
in manning a life-boat. Think of the self-sacrifice of these
eleven heroes, who stood on the doomed vessel and parted
from their brides forever, knowing full well that a few brief
minutes would end all things for themselves.
"Many similar pathetic incidents could be related. Sad-
eyed women roam aimlessly about the ship still looking
vainly for husband, brother or father. To comfort them is
impossible. All human efforts are being exerted on their
behalf. Their material needs are satisfied in every way.
But who can cure a broken heart?
SAVED HER POMERANIAN
"One of the earliest boats to arrive was seen to contain a
woman tenderly clasping a pet Pomeranian. When assisted
to the rope ladder and while the rope was being fastened
around her she emphatically refused to give up for a second
the dog which was evidently so much to her. He is now
receiving as careful and tender attention as his mistress.
"A survivor informs me that there was on the ship a lady
who was taking out a huge great Dane dog. When the
boats were rapidly filling she appeared on deck with her
canine companion and sadly entreated that he should be
taken off with her. It was impossible. Human lives, those
of women and children, were the first consideration. She
was urged to seize the opportunity to save her own life and
leave the dog. She refused to desert him and, I understand,
sacrificed her life with him.
"One elderly lady was bewailing to a steward that she
had lost everything. He indignantly replied that she should
thank God her life was spared, never mind her replaceable
property. The reply was pathetic:
" `I have lost everything--my husband,' and she broke
into uncontrollable grief.
FOUR BOATS ADRIFT HE SAYS
"One incident that impressed me perhaps more than any
other was the burial on Tuesday afternoon of four of the
poor fellows who succeeded in safely getting away from the
doomed vessel only to perish later from exhaustion and
exposure as a result of their gallant efforts to bring to safety
the passengers placed in their charge in the life-boats. They
were:
"W. H. Hoyte, Esq., first class passenger.
"Abraham Hornner, third class passenger.
"S. C. Siebert, steward.
"P. Lyons, sailor.
"The sailor and steward were unfortunately dead when
taken aboard. The passengers lived but a few minutes
after. They were treated with the greatest attention. The
funeral service was conducted amid profound silence and
attended by a large number of survivors and rescuers. The
bodies, covered by the national flag, were reverently consigned
to the mighty deep from which they had been, alas, vainly,
saved.
"Most gratifying to the officers and men of the Carpathia
is the constantly expressive appreciation of the survivors."
He then told of the meeting of the survivors in the cabin
of the Carpathia and of the resolution adopted, a statement
of which has already been given in another chapter.
CHAPTER XIX
HOW THE WORLD RECEIVED THE NEWS
NATIONS PROSTRATE WITH GRIEF--MESSAGES FROM KINGS
AND CARDINALS--DISASTER STIRS WORLD TO NECESSITY
OF STRICTER REGULATIONS
YOUNG and old, rich and poor were prostrated by the
news of the disaster. Even Wall Street was neglected.
Nor was the grief confined to America. European
nations felt the horror of the calamity and sent expressions of
sympathy. President Taft made public cablegrams received
from the King and Queen of England, and the King of Belgium,
conveying their sympathy to the American people in
the sorrows which have followed the Titanic disaster. The
President's responses to both messages were also made public.
The following was the cablegram from King George, dated
at Sandringham:
"The Queen and I are anxious to assure you and the American
nation of the great sorrow which we experienced at
the terrible loss of life that has occurred among the American
citizens, as well as among my own subjects, by the foundering
of the Titanic. Our two countries are so intimately
allied by ties of friendship and brotherhood that any mis-
fortunes which affect the one must necessarily affect the
other, and on the present terrible occasion they are both
equally sufferers.
"GEORGE R. AND I."
President Taft's reply was as follows:
"In the presence of the appalling disaster to the Titanic
the people of the two countries are brought into community
of grief through their common bereavement. The American
people share in the sorrow of their kinsmen beyond the sea.
On behalf of my countrymen I thank you for your sympathetic
message.
"WILLIAM H. TAFT."
The message from King Albert of Belgium was as follows:
"I beg Your Excellency to accept my deepest condolences
on the occasion of the frightful catastrophe to the Titanic,
which has caused such mourning in the American nation."
The President's acknowledgment follows:
"I deeply appreciate your sympathy with my fellow-countrymen
who have been stricken with affliction through the
disaster to the Titanic."
MESSAGE PROM SPAIN
King Alfonso and Queen Victoria sent the following cablegram
to President Taft:
"We have learned with profound grief of the catastrophe
to the Titanic, which has plunged the American nation in
mourning. We send you our sincerest condolence, and wish
to assure you and your nation of the sentiments of friendship
and sympathy we feel toward you."
A similar telegram was sent to the King of England.
The many expressions of grief to reach President Taft
included one signed jointly by the three American Cardinals,
who were in New York attending the meeting of the trustees
of the Catholic University. It said:
"TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:
"The archbishops of the country, in joint session with the
trustees of the Catholic University of America, beg to offer
to the President of the United States their expression of their
profound grief at the awful loss of human lives attendant
upon the sinking of the steamship Titanic, and at the same
time to assure the relatives of the victims of this horrible disaster
of our deepest sympathy and condolence.
"They wish also to attest hereby to the hope that the law-
makers of the country will see in this sad accident the obvious
necessity of legal provisions for greater security of ocean travel.
"JAMES CARDINAL GIBBONS," Archbishop of Baltimore.
"JOHN CARDINAL FARLEY," Archbishop of New York.
"WILLIAM CARDINAL O'CONNELL," Archbishop of Boston.
HOUSE ADJOURNED
Formal tribute to the Titanic's dead was paid by the House
of Representatives when it adjourned for twenty-four hours.
The prayer of the Rev. Henry N. Couden in opening the
House session was, in part:
"We thank Thee that though in the ordinary circumstances
of life selfishness and greed seem to be in the ascendancy,
yet in times of distress and peril, then it is that the nobility
of soul, the Godlike in man, asserts itself and makes heroes."
The flags on the White House and other Government
buildings throughout the country were at half-staff.
ROME MOURNED MAJOR BUTT
A special telegram from Rome stated that one of the victims
most regretted was Major Butt, whose jovial, bright
character made many friends there. Besides autograph
letters from the Pope and Cardinal Merry del VaI{sic?} to President
Taft, the major had with him a signed photograph of the
Pontiff, given by him personally.
Cardinal Merry del Val had several conversations with
Major Butt, who declared that the cardinal was "the first
gentleman of Europe." Shortly before he was leaving Rome,
regretting that he had not a signed picture of Cardinal Merry
del Val, Major Butt entrusted a friend to ask for one. The
cardinal willingly put an autograph dedication on a picture,
recalling their pleasant intercourse.
LONDON NEWSPAPERS CONDEMN LAXITY OF LAW
British indignation, which is not easily excited, was aroused
over the knowledge that an antiquated law enables steamship
companies to fail to provide sufficient life-boats to accommodate
the passengers and crew of the largest liners in the event of
such a disaster as that which occurred to the Titanic. It will
be insisted that there be an investigation of the loss of life
in the Titanic and that the shortage of boats be gone into
thoroughly.
The newspapers commented adversely on the lack of boats
and their views were emphasized by the knowledge that no
attempt has been made to change the regulations in the face
of the fact that the inadequacy of boats in such an emergency
was called to the attention of Parliament at the time of the
collision between the White Star liner Olympic and the cruiser
Hawke. It was pointed out at this time that German vessels,
much smaller in size than the Olympic, carried more boats
and also that these boats were of greater capacity.
T. W. Moore, Secretary of the Merchant Service Guild,
when seen at the guild's rooms in Liverpool, said:
"The Titanic disaster is an example, on a colossal scale,
of the pernicious and supine system of officials, as represented
by the Board of Trade. Modern liners are so designed that
they have no accommodations for more life-boats. Among
practical seamen it has long been recognized that the modern
passenger ship has nothing like adequate boat capacity.
"The Board of Trade has its own views, and the shipowners
also have their views, which are largely based upon the economical
factor. The naval architects have their opinions,
but the practical merchant seaman is not consulted.
"The Titanic disaster is a complete substantiation of the
agitation that our guild has carried on for nearly twenty
years against the scheme that has precluded practical seamen
from being consulted with regard to boat capacity and
life-saving appliances.
HOUSE OF COMMONS INVESTIGATION
Immediate and searching inquiry into the Titanic disaster
was promised on the floor of the House of Commons April
18th, by President Sidney Buxton, of the Board of Trade,
which controls all sea-going vessels.
Buxton, in discussing the utterly inadequate life-saving
equipment of the big liner, declared that the committee of
the board in charge of life-saving precautions had recently
recommended increased life-boats, rafts and life-preservers
on all big ships, but that the requirements had been found
unsatisfactory and had not been put in force. He frankly
admitted the necessity for increased equipment without
delay.
The board, he said, was utterly unable to compel the transatlantic
vessels to reduce their speed in the contest for "express
train" ships. He also said the board could not force
ships to take the southerly passage in the spring to avoid ice.
The regulations under which the Titanic carried life-boat
accommodations for only about one-third of her passengers
and crew had not been revised by the committee since 1894.
At that time the regulations were made for ships of "10,000
tons or more." The Titanic's tonnage was 45,000, for which
the present requirements are altogether insufficient.
WORK OF RAISING RELIEF FUNDS PROMPT
Several foreign governments telegraphed to the British
Government messages of condolence for the sufferers. The
King sent a donation of $2625 to the Mansion House fund.
Queen Mary donated $1310 and Queen Alexandra $1000
to the same fund.
Oscar Hammerstein proffered, and the lord mayor accepted,
the use of his opera house for an entertainment in aid of the
fund.
The Shipping Federation donated $10,500 to the Mayor
of Southampton's fund, taking care to explain that the White
Star Line was not affiliated with the Federation.
Some public institutions also offered to take care of the
orphaned children of the crew.
Large firms contributed liberally to the various relief funds,
while Covent Garden and other leading theaters prepared
special performances to aid in the relief work.
INDIGNANT GERMANY DEMANDS REFORMS
All Germany as well as England was stunned and grieved
by the magnitude of the horror of the Titanic catastrophe.
Anglo-German recriminations for the moment ceased, as far
as the Fatherland was concerned, and profound and sincere
compassion for the nation on whom the blow had fallen more
heavily was the supreme note of the hour.
The Kaiser, with his characteristic promptitude, was one
of the first to communicate his sympathy by telegraph to
King George and to the White Star Line. Admiral Prince
Henry of Prussia did likewise, and the first act of the
Reichstag, after reassembling on Tuesday, was to pass a
standing vote of condolence with the British people in their
distress.
GERMAN LAWS ALSO INADEQUATE
The German laws, governing the safety appliances on board
trans-oceanic vessels, seem to be as archaic and inadequate
as those of the British Board of Trade. The maximum
provision contained in the German statutes refers to vessels
with the capacity of 50,000 cubic metres, which must carry
sixteen life-boats. The law also says that if this number of
life-boats be insufficient to accommodate all the persons on
board, including the crew, there shall be carried elsewhere
in the vessel a correspondingly additional number of collapsible
life-boats, suitable rafts, floating deck-chairs and life-buoys,
as well as a generous supply of life-belts.
A vessel of 10,000 tons was a "leviathan" in the days when
the German law was passed, and it appears to have undergone
no change to meet the conditions, imposed by the construction
of vessels twice or three times 10,000 tons, like the
Hamburg-American Kaiserin Auguste Victoria, or the North
German Lloyd George Washington, to say nothing of the
50,000-ton Imperator, which is to be added to the Hamburg
fleet next year.
The German lines seem, like the White Star Company, to
have reckoned simply with the practical impossibility of a
ship like the Titanic succumbing to the elements
PERSONAL ANXIETY
Although Germany's and Berlin's direct interest in the
passengers aboard the Titanic was less than that of London,
New York or Paris, there was the utmost concern for their
fate.
Ambassador Leishman and other members of the American
Embassy were particularly interested in hearing about Major
"Archie" Butt, who passed through Berlin, less than a month
before the disaster, en route from Russia and the Far East.
Vice-president John B. Thayer and family, of Philadelphia,
were also in Berlin a fortnight ago and were guests of the
American Consul General and Mrs. Thackara. A score of
other lesser known passengers had recently stayed in Berlin
hotels, and it was local friends or kinsmen of theirs who were
in a state of distressing unrest over their fate.
Their anxiety was aggravated by the old-fogey methods of
the German newspapers, which are invariably twelve or fifteen
hours later than journals elsewhere in Europe on world news
events. Although New York, London and Paris had the
cruel truth with their morning papers on Tuesday, it was
not until the middle of the forenoon that "extras" made the
facts public in Berlin.
William T. Stead was well and favorably known in Germany,
and his fate was keenly and particularly mourned.
Germans have also noted that many Americans of direct
Teutonic ancestry or origin were among the shining
marks in the death list. Colonel John Jacob Astor is claimed
as of German, extraction, as well as Isidor Straus, Benjamin
Guggenheim, Washington Roebling and Henry B. Harris.
All of them had been in Germany frequently and had a wide
circle of friends and acquaintances.
Only one well-known resident of Berlin was aboard the
Titanic, Frau Antoinette Flegenheim, whose name appears
among the rescued.
CHAPTER XX
BRAVERY OF THE OFFICERS AND CREW
ILLUSTRIOUS CAREER OF CAPTAIN E. J. SMITH--BRAVE TO THE
LAST--MAINTENANCE OF ORDER AND DISCIPLINE--ACTS OF
HEROISM--ENGINEERS DIED AT POSTS--NOBLE-HEARTED
BAND
IN the anxious hours of uncertainty, when the air cracked
and flashed with the story of disaster, there was never
doubt in the minds of men ashore about the master of
the Titanic. Captain Smith would bring his ship into port
if human power could mend the damage the sea had wrought,
or if human power could not stay the disaster he would never
come to port. There is something Calvinistic about such men
of the old-sea breed. They go down with their ships, of their
own choice.
Into the last life-boat that was launched from the ship Captain
Smith with his own hand lifted a small child into a seat
beside its mother. As the gallant, officer performed his simple
act of humanity several who were already in the boat tried
to force the captain to join them, but he turned away resolutely
toward the bridge.
That act was significant. Courteous, kindly, of quiet
demeanor and soft words, he was known and loved by thousands
of travelers.
When the English firm, A. Gibson & Co.9 of Liverpool,
purchased the American clipper, Senator Weber, in 1869,
Captain Smith, then a boy, sailed on her. For seven years
he was an apprentice on the Senator Weber, leaving that vessel
to go to the Lizzie Fennell, a square rigger, as fourth officer.
From there he went to the old Celtic of the White Star Line
as fourth officer and in 1887 he became captain of that vessel.
For a time he was in command of the freighters Cufic and
Runic; then he became skipper of the old Adriatic.
Subsequently he assumed command of the Celtic, Britannic,
Coptic (which was in the Australian trade), Germanic, Baltic,
Majestic, Olympic and Titanic, an illustrious list of vessels
for one man to have commanded during his career.
It was not easy to get Captain Smith to talk of his
experiences. He had grown up in the service, was his comment,
and it meant little to him that he had been transferred from a
small vessel to a big ship and then to a bigger ship and finally
to the biggest of them all.
"One might think that a captain taken from a small ship
and put on a big one might feel the transition," he once said.
"Not at all. The skippers of the big vessels have grown up
to them, year after year, through all these years. First there
was the sailing vessel and then what we would now call small
ships--they were big in the days gone by--and finally the
giants to-day."
{illust. caption = VESSEL WITH BOTTOM OF HULL RIPPED OPEN
A view of the torpedo destroyer Tiger, taken in drydock after her
collision with the Portland Breakwater last September; the damage to the
Tiger, which is plainly shown in the photograph, is of the same character,
though on a smaller scale, as that which was done to the Titanic.}
{illust. caption = A VIEW OF THE OLYMPIC
The sister-ship of the Titanic, showing the damage done to her hull in
the collision with British war vessel, Hawke, in the British Channel.}
DISASTER TO OLYMPIC
Only once during all his long years of service was he in
trouble, when the Olympic, of which he was in command, was
rammed by the British cruiser Hawke in the Solent on September
20, 1911. The Hawke came steaming out of Portsmouth
and drew alongside the giantess. According to some
of the passengers on the Olympic the Hawke swerved in the
direction of the big liner and a moment later the bow of the
Hawke was crunching steel plates in the starboard quarter
of the Olympic, making a thirty-foot hole in her. She was
several months in dry dock.
The result of a naval court inquiry was to put all the blame
for the collision on the Olympic. Captain Smith, in his testimony
before the naval court, said that he was on the bridge
when he saw the Hawke overhauling him. The Olympic
began to draw ahead later or the Hawke drop astern, the
captain did not know which. Then the cruiser turned very
swiftly and struck the Olympic at right angles on the quarter.
The pilot gave the signal for the Olympic to port, which was
to minimize the force of the collision. The Olympic's engines
had been stopped by order of the pilot.
Up to the moment the Hawke swerved, Captain Smith
said, he had no anxiety. The pilot, Bowyer, corroborated
the testimony of Captain Smith. That the line did not believe
Captain Smith was at fault, notwithstanding the verdict of
the board of naval inquiry, was shown by his retention as the
admiral of the White Star fleet and by his being given the
command of the Titanic.
Up to the time of the collision with the Hawke Captain
Smith when asked by interviewers to describe his experiences
at sea would say one word, "uneventful." Then he would
add with a smile and a twinkle of his eyes:
"Of course there have been winter gales and storms and
fog and the like in the forty years I have been on the seas, but
I have never been in an accident worth speaking of. In all
my years at sea (he made this comment a few years ago) I
have seen but one vessel in distress. That was a brig the crew
of which was taken off in a boat by my third officer. I never
saw a wreck. I never have been wrecked. I have never been
in a predicament that threatened to end in disaster of any
sort."
THE CAPTAIN'S LOVE OF THE SEA
Once the interviewer stopped asking personal questions,
Captain Smith would talk of the sea, of his love for it, how its
appeal to him as a boy had never died.
"The love of the ocean that took me to sea as a boy has
never died." he once said. "When I see a vessel plunging up
and down in the trough of the sea, fighting her way through
and over great waves, and keeping her keel and going on and
on--the wonder of the thing fills me, how she can keep afloat
and get safely to port. I have never outgrown the wild
grandeur of the sea."
When he was in command of the Adriatic, which was built
before the Olympic, Captain Smith said he did not believe a
disaster with loss of life could happen to the Adriatic.
"I cannot conceive of any vital disaster happening to the
Adriatic," he said. "Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond
that. There will be bigger boats. The depth of harbors
seems to be the great drawback at present. I cannot say, of
course, just what the limit will be, but the larger boat will
surely come. But speed will not develop with size, so far as
merchantmen are concerned.
"The traveling public prefers the large comfortable boat
of average speed, and anyway that is the boat that pays.
High speed eats up money mile by mile, and extreme high
speed is suicidal. There will be high speed boats for use as
transports and a wise government will assist steamship companies
in paying for them, as the English Government is now
doing in the cases of the Lusitania and Mauretania, twenty-
five knot boats; but no steamship company will put them out
merely as a commercial venture."
Captain Smith believed the Titanic to be unsinkable.
BRAVE TO THE LAST
And though the ship turned out to be sinkable, the captain,
by many acts of bravery in the face of death, proved that his
courage was equal to any test.
Captain Inman Sealby, commander of the steamer Republic,
which was the first vessel to use the wireless telegraph to
save her passengers in a collision, spoke highly of the commander
of the wrecked Titanic, calling him one of the ablest
seamen in the world.
"I am sure that Captain Smith did everything in his power
to save his passengers. The disaster is one about which he
could have had no warning. Things may happen at sea that
give no warning to ships' crews and commanders until the
harm comes. I believe from what I read that the Titanic hit
an iceberg and glanced off, but that the berg struck her from
the bottom and tore a great hole."
Many survivors have mentioned the captain's name and
narrated some incident to bring out his courage and helpfulness
in the emergency; but it was left to a fireman on
board the Titanic to tell the story of his death and to record
his last message. This man had gone down with the White
Star giantess and was clinging to a piece of wreckage for
about half an hour before he finally joined several members of
the Titanic's company on the bottom of a boat which was
floating about among other wreckage near the Titanic.
Harry Senior, the fireman, with his eight or nine companions
in distress, had just managed to get a firm hold in the
upturned boat when they saw the Titanic rearing preparatory
to her final plunge. At that moment, according to the fireman's
story, Captain Smith jumped into the sea from the
promenade deck of the Titanic with a little girl clutched in
his arms. It took only a few strokes to bring him to the
upturned boat, where a dozen hands were stretched out to take
the little child from his arms and drag him to a point of
safety.
"Captain Smith was dragged onto the upturned boat," said
the fireman. "He had a life-buoy and a life-preserver. He
clung there for a moment and then he slid off again. For a
second time he was dragged from the icy water. Then he took
off his life-preserver, tossed the life-buoy on the inky waters,
and slipped into the water again with the words: "I will
follow the ship."
OTHER FAITHFUL MEN
Nor was the captain the only faithful man on the ship. Of
the many stories told by survivors all seem to agree that both
officers and crew behaved with the utmost gallantry and that
they stuck by the ship nobly to the last.
"Immediately after the Titanic struck the iceberg," said
one of the survivors, "the officers were all over the ship
reassuring the passengers and calming the more excitable.
They said there was no cause for alarm. When everything
was quieted they told us we might go back to bed, as the ship
was safe. There was no confusion and many returned to
their beds.
"We did not know that the ship was in danger until a
comparatively short time before she sank. Then we were called
on deck and the life-boats were filled and lowered.
"The behavior of the ship's officers at this time was wonderful.
There was no panic, no scramble for places in the boats."
Later there was confusion, and according to most of the
passengers' narratives, there were more than fifty shots fired
upon the deck by officers or others in the effort to maintain
the discipline.
FIFTH OFFICER LOWE
A young English woman who requested that her name be
omitted told a thrilling story of her experience in one of the
collapsible boats which had been manned by eight of the crew
from the Titanic. The boat was in command of the fifth
officer, H. Lowe, whose actions she described as saving the
lives of many people. Before the life-boat was launched he
passed along the port deck of the steamer, commanding the
people not to jump in the boats, and otherwise restraining
them from swamping the craft. When the collapsible was
launched Officer Lowe succeeded in putting up a mast and a
small sail. He collected the other boats together, in some
cases the boats were short of adequate crews, and he directed
an exchange by which each was adequately manned. He
threw lines connecting the boats together, two by two, and
thus all moved together. Later on he went back to the wreck
with the crew of one of the boats and succeeded in picking up
some of those who had jumped overboard and were swimming
about. On his way back to the Carpathia he passed one of
the collapsible boats which was on the point of sinking with
thirty passengers aboard, most of them in scant night-clothing.
They were rescued just in the nick of time.
ENGINEERS DIED AT POSTS
There were brave men below deck, too. "A lot has been
printed in the papers about the heroism of the officers," said
one survivor, "but little has been said of the bravery of the
men below decks. I was told that seventeen enginemen who
were drowned side by side got down on their knees on the
platform of the engine room and prayed until the water surged
up to their necks. Then they stood up, clasped hands so as
to form a circle and died together. All of these men helped
rake the fires out from ten of the forward boilers after the
crash. This delayed the explosion and undoubtedly permitted
the ship to remain afloat nearly an hour longer, and
thus saved hundreds of lives."
In the list of heroes who went down on the Titanic the
names of her engineers will have a high place, for not a single
engineer was saved. Many of them, no doubt, could not get
to the deck, but they had equally as good a chance as the
firemen, sixty-nine of whom were saved.
The supposition of those who manned the Titanic was that
the engineers, working below, were the first to know the desperate
character of the Titanic's injury. The watch called
the others, and from that time until the vessel was ready for
her last plunge they were too hard at work to note more than
that there was a constant rise of water in the hull, and that
the pumps were useless.
It was engineers who kept the lights going, saw to the proper
closing of bulkhead doors and kept the stoke hole at work
until the uselessness of the task was apparent. Most of them
probably died at their post of duty.
The Titanic carried a force of about sixty engineers, and in
addition she had at least twenty-five "guarantee" engineers,
representatives of Harland and Wolff, the builders, and those
who had the contract for the engineering work. This supplementary
force was under Archie Frost, the builders' chief
engineer, and the regular force was under Chief Engineer William
Bell, of the White Star Line.
On the line's ships there is the chief engineer, senior and
junior second, senior and junior third, and senior and junior
fourth engineers. The men are assigned each to his own task.
There are hydraulic, electric, pump and steam packing men,
and the "guarantee" engineers, representing the builders and
the contractors.
The duty of the "guarantee" engineers is to watch the
working of the great engines, and to see that they are tuned up
and in working order. They also watch the working of each
part of the machinery which had nothing to do with the actual
speed of the ship, principally the electric light dynamos and
the refrigerating plant.
NOBLE-HEARTED BAND
"But what of the bandsmen? Who were they?"
This question was asked again and again by all who read
the story of the Titanic's sinking and of how the brave musicians
played to the last, keeping up the courage of those who
were obliged to go down with the ship.
Many efforts were made to find out who the men were, but
little was made public until the members of the orchestra of
the steamship Celtic reached shore for the first time after the
disaster. One of their first queries was about the musicians
of the Titanic. Their anxiety was greater than that of any
New Yorker, for the members of the band of the Celtic knew
intimately the musicians of the ill-fated liner.
"Not one of them saved!" cried John S. Carr, 'cellist on
the Celtic. "It doesn't seem possible they have all gone.
"We knew most of them well. They were Englishmen, you
know--every one of them, I think. Nearly all the steamship
companies hire their musicians abroad, and the men interchange
between the ships frequently, so we get a chance to
know one another pretty well. The musicians for the Titanic
were levied from a number of other White Star ships, but
most of the men who went down with the Titanic had bunked
with us at some time."
"The thing I can't realize is that happy `Jock' Hume is
dead," exclaimed Louis Cross, a player of the bass viol. "He
was the merriest, happiest young Scotchman you ever saw.
His family have been making musical instruments in Scotland
for generations. I heard him say once that they were
minstrels in the old days. It is certainly hard to believe that
he is not alive and having his fun somewhere in the world."
At least he helped to make the deaths of many less cruel.
CHAPTER XXI
SEARCHING FOR THE DEAD
SENDING OUT THE MACKAY-BENNETT AND MINIA--BREMEN
PASSENGERS SEE BODIES--IDENTIFYING BODIES--CONFUSION
IN NAMES--RECOVERIES
A FEW days after the disaster the cable steamer Mackay-
Bennett was sent out by the White Star Line to
cruise in the vicinity of the disaster and search for
missing bodies.
Two wireless messages addressed to J. Bruce Ismay, president
of the International Mercantile Marine Company, were
received on April 21st at the offices of the White Star Line
from the cable ship Mackay-Bennett, via Cape Race, one of
which reported that the steamship Rhein had sighted bodies
near the scene of the Titanic wreck. The first message,
which was dated April 20th, read:
"Steamer Rhein reports passing wreckage and bodies 42.1
north, 49.13 west, eight miles west of three big icebergs. Now
making for that position. Expect to arrive 8 o'clock to-night.
(Signed) "MACKAY-BENNETT."
The second message read:
"Received further information from Bremen (presumably
steamship Bremen) and arrived on ground at 8 o'clock P. M.
Start on operation to-morrow. Have been considerably
delayed on passage by dense fog.
(Signed) "MACKAY-BENNETT."
After receiving these messages Mr. Ismay issued the following
statement:
"The cable ship Mackay-Bennett has been chartered by
the White Star Line and ordered to proceed to the scene of
the disaster and do all she could to recover the bodies and
glean all information possible.
"Every effort will be made to identify bodies recovered,
and any news will be sent through immediately by wireless.
In addition to any such message as these, the Mackay-Bennett
will make a report of its activities each morning by wireless,
and such reports will be made public at the offices of the
White Star Line.
"The cable ship has orders to remain on the scene of the
wreck for at least a week, but should a large number of
bodies be recovered before that time she will return to
Halifax with them. The search for bodies will not be
abandoned until not a vestige of hope remains for any more
recoveries.
"The Mackay-Bennett will not make any soundings, as
they would not serve any useful purpose, because the depth
where the Titanic sank is more than 2000 fathoms."
On April 22d the first list of twenty-seven names of bodies
recovered was made public. It contained that of Frederick
Sutton, a well-known member of the Union League of Philadelphia.
It did not contain the name of any other prominent
man who perished, although it was thought that the
name "George W. Widen" might refer to George D. Widener,
son of P. A. B. Widener, of Philadelphia. The original passenger
lists of the Titanic did not mention "Widen," which
apparently established the identity of the body as that of
Mr. Widener, who, together with his son, Harry, was lost.
The wireless message, after listing the names, concluded,
"All preserved," presumably referring to the condition
of the bodies.
A number of the names in the list did not check up with
the Titanic's passenger list, which led to the belief that a
number of the bodies recovered were members of the Titanic's
crew.
MINIA SENT TO ASSIST
At noon, April 23d, there was posted on the bulletin in the
White Star office this message from the Mackay-Bennett
dated Sunday, April 21st:
"Latitude, 41.58; longitude, 49.21. Heavy southwest swell
has interfered with operations. Seventy-seven bodies recovered.
All not embalmed will be buried at sea at 8 o'clock
to-night with divine service. Can bring only embalmed
bodies to port."
To Captain Lardner, master of the Mackay-Bennett,
P. A. S. Franklin, vice-president of the White Star Line, sent
an urgent message asking that the company be advised at
once of all particulars concerning the bodies identified, and
also given any information that might lead to the identification
of others. He said it was very important that every effort
be made to bring all of the bodies possible to port.
Mr. Franklin then directed A. G. Jones, the Halifax agent
of the White Star Line, to charter the Minia and send her to
the assistance of the Mackay-Bennett. Mr. Jones answered
this telegram, and said that the Minia was ready to proceed
to sea, but that a southeast gale, which generally brings fog,
might delay her departure. She left for Halifax.
NAMES BADLY GARBLED
On April 24th no wireless message was received from the
Mackay-Bennett, but the White Star Line officials and telegraphers
familiar with the wireless alphabet were busy trying
to reconcile some of the names received with those of
persons who went down on the Titanic. That the body of
William T. Stead, the English journalist and author, had been
recovered by the Mackay-Bennett, but through a freakish
error in wireless transmission the name of another was reported
instead, was one of the theories advanced by persons
familiar with the Morse code.
BREMEN SIGHTED MORE THAN A HUNDRED BODIES
When the German liner Bremen reached New York the
account of its having sighted bodies of the Titanic victims was
obtained.
From the bridge, officers of the ship saw more than a hun-
dred bodies floating on the sea, a boat upside down, together
with a number of small pieces of wood, steamer chairs and
other wreckage. As the cable ship Mackay-Bennett was in
sight, and having word that her mission was to look for bodies,
no attempt was made by the Bremen's crew to pick up the
corpses.
In the vicinity was seen an iceberg which answered the
description of the one the Titanic struck. Smaller bergs
were sighted the same day, but at some distance from where
the Titanic sank.
The officers of the Bremen did not care to talk about the
tragic spectacle, but among the passengers several were found
who gave accounts of the dismal panorama through which
their ship steamed.
Mrs. Johanna Stunke, a first-cabin passenger, described the
scene from the liner's rail.
"It was between 4 and 5 o'clock, Saturday, April 20th,"
she said, "when our ship sighted an iceberg off the bow to
the starboard. As we drew nearer, and could make out small
dots floating around in the sea, a feeling of awe and sadness
crept over everyone on the ship.
"We passed within a hundred feet of the southernmost
drift of the wreckage, and looking down over the rail we distinctly
saw a number of bodies so clearly that we could make
out what they were wearing and whether they were men or
women.
"We saw one woman in her night dress, with a baby clasped
closely to her breast. Several women passengers screamed
and left the rail in a fainting condition. There was another
woman, fully dressed, with her arms tight around the body
of a shaggy dog.
"The bodies of three men in a group, all clinging to one
steamship chair, floated near by, and just beyond them were
a dozen bodies of men, all of them encased in life-preservers,
clinging together as though in a last desperate struggle for
life. We couldn't see, but imagined that under them was
some bit of wreckage to which they all clung when the ship
went down, and which didn't have buoyancy enough to
support them.
"Those were the only bodies we passed near enough to
distinguish, but we could see the white life-preservers of many
more dotting the sea, all the way to the iceberg. The officers
told us that was probably the berg hit by the Titanic, and that
the bodies and ice had drifted along together."
Mrs. Stunke said a number of the passengers demanded
that the Bremen stop and pick up the bodies, but the officers
assured them that they had just received a wireless message
saying the cable ship Mackay-Bennett was only two hours
away fron{sic} the spot, and was coming for that express purpose.
Other passengers corroborated Mrs. Stunke.
THE IDENTIFED{sic} DEAD.
On April 25th the White Star Line officials issued a corrected
list of the identified dead. While the corrected list cleared
up two or more of the wireless confusions that caused so
much speculation in the original list, there still remained a
few names that so far as the record of the Titanic showed
were not on board that ship when she foundered.
The new list, however, established the fact that the body
of George D. Widener, of Philadelphia, was among those on
the Mackay-Bennett, and two of the bodies were identified
as those of men named Butt.
THE MACKAY-BENNETT RETURNS TO PORT
After completing her search the Mackay-Bennett steamed
for Halifax, reaching that port on Tuesday, April 30th.
With her flag at half mast, the death ship docked slowly.
Her crew manned the rails with bared heads, and on the aft
deck were stacked the caskets with the dead. The vessel
carried on board 190 bodies, and announcement was made
that 113 other bodies had been buried at sea.
Everybody picked up had been in a life-belt and there were
no bullet holes in any. Among those brought to port were
the bodies of two women.
THE MINIA GIVES UP THE SEARCH
When at last the Minia turned her bow toward shore only
thirteen additional bodies had been recovered, making a total
of 316 bodies found by the two ships.
Further search seemed futile. Not only had the two vessels
gone thoroughly over as wide a field as might likely
prove fruitful, but, in addition, the time elapsed made it
improbable that other bodies, if found, could be brought to
shore. Thus did the waves completely enforce the payment of
their terrible toll.
{illust. caption = ISADOR STRAUS
The New York millionaire merchant and philanthropist who lost his
life when the giant Titanic foundered at sea after hitting an iceberg.}
{illust. caption = ICEBERG PHOTOGRAPHED NEAR SCENE OF DISASTER
This photograph shows what is quite...}
LIST OF IDENTIFIED DEAD
Following is a list of those whose identity was wholly or
partially established:
ASTOR, JOHN JACOB.
ADONIS, J.
ALE, WILLIAM.
ARTAGAVEYTIA, RAMON.
ASHE, H. W.
ADAHL, MAURITZ.
ANDERSON, THOMAS.
ADAMS, J.
ASPALANDE, CARL.
ALLEN, H.
ANDERSON, W. Y.
ALLISON, H. J.
BUTT, W. (seaman).
BUTT, W. (may be Major Butt).
BUTTERWORTH, ABELJ.
BAILEY, G. F.
BARKER, E. T.
BUTLER, REGINALD.
BIRNBAUM, JACOB.
BRISTOW, R. C.
BUCKLEY, KATHERINE.
CHAPMAN, JOHN H.
CHAPMAN, CHARLES.
CONNORS, P.
CLONG, MILTON.
COX, DENTON.
CAVENDISH, TYRRELL w.
CARBINES, W.
DUTTON, F.
DASHWOOD, WILLIAM.
DULLES, W. C.
DOUGLAS, W. D.
DRAZENOUI, YOSIP (referring probably to
Joseph Draznovic).
DONATI, ITALO (waiter).
ENGINEER, A. E. F.
ELLIOTT, EDWARD.
FARRELL, JAMES.
FAUNTHORPE, H.
GILL, J. H.
GREENBERG, H.
GILINSKI, LESLIE.
GRAHAM, GEORGE.
GILES, RALPH.
GIVARD, HANS C.
HANSEN, HENRY D.
HAYTOR, A.
HAYS, CHALES M.
HODGES, H. P.
HELL, J. C.
HEWITT, T.
HARRISON, H. H.
HALE, REG.
HENDEKERIC, TOZNAI.
HINTON, W.
HARBECK, W. H.
HOLVERDON, A. O. (probably A. M.
Halverson of Troy).
HOFFMAN, LOUIS M.
HINCKLEY, G.
Hospital Attendant, no name given.
JOHANSEN, MALCOLM.
JOHANSEN, ERIC.
JOHANSSON, GUSTAF J.
JOHANSEN, A. F.
JONES, C. C.
KELLY, JAMES,
LAURENCE, A.
LOUCH, CHARLES.
LONG, MILTON C.
LILLY, A.
LINHART, WENZELL.
MARRIORTT, W. H. (no such name appears
on the list of passengers or crew).
MANGIN, MARY.
McNAMEE, MRS. N. (probably Miss
Elleen McNamee.)
MACK, MRS.
MONROE, JEAN.
McCAFFRY, THOMAS.
MORGAN, THOMAS.
MOEN, SEGURD H.
NEWELL, T. H.
NASSER, NICOLAS.
NORMAN, ROBERT D.
PETTY, EDWIN H.
PARTNER, AUSTIN.
PENNY, OLSEN F.
POGGI, ----.
RAGOZZI, A. BOOTHBY.
RICE, J. R.
ROBINS, A.
ROBINSON, J. M.
ROSENSHINE, GEORGE.
STONE, J.
STEWARD, 76.
STOKES, PHILIP J.
STANTON, W.
STRAUS, ISIDOR.
SAGE, WILLIAM.
SHEA, ----.
SUTTON, FREDERICK.
SOTHER, SIMON.
SCHEDID, NIHIL.
SWANK, GEORGE.
SEBASTIANO, DEL CARLO.
STANBROCKE, A.
TOMLIN, ETNEST P.
TALBOT, G.
VILLNER, HENDRICK K.
VASSILIOS, CATALEVAS (thought to be a
confusion of two surnames).
VEAR, W. (may be W. J. Ware or W. T.
Stead).
WIDENER, GEORGE W.
WILLIAMS, LESLIE.
WIRZ, ALBERT
WIKLUND, JACOB A.
WAILENS, ACHILLE.
WHITE, F. F.
WOODY, O. S.
WERSZ, LEOPOLD.
ZACARIAN, MAURI DER.
CHAPTER XXII
CRITICISM OF ISMAY
CRIMINAL AND COWARDLY CONDUCT CHARGED--PROPER CAUTION
NOT EXERCISED WHEN PRESENCE OF ICEBERGS WAS
KNOWN--SHOULD HAVE STAYED ON BOARD TO HELP IN
WORK OF RESCUE--SELFISH AND UNSYMPATHETIC ACTIONS
ON BOARD THE CARPATHIA--ISMAY'S DEFENSE--WILLIAM E.
CARTER'S STATEMENT
FROM the moment that Bruce Ismay's name was seen
among those of the survivors of the Titanic he became
the object of acrid attacks in every quarter
where the subject of the disaster was discussed. Bitter
criticism held that he should have been the last to leave the
doomed vessel.
His critics insisted that as managing director of the White
Star Line his responsibility was greater even than Captain
Smith's, and while granting that his survival might still be
explained, they condemned his apparent lack of heroism.
Even in England his survival was held to be the one great
blot on an otherwise noble display of masculine courage.
A prominent official of the White Star Line shook his head
meaningly when asked what he thought of Ismay's escape
with the women and children. The general feeling seemed
to be that he should have stayed aboard the sinking vessel,
looking out for those who were left, playing the man like
Major Butt and many another and going down with the
ship like Captain Smith.
He was also charged with urging a speed record and with
ignoring information received with regard to icebergs.
FEELING IN ENGLAND
The belief in England was that the captain of the Carpathia
had acted under Ismay's influence in refusing to permit any
account of the disaster to be transmitted previous to the arrival
of the vessel in New York. Ismay's telegram making arrangements
for the immediate deportation of the survivors among
the Titanic's crew was taken to be part of the same scheme to
delay if not to prevent their stories of the wreck from being
obtained in New York.
Another circumstance which created a damaging impression
was Ismay's failure to give the names of the surviving crew,
whose distraught families were entitled to as much consideration
as those whose relatives occupied the most expensive
suites on the Titanic. The anguish endured by the families
of members of the crew was reported as indescribable, and
Southampton was literally turned into a city of weeping and
tragic pathos. The wives of two members of the crew died of
shock and suspense.
CRIED FOR FOOD
Mr. Ismay's actions while on the Carpathia were also
criticised as selfish and unwarrantable.
"For God's sake get me something to eat, I'm starved.
I don't care what it costs or what it is. Bring it to me."
This was the first statement made by Mr. Ismay a few
minutes after he was landed on the Carpathia. It is vouched
for by an officer of the Carpathia who requested that his name
be withheld. This officer gave one of the most complete
stories of the events that took place on the Carpathia from
the time she received the Titanic's appeal for assistance until
she landed the survivors at the Cunard Line pier.
"Ismay reached the Carpathia in about the seventh life-
boat," said the officer. "I didn't know who he was, but afterward
I heard the other members of the crew discussing his
desire to get something to eat the minute he put his foot on
deck. The steward who waited on him reported that Ismay
came dashing into the dining room and said.
" `Hurry, for God's sake, and get me something to eat, I'm
starved. I don't care what it costs or what it is. Bring it to
me.' "
"The steward brought Ismay a load of stuff and when he
had finished it he handed the man a two dollar bill. `Your
money is no good on this ship,' the steward told him.
" `Take it,' insisted Ismay. `I am well able to afford it.
I will see to it that the boys of the Carpathia are well rewarded
for this night's work.'
"This promise started the steward making inquiries as to the
identity of the man he had waited on. Then we learned that
he was Ismay. I did not see Ismay after the first few hours.
He must have kept to his cabin."
REPLY TO CHARGES
Mr. Ismay's plans had been to return immediately to
England, and he had wired that the steamer Cedric be held
for himself and officers and members of the crew; but public
sentiment and subpoenas of the Senate's investigating committee
prevented. In the face of the criticism aimed against
him Mr. Ismay issued a long statement in which he not
only disclaimed responsibility for the Titanic's fatal collision,
but also sought to clear himself of blame for everything that
happened after the big ship was wrecked.
He laid the responsibility for the tragedy on Captain
Smith.
He expressed astonishment that his own conduct in the
disaster had been made the subject of inquiry. He denied
that he gave any order to Captain Smith. His position aboard
was that of any other first cabin passenger, he insisted, and
he was never consulted by the captain. He denied telling
anyone that he wished the ship to make a speed record. He
called attention to the routine clause in the instructions to
White Star captains ordering them to think of safety at all
times. He did not dine with the captain, he said, and when
the ship struck the berg, he was not sitting with the captain
in the saloon.
The managing director added that he was in his stateroom
when the collision occurred. He told of helping to send
women and children away in life-boats on the starboard side,
and said there was no woman in sight on deck when he and
William E. Carter, of Bryn Mawr, Pa., entered the collapsible
boat--the last small craft left on that side of the vessel. He
asserted that he pulled an oar and denied that in sending the
three messages from the Carpathia, urging the White Star
officials to hold the Cedric for the survivors of the Titanic's
officers and crew, he had any intention to block investigation
of the tragedy. Ismay asserted that he did not know there
was to be an investigation until the Cunarder docked.
Mr. William E. Carter, of Bryn Mawr, who, with his
family, was saved, confirmed Mr. Ismay's assertions.
"Mr. Ismay's statement is absolutely correct," said Mr.
Carter. "There were no women on the deck when that
boat was launched. We were the very last to leave the deck,
and we entered the life-boat because there were no women
to enter it.
"The deck was deserted when the boat was launched,
and Mr. Ismay and myself decided that we might as well
enter the boat and pull away from the wreck. If he wants
me, I assume that he will write to me.
"I can say nothing, however, that he has not already said,
as our narratives are identical; the circumstances under
which we were rescued from the Titanic were similar. We
left the boat together and were picked up together, and, further
than that, we were the very last to leave the deck.
"I am ready to go to Washington to testify to the truth
of Mr. Ismay's statement, and also to give my own account
at any time I may be called upon. If Mr. Ismay writes to
me, asking that I give a detailed account of our rescue I
will do so."
CHAPTER XXIII
THE FINANCIAL LOSS
TITANIC NOT FULLY INSURED--VALUABLE CARGO AND MAIL
--NO CHANCE FOR SALVAGE--LIFE INSURANCE LOSS--LOSS
TO THE CARPATHIA
SO great was the interest in the tragedy and so profound
the grief at the tremendous loss of life that for a time
the financial loss was not considered. It was, however,
the biggest ever suffered by marine insurance brokers.
The value of the policy covering the vessel against all
ordinary risks was $5,000,000, but the whole of this amount
was not insured, because British and Continental markets
were not big enough to swallow it. The actual amount of
insurance was $3,700,000, of which the owners themselves
held $750,000.
As to the cargo, it was insured by the shippers. The
company has nothing to do with the insurance of the cargo,
which, according to the company's manifest, was conservatively
estimated at about $420,000. Cargo, however, was a
secondary matter, so far as the Titanic was concerned. The
ship was built for high-priced passengers, and what little
cargo she carried was also of the kind that demanded quick
transportation. The Titanic's freight was for the most part
what is known as high-class package freight, consisting of
such articles as fine laces, ostrich feathers, wines, liquors
and fancy food commodities.
LOST MAIL MAY COST MILLIONS
Prior to the sailing of the vessel the postal authorities of
Southampton cabled the New York authorities that 3435
bags of mail matter were on board.
"In a load of 3500 bags," said Postmaster Morgan, of New
York, "it is a safe estimate to say that 200 contained registered
mail. The size of registered mail packages varies greatly,
but 1000 packages for each mail bag should be a conservative
guess. That would mean that 200,000 registered packages
and letters went down with the Titanic.
"This does not mean, however, that Great Britain will be
held financially responsible for all these losses. There were
probably thousands of registered packages from the Continent,
and in such cases the countries of origin will have to
reimburse the senders. Moreover, in the case of money
being sent in great quantities, it is usual to insure the registry
over and above the limit of responsibility set by the country
of origin.
"Probably if there were any shipping of securities mounting
up to thousands of dollars, it will be the insurance companies
which will bear the loss, and not the European post-
offices at all."
In the case of money orders, the postmaster explained,
there would be no loss, except of time, as duplicates promptly
would be shipped without further expense.
The postmaster did not know the exact sum which the
various European countries set as the limit of their guarantee
in registered mail. In America it is $50.
Underwriters will probably have to meet heavy claims of
passengers for luggage, including jewelry. Pearls of one
American woman insured in London were valued at $240,000.
NO CHANCE FOR SALVAGE
The Titanic and her valuable cargo can never be recovered,
said the White Star Line officials.
"Sinking in mid-ocean, at the depth which prevails where
the accident occurred," said Captain James Parton, manager
of the company, "absolutely precludes any hopes of salvage."
LIFE INSURANCE LOSS
In the life insurance offices there was much figuring over
the lists of those thought to be lost aboard the Titanic.
Nothing but rough estimates of the company's losses through
the wreck were given out.
LOSS TO THE CARPATHIA
The loss to the Carpathia, too, was considerable. It is, of
course, the habit of all good steamship lines to go out of their
way and cheerfully submit to financial loss when it comes
to succoring the distressed or the imperiled at sea. Therefore,
the Cunard line in extending the courtesies of the sea to the
survivors of the Titanic asked for nothing more than the mere
acknowledgment of the little act of kindness. The return
of the Carpathia cost the line close to $10,000.
She was delayed on her way to the Mediterranean at least
ten days and was obliged to coal and provision again, as the
extra 800 odd passengers she was carrying reduced her large
allowance for her long voyage to the Mediterranean and the
Adriatic very much.
CHAPTER XXIV
OPINIONS OF EXPERTS
CAPTAIN E. K. RODEN, LEWIS NIXON, GENERAL GREELY AND
ROBERT H. KIRK POINT OUT LESSONS TAUGHT BY TITANIC
DISASTER AND NEEDED CHANGES IN CONSTRUCTION
THE tremendous loss of life necessarily aroused a discussion
as to the cause of the disaster, and the
prevailing opinion seemed to be that the present
tendency in shipbuilding was to sacrifice safety to luxury.
Captain Roden, a well-known Swedish navigator, had
written an article maintaining this theory in the Navy, a
monthly service magazine, in November, 1910. With seeming
prophetic insight he had mentioned the Titanic by name
and portrayed some of the dangers to which shipbuilding for
luxury is leading.
He pointed out that the new steamships, the Olympic and
Titanic, would be the finest vessels afloat, no expense being
spared to attain every conceivable comfort for which men or
women of means could possibly ask--staterooms with private
shower-baths, a swimming pool large enough for diving, a
ballroom covering an entire upper deck, a gymnasium,
elaborate cafes, a sun deck representing a flower garden,
and other luxuries.
After forcibly pointing out the provisions that should be
made for the protection of life, Captain Roden wrote in
conclusion:
"If the men controlling passenger ships, from the ocean
liner down to the excursion barge, were equally disposed to
equip their vessels with the best safety appliances as they
are to devise and adopt implements of comfort and luxury,
the advantage to themselves as well as to their patrons would
be plainly apparent."
VIEW OF LEWIS NIXON
Lewis Nixon, the eminent naval architect and designer of
the battleship Oregon, contributed a very interesting comment.
He said in part:
"Here was a vessel presumed, and I think rightly so, to be
the perfection of the naval architect's art, yet sunk in a few
hours by an accident common to North Atlantic navigation.
THE UNSINKABLE SHIP
"An unsinkable ship is possible, but it would be of little
use except for flotation. It may be said that vessels cannot
be built to withstand such an accident.
"We might very greatly subdivide the forward compartments,
where much space is lost at best, making the forward
end, while amply strong for navigation purposes, of such
construction that it would collapse and take up some of the energy
of impact; then tie this to very much stronger sections farther
aft. Many such plans will be proposed by those who do not
realize the momentum of a great vessel which will snap great
cables like ribbons, when the motion of the vessel is not perceptible
to the eye.
"The proper plan is to avoid the accident, and if an accident
is unavoidable to minimize the loss of life and property."
VIEW OF ROBERT H. KIRK
The Titanic disaster was discussed by Robert H. Kirk, who
installed the compartment doors in the ships of the United
States Navy. Mr. Kirk's opinion follows:
"The Titanic's disaster will cause endless speculation as to
how similar disasters may be avoided in the future.
BULKHEAD DOORS PROBABLY OPEN
"The Titanic had bulkheads, plenty of them, for the rules
of the British Board of Trade and of Lloyds are very specific
and require enough compartments to insure floating of the
ship though several may be flooded. She also had doors in
the bulkheads, and probably plenty of them, for she was
enormous and needed easy access from one compartment to
another. It will probably never be known how _FEW_ of these
doors were closed when she struck the iceberg, but the probability
is that many were open, for in the confusion attending
such a crash the crews have a multitude of duties to perform,
and closing a door with water rushing through it is more of a
task than human muscle and bravery can accomplish.
"A Lloyds surveyor in testing one of these hand-operated
doors started two men on the main deck to close it. They
worked four hours before they had carried out his order. If
all the doors on the ship had worked as badly as this one,
what would have happened in event of accident?"
MANIA FOR SPEED
General Adolphus W. Greely, U. S. A., noted American
traveler and Arctic explorer, vehemently denounced the sinking
of the Titanic and the loss of over 1600 souls as a terrible
sacrifice to the American mania for speed. He gave his
opinion that the Titanic came to grief through an attempt on
the part of the steamship management to establish a new
record by the vessel on her maiden voyage.
The Titanic, General Greely declared, had absolutely no
business above Cape Race and north of Sable Island on the
trip on which she went to her doom. Choosing the northern
route brought about the dire disaster, in his mind, and it was
the saving of three hours for the sake of a new record that
ended in the collision with the tragic victory for the ghostlike
monster out of the far north.
It was the opinion of General Greely, capable of judging
after his many trips in quest of the pole, that neither Captain
Smith nor any of his officers saw the giant iceberg which
encompassed their ruin until they were right upon it. Then, the
ship was plunging ahead at such frightful velocity that the
Titanic was too close to avert striking the barrier lined up
across its path.
CHAPTER XXV
OTHER GREAT MARINE DISASTERS
DEADLY DANGER OF ICEBERGS--DOZENS OF SHIPS PERISH IN
COLLISION--OTHER DISASTERS
THE danger of collision with icebergs has always been
one of the most deadly that confront the mariner.
Indeed, so well recognized is this peril of the
Newfoundland Banks, where the Labrador current in the
early spring and summer months floats southward its ghostly
argosy of icy pinnacles detached from the polar ice caps, that
the government hydrographic offices and the maritime exchanges
spare no pains to collate and disseminate the latest
bulletins on the subject.
THE ARIZONA
A most remarkable case of an iceberg collision is that of the
Guion Liner, Arizona, in 1879. She was then the greyhound of
the Atlantic, and the largest ship afloat--5750 tons except
the Great Eastern. Leaving New York in November for
Liverpool, with 509 souls aboard, she was coursing across the
Banks, with fair weather but dark, when, near midnight,
about 250 miles east of St. John's, she rammed a monster
ice island at full speed eighteen knots. Terrific was the
impact.
The welcome word was passed along that the ship, though
sorely stricken, would still float until she could make
harbor. The vast white terror had lain across her course,
{illust. caption = THE SHAPE OF AN ICEBERG
Showing the bulk and formation under water and the consequent danger
to vessels even without actual contact with the visible part of the iceberg.}
stretching so far each way that, when described, it was too
late to alter the helm. Its giant shape filled the foreground,
towering high above the masts, grim and gaunt and ghastly,
immovable as the adamantine buttresses of a frowning seaboard,
while the liner lurched and staggered like a wounded
thing in agony as her engines slowly drew her back from the
rampart against which she had flung herself.
She was headed for St. John's at slow speed, so as not to
strain the bulkhead too much, and arrived there thirty-six
hours later. That little port--the crippled ship's hospital--
has seen many a strange sight come in from the sea, but never
a more astounding spectacle than that which the Arizona
presented the Sunday forenoon she entered there.
"Begob, captain!" said the pilot, as he swung himself over
the rail. "I've heard of carrying coals to Newcastle, but this
is the first time I've seen a steamer bringing a load of ice into
St. John's."
They are a grim race, these sailors, and, the danger over,
the captain's reply was: "We were lucky, my man, that we
didn't all go to the bottom in an ice box."
DOZENS OF SHIPS PERISH
But to the one wounded ship that survives collision with a
berg, a dozen perish. Presumably, when the shock comes, it
loosens their bulkheads and they fill and founder, or the crash
may injure the boilers or engines, which explode and tear out
the sides, and the ship goes down like a plummet. As long
ago as 1841, the steamer President, with 120 people aboard,
crossing from New York to Liverpool in March, vanished
from human ken. In 1854, in the same month, the City of
Glasgow left Liverpool for Philadelphia with 480 souls, and
was never again heard of. In February, 1856, the Pacific,
from Liverpool for New York, carrying 185 persons, passed
away down to a sunless sea. In May, 1870, the City of Boston,
from that port for Liverpool, mustering 191 souls, met a
similar fate. It has always been thought that these ships
were sunk by collision with icebergs or floes. As shipping
traffic has expanded, the losses have been more frequent. In
February, 1892, the Naronic, from Liverpool for New York;
in the same month in 1896, the State of Georgia, from Aberdeen
for Boston; in February, 1899, the Alleghany, from New
York for Dover; and once more in February, 1902, the
Huronian, from Liverpool for St. John's--all disappeared without
leaving a trace. Between February and May, the Grand
Banks are most infested with ice, and collision therewith is'
the most likely explanation of the loss of these steamers, all
well manned and in splendid trim, and meeting only the storms
which scores of other ships have braved without a scathe.
TOLL OF THE SEA
Among the important marine disasters recorded since 1866
are the following:
1866, Jan. 11.--Steamer London, on her way to Melbourne,
foundered in the Bay of Biscay; 220 lives lost.
1866, Oct. 3.--Steamer Evening Star, from New York to
New Orleans, foundered; about 250 lives lost.
1867, Oct. 29.--Royal Mail steamers Rhone and Wye and
about fifty other vessels driven ashore and wrecked at St
Thomas, West Indies, by a hurricane; about 1,000 lives lost.
1873, Jan. 22.--British steamer Northfleet sunk in collision
off Dungeness; 300 lives lost
1873, Nov. 23.--White Star liner Atlantic wrecked off
Nova Scotia; 547 lives lost.
1873, Nov. 23.--French line Ville du Havre, from New
York to Havre, in collision with ship Locharn and sunk in
sixteen minutes; 110 lives lost.
1874, Dec. 24.--Emigrant vessel Cospatrick took fire and
sank off Auckland; 476 lives lost.
1875, May 7.--Hamburg Mail steamer Schiller wrecked
in fog on Scilly Islands; 200 lives lost.
1875, Nov. 4.--American steamer Pacific in collision thirty
miles southwest of Cape Flattery; 236 lives lost.
1878, March 24.--British training ship Eurydice, a frigate,
foundered near the Isle of Wight; 300 lives lost.
1878, Sept. 3.--British iron steamer Princess Alice sunk
in the Thames River; 700 lives lost.
1878, Dec. 18.--French steamer Byzantin sunk in collision
in the Dardanelles with the British steamer Rinaldo; 210
lives lost.
1879, Dec. 2.--Steamer Borussia sank off the coast of Spain;
174 lives lost.
1880, Jan. 31.--British trading ship Atlanta left Bermuda
with 290 men and was never heard from.
1881, Aug. 30.--Steamer Teuton wrecked off the Cape of
Good Hope; 200 lives lost.
1883, July 3.--Steamer Daphne turned turtle in the Clyde;
124 lives lost.
1884, Jan. 18.--American steamer City of Columbus
wrecked off Gay Head Light, Massachusetts; 99 lived lost.
1884, July 23.--Spanish steamer Gijon and British steamer
Lux in collision off Finisterre; 150 lives lost.
1887, Jan. 29.--Steamer Kapunda in collision with bark
Ada Melore off coast of Brazil; 300 lives lost.
1887, Nov. 15.--British steamer Wah Young caught fire
between Canton and Hong Kong; 400 lives lost.
1888, Sept. 13.--Italian steamship Sud America and steamer
La France in collision near the Canary Islands; 89 lives
lost.
1889, March 16.--United States warships Trenton, Vandalia
and Nipsic and German ships Adler and Eber wrecked
on Samoan Islands; 147 lives lost.
1890, Jan. 2.--Steamer Persia wrecked on Corsica; 130
lives lost.
1890, Feb. 17.--British steamer Duburg wrecked in the
China Sea; 400 lives lost.
1890, March 1.--British steamship Quetta foundered in
Torres Straits; 124 lives lost.
1890, Dec. 27.--British steamer Shanghai burned in China
Seas; 101 lives lost.
1891, March 17.--Anchor liner Utopia in collision with
British steamer Anson off Gibraltar and sunk; 574 lives lost.
1892, Jan. 13.--Steamer Namehow wrecked in China Sea;
414 lives lost.
1892, Oct. 28.--Anchor liner Romania, wrecked off Portugal;
113 lives lost.
1893, Feb. 8.--Anchor liner Trinairia, wrecked off Spain;
115 lives lost.
1894, June 25.--Steamer Norge, wrecked on Rockall Reef,
in the North Atlantic; nearly 600 lives lost.
1895, Jan. 30.--German steamer Elbe sunk in collision with
British steamer Crathie in North Sea; 335 lives lost.
1898, July 4.--French line steamer La Bourgogne in collision
with British sailing vessel Cromartyshire; 571 lives lost.
1898, Nov. 27.--American steamer Portland, wrecked off
Cape Cod, Mass.; 157 lives lost.
1901, April 1.--Turkish transport Aslam wrecked in the
Red Sea; over 180 lives lost.
1902, July 21.--Steamer Primus sunk in collision with the
steamer Hansa on the Lower Elbe; 112 lives lost.
1903, June 7.--French steamer Libau sunk in collision with
steamer Insulerre near Marseilles; 150 lives lost.
1904, June 15. General Slocum, excursion steamboat, took
fire going through Hell Gate, East River; more than 1000
lives lost.
1906, Jan. 21.--Brazilian battleship Aquidaban sunk near
Rio Janeiro by an explosion of the powder magazines; 212
lives lost.
1906, Jan. 22.--American steamer Valencia lost off Cloose,
Pacific Coast; 140 lives lost.
1906, Aug. 4.--Italian emigrant ship Sirio struck a rock off
Cape Palos; 350 lives lost.
1906, Oct. 21.--Russian steamer Variag, on leaving Vladivostock,
struck by a torpedo and sunk; 140 lives lost.
1907, Feb. 12.--American steamer Larchmond sunk in collision
off Rhode Island coast; 131 lives lost.
1907, July 20.--American steamers Columbia and San
Pedro collided on the Californian coast; 100 lives lost.
1907, Nov. 26.--Turkish steamer Kaptain foundered in the
North Sea; 110 lives lost.
1908, March 23.--Japanese steamer Mutsu Maru sunk in
collision near Hakodate; 300 lives lost.
1908, April 30.--Japanese training cruiser Matsu Shima
sunk off the Pescadores owing to an explosion; 200 lives lost.
1909, Jan. 24.--Collision between the Italian steamer
Florida and the White Star liner Republic, about 170 miles
east of New York during a fog; a large number of lives were
saved by the arrival of the steamer Baltic, which received the
"C. Q. D.," or distress signal sent up by wireless by the
Republic January 22. The Republic sank while being towed;
6 lives lost.
1910, Feb. 9.--French line steamer General Chanzy off
Minorca; 200 lives lost.
1911, Sept. 25.--French battleship Liberte sunk by explosion
in Toulon harbor; 223 lives lost.
CHAPTER XXVI
DEVELOPMENT OF SHIPBUILDING
EVOLUTION OF WATER TRAVEL--INCREASES IN SIZE OF VESSELS
--IS THERE ANY LIMIT?--ACHIEVEMENTS IN SPEED--TITANIC
NOT THE LAST WORD.
THE origin of travel on water dates back to a very
early period in human history, men beginning with
the log, the inflated skin, the dug-out canoe, and
upwards through various methods of flotation; while the
paddle, the oar, and finally the sail served as means of
propulsion. This was for inland water travel, and many
centuries passed before the navigation of the sea was dreamed
of by adventurous mariners.
The paintings and sculptures of early Egypt show us boats
built of sawn planks, regularly constructed and moved both
by oars and sails. At a later period we read of the Phoenicians,
the most daring and enterprising of ancient navigators,
who braved the dangers of the open sea, and are said by
Herodotus to have circumnavigated Africa as early as 604
B. C. Starting from the Red Sea, they followed the east
coast, rounded the Cape, and sailed north along the west
coast to the Mediterranean, reaching Egypt again in the
third year of this enterprise.
The Carthaginians and Romans come next in the history
of shipbuilding, confining themselves chiefly to the Mediterranean,
and using oars as the principal means of propulsion.
Their galleys ranged from one to five banks of oars. The
Roman vessels in the first Punic war were over 100 feet
long and had 300 rowers, while they carried 120 soldiers.
They did not use sails until about the beginning of the fourteenth
century B. C.
Portugal was the first nation to engage in voyages of discovery,
using vessels of small size in these adventurous journeys.
Spain, which soon became her rival in this field, built
larger ships and long held the lead. Yet the ships with which
Columbus made the discovery of America were of a size and
character in which few sailors of the present day would care
to venture far from land.
England was later in coming into the field of adventurous
navigation, being surpassed not only by the Portuguese and
Spanish, but by the Dutch, in ventures to far lands.
Europe long held the precedence in shipbuilding and enterprise
in navigation, but the shores of America had not long
been settled before the venturous colonists had ships upon
the seas. The first of these was built at the mouth of the
Kennebec River in Maine. This was a staunch little two-
masted vessel, which was named the Virginia, supposed to
have been about sixty feet long and seventeen feet in beam.
Next in time came the Restless, built in 1614 or 1615 at
New York, by Adrian Blok, a Dutch captain whose ships
had been burned while lying at Manhattan Island. This
vessel, thirty-eight feet long and of eleven feet beam, was
employed for several years in exploring the Atlantic coast.
With the advent of the nineteenth century a new ideal in
naval architecture arose, that of the ship moved by steam-
power instead of wind-power, and fitted to combat with the
seas alike in storm and calm, with little heed as to whether
the wind was fair or foul. The steamship appeared, and grew
in size and power until such giants of the wave as the Titanic
and Olympic were set afloat. To the development of this
modern class of ships our attention must now be turned.
As the reckless cowboy of the West is fast becoming a thing
of the past, so is the daring seaman of fame and story. In his
place is coming a class of men miscalled sailors, who never
reefed a sail or coiled a cable, who do not know how to launch
a life-boat or pull an oar, and in whose career we meet the
ridiculous episode of the life-boats of the Titanic, where women
were obliged to take the oars from their hands and row the
boats. Thus has the old-time hero of the waves been transformed
into one fitted to serve as a clown of the vaudeville
stage.
The advent of steam navigation came early in the nineteenth
century, though interesting steps in this direction
were taken earlier. No sooner was the steam-engine developed
than men began to speculate on it as a moving power on sea
and land. Early among these were several Americans, Oliver
Evans, one of the first to project steam railway travel, and
James Rumsey and John Fitch, steamboat inventors of early
date. There were several experimenters in Europe also, but
the first to produce a practical steamboat was Robert Fulton,
a native of Pennsylvania, whose successful boat; the Clermont,
made its maiden trip up the Hudson in 1807. A crude
affair was the Clermont, with a top speed of about seven
miles an hour; but it was the dwarf from which the giant
steamers of to-day have grown.
Boats of this type quickly made their way over the American
rivers and before 1820 regular lines of steamboats were
running between England and Ireland. In 1817 James Watt,
the inventor of the practical steam-engine, crossed in a steamer
from England to Belgium. But these short voyages were far
surpassed by an American enterprise, that of the first ocean
steamship, the Savannah, which crossed the Atlantic from
Savannah to Liverpool in 1819.
Twelve years passed before this enterprise was repeated,
the next steam voyage being in 1831, when the Royal William
crossed from Quebec to England. She used coal for fuel,
having utilized her entire hold to store enough for the voyage.
The Savannah had burned pitch-pine under her engines, for
in America wood was long used as fuel for steam-making
purposes. As regards this matter, the problem of fuel was of
leading importance, and it was seriously questioned if a ship
could be built to cross the Atlantic depending solely upon
steam power. Steam-engines in those days were not very
economical, needing four or five times as much fuel for the
same power as the engines of recent date.
It was not until 1838 that the problem was solved. On
April 23d of that year a most significant event took place.
Two steamships dropped anchor in the harbor of New York,
the Sirius and the Great Western. Both of these had made the
entire voyage under steam, the Sirius, in eighteen and a half
and the Great Western in fourteen and a half days, measuring
from Queenstown. The Sirius had taken on board 450 tons
of coal, but all this was burned by the time Sandy Hook was
reached, and she had to burn her spare spars and forty-three
barrels of rosin to make her way up the bay. The Great
Western, on the contrary, had coal to spare.
Two innovations in shipbuilding were soon introduced.
These were the building of iron instead of wooden ships and the
replacing of the paddle wheel by the screw propeller. The
screw-propeller was first successfully introduced by the famous
Swede, John Ericsson, in 1835. His propeller was tried in a
small vessel, forty-five feet long and eight wide, which was
driven at the rate of ten miles an hour, and towed a large
packet ship at fair speed. Ericsson, not being appreciated
in England, came to America to experiment. Other inventors
were also at work in the same line.
Their experiments attracted the attention of Isambard
Brunel, one of the greatest engineers of the period, who was
then engaged in building a large paddle-wheel steamer, the
Great Britain. Appreciating the new idea, he had the engines
of the new ship changed and a screw propeller introduced.
This ship, a great one for the time, 322 feet long and of
3443 tons, made her first voyage from Liverpool to New York
in 1845, her average speed being 12 1/4 knots an hour, the
length of the voyage 14 days and 21 hours.
By the date named the crossing of the Atlantic by steamships
had become a common event. In 1840 the British
and Royal Mail Steam Packet Company was organized, its
chief promoter being Samuel Cunard, of Halifax, Nova
Scotia, whose name has long been attached to this famous
line.
The first fleet of the Cunard Line comprised four vessels,
the Britannia, Acadia, Caledonia and Columbia. The Unicorn,
sent out by this company as a pioneer, entered Boston
harbor on June 2, 1840, being the first steamship from Europe
to reach that port. Regular trips began with the Britannia,
which left Liverpool on July 4, 1840. For a number of
years later this line enjoyed a practical monopoly of the
steam carrying trade between England and the United States.
Then other companies came into the field, chief among them
being the Collins Line, started in 1849, and of short duration,
and the Inman Line, instituted in 1850.
We should say something here of the comforts and conveniences
provided for the passengers on these early lines.
They differed strikingly from those on the leviathans of recent
travel and were little, if any, superior to those on the packet
ships, the active rivals at that date of the steamers. Then
there were none of the comfortable smoking rooms, well-
filled libraries, drawing rooms, electric lights, and other modern
improvements. The saloons and staterooms were in the
extreme after part of the vessel, but the stateroom of that
day was little more than a closet, with two berths, one above
the other, and very little standing room between these and
the wall. By paying nearly double fare a passenger might
secure a room for himself, but the room given him did not
compare well even with that of small and unpretentious
modern steamers.
Other ocean steamship companies gradually arose, some
of which are still in existence. But no especial change in ship-
building was introduced until 1870, when the Oceanic Company,
now known as the White Star Line, built the Britannic
and Germanic. These were the largest of its early ships.
They were 468 feet long and 35 feet wide, constituting
a new type of extreme length as compared with their
width. In the first White Star ship, the Oceanic, the
improvements above mentioned were introduced, the saloons
and staterooms being brought as near as possible to the center
of the ship. All the principal lines built since that date have
followed this example, thus adding much to the comfort of
the first-class passengers.
Speed and economy in power also became features of
importance, the tubular boiler and the compound engine
being introduced. These have developed into the cylindrical,
multitubular boiler and the triple expansion engine, in which
a greater percentage of the power of the steam is utilized and
four or five times the work obtained from coal over that of the
old system. The side-wheel was continued in use in the older
ships until this period, but after 1870 it disappeared.
It has been said that the life of iron ships, barring disasters
at sea, is unlimited, that they cannot wear out. This
statement has not been tested, but the fact remains that the
older passenger ships have gone out of service and that steel
has now taken the place of iron, as lighter and more durable.
Something should also be said here of the steam turbine
engine, recently introduced in some of the greatest liners, and of
proven value in several particulars, an important one of these
being the doing away with the vibration, an inseparable
accompaniment of the old style engines. The Olympic and
Titanic engines were a combination of the turbine and reciprocating
types. In regard to the driving power, one of the recent
introductions is that of the multiple propeller. The twin
screw was first applied in the City of New York, of the Inman
line, and enabled her to make in 1890 an average speed of a
little over six days from New York to Queenstown. The best
record up to October, 1891, was that of the Teutonic,
of five days, sixteen hours, and thirty minutes. Triple-screw
propellers have since then been introduced in some of the
greater ships, and the record speed has been cut down to the
four days and ten hours of the Lusitania in 1908 and the
four days, six hours and forty-one minutes of the Mauretania
in 1910.
The Titanic was not built especially for speed, but in every
other way she was the master product of the shipbuilders' art.
Progress through the centuries has been steady, and perhaps
the twentieth century will prepare a vessel that will be unsinkable
as well as magnificent. Until the fatal accident the
Titanic and Olympic were considered the last words on ship-
building; but much may still remain to be spoken.
CHAPTER XXVII
SAFETY AND LIFE-SAVING DEVICES
WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY--WATER-TIGHT BULKHEADS--SUBMARINE
SIGNALS--LIFE-BOATS AND RAFTS--NIXON'S PONTOON
--LIFE-PRESERVERS AND BUOYS--ROCKETS
THE fact that there are any survivors of the Titanic
left to tell the story of the terrible catastrophe is
only another of the hundreds of instances on record
of the value of wireless telegraphy in saving life on shipboard.
Without Marconi's invention it is altogether probable that
the world would never have known of the nature of the
Titanic's fate, for it is only barely within the realm of
possibility that any of the Titanic's passengers' poorly clad,
without proper provisions of food and water, and exposed
in the open boats to the frigid weather, would have survived
long enough to have been picked up by a transatlantic liner
in ignorance of the accident to the Titanic.
Speaking (since the Titanic disaster) of the part which
wireless telegraphy has played in the salvation of distressed
ships, Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of this wonderful
science, has said:
"Fifteen years ago the curvature of the earth was looked
upon as the one great obstacle to wireless telegraphy. By
various experiments in the Isle of Wight and at St. John's
I finally succeeded in sending the letter S 2000 miles.
"We have since found that the fog and the dull skies in
the vicinity of England are exceptionally favorable for wireless
telegraphy."
Then the inventor told of wireless messages being transmitted
2500 miles across the Abyssinian desert, and of preparation
for similar achievements.
"The one necessary requirement for continued success is
that governments keep from being enveloped in political red
tape," said he.
"The fact that a message can be flashed across the wide
expanse of ocean in ten minutes has exceeded my fondest
expectations. Some idea of the progress made may be had
by citing the fact that in eleven years the range of wireless
telegraphy has increased from 200 to 3000 miles.
"Not once has wireless telegraphy failed in calling and
securing help on the high seas. A recognition of this is shown
in the attitude of the United States Government in compelling
all passenger-carrying vessels entering our ports to be equipped
with wireless apparatus."
Of the Titanic tragedy, Marconi said:
"I know you will all understand when I say that I entertain
a deep feeling of gratitude because of the fact that wireless
telegraphy has again contributed to the saving of life."
WATER-TIGHT BULKHEADS
One of the most essential factors in making ships safe is
the construction of proper bulkheads to divide a ship into
water-tight compartments in case of injury to her hull. Of
the modern means of forming such compartments, and of
the complete and automatic devices for operating the watertight
doors which connect them, a full explanation has already
been given in the description of the Titanic's physical features,
to which the reader is referred. A wise precaution usually
taken in the case of twin and triple screw ships is to arrange the
bulkheads so that each engine is in a separate compartment,
as is also each boiler or bank of boilers and each coal bunker.
SUBMARINE SIGNALS
Then there are submarine signals to tell of near-by vessels
or shores. This signal arrangement includes a small tank
on either side of the vessel, just below the water line. Within
each is a microphone with wires leading to the bridge. If
the vessel is near any other or approaching shore, the sounds;
conveyed through the water from the distant object are
heard through the receiver of the microphone. These arrangements
are called the ship's ears, and whether the sounds come
from one side of the vessel or the other, the officers can tell the
location of the shore or ship near by. If both ears record,
the object is ahead.
LIFEBOATS AND RAFTS
The construction of life-boats adapts them for very rough
weather. The chief essentials, of course, are ease in launching,
strength in withstanding rough water and bumping when
beached; also strength to withstand striking against wreckage
or a ship's side; carrying capacity and lightness. Those
carried on board ship are lighter than those used in life-saving
service on shore. Safety is provided by air-tight tanks which
insure buoyancy in case the boat is filled with water. They
have also self-righting power in case of being overturned; likewise
self-emptying power. Life-boats are usually of the whaleboat
type, with copper air-tight tanks along the side beneath
the thwarts, and in the ends.
Life-boats range from twenty-four to thirty feet in length
and carry from thirty to sixty persons. The rafts carry from
twenty to forty persons. The old-fashioned round bar
davits can be got for $100 to $150 a set. The new style davits,
quick launchers in type, come as low as $400 a set.
According to some naval constructors, an ocean steamship
can carry in davits enough boats to take care of all the passengers
and crew, it being simply a question as to whether the
steamship owners are willing to take up that much deck room
which otherwise would be used for lounging chairs or for a
promenade.
Nowadays all life-boats are equipped with air tanks to
prevent sinking, with the result that metal boats are as
unsinkable as wooden ones. The metal boats are considered
in the United States Navy as superior to wooden ones, for
several reasons: They do not break or collapse; they do not,
in consequence of long storage on deck, open at the seams and
thereby spring a leak; and they are not eaten by bugs, as is
the case with wooden boats.
Comparatively few of the transatlantic steamships have
adopted metal life-boats. Most of the boats are of wood,
according to the official United States Government record
of inspection. The records show that a considerable
proportion of the entire number of so-called "life-boats"
carried by Atlantic Ocean liners are not actually life-boats
at all, but simply open boats, without air tanks or other special
equipment or construction.
{illust. caption = CHAMBERS COLLAPSIBLE LIFE RAFT}
Life-rafts are of several kinds. They are commonly used
on large passenger steamers where it is difficult to carry sufficient
life-boats. In most cases they consist of two or more
hollow metal or inflated rubber floats which support a wooden
deck. The small rafts are supplied with life-lines and oars,
and the larger ones with life-lines only, or with life-lines and
sails.
The collapsible feature of the Chambers raft consists of
canvas-covered steel frames extending up twenty-five inches
from the sides to prevent passengers from being pitched off.
When the rafts are not in use these side frames are folded
down on the raft.
The collapsible rafts are favored by the ship-owners because
such boats take up less room; they do not have to be carried
in the davits, and they can be stowed to any number required.
Some of the German lines stack their collapsible rafts one
above another on deck.
NIXON'S PONTOON
Lewis Nixon, the well-known ship designer, suggests the
construction of a pontoon to be carried on the after end of the
vessel and to be made of sectional air-tight compartments.
One compartment would accommodate the wireless outfit.
Another compartment would hold drinking water, and still
another would be filled with food.
The pontoon would follow the line of the ship and seem to
be a part of it. The means for releasing it before the sinking of
the vessel present no mechanical problem. It would be too
large and too buoyant to be sucked down with the wreck.
The pontoon would accommodate, not comfortably but
safely, all those who failed to find room in the life-boats.
It is Mr. Nixon's plan to instal a gas engine in one of the
compartments. With this engine the wireless instrument
would remain in commission and direct the rescuers after the
ship itself had gone down.
LIFE PRESERVERS AND BUOYS
Life-preservers are chiefly of the belt or jacket type, made
to fit about the body and rendered buoyant by slabs of cork
sewed into the garment, or by rubber-lined air-bags. The
use of cork is usually considered preferable, as the inflated
articles are liable to injury, and jackets are preferable to belts
as they can be put on more quickly.
Life-buoys are of several types, but those most common
are of the ring type, varying in size from the small one designed
to be thrown by hand to the large hollow metal buoy capable
of supporting several people. The latter are usually carried
by sea-going vessels and are fitted with lamps which are
automatically lighted when the buoy is dropped into the water.
ROCKETS
American ocean-going steamers are required to have some
approved means of firing lines to the shore. Cunningham
rockets and the Hunt gun are largely used. The inaccuracy
of the rocket is of less importance when fired from a ship than
when fired from shore.
CHAPTER XXVIII
TIME FOR REFLECTION AND REFORMS
SPEED AND LUXURY OVEREMPHASIZED--SPACE NEEDED FOR
LIFE-BOATS DEVOTED TO SWIMMING POOLS AND SQUASH-
COURTS--MANIA FOR SPEED RECORDS COMPELS USE OF DANGEROUS
ROUTES AND PREVENTS PROPER CAUTION IN FOGGY
WEATHER--LIFE MORE VALUABLE THAN LUXURY--SAFETY
MORE IMPORTANT THAN SPEED--AN AROUSED PUBLIC OPINION
NECESSARY--INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE RECOMMENDED--
ADEQUATE LIFE-SAVING EQUIPMENT SHOULD BE
COMPULSORY--SPEED REGULATIONS IN BAD WEATHER--
COOPERATION IN ARRANGING SCHEDULES TO KEEP VESSELS
WITHIN REACH OF EACH OTHER--LEGAL REGULATIONS
IT is a long time since any modern vessel of importance
has gone down under Nature's attack, and in general
the floating city of steel laughs at the wind and waves.
She is not, however, proof against disaster. The danger
lies in her own power--in the tens of thousands of horse power
with which she may be driven into another ship or into an
iceberg standing cold and unyielding as a wall of granite.
In view of this fact it is of the utmost importance that
present-day vessels should be thoroughly provided with the
most efficient life-saving devices. These would seem more
important than fireplaces, squash-courts and many other
luxuries with which the Titanic was provided. The comparatively
few survivors of the ill-fated Titanic were saved
by the life-boats. The hundreds of others who went down
with the vessel perished because there were no life-boats to
carry them until rescue came.
SURVIVORS URGE REFORM
The survivors urge the need of reform. In a resolution
drawn up after the disaster they said:
"We feel it our duty to call the attention of the public to
what we consider the inadequate supply of life-saving appliances
provided for the modern passenger steamships and
recommend that immediate steps be taken to compel passenger
steamers to carry sufficient boats to accommodate the
maximum number of people carried on board. The following
facts were observed and should be considered in this connection:
The insufficiency of life-boats, rafts, etc.; lack of
trained seamen to man same (stokers, stewards, etc., are not
efficient boat handlers); not enough officers to carry out
emergency orders on the bridge and superintend the launching
and control of life-boats; the absence of search lights.
"The Board of Trade allows for entirely too many people
in each boat to permit the same to be properly handled. On
the Titanic the boat deck was about seventy-five feet from
the water and consequently the passengers were required to
embark before lowering the boats, thus endangering the
operation and preventing the taking on of the maximum
number the boats would hold. Boats at all times should be
properly equipped with provisions, water, lamps, compasses,
lights, etc. Life-saving boat drills should be more frequent
and thoroughly carried out and officers should be armed at
both drills. There should be greater reduction of speed in fog
and ice, as damage if collision actually occurs is liable to be
less.
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE RECOMMENDED
"In conclusion we suggest that an international conference
be called to recommend the passage of identical laws providing
for the safety of all at sea, and we urge the United States
Government to take the initiative as soon as possible."
That ocean liners take chances with their passengers,
though known to the well informed, is newly revealed and
comes with a shock of surprise and dismay to most people.
If boats are unsinkable as well as fireproof there is no need
of any life-boats at all. But no such steamship has ever been
constructed.
That it is realized that life-boats may be necessary on
the best and newest steamships is proved by the fact that they
carry them even beyond the law's requirements. But if
life-boats for one-third of those on the ship are necessary,
life-boats for all on board are equally necessary. The law of
the United States requires this, but the law and trade regulations
of England do not, and these controlled the Titanic
and caused the death of over sixteen hundred people.
True, a steamship is rarely crowded to her capacity, and
ordinarily accommodations in life-boats for a full list would
not be needed. But that is no argument against maximum
safety facilities, for when disaster comes it comes unexpectedly,
and it might come when every berth was occupied. So there
must be life-boats for use in every possible emergency. Places
must be found for them and methods for handling them
promptly.
Suppose a vessel to be thus equipped, would safety be
insured? In calm weather such as the Titanic had, yes, for
all that would be needed would be to keep the small boats
afloat until help came. The Titanic could have saved everyone
aboard. In heavy weather, no. As at present arranged,
if a vessel has a list, or, in non-nautical language, has tipped
over on one side, only the boats upon the lower side can be
dropped, for they must be swung clear of the vessel to be
lowered from the davits.
So there is a problem which it is the duty of marine
designers to solve. They have heretofore turned their attention
to the invention of some new contrivance for comfort and
luxury. Now let them grasp the far more important question
of taking every soul from a sinking ship. They can do it,
and while they are about it, it would be well to supplement
life-boats with other methods.
We like to think and to say that nothing is impossible in
these days of ceaseless and energetic progress. Certainly
it is possible for the brains of marine designers to find a better
way for rescue work. Lewis Nixon, ship-builder and designer
for years, is sure that we can revolutionize safety appliances.
He has had a plan for a long time for the construction of a
considerable section of deck that could be detached and
floated off like an immense raft. He figures that such a deck-
raft could be made to carry the bulk of the passengers.
That may seem a bit chimerical to laymen, but Nixon is
no layman. His ideas are worthy of every consideration.
Certain it is that something radical must be done, and that
the maritime nations must get together, not only in the way
of providing more life-saving facilities, but in agreeing upon
navigation routes and methods.
Captain William S. Sims, of the United States Navy, who is
in a position to know what he is talking about, has made some
very pointed comments on the subject. He says:
"The truth of the matter is that in case any large passenger
steamship sinks, by reason of collision or other fatal
damage to her flotability, more than half of her passengers
are doomed to death, even in fair weather, and in case there
is a bit of a sea running none of the loaded boats can long
remain afloat, even if they succeed in getting safely away
from the side, and one more will be added to the long list
of `the ships that never return.'
"Most people accept this condition as one of the inevitable
perils of the sea, but I believe it can be shown that the terrible
loss of life occasioned by such disasters as overtook the Bourgogne
and the Titanic and many other ships can be avoided
or at least greatly minimized. Moreover, it can be shown
that the steamship owners are fully aware of the danger to
their passengers; that the laws on the subject of life-saving
appliances are wholly inadequate; that the steamship companies
comply with the law, though they oppose any changes
therein, and that they decline to adopt improved appliances;
because there is no public demand for them, the demand
being for high schedule speed and luxurious conditions of
travel.
"In addition to installing efficient life-saving appliances,
if the great steamship lines should come to an agreement to
fix a maximum speed for their vessels of various classes and
fix their dates and hours of steaming so that they would cross
the ocean in pairs within supporting distances of each other,
on routes clear of ice, all danger of ocean travel would practically
be eliminated.
"The shortest course between New York and the English
Channel lies across Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Consequently
the shortest water route is over seas where navigation
is dangerous by reason of fog and ice. It is a notorious
fact that the transatlantic steamships are not navigated with
due regard to safety; that they steam at practically full
speed in the densest fogs. But the companies cannot properly
be blamed for this practice, because if the `blue liners' slow
down in a fog or take a safe route, clear of ice, the public will
take passage on the `green liners,' which take the shortest
route, and keep up their schedule time; regardless of the risks
indicated."
PROMPT REFORMS
The terrible sacrifice of the Titanic, however, is to have its
fruit in safety for the future. The official announcement is
{illust. caption = A diagrammatic map showing how...}
made by the International Mercantile Marine that all its
ships will be equipped with sufficient life-boats and rafts
for every passenger and every member of the crew, without
regard to the regulations in this country and England or Belgium.
One of the German liners already had this complement
of life-boats, though the German marine as a whole is sufficiently
deficient at this point to induce the Reichstag to order
an investigation.
Prompt, immediate and gratifying reform marks this action
of the International Mercantile Marine. It is doubtless
true that this precaution ought to have been taken without
waiting for a loss of life such as makes all previous marine
disasters seem trivial. But the public itself has been inert.
For thirty years, since Plimsoll's day, every intelligent passenger
knew that every British vessel was deficient in life-
boats, but neither public opinion nor the public press took
this matter up. There were no questions in Parliament and
no measures introduced in Congress. Even the legislation
by which the United States permitted English vessels reaching
American ports to avoid the legal requirements of American
statute law (which requires a seat in the life-boats for every
passenger and every member of the crew) attracted no public
attention, and occasional references to the subject by those
better informed did nothing to awake action.
But this is past. Those who died bravely without complaint
and with sacrificing regard for others did not lose their
lives in vain. The safety of all travelers for all times to come
under every civilized flag is to be greater through their sac-
rifice. Under modern conditions life can be made as safe at
sea as on the land. It is heartrending to stop and think that
thirty-two more life-
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