International News Service
A TITAN OF THE POLAR SEA LAZILY DRIFTING WITH
THE CURRENT
GRAND DINING SALOON— S.S. TITANIC
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J'lioti) I'ndeiWQoU & Uuderwood
CAPT. E. J. SMITH
The Commander of the Titanic, who went down with his ship
1
^e^
Wreck and Sinking
of the
TITANIC
The Ocean's Greatest Disaster
A Graphic and Thrilling Account of the Sinking
of the greatest Floating Palace ever built, carrying
down to watery graves more than 1,500 souls. ::
Giving Exciting Escapes from death and acts of
heroism not equalled in ancient or modern times,
told hy
THE SURVIVORS
Including History of Icehergs, the Terror of the
Seas; Wireless Telegraphy and Modern Shipbuilding
EDITED BY
MARSHALL EVERETT
The Great Descriptive Writer
Special Introduction, "Women and Children First," by
REV. HENRY VAN DYKE, D.D., LLD.
ILLUSTRATED THROUGHOUT WITH PHOTOGRAPHS
AND DRAWINGS MADE EXPRESSLY FOR THIS BOOK
COPYBIGHT, 1912, BY L. H. WALTER
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INTRODUCTION
"WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST!"
BY
Rev. Henry Van Dyke, D.D., LL.D.
The Titanic, greatest of ships, has gone to her ocean grave.
What has she left behind her? Think clearly.
She has left losses. Valuable lives and large amounts of
property have been buried in the sea. 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 at high speed on
the northern course when it is menaced by icebergs is revealed;
The cruelty of sending a ship to sea without enough lifeboats and
liferafts 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 do 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 one human heart."
But there is more than this harvest of losses, 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.
3
4 INTRODUCTION
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 Cap-
tain; certainly that was the law obeyed by all the true men
on the doomed ship. But why? There is no statute or enact-
ment 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 today. On
a Chinese ship, if we may believe the report of an official repre-
sentative, 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 in the labor market 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 lifeboat to a woman.
Where, then, does this rule which prevailed on the sinking
Titanic come from ? It comes from God, through His prophets,
and most clearly through the faith of Jesus of Nazareth.
It is the ideal of self-sacrifice. It is the ideal of the suffering
Messiah. It is the rule that "the strong ought to bear the infirmi-
ties 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
INTRODUCTION 5
the spirit of Christ. Every man on the Titanic, Hebrew or Chris-
tian, or nameless believer, who followed this ideal, — yes, and all
the women who gave up their chance of life for love's sake, — had
in them "the same mind which was in Christ Jesus," and so
belonged among His friends.
If what the Bible says 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.
Princeton, N. J., May 13, 1912.
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CONTENTS
CHAPTEE PAGE
Preface
I The Two Titans. 11
II Story of the Titanic ; . . . 19
III Spur of Iceberg Ripped Open Bot-
tom OF Titanic 27
IV Thrilling Story OF THE Wreck. . . 34
V Rescue of the Survivors 44
VI Survivors Reach New York 55
VII Last Man Off Tells Horrors of
Shipwreck 59
VIII Heroism ON THE Titanic 67
IX Thrilling Experiences of Sur-
vivors 73
X Sorrow and Honor and Memory
Equal 91
"Nearer, My God, to Thee" 94
XI The Responsibility for Fatal
Speed 96
XII Other Contributing Causes of the
Disaster 99
XIII More of the Tragedy 103
7
8 CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
XIV Oddities of the Weeck 107
Hymn for Survivors of the Ti-
tanic, By Hall Caine 110
XV The Terror of the Seas^ By Fred S,
Miller Ill
XVI Heroes at THE Post OF Duty 119
XVII W. T. Stead, Scholar, Dreamer
AND Humanitarian 127
XVIII Many Memorials for Titanic Trag-
edy 133
XIX Stories of the Rescued ... 155
XX Survivors' Stories Continued. .... 173
XXI On the Roll of Honor ... 185
XXII Comments of the Press 193
Facts About the Titanic 205
XXIII Great Marine Disasters in Recent
Years 208
XXIV The Tragedy of the Sea, By Rev,
Andrew Johnson 211
XXV Help for Titanic Sufferers 219
XXVI Some Pathetic Features of the
Tragedy 227
XXVII Some Fortunate Circumstances.. 231
XXVIII Various Descriptions of How the
Titanic Disappeared 235
CONTENTS 9
CHAPTER PAGE
XXIX U. S. Senators Obtain Facts of
Wreck 243
XXX Investigation Continued 265
XXXI The Investigation in Washington 272
XXXII Senate Committee Examines Look-
out AND Passengers 287
XXXIII Members OF Ship's Crew on Stand. 296
XXXIV The Bereft in the Boats, By Fred
S. Miller 304»
XXXV TiTANic's Dead Brought Back 311
The Guardian Angel of the Sea Pays Tribute to the Martyred Heroef
10
Story of the
Wreck of the Titanic
CHAPTER I
THE TWO TITANS
AS the Titanic drew away from the wharf to begin
her only voyage, a common emotion quickened the thou-
sands who were aboard her. Grimy slaves who worked
and withered deep down in the glaring heat of her
boiler rooms, on her breezy decks men of achievement
and fame and millionaire pleasure seekers for whom the
boat provided countless luxuries, in the steerage hordes
of emigrants huddled in straited quarters but with
their hearts fired for the new free land of hope ; these,
and also he whose anxious office placed him high above
all — charged with the keeping of all of their lives — this
care-furrowed captain on the bridge, his many-varied
passengers, and even the remotest menial of his crew,
experienced alike a glow of triumph as they faced the
unknown dangers of the deep, a triumph born of pride
in the enormous, wonderful new ship that carried them.
For she was the biggest boat that ever had been in
the world. She implied the utmost stretch of construc-
11
12 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
tion, the furthest achievement in efficiency, the bewilder-
ing embodiment of an immense multitude of luxuries
for which only the richest of the earth could pay. The
cost of the Titanic was tremendous — ^it had taken many
millions of dollars — ^many months to complete her.
Besides (and best of all) she was practically unsinkable
her owners said; pierce her hull anywhere, and behind
was a watertight bulkhead, a sure defense to flout the
floods and hold the angry ocean from its prey.
Angry is the word — for in all her triumph of perfec-
tion the Titanic was but man's latest insolence to the
sea. Eveiy article in her was a sheer defiance to the
Deep's might and majesty. The ship is not the ocean's
bride ; steel hull and mast, whirling shaft and throbbing
engine-heart (products, all, of serviceable wonderwork-
ing fire) — ^what kinship have these with the wild and
watery waste? They are an affront and not an affinity
for the cold and alien and elusive element that at all
times threatens to overwhelm them.
But no one on the Titanic dreamed of danger w^hen
her prow was first set westward and her blades began
the rhythmic beat that must not cease until the Atlantic
had been crossed. Of all the statesmen, journalists,
authors, famous financiers who were among her passen-
gers (many of whom had arranged their affairs espe-
cially to secure passage in this splendid vessel), in all
that brilliant company it may be doubted if a single
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 13
mind secreted the faintest lurking premonition of a
fear. Other ships could come safely and safely go,
much more this monster — ^why, if an accident occurred
and worse came to worst, she was literally too big to
sink! Such was the instinctive reasoning of her passen-
gers and crew, and such the unconsidered opinion of the
world that read of her departure on the fatal day which
marked the beginning of her first voyage and her last.
No doubt her very name tempted this opinion:
Titanic was she titled — as though she were allied to the
famous fabled giants of old called Titans, who waged
a furious war with the very forces of creation.
Out she bore, this giant of the ships, then, blithely
to meet and buffet back the surge, the shock, of ocean's
elemental might ; latest enginery devised in man's eter-
nal warfare against nature, product of a thousand
minds, bearer of myriad hopes. And to that uncon-
sidered opinion of the world she doubtless seemed even
arrogant in her plenitude of power, like the elements
she clove and rode — ^the sweeping winds above, the surg-
ing tide below. But this would be only in daytime,
when the Titanic w^as beheld near land, whereon are
multitudes of things beside which this biggest of the
ships loomed large. When we imagine her alone,
eclipsed by the solitude and immensity of night, a
gleaming speck — ^no more — ^upon the gulf and middle
of the vasty deep, while her gayer guests are dancing
14 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
and the rest are moved to mirth or wrapped in slumber
or lulled in security — when we think of her thus in her
true relation, she seems not arrogant of power at all;
only a slim and alien shape too feeble for her freight
of precious souls, plowing a tiny track across the void,
set about with silent forces of destruction compared to
which she is as fragile as a cockle shell.
Against her had been set in motion a mass for a
long time mounting, a century's stored-up aggregation
of force, greater than any man-made thing as is infinity
to one. It had expanded in the patience of great soli-
tudes. On a Greenland summit, ages ago, avalanches
of ice and snow collided, welded and then moved, inches
in a year, an evolution that had naught to do with time.
It was the true inevitable, gouging out a valley for its
course, shouldering the precipices from its path.
Finally the glacier reached the open Arctic, when a
mile-in-width of it broke off and floated swinging free
at last.
Does Providence directly govern everything that is?
And did the Power who preordained the utmost second
of each planet's journey, rouse up the mountain from
its sleep of snow and send it down to drift, deliberately
direct, into the exact moment in the sea of time, into
the exact station in the sea of waters, v/here danced a
gleaming speck — the tiny Titanic — ^to be touched and
overborne?
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 15
It is easy thus to ascribe to the Infinite the direction
of the spectacular phenomena of nature ; our laws denote
them "acts of God"; our instincts (after centuries of
civilization) still see in the earthquake an especial
instance of His power, and in the flood the evidence of
His wrath. The floating menace of the sea and ice is in
a class with these. The terror-stricken who from their
ship beheld the overwhelming monster say that it was
beyond all imagination vast and awful, hundreds of feet
high, leagues in extent, black as it moved beneath no
moon, appallingly suggestive of man's futility amidst
the immensity of creation. See how, by a mere touch —
scarcely a jar^ — one of humanity's proudest handiworks,
the greatest vessel of all time, is cut down in her course,
ripped up, dismantled and engulfed. The true Titan
has overturned the toy.
Oh, where is now the boasted strength of that great
hull of steel! Pitted against the iceberg's adamant it
crumples and collapses. What of the ship unsinkable;
assured so by a perfected new device? settling in the
sea, shuddering to an inrush and an outburst of frigid
water and exploding steam ! All the effort of the thou-
sand busy brains that built her, all the myriad hopes she
bore — do^vn, quite down! A long farewell to the toy
Titan as the erasing waters fill and flatten smooth again
to ocean's cold obliterating calm the handsbreadth she
once fretted and defied!
16 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
Yes, it is easy to see God only in the grander mani-
festations of nature ; but occasionally we are stricken by
his speaking in the still small voice. Hundreds on this
night of wreck were thus impressed. As the great steel-
strong leviathan sank into the sea, those in the fleeing
lifeboats heard, amid the thunder and the discord of the
monster's breaking-up, afar across the waters floating
clear, a tremulous insistence of sweet sound, a hymn of
faith — utterly triumphant o'er the solitudes ! Men had
left their work to perish and turned themselves to God.
Wlien he builds and boasts of his Titanics, man may
be great, but it is only when he is stripped of every cloy-
ing attribute of the world's pomp and power that he can
touch sublimity. Those on the wreck had mounted to
it from the time the awful impact came. The rise began
when men of intellect and noted works, of titled place
and honored station, worked as true yoke-fellows with
the steerage passengers to see that all the women and
their little ones were safely placed within the boats.
They did this calmly, while the steamer settled low and
every instant brought the waters nearer to their breath ;
exulting as each o'erburdened lifeboat safely drew away,
and cheering imtil the iceberg echoed back the sound.
There was very little fear displayed; calm intrepidity^
was here the mark of a high calling. Captain Smith,
indeed, was afraid, but it was only for the precious
beinofs under God committed to his care. And how
CHAPTER II
STORY OF THE TITANIC
The "Unsinkable" Titanic Strikes an Iceberg
AND Sinks — Hundreds Carried to Sudden and
Untimely Death for Lack of Adequate Life-
Saving Service — The Facts of the Wreck.
The mighty ship Titanic^ the triumph of the ship*
builders, thronged with happy, confident people, inter-
ested in her first voyage and her speed record, ploughed
her swift way across the Atlantic, which lay smooth
and calm and clear. In the midst of pleasant amuse-
ments and happy dreams there came a slight shock, a
glancing blow from an iceberg, a few minutes of calm
disbelief — then horror incredible. The Titan of nature
and the Titanic of mechanical construction had met in
mid-ocean. The iceberg ripped open the ship's side,
exposing her boilers to the icy water, causing their
explosion, plunging hundreds of people to their death
within the short space of two hours. This is the tragic
story of the beautiful ocean palace that sailed forth so
gallantly from harbor on her maiden trip, April 10,
1912, — buried under 2,000 fathoms of water with some
1,595 of her ill-fated passengers.
X9
20 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
No more thrilling or pitiful tale has ever been writ-
ten on the page of history — ^no greater record of human
sacrifice and heroism.
The Titanic was the last word in ship building and
she set forth on her first voyage, the pride of an admiring
world. Her luxurious appointments were beyond criti-
cism, beautiful salons, reading and lounging rooms,
palm courts, Turkish baths, private baths, a gymnasium,
a swimming pool, a ballroom and billiard hall, every-
thing one could imagine as making for comfort. Her
mechanical construction w^as thought to be as perfect,
and in the minds of her passengers was a faith in her
"unsinkable" character almost unshakable. She carried
nearly a full passenger roll, 2,340 people including the
crew, as generally estimated, and was provided with
only twenty lifeboats, sixteen ordinary lifeboats and
four collapsible boats — ^accommodation for about a third
of her passengers. These numbered some of the wealth-
iest and most prominent people on both sides of the
Atlantic, John Jacob Astor, M^-jor Archibald Butt,
Benjamin Guggenheim, Isidor Straus, Charles M.
Hays, Arthur Ryerson, Henry B. Harris, William T.
Stead, Jacques Futrelle, and many more who gave up
their lives in common w^ith the humblest passenger in
the steerage.
After the usual concert, Sunday evening, April 14,
the passengers were in the midst of retiring or were
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 21
amusing themselves in card and reading rooms. Some
few were on deck enjoying the splendid evening, clear
and fair, the ocean wonderfully calm. Suddenly there
came a slight rocking of the ship, so slight as to be
unnoticed by many. "Grazed an iceberg. Nothing
serious," was the general comment as men resumed their
interrupted card games. That was 11 :40 P. M. Many
people went to bed without another thought. The berg
had been sighted only a quarter of a mile away, too
late to check the ship's speed, so she rushed into the mass
of ice, projecting only about eighty feet above sea level
but reaching dangerously into the depths. The shock
of the blow was so slight as to be scarcely perceptible to
the unconscious passengers. But nevertheless it was a
stroke dealing out death. For the Titanic, pushed on
by her tremendous momentum of 21 knots an hour,
sliding against the knife-like ledge, projecting unseen
into the water, ripped her side open on the ice, shatter-
ing her air-tight bulkheads. This permitted her grad-
ual sinking, thereby allowing the icy waters to penetrate
to her boilers, which had been working at high pres-
sure, and causing their explosion, sending her to the
bottom within two and one-half hours from the time
she struck the iceberg.
Captain Smith took command as soon as the ship
struck and the engines were stopped instantly. This
sudden cessation of the constant vibration drew the pas-
22 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
sengers' attention more than did the shock of the col-
lision. Life belts were ordered on the people immedi-
ately, and the boats were made ready, though the passen-
gers thought all the time it was merely done for the
sake of extraordinary precaution.
In the first boat the occupants were nearly all men,
for there were no women on deck. The stewards and
stewardesses were ordered below to summon the people
from their staterooms, and when they came rushing out,
some in their night clothes, some in evening gowns, all
startled at the order but even yet believing in the
strength of the Titanic, the rule "women first" was
rigidly enforced. Unwillingly the women were torn
from their husbands, or placed in the boats by their hus-
bands with the assurance that they would follow in other
boats. In this way the boats were loaded with women
and children, protesting but passive for the most part,
with just two or three men to manage the oars. The
scene was one of remarkable order. There was no mad
struggle for safety; the men stood back and sent the
women out, with very little disturbance. The report
was circulated that the men and women were to be put
in separate boats; also that there were boats on the
other side of the ship and they were simply going later.
Many thought, too, that their boats would soon be called
back — that it was a mere matter of a short side-excur- j
sion. So the boats were lowered away, and only when
I
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 28
they were out in the water did their occupants realize the
real danger. Then they could see the desperate plight
of the Titanic,
As the Titanic sank gradually the water reached her
engines, and an explosion tilted her decks, the list
becoming more pronounced and consequently more dan-
gerous every moment. Still the boats were loaded with
women and children, until the last one swung off just in
time.
The doomed multitude remaining shared her fate.
Some leaped into the sea and clutched at floating wreck-
age ; some sank with her, swimiAing to bits of wi-eckage
as they struck the w^ater; most of these were drowned,
though a few escaped miraculously, picked up by the
lifeboats or keeping themselves afloat by means of drift-
ing boards and ship furnishings.
As the ship went down at 2:20 Monday morning,
her colors flying, her captain in his place on the bridge,
her bulk aglow with twinkling lights, the majority of
her passengers looking out to sea from her decks, her
string band playing "Nearer, My God, to Thee," united
for the final moment the souls of the unhappy ones in
safety of the frail boats with those loved ones help-
lessly going to their death.
Then the lights winked, the black mass surged under
and the death cries of the hundreds broke into the quiet
night.
24 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
That was soon over, but the suffering in the lifeboats
continued for hours. It was bitterly cold, due to the
proximity of the iceberg; many of the boats were
dashed partly full of the icy water; none of their occu-
pants were sufficiently dad. In some of the boats, the
women had to take the oars and they rowed with bleed-
ing hands, these delicately nurtured ladies who proved
their claim on heroism equal to that of the gentlemen.
The boats were not provided with food, water, lighting
facilities, necessities of any kind, and when the Carpa-
thian summoned by wireless, reached them, they could
only signal by means of fragmentary letters and matches
found about the persons of some of the passengers.
For four long hours they floated about, dazed by
sorrow, nearly insensible from the bitter exposure to
cold and wet, until the good ship Carpathia picked them
up. Once in her cabins, they were given food and
clothes; warmed, but not comforted. After the rescue,
a service of thanksgiving, funeral service for the lost,
was held — one of the most heart-breaking scenes ever
enacted.
Thus ended the career of the Titanic j but her story
will live long in the hearts of the bereft survivors, and,
to all the world, it bears a message that cannot be ig-
nored— the message that to the god of commercial greed
human sacrifices shall not be allowed at sea.
When the gallant sliip Titanic, fair and false, set
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 25
forth on her initial trip with her 2,340 passengers, they
little dreamed they were destined to point a moral to
the world — that they were to be the instruments to dem-
onstrate the criminal negligence of ship builders in de-
liberately sending forth vessels luxuriously equipped
with every convenience and comfort, except the most
essential one — lifeboats.
This great ocean liner — ^representing the acme of
ship construction — went to her ruin after striking a
huge iceberg in her course, an accident which probably
was unavoidable, though greater care might have been
exercised in the matter of speed.
To the twenty frail lifeboats fell the burden of keep-
ing her 2,34!0 passengers afloat until the inevitable help
should come, with the equally inevitable result that only
745 people emerged from the ill-fated wreck.
The cause for the disaster is undeniable; the reason
for the loss of life is equally clear. The tales of horror
of the survivors point to one single ominous fact; lack
of adequate, commonsense protection of life paid to the
Atlantic sea bottom the horrid toll of 1,595 persons.
Unequalled in their terrible, thrilling quality, the
stories of this disaster; the striking of the iceberg, the
loading of the boats, the agonized farewell, the mad
leaps into the sea, the fearful hours upon the water
before rescue, and the bitter revelations of those lost,
all these things stir the heart to sympathy and the con-
26
WRECK OF THE TITANIC
science to a demand for lawful, law enforced safeguards
that shall prevent another such grim tragedy.
These murdered hundreds were merely another in-
stance of the innocent sacrilSces offered to the god of
commercial profit. Some day, it is written, we shall
cease this heathen worship ; we shall demand proper pre-
cautions for our people, even though it be at the expense
of a few paltry dollars. The time is now.
Laws shall be made and laws shall be enforced, and
the future millions shall go to sea in ships provided
with adequate safeguards. This is the service per-
formed for us by these martyrs of the Titanic,
-Cleveland Plain Dealer
Waiting in Suspense
CHAPTER III
SPUR OF ICEBERG RIPPED OPEN
BOTTOM OF THE TITANIC
Gigantic Vessel Literally Disemboweled by Sub-
merged Floe While Speeding — Little Shock
Was Felt — Passengers for Half an Hour
Believed Damage Was Slight and Took Things
Calmly — Many Were in Their Staterooms.
It was the submerged spur of an iceberg of ordinary
proportions that sent the White Star liner Titanic more
than two miles to the bottom of the Atlantic off the
banks of Newfoundland. The vessel was steaming
almost full tilt through a gently swelling sea and under
a starlit sky, in charge of First Officer Murdock, who a
moment after the collision surrendered the command to
Capt. Smith, who went down with his boat.
The Kfeboats that were launched were not filled to
their capacity. The general feeling aboard the ship was,
even after the boats had left its sides, that the vessel
would survive its wound, and the passengers who were
left aboard believed almost up to the last moment that
they had a chance for their lives.
27
28 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
The captain and officers behaved with the utmost
gallantry, and there was perfect order and discipline in
the launching of the boats, even after all hope had been
abandoned for the salvation of the ship and of those who
were on board.
PLACID SEA HID DEATH
The great liner was plunging through a compara-
tively placid sea on the surface of which there was much
mushy ice and here and there a number of compara-
tively harmless looking floes. The night was clear and
stars visible. Chief Officer Murdock was in charge of
the bridge.
The first intimation of the presence of the icebeig
that he received was from the lookout in the crow's nest.
They were so close upon the berg at this moment that
it was practically impossible to avoid a collision with it.
The first officer did what other unstartled and alert
commanders would have done under similar circum-
stances— ^that is, he made an effort by going full speed
ahead on his starboard propeller and reversing his port
propeller, simultaneously throwing his helm over, to
make a rapid turn and clear the berg.
RIPPED BOTTOM OPEN
These maneuvers were not successful. He suc-
ceeded in preventing his bow from crashing into the ice
cliff, but nearly the entire length of the great ship on
the starboard side was ripped.
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 29
The speed of the Titanic^ estimated to be at least
twenty-one knots, was so terrific that the knif ehke edge
of the iceberg's spur protruding under the sea cut
through her hke a can opener.
The shock was ahnost imperceptible. The first
officer did not apparently reahze that the ship had
received its death wound and none of the passengers it is |
believed had the slightest suspicion that anything more
tlian a usual minor accident had happened. Hundreds
who had gone to their berths and were asleep were not
awakened by the vibration.
RETURNED TO CARD GAME
To illustrate the placidity with which practically all
the men regarded the accident it was related that four
who were in the smoking room playing bridge 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.
The three remained only for a few moments on deck.
They resumed their game under the impression that
the ship had stopped for reasons best known to the com-
mander and not involving any danger to her. The
tendency of the whole ship's company except the men
30 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
in the engine department, who were made aware of the
danger by the inrushing water, was to make light of it
and in some instances even to ridicule the thought of
danger to so substantial a fabric.
SLOW TO REALIZE PERIL
Within a few minutes stewards and other members
of the crew were sent around 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.
Mr. and Mrs. Astor were in their room and saw the
ice vision flash by. They had not appreciably felt the
gentle shock and supposed then nothing out of the ordi-
nary had happened. They were both dressed and came
on deck leisurely.
It was not until the ship began to take a heavy list to
starboard that a tremor of fear pervaded it.
LAUNCHED BOATS SAFELY
The crew had been called to clear away the lifeboats,
of which there were twenty, four of which were col-
lapsible. The boats that were lowered on the port side
of the ship touched the water without capsizing. Some
of the others lowered to starboard, including one col-
lapsible, were capsized. All hands on the collapsible
boats that practically went to pieces were rescued by the
other boats.
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 81
Sixteen boats in all got away safely. It was even
then the general impression that the ship was all right
and there is no doubt that that was the belief of even
some of the officers.
At the lowering of the boats the officers superintend-
ing it were armed with revolvers, but there was no neces-
sity for using them as there was nothing in the nature of
a panic and no man made an effort to get into a boat
while the women and children were being put aboard.
BEGAN TO JUMP INTO SEA
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 doubt and a few jumped into the sea. These 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 over-
board with it and striking a piece of wreckage was badly
stunned. He recovered after a few minutes and swam
toward one of the lifeboats and was taken aboard. Most
of the men who were aboard the Carpathian barring the
members of the crew who had manned the boats, had
jumped into the sea as the Titanic was setthng.
Under instructions from officers and men in charge,
the lifeboats were rowed a considerable distance from
32 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
the ship itself in order to get away from the possible
suction that would follow the foundering. The niar-
velous thing about the disappearance was so little suc-
tion as to be hardly appreciable from the point where the
boats were floating.
There was ample time to launch all boats before the
Titantic went down, as it was two hours and twenty
minutes afloat.
So confident were all hands that it had not sustained
a mortal wound that it was not until 12:15 a. m., or
thirty-five minutes after the berg was encountered, that
the boats were lowered. Hundreds of the crew and a
large majority of the officers, including Capt, Smith,
stuck to the ship to the last.
It was evident after there were several explosions,
which doubtless were the boilers blowing up, that it had
but a few minutes more of life.
SINKS WITH LITTLE FLURRY
The sinking ship made much less commotion than the
horrified watchers in the hfeboats had expected. They
were close enough to the broken vessel to see clearly the
most grewsome details of the foundering. All the spec-
tators agreed that the shattered sections of the ship went
down so quietly as to excite wonder.
Some of the rescued were scantily clad and suffered
exceedingly from the cold, but the majority of them
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 83
were prepared for the emergency. In the darkness
aboard the sliip that came shortly after the collision it
was impossible for those in the boats to distinguish the
identity of any of the persons who leaped into the sea.
It is believed that nearly all cabin passengers who had
not gone overboard immediately after tlie boats were
lamiched vanished with the officers and crew.
HAD TIME TO DRESS
Some of the stewards who formed part of the life-
boat crew say that after the ship hit the berg the major-
ity of the cabin passengers went back to their state-
rooms and that it was necessary to rout them out and in
some instances force life preservers upon them. All
agree that the engines of the ship were stopped immedi-
ately after she bad made the ineffectual turn to clear the
berg.
The lifeboats' crews were made up of stewards,
stokers, coal trimmers, and ordinary seamen. It is said
that the davits were equipped with a new contrivance
for the swift launcliing of the boats, but that the ma-
chinery was so complicated and the men so unfamiliar
with it that they had trouble in managing it.
CHAPTER IV
THRILLING STORY OF THE WRECK
TOLD BY L. BEASLEY, M. A., OF CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY,
ENGLAND.
"The voyage from Queenstown had been quite un-
eventful; very fine weather was experienced and the sea
was quite cahn. The wind had been westerly to south-
westerly the whole way, but very cold, particularly the
last day; in fact, after dinner on Sunday evening it
was abnost too cold to be out on deck at all.
"I had been in my berth for about ten minutes when
at about 11 :40 P. M. I felt a shght jar and then soon
after a second one, but not sufficiently large to cause
any anxiety to anyone however nervous they may have
been. The engines stopped immediately afterward and
my first thought was — *she has lost a propeller.'
"I went up on the top deck in a dressing gown, and
found only a few people there, who had come up simi-
larly 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 the players
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
34
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 35
just grazed it with a glancing blow, and the engines had
been stopped to see if any damage had been done. No
one, of course, had any conception that she had been
pierced below by part of the submerged iceberg.
"The game went on without any thought of disas-
ter, and I retired to my cabin to read until we went on
again. I never saw any of the players or the onlookers
again. A little later, hearing people going upstairs, I
went out again and found every one 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 be-
come 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.
"put on life belts"
"On going on deck again I saw that there was an
undoubted list downward from stern to bow, but know-
ing 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 :
" 'AH passengers on deck with life belts on.'
36 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
"We walked slowly up with them tied on over our
clothing, but even then presumed tliis was a wise pre-
caution the captain was taking, and that we should re-
turn in a short time and retire to bed.
"There was a total absence of any panic or any ex-
pressions of alarm, and I suppose this can be accounted
for by the exceedingly calm night and the absence of
any signs of the accident.
HEAL PERU. WAS HIDDEN
"The ship was absolutely still and except for a gentle
tilt downward, which I do not think one person in ten
would have noticed at that time, no signs of the ap-
proaching 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 curling 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 more clothing and some money, but seeing
people pouring up the stairs decided it was better to
cause no confusion to people coming up by doing so.
"Presently we heard the order :
" *A11 men stand back away from the boats and all
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 37
ladies retire to next deck below' — ^the smoking-room
deck or B deck. The men all stood away and remained
in absolute silence, leaning against the end raiUngs 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 ladies were collected, the ladies got in quietly, with
tlie exception of some who refused to leave their hus-
bands. 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 to me were
lowered and with much creaking as the new ropes
shpped through the pulley blocks down the ninety feet
wdiich separated them from the water. An officer in
uniform came up as one boat went down and shouted:
'WTien you are afloat, row round to the companion
ladder and stand by with the other boats for orders.'
DISCIPLINE HOLDS GOOD
" *Aye, aye, sir,' came up the reply, but I do not
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
38 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
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 than usually danger-
ous to a crowded boat mostly filled with women.
"All this time there was no trace of any disorder,
panic or rush to the boats, and no scenes of women sob-
bing hysterically, such as one generally pictures as hap-
pening at such times; every one 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 every one was and how com-
pletely self -controlled.
"One by one the boats were filled with women and
children, lowered and rowed away into the night. Pres-
ently the word went round among the men, 'the men
are to be put into the 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 presently 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.
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 89
"Again the call was repeated:
" 'Any more ladies?'
"I saw none come on and then one of the crew looked
up and said: *Any ladies on your deck, sir?'
" 'Xo,' I rephed.
" *Then you had hetter 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 10 months
passed down after them. Down we went, the crew call-
ing to those lowering which end to keep her level. *Aft,'
*stern,' 'both together,' 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 leav-
ing the deck to reaching the Carpathia,
NEW PEEIL THREATENED
"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 quite a way from this not to be
swamped by it when we touched water. We had no
officer aboard, nor petty officer or member of the crew
to take charge. So one of the stokers shouted: *Some
one find the pin which releases the boat from the ropes
and pull it up.' No one knew where it was. We felt as
40 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
well as we could on the floor and sides, but found noth-
ing, and it was hard to move among so many people —
we had sixtj'^ 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 No. 14, which had
filled rapidly with men and was coming down on us in a
way that threatened to submerge our boat.
SOUND FAIUSD TO CABEY
'* *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 it 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 it on our heads, but just before it
dropped another stoker sprang to the ropes with his
knife.
"'One,' I heard him say; *two,' as his knife cut
through the pulley ropes, and the next moment the ex-
haust steam had carried us clear, while boat 14 dropped
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 41
into the space we had the moment before occupied, our
gunwales ahnost 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 cooks in white jackets, two to
an oar, with a stoker at the tiller.
"The captain-stoker told us that he had been on the
sea twenty-six years and had never seen such a calm
night on the Atlantic. As we rowed away fi*om the
Titanic we looked back from time to time to watch it,
and a more striking spectacle it was not possible for any
one to see.
TITANIC GREAT IN MJATH
"In the distance it looked an enormous length, its
great bulk outlined in black against the starry sky,
every porthole 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 bow, where the water was by now up to the lowest
row of portholes. Presently about 2 A. M., as near as
I can remember, we observed it settling very rapidly,
with the bow and bridge completely under water, and
concluded it was now only a question of minutes before
it went ; and so it proved.
"It slowly tilted straight on end, with the stem ver-
tically upward, and as it did, the lights in the cabins and
42 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
saloons, which had not flickered for a moment since we
left, died out, came on again for a single flash, and
finally went altogether.
"To our amazement the Titanic remained in that up-
right position, bow down, for a time which I estimate
as five minutes, while we watched at least 150 feet of the
Titanic towering above the level of the sea and looming
black against the sky. Then the ship dived beneath the
waters.
HEARD CEY OF DYING
"And then, with all these, there fell on the ear the
most appalling noise that human being ever listened to
— the cries of hundreds of our fellow beings struggling
in the icy cold water, crying for help with a cry that we
knew could not be answered. We longed to return and
pick up some of those swimming, but this would have
meant swamping our boat and loss of life to all of us.
THE CARPATHIA APPEARS
"Our rescuer showed up in a few hours, and as it
swung round we saw its cabins all alight and knew it
must be a large steamer. It was now motionless, and
we had to row to it. Just then day broke, a beautiful,
quiet dawn wi\h faint pink clouds just above the horizon,
and a new moon whose crescent just touched the waters."
"The passengers, officers and crew gave up gladly
their staterooms, clothing and comforts for our benefit^
all honor to them."
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 43
The English Board of Trade passenger certificate
on board the Titanic showed approximately 3,500.
The same certificate called for lifeboat accommodation
for approximately 950 in the following boats:
Fourteen large lifeboats, two smaller boats and four
collapsible boats.
Life-preservers were accessible and appai'ently in
sufficient number for all on board.
The approximate number of passengers carried at
the time of the collision was:
First class, 330; second class, 320; third class, 750;
total, 1,400. Officers and crew, 940. Total, 2,340.
Of the foregoing about the following were rescued
by the steamship Carpathia:
First class, 210; second class, 125; third class, 200;
officers, 4; seamen, 39; stewards, 96; firemen, 71; total,
210 of the crew. The total, about 745 saved, was about
80 per cent of the maximum capacity of the lifeboats.
CHAPTER V
RESCUE OF THE SURVIVORS
Only 745 of the 2,340 Souls Aboaed Doomed Likek
Saved by the Lifeboats — Little Shock Felt
When the Iceberg was Struck by the Titanic.
Freighted with its argosy of woe, disaster and death,
bringing glad reunion to some, but misery unutterable
to many, the Carpathia, with the survivors of the lost
Titanic aboard, came back to a grief -stricken city and
nation four days after the disaster. It was received by
awe-stricken thousands whose conversation was con-
ducted in whispers.
The story it brought home was one to crush the
heart with its pathos, but at the same time to thrill it
^\dth pride in the manly and womanly fortitude dis-
played in the face of the most awful peril and inevitable
death.
As the Titanic went do^vn, according to the story
of those who were among the last to leave the wounded
hulk, the ship's band was playing.
ESTIMATED 1,595 DEAD
As brought to port by the Carpathian the death list
was placed at 1,601. Tlie Titanic had aboard 2,340
persons, of whom 745 were picked up. Six of the latter
44
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 45
succumbed to the exposure they had undergone before
the Carpathia reached port.
Not only was the Titanic tearing through the April
night to its doom with every ounce of steam crowded
on, but it was under orders from the general officers
of the line to make all the speed of which she was
capable. This was the statement made by J. H. Moody,
a quartermaster of the vessel and helmsman on the night
of the disaster. He said the ship was making twenty-
one knots an hour, and the officers were striving to live
up to the orders to smash the record.
"It was close to midnight," said Moody, "and I was
on the bridge with the second officer, who was in com-
mand. Suddenly he shouted, *Port your helm!' I did
so, but it was too late. We struck the submerged por-
tion of the berg."
LITTLE SHOCK FELT
As nearly as most of the passengers could remem-
ber, the Titanic^ slicing through the water at no more
speed than had been consistently maintained during all
of the trip, slid gracefully a few feet out of the water
with just the slightest tremble. It rolled slightly; then
it pitched. The shock, scarcely noticeable to those on
board, drew a few loungers over to the railings. Offi-
cers and petty officers were hurrying about. There was
no destruction within the ship, at least not in the sight
of the passengers.
46 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
There was no panic. Everything that could be seen
tended to alleviate what little fear had crept into the
minds of the passengers who were more apprehensive
than the regular travelers who cross the ocean at this
season of the year and who were more used to experi-
encing those small quivers.
Not one person aboard the Titanic^, unless possibly
it was the men of the crew, who were working far below,
knew the extent of the injuries it had sustained. Many
of the passengers had taken time to dress, so sure were
they that there was no danger. They came on deck,
looked the situation over and were unable to see the
slightest sign that the Titanic had been torn open
beneath the water line.
When the passengers' fear had been partly calmed
and most of them had returned to their staterooms or
to the card games in which they were engaged before
the quiver was felt, there came surging through the
first cabin quarters a report, that seemed to have drifted
in from nowhere, that the ship was sinking.
How this word crept in from outside no one seems
now to know. Immediately the crew began to man
the boats.
Then came the shudder of the riven hulk of the
once magnificent steamship as it receded from the
shelving ice upon which it had driven, and its bow set-
tled deeply into the water.
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 47
*' We're lost! We're lost!" was the ciy that rose
from hundreds of throats. "The ship is sinking. We
must drown like rats !"
Women in evening gowns, with jewels about their
necks, knelt on deck, amid the vast, fear-stricken throng,
crowded about the lifeboats and prayed for help.
Others, clad in their nightclothing, begged the officers
to let them enter the boats.
"Everybody to the boats!" was the startling cry that
was repeated from end to end of the Titanic.
"Women and children first!" was the hoarse order
that went along the line of lifeboats.
Without food, without clothing and with only the
clothes in which they stood when the shock came, the
women were tossed over the rails of the lifeboats, the
davits were swung out, a few men were picked to man
he oars, an officer to command the boat and the order
to "lower away" was shouted. The little craft, laden
with living freight, were launched.
NO CHOICE BETWEEN CLASSES
Men whose names and reputation were prominent
in two hemispheres were shouldered out of the way by
roughly dressed Slavs and Hungarians. Husbands
were separated from their wives in the battle to reach
he boats. Tearful leave-takings as the lifeboats, one
ifter another, were filled with sobbing women and low-
48 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
ered upon the ice-covered surface of the ocean were
heart-breaking.
There was no time to pick or choose. The first
woman to step into a lifeboat held her place even though
she were a maid or the wife of a Hungarian peasant.
Many women clung to their husbands and refused to
be separated. In some cases they dragged their hus-
bands to the boats and in the confusion the men found
places in the boats.
Before there was any indication of panic, Henry B.
Harris, a theatrical manager of New York, stepped
into a boat at the side of his wife before it was lowered.
"Women first!" shouted one of the ship's ofiicers.
Mr. Harris glanced up and saw that the remark was
addressed to him.
"All right," he replied, coolly.
"Goodby, my dear," he said, as he kissed his wife,
pressed her a moment to liis breast and then climbed
back to the Titamc's deck.
FLEET DREW AWAY
One by one the little fleet drew away from the tower-
ing sides of the giant steamship, whose decks w^ere
already reeling as it sank lower in the water.
"The Titanic is doomed !" was the verdict that passed
from lip to lip.
"We will sink before help can come!"
\^^ater poured into every compartment of the 800-
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 49
foot hull, where great plates had been torn apart and
huge rivets were sheared oif as though they were so
much cheese.
Pumps were started in the engine-room, but the
water poured into the great hull in such torrents through
scores of rents that all knew the fight to save the steam-
ship was hopeless.
Overhead the wireless buzzed the news to the other
steamships. The little fleet of lifeboats withdrew to a
safe distance and the 1,595 left on board with no boats
waited for the merciful death plunge which ended all.
WOMEN SAVED EIRST
A few spars, a box or two, a few small pieces of
other wreckage, were the only portions of the Titanic
corpse that lived on the water surface to be beheld by
the persons on board the Carpathia when it rushed to
the rescue. It was just breaking day as the rescue work
was completed.
So exhausted were the survivors that scarcely any
of them were able to tell their story of what actually
had happened until late in the afternoon of Monday.
It seemed impossible to obtain a complete story of the
tragedy. ,^ ^.,
FEW INJUKED ON WRECK
Certainly few of the Titanic passengers were hurt
on board that great vessel. Few of the persons who
50 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
came in among the survivors on the Carpathia bore any
marks of injury. Their sufferings were caused chiefly
by exposure, shock and grief. The latter was terrible.
Many of the women had walked into a boat after kissing
their husbands good-by.
The women in the lifeboats saw their loved ones
plunge to death. The survivors' boats were bobbing
along in the waves all within a radius of half a mile of
the great Titanic ^ when, with a roar and burst of spray,
it settled and passed out of sight for the last time.
Then began one of the most tortuous experiences
for the helpless women in the drifting lifeboats that
human beings ever were compelled to endure.
It was black night. Fortunately several of the men
who were saved and some of the few petty officers who
had aided in manning the lifeboats had a few matches
in their pockets. Their torches were improvised from
letters and scraps of papers that were found in their
pockets. There was nothing to be seen.
SIGNALED WITH TORCHES
The torches, the only hope of those who thought
they were doomed to death, were being carefully
guarded and many times those who held them were im-
plored to light them in the faint hope that rescue was
closer at hand than even the most sanguine could have
believed.
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 51
But the strong prevailed and it was not until the
first rocket was seen to shoot heavenward from the Car-
pathia that the first of the torches was lighted and its
filmy blaze shot up as high as was possible when one
of the men, held on the shoulders of five others, stood
up and waved the flaming papers until they burned
down to his finger tips.
The desolate groups huddled together in the tossing
and rolling tiny craft could not tell whether their torch
had been seen by the ship that was firing the rockets.
They waited fifteen minutes and the operation was
repeated.
Then the huge bulk of the Carpathia took form in
the gray of the breaking morning and it swept swiftly
down into the center of a widely separated fleet of life-
boats with their human freight, then more dead than
alive. They had been for approximately six hours in
the open with the waves sending spray and at inten^als
whole barrelsful of water in upon them. They were
drenched and the severe cold was freezing their clothing
to their bodies. Only a few of them were able to walk
when finally it came their turn to be taken on board the
Carpathia,
The Carpathia s sailors went after those lying un-
conscious in the bottom of the lifeboats, lifted them up
to other sailors standing on the Carpathia s ladders.
52 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
Everything that could be done for the survivors was
done on the Carpathia,
Several of them had been cut and bruised in their
attempts to get into the lifeboats and by falling from
exhaustion during the awful ordeal they were compelled
to pass through while waiting for the Carpathia to come
to their relief. These were given surgical care. The
others were placed in bed and few if any of them were
able during the rest of the voyage to go on deck.
TELLS OF THE RESCUE
A passenger on the Carpathia made the following
statement :
"I was awakened at about half past twelve at night
by a commotion on the decks which seemed unusual,
but there was no excitement. As the boat was moving
I paid little attention to it, and went to sleep again.
About three o'clock I again awakened. I noticed that
the boat had stopped. I went to the deck. The Ca?^-
pathia had changed its course.
"Lifeboats were sighted and began to arrive — and
soon, one by one, they drew up to our side. There were
sixteen in all, and the transferring of the passengers
was most pitiable. The adults were assisted in climbing
the rope ladder by ropes adjusted to their waists. Lit-
tle children and babies were hoisted to the deck in bags.
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 53
FEW IN SOME BOATS
"Some of the boats were crowded, a few were not
half full. This I could not understand. Some people
were in full evening dress. Others were in their night
clothes and were wrapped in blankets. These, with im-
migrants in all sorts of shapes, were hurried into the
saloon indiscriminately for a hot breakfast. They had
been in the open boats four and five hours in tlie most
biting air I ever experienced.
"There were husbands without wives, wiv^es without
husbands, parents without children and children without
parents. But there was no demonstration. No sobs —
scarcely a word spoken. They seemed to be stunned.
Inmiediately after breakfast, divine service was held in
the saloon.
"One woman died in the lifeboat; three others died
soon after reaching our deck. Their bodies were buried
in the sea at five o'clock that afternoon. None of th6
rescued had any clothing except what they had on, and
a relief committee was formed and our passengers con-
ti'ibuted enou^ for their immediate needs.
TELLS or FINAL PLUNGE
"V/hen its lifeboats pushed away from the Titanic,
llie steamer was brilliantly lighted, the band was play-
ing and the captain was standing on the bridge giving
directions. The bow was well submerged and the keel
54
WRECK OF THE TITANIC
rose high above the water. The next moment every-
thing disappeared. The survivors were so close to the
sinking steamer that they feared the lifeboats would be
drawn into the vortex.
"On our way back to New York we steamed along
the edge of a field of ice which seemed limitless. As
far as the eye could see to the north there was no blue
water. At one time I counted thirteen icebergs."
— Cleveland Plain Dealer
CHAPTER VI
SURVIVORS REACH NEW YORK
Hospitals Sent Ambulances and Nurses — Investi-
gation BY the Senate Decided Upon
At 8 o'clock automobiles and carriages containing
relatives and friends of the survivors began arriving at
the White Star pier. When the Carpathia was sighted
coming up the river at 8 :45, more than 500 automobiles
and other vehicles were packed within the police lines.
Significant of the tragic side of the event was the
frequent arrivals of ambulances and auto trucks from
all the big department stores, filled with cots, invalid
chairs and surgical appliances. Right of way was given
the ambulances and they were permitted to park directly
alongside the pier entrance.
HOSPITALS sent NURSES
From St. Vincent's Hospital came twelve black-
robed sisters to nurse the injured, and all the ambur
lances of the institution except one. The full surgical
staff of the hospital also was in attendance. Ambu-
lances and surgeons were on hand from St. Luke's Hos-
pital, Bellevue, Roosevelt and Flower hospitals, and a
great number of physicians who had volunteered their
services.
55
dg wreck of the titanic
The Sisters of Charity found work to do before the
arrival of the Carpathia, Women in the throng await-
ing relatives became hysterical with dread and anxiety
and the black-robed sisters went to them, put their arms
about them and comforted them and administered
restoratives.
Eva Booth, commander of the Salvation Army, and
fifty assistants, who meet all incoming vessels to min-
ister to immigrants, were allowed within the police lines,
but they were turned back at the entrance of the Cunard
pier and only Miss Booth and three of her party were
admitted.
BROKEKS BROUGHT $20,000
Among those on the pier were six members of the
New York Stock Exchange, with $20,000, which had
been collected on the floor of the exchange. They liad
instructions to use the money among the steerage pas-
sengers in any way they saw fit.
The women of the relief committee to look after
the steerage passengers arrived in autos and theater
buses, in which the sufferers were to be taken to hos-
pitals or shelters. Gimbel Brothers sent all their de-
livery wagons to the pier, laden with first aid appliances
and cots, and placed them at the disposal of the women's
relief committee. In addition, the firm announced they
would provide quarters for 200 sufferers overnight in
tlieir store.
I
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 5T
CALLED FOR MORE NURSES
Relatives and friends of the survivors had reached
the pier before half past eight o'clock, but for another
half hour automobiles arrived containing physicians and
nurses and loaded with first aid appliances. The sur-
geons and nurses were in working attire, the women in
white gowns and caps, the surgeons in white duck
trousers and jackets.
A party of four surgeons and ten nurses arrived in
three automobile buses and as they hurried to the pier
one of them said they had been sent by Mrs. William
K. Vanderbilt.
In spite of the number of physicians that had
reached the pier at 8 :30, it was found there was a dearth
of nurses and hurried calls were sent out to all the city
institutions and private hospitals and nurses' exchanges.
In response to these calls nurses began arriving in taxi-
cabs and autos, and before the Carpathia was warped
into its pier there were more than 200 nurses awaiting
to go on board.
Ropes dotted with green lights were stretched for
seventy-five yards in front of the piers to hold back the
throngs. No one without a special permit was allowed
beyond these ropes.
The Pennsylvania Railroad Company had a special
train waiting at its station at Thirty-fourth street and
58 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
a number of taxicabs to convey survivors desiring to
go to Philadelphia to their friends.
News that the Carpathia was outside of the harbor
and rapidly approaching sent thousands of persons to
vantage points along the city's water front. At the
Battery, the first point on Manhattan Island which the
rescue ship would pass, a crowd estimated at 10,000
persons assembled. Other vantage points further
uptown were crowded with spectators eager to catch thr
first glimpse of the approaching Carpathia.
Investigation decided on
Senator William Alden Smith of Michigan and
Senator Newlands of Nevada arrived in New York at
9 p. m. April 18 to summon survivors of the Titanic
and officials of the International Mercantile Marine to
testify before the Senate subcommittee appointed to
investigate the disaster of the sea.
Wten the senators arrived at the Pennsylvania sta-
tion they were informed that the Carpathia was at its
pier. The committee had intended boarding a revenue
cutter and going down the bay to meet the Carpathia
and boarding it. Upon learning this the senators
secured cabs and announced they were going direct to
the pier.
A
CHAPTER VII
LAST MAN OFF TELLS HORRORS OF
SHIPWRECK
Colonel Gracie^ U. S. A., Rescued After Goinq
Down on Titanic^s Topmost Dec?: — Heroes on
All Sides — ^Mrs. Isidor Straus Drowned, Refus-
ing TO Desert Husband — ^Astor Praised for
Conduct.
Colonel Archibald Gracie, U. S. A., the last man
saved after the wreck of the Titanic, went down with the
vessel, but was picked up. He was met at the dock in
New York by his daughter, who had arrived from
Washington, and his son-in-law, Paul H. Fabricius.
Colonel Gracie told a remarkable story of personal
hardship and denied emphatically reports that there
was any panic on board the steamship after the disaster.
He praised in the highest terms the behavior of both the
passengers and crew and paid a high tribute to the
heroism of the women passengers.
"Mrs. Isidor Straus," said Colonel Gracie, "went
to her death because she would not desert her husband.
Although he pleaded with her to take her place in the
60 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
boat, she steadfastly refused, and when the ship settled
at the head the two were engulfed by the wave that
s^^^ept the vessel."
DEIVEN TO TOP DECK
Colonel Gracie told how he was driven to the top-
most deck when the ship settled and was the sole sur-
vivor after the wave that swept it just before its final
plunge had passed.
"I jumped with the wave," said he, "just as I often
have jumped with the breakers at the seashore. By
great good fortune I managed to grasp the brass rail-
ing on the deck above, and I hung on by might and
main.
"When the ship plunged down I was forced to let
go and was swirled around and around for what seemed
to be an interminable time. Eventually I came to the
surface to find the sea a mass of tangled wreckage.
"Luckily, I was unhurt, and, casting about, man-
aged to seize a wooden grating floating near by. When
I had recovered my breath I discovered a canvas and
cork life raft which had floated up.
THIRTY SAVED ON RAFT
"A man whose name I did not learn was sti^ggling
toward this rafte from some wreckage to which he had
clung, I cast off and helped bun to get onto the raft,
and we then began the work of rescuing those who
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 61
had jumped into the sea and were floundering in the
v/ater.
"When dawn broke there were thirty of us on the
raft, standing knee-deep in the icy water and afraid
to move lest the craft be overturned.
"Several other unfortunates, benumbed and half
dead, besought us to save them, and one or two made
efforts to reach us, but w^e had to warn them away.
Had we made any effort to save them we all might
have perished.
LONG HOURS OF HOREOR
^*The hours that elapsed before we were picked up
by the Carpathia were the longest and most terrible that
I ever spent. Practically without any sensation of feel-
ing because of the icy water, we were almost dropping
from fatigue.
"We were afraid to turn around to learn whether
we were seen by passing craft, and when some one who
was facing astern passed the word that something that
looked like a steamer was coming up one of them
became hysterical under the strain. The rest of us, too,
were nearing the breaking point."
Colonel Gracie denied with emphasis that any men
were fired upon, and declared that only once was a
revolver discharged.
"This," the colonel said, "was done for the purpose
of intimidating some steerage passengers who had
62 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
tumbled into a boat before it was prepared for launch-
ing. The shot was fired in the air, and when the for-
eigners were told that the next would be directed at
them they promptly returned to the deck. There was
no confusion and no panic."
Contrary to the general expectation, there was no
jarring impact when the vessel struck, according to the
army officer. He was in his berth when the Titanic
smashed into the submerged portion of the iceberg and
was aroused by the jar.
STOPPED WATCH FIXED TIME
Colonel Gracie looked at his watch, he said, and
found it was just midnight. The ship sank with him
at 2 :22 a. m., for his watch stopped at that hour.
"Before I retired," said Colonel Gracie, "I had a
long chat with Charles M. Hays, president of the
Grand Trunk Railroad. One of the last things Mr.
Hays said was this:
" 'The White Star, the Cunard and the Hamburg-
L!\inerican lines are devoting their attention and inge-
nuity to vying with one another to attain supremacy in
luxurious ships and in making speed records. The time
will soon come when this will be checked by some appal-
ling disaster.'
"Poor fellow — a few hours later he was dead."
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 6a
GAVE PEAISE TO ASTOE
"The conduct of Colonel John Jacob Astor was
deserving of the highest praise," Colonel Gracie de-
clared. "The millionaire New Yorker devoted all his
energies to saving his young bride, formerly Miss Force
of New York, who was in delicate health.
"Colonel Astor helped us in our efforts to get Mrs.
j Astor in the boat," said Colonel Gracie. "I lifted her
I into the boat and as she took her place Colonel Astor
requested permission of the second officer to go with
her for her own protection.
I " *No, sir,' rephed the officer, *not a man shall go
on a boat until the women are all off.'
COLONEL AIDED WITH BOATS
"Colonel Astor then inquired the number of the
boat which was being lowered away and turned to the
work of clearing the other boats and reassuring the
frightened and nervous women.
"By this time the ship had begun to list frightfully
to port. This became so dangerous that the second
officer ordered every one to rush to starboard.
"This we did, and we found the crew trying to get
a boat off in that quarter. Here I saw the last of
John B. Thayer and George B. Widener of Phila-
delphia."
64 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
IGNOKED WARNINGS CHARGED
Colonel Gracie said that despite the warnings of
icebergs no slowing down of speed was ordered by the
commander of the Titanic. There were other warnings,
too, he said.
"In the twenty-four hours' run ending the 14th,"
declared Colonel Gracie, "the ship's run was 54i6 miles,
and we were told that the next twenty-four hours would
see even a better record posted.
"No diminution of speed was indicated in the run
and the engines kept up their steady work. When Sun-
day evening came we all noticed the increased cold,
which gave plain warning that the ship was in close
proximity to icebergs or ice fields.
"The officers, I am credibly informed, had been
advised by wireless from other ships of the presence of
icebergs and dangerous floes in that vicinity. The sea
was as smooth as glass and the weather clear, so that it
seemed that there was no occasion for fear.
"When the vessel struck the passengers were so
little alarmed that they joked over the matter. The
few who appeared upon deck early had taken their time
to dress properly and there was not the slightest
indication of panic.
^p
f
i'lioto Uuderwood & Underwood
J. BRUCE ISMAY
White Star Line Manapp
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 65
"Some fragments of ice had fallen on the deck and
these were picked up and passed around by some of
the facetious ones, who offered them as mementos of the
occasion. On the port side, a glance over the side failed
to show any evidence of damage, and the vessel seemed
to be on an even keel.
"James Clinch Smith and I, however, soon found
the vessel was listing heavily. A few minutes later the
officers ordered men and women to don life-preservers."
WOMEN REFUSED RESCUE
One of the last women seen by Colonel Gracie, he
said, was Miss Evans, of New York, who virtually re-
fused to be rescued, because "she had been told by a
fortune teller in London that she would meet her death
on the water."
A young English woman who requested that her
name be omitted told a thrilling story of her experi-
ence in one of the collapsible boats, which was manned
by eight of the crew from the Titanic, The boat was
in command pf the fifth officer, H. Lowe, whom she
credited with saving the lives of many persons.
Before the lifeboat was launched Lowe passed along
the port deck of the steamer, commanding the people
not to jump into the boats and otherwise restraining
them from swamping the craft. When the collapsible
was launched Lowe succeeded in putting up a mast
and a small sail.
66 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
The officer collected the other boats together, and,
in case where some were short of adequate crews, di-
rected an exchange by which each was adequately
manned. He threw lines which linked the boats two by
two, and all thus moved together.
Later on Lowe 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.
CHAPTER VIII
HEROISM ON THE TITANIC
Peesident Taft^s Estimate of Major Butt — Ben
Guggenheim Not a Coward — Heroic Musicians
— "Nearer, My God, to Thee/^
When President Taft heard that women and chil-
dren had perished in the wreck of the Titanic he spoke
his estimate of Archie Butt in saying: "I do not expect,
I do not want, to see him back." That Mr. Taft knew
his man was proved by the words of the rescued.
Note this: Benjamin Guggenheim sent word to his
wife: "Tell her I played the game out straight to the
end. No woman shall be left aboard this ship because
Ben Guggenheim was a coward."
And this: "And then Mrs. Straus would call him
(Mr. Straus) by his first name and say her place was ^
with him, that she had lived with him and that she would \ ^
die with him." And Mr. Straus said : "I am not too old / ^
to sacrifice myself for a woman." • ^
And this of Mrs. Alhson: "The boat was full and
she grasped Lorraine with one arm and her husband
with the other and stood smiling as she saw us rowing
away."
67
68 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
And this of Captain Smith: "He swam to where a
baby was drowning, carried it in his arms to a lifeboat,
and then swam back to his ship to die." And this, the
command given by Captain Smith bringing order out
of chaos : "Be British, my men."
And lastly: Kraus, Hume, Taylor, Woodward,
Clark, Brailey, Breicoux and Hartley, when the last
faint hope was gone, lined up on deck, stood in water up
to their knees and played "Nearer, My God to Thee,"
as 1,500 souls passed from life.
HEROIC MUSICIANS
Except in the case of the English ship Birkenhead^
when the soldiers on board stood at parade after the
women and children had been taken into the boats and
the band played the national air as the ship went down,
we do not recall a parallel to the conduct of the musi-
cians on board the Titanic, who, as all accounts agree,
ceased not their inspiriting ministrations until they were
engulfed by the waves.
Indeed, it seems even to be a question if the later
instance of heroism was not greater than the former, for
the bandsmen on the Birkenhead were enlisted men,
obeying orders like soldiers, while it is scarcely to be
thought that the obligations of the musicians on the
Titanic required them to play with death confronting
them. There has been a marvelous upwelhng of sym-
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 69
pathy for the families made destitute by the awful
catastrophe, and, perhaps, a too great multiplicity of
relief funds ; but there is, nevertheless, something espe-
cially appealing in Dr. Frank Damrosch's suggestion
that a special contribution be asked for the families of
those who gave courage and comfort to the doomed
victims of the steamship ; and died to do it.
MAJOR BUTT DIED LIKE A SOLDIER
A graphic story of the heroism of Major Archibald
W. Butt on the Titanic was told feelingly by Miss
Marie Young, a former resident of New York, before
going to her home in Washington, D. C. Miss Young
is believed to have been the last woman to leave the
Titanic and the last of the survivors to have talked with
the President's military aid. She and Major Butt
had long been friends. Miss Young having been a spe-
cial music instructor to the children of Theodore Roose-
velt when he was President. Miss Young said :
"The last person to whom I spoke on board the
Titanic was Archie Butt, and his good, brave face
smiling at me from the deck of the steamer was the last
I could distinguish as the lifeboat I was in pulled away
from the steamer's side.
'Archie himself put me into the boat, wrapped blan-
kets around me and tucked me in as carefully as if we
were starting on a motor ride. He himself entered the
70 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
boat with me, performing the Uttle courtesies as calmly
and with as smiling a face as if death was far away in-
stead of being but a few moments removed from him.
AVhen he had carefully wrapped me up he stepped on
the gunwale of the boat, and, lifting his hat, smiled
down at me.
" 'Goodby, Miss Young,' he said, bravely and smil-
ingly. *Luck is with you. Will you kindly remember
me to all the folks back home?
"Then he stepped to the deck of the steamer, and
the boat I was in was lowered to the water. It was the
last boat to leave the ship ; of this I am perfectly certain.
And I know that I am the last of those who were saved
to whom Archie Butt spoke. As our boat was lowered
and left the side of the steamer Archie was still stand-
ing at the rail looking down at me. His hat was raised,
and the same old, genial, brave smile was on his face.
The picture he made as he stood there, hat in hand,
brave and smiling, was one that will always linger in my
memory."
Mrs. Henry B. Harris, in an interview, also de-
scribed the heroism of Major Butt. She said:
"Archie Butt was a major to the last. God never
made a finer nobleman than he. The sight of that man,
calm, gentle, and yet as firm as a rock, never will leave
me. The American Army is honored by him, and the
way he showed some of the other men how to behave
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 71
when women and children were suffering that awful
mental fear that came when we had to be huddled in
those boats. Major Butt was near me, and I know very
nearly everything he did.
*'When the order came to take to the boats he be-
came as one in supreme command. You would have
thought he was at a White House reception, so cool and
calm was he. 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, sud-
denly panic-stricken, ran to the stern of it. Major Butt
shot one arm out, caught him by the neck, and jerked
him backward like a pillow. His head cracked against
a rail and he was stunned.
" * Sorry,' said Major Butt; *but women will be at-
tended to first or I'll break every damned bone in your
body.'
"The boats were lowered away one by one, and as I
stood by my husband he said to me, 'Thank God for
Archie Butt.' Perhaps Major Butt heard it, for he
turned his face toward us for a second. Just at that
time a young man was arguing to get into a lifeboat,
and Butt had hold of the lad by the arm Uke a big
brother and appeared to be telling him to keep his head.
"How inspiring he was. I stayed until almost the
last and know what a man Archie Butt was. They put
me in a collapsible boat. I was one of three women in
72
WRECK OF THE TITANIC
the first cabin in the thing; the rest were steerage peo-
ple. Major Butt helped those poor, frightened steer-
age people so wonderfully, tenderly and yet with such
£ool and manly firmness. 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 the offi-
cers of the ship. He gave up his life to save others."
The Eternal Collision
CHAPTER IX
THRILLING EXPERIENCES OF
SURVIVORS
2*Iarvelous Behavior of Men Passengers — A Swed-
ish OrncER^s Story — ^Discipline Maintained to
THE End
FIRST WOMAN IN LIFEBOATS
Mrs. Dickinson Bishop, of Detroit, said:
"I was the first woman in the first boat. I was in the
boat four hours before being picked up by the Carpathia.
I was in bed at the time the crash came, got up and
dressed and went back to bed, being assured there was
no danger. There were very few passengers on the deck
when I reached there. There was little or no panic, and
the discipline of the Titanic's crew was perfect. Thank
God my husband was saved also."
P. D. Daly of England said he was above deck A
and that he was the last man to scramble into the col-
lapsible boat. He said that for six hours he was wet
to his waist with the icy waters that filled the boat nearly
to the gunwales.
MEN PRAISED BY WOMAN
One of the few women able to give an account of
the disaster was Miss Cornelia Andrews of Hudson,
73
74 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
N. Y. Miss Andrews said she was in the last boat to
be picked up.
"The behavior of the men," she said, "was wonder-
ful— the most marvelous I have ever beheld."
"Did you see any shooting?" she was asked.
"No," she replied, "but one officer did say he would
shoot some of the steerage who were trying to crowd
into the boats. Many jumped from the decks. I saw
a boat sink."
Miss Andrews was probably referring to the col-
lapsible boat which overturned. She said that the sink-
ing of the ship was attended by a noise such as might
be made by the boilers exploding. She was watching
the ship, she said, and it looked as if it blew up.
STORY BY SWEDISH OFFICER
Lieutenant Hakan Bjornstern Steifanson of the
Swedish army, who was journeying to this country on
the Titanic to see about the exportation of pulp to Swe-
den, narrowly escaped being carried down in the sink-
ing ship when he leaped out from a lower deck to a life-
boat that was being lowered past him. Henry Woolner
of London also made the leap in safety. Lieutenant
Steff anson thinks he made the last boat to leave the ship
and was only about a hundred yards away when it went
down with a sudden lurch.
He told about his experience as he lay in the bed at
the Hotel Gotham, utterly worn out by the strain he
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 75
j had been under despite his six feet of muscle. It was
I also the first time he had discarded the dress suit he had
' worn since the shock of collision startled him from his
chair in the cafe where he and Mr. Woolner were
talking.
I "It was not a severe shock," said the lieutenant. "It
I did not throw any one from his seat ; rather it was a twist-
ing motion that shook the boat terribly. Most of the
women were in bed. We ran up to the smoking room,
where most of the men were rushing about trying to find
out what was the matter, but there was a singular ab-
sence of apprehension, probably because we believed so
thoroughly in the massive hulk in which we were
traveling.
SOUGHT TO CALM WOMEN
"We helped to calm some of the women and advised
them to dress and then set about getting them in boats.
There seemed to be really no reason for it, but it was
done because it was the safest thing to do.
"The men went about their task quietly. Why
1 should they have done otherwise — the shock was so
slight to cause such ruin. Mr. Woolner and I then went
to a lower deck. It was deserted, but as we wished to
find out what had happened we went down a deck lower.
Then for the first time did we realize the seriousness of
that twisting which had rent the ship nearly asunder.
76 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
We saw the water pouring into the hull and where we
finally stood water rose to our knees.
"Woolner and I decided to get out as quickly as we
could and as we turned to rush upward we saw sliding
down the portside of the drowning ship a collapsible life-
boat. Most of those it contained were from the steer-
age, but two of the women were from the first cabin.
It was in charge of two sailors.
JUMPED INTO SWAYING BOAT
" 'Let's not take any chances,' I shouted to Wool-
ner, and as it came nearly opposite us, swinging in and
out slowly, we jumped and fortunately landed in it.
The boat teetered a bit and then swiftly shot down to
the water. Woolner and I took oars and started to pull
with all our might to get from the ship before she sank,
for now there was little doubt of what would happen.
''We could see some gathered in the steerage,
huddled together, as we pulled away, and then cries of
fear came to us.
"We hardly reached a point a hundred yards away
— and I believe the boat I was in was the last to get
safely away — when the horrible screams came through
the night and the ship plunged swiftly down. It was so
terribly sudden, and then there was a vast quiet, dur-
ing which we shivered over the oars and the women
cried hysterically. Some of them tried to jump over-
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 11
board and we had to struggle in the shaky boat to hold
them until they quieted down.
VICTIMS FLOATED TO SURFACE
"There was little widespread suction from the sink-
ing ship, strange to say, and shortly after it went down
people came to the surface, some of them struggling
and fighting to remain afloat, and some were very still.
But they all sank before we could reach them.
"It was bitterly cold and most of us were partly wet.
It seemed hours before the Carpathia came up and took
us aboard. Why, it was so cold that on board the
Titanic we had been drinking hot drinks as if it were
winter. The weather was absolutely clear, there was not
the shghtest fog or mist."
BOILER BLAST SPLIT ^^SSEL
Mrs. E. W. Carter left the Carpathia terribly shaken
by her experience. She was met at the pier by Albert
B. Ashforth. Mrs. Carter could not talk of the collision
and the wreck, but Mr. Ashforth said that what had
impressed her was the last boiler explosion.
"Mrs. Carter said that the shock of the collision was
nothing," said Mr. Ashforth, "but the last boiler ex-*'
plosion tore the ship to pieces. She was in the last boat
off."
What impressed E. Z. Taylor of Philadelphia most
was the lack of excitement when the ship struck. He
said he was on deck when the Titanic hit the iceberg
78 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
and that he did not see any iceberg and did not think
that anybody else did. Mr. Taylor said that he saw
Mr. Isinay get into a boat fifteen minutes before the
Titanic sank.
BAND PLAYED UNTIL END
Three sisters, Mrs. Robert C. Cornell, the wife of
Magistrate Cornell; Mrs. E. B. Appleton, and Mrs.
John Murray Brown of Acton, Mass., went immedi-
ately to the home of Magistrate Cornell and related to
George S. Keyes, a son-in-law of Mrs. Brown, what
they had gone through. Mrs. Brown's story is the most
vivid, as she left the Titanic in the last boat that got
away safely.
"The discipline was magnificent," she said. "The
band played, marching from deck to deck, and as the
ship was engulfed you could hear the music plainly.
The last I saw of the band the musicians were up to
their knees in water.
"My two sisters and I were separated and each got
in different boats. The captain stood on the bridge, and
when the water covered the ship he was offered assist^
ance and told to get in one of the lifeboats, but he re-
fused to do so.
WATCHED PARTING OF ASTORS
"Mrs. Astor was in the lifeboat with my sister, Mrs.
Cornell. I saw Col. Astor help her into the boat. He
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 79
said he would wait for the men. I saw him cm the ship
after our boat left the Titanic.
"We had a rough experience, many of the women
having to use the oars. Mrs. Appleton's hands were
badly torn, but I understand there was not a single case
of illness among the survivors because of exposure.
"Picture a situation such as this! Another woman
and myself were waiting to be helped into the lifeboat.
The woman held my arm. I do not know her name.
There was just one seat left in the boat. The woman
said to the men, *This woman has children; let her go
first. I'll take the next boat.' I believe she was put in
the next boat. That boat was swamped."
DROVE SEVERAL MEN BACK
Mrs. Ada Clark, an Enghsh woman who lost her
husband in the wreck, stayed in her berth for half an
hour after the coUison.
"The shock was so light that it did not disturb me,"
Ishe said, "and my husband told me to go back to sleep
again. Then the stewardess came along and yelled,
'Everybody on deck.' There was no disturbance in
filling the small boats. My husband put me in, kissed
me goodbye and commended me to God. After I got
into the boat two men tried to step in. An officer said
that the boat was only for womei> and they stepped
right back.
i
80 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
"I was in my night dress. The cold reached my
brain and everybody in the boat was so benumbed from
cold that we could not realize what a terrible thing had
happened. Then somebody said, *It's gone/ and we
sat there without showing any emotion."
SAVED WITH HER CHILDREN
Mrs. Allen O. Becker, who is attached to the Ameri-
can Lutheran Missionary Society of Foreign Missions,
and her three children, Ruth, 11; Marion, 8, and
Richard, 6, were rescued from the Titanic,
She said she was awakened about 10:30 and a
steward told her that everything was safe and that she
could go back to sleep. In a half hour she was awakened
by a steward who told her to take her three children in
a hurry, as they were going to be put into a lifeboat.
They did not get a chance to dress.
Mrs. Becker said that a steward took two of the chil-
dren and she went with Ruth, but they all met in the
same lifeboat. She said that they were in the boat
until almost 5 o'clock when they were picked up.
JUMPED INTO SMALL LIFEBOAT
Abraham Hyman, a steerage passenger from Man-
chester, England, won his safety by leaving the steerage
and going into the first cabin.
"I got alongside of a boat," he said, "and as they lowj
ered it, full of passengers, I just crowded in beside the
Copyright Underwood & Underwood
MR. C. M. HAYS
Pre'Ment of the Grand Trunk Railroad, who lost his life,
and daughter Margaret were saved
Mrs. Hays
I.
Plioto Win. L. Koelme
MRS. IDA HIPPACH AND DAUGHTER JEAN
Both of whom were rescued from the Titanic
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 81
man at the tiller. They could have taken fifteen more
people in our boat. There was no commotion in the
first cabin. I heard that a man was shot in a panic in
the steerage. When our boat got into the water it
drifted under the exhaust of the Titanic and we were
nearly swamped. We rowed off for about half a mile
and then saw the lights on the Titanic sink gradually
out of sight. As the Titanic sank the lights went dowTi,
one after another."
Hyman said he heard of otie man who had been sit-
ting on a pile of deck chairs when the last explosion
came who was blown off with the deck chairs. The man
was found in the ocean on the deck chairs.
BOILERS REND GREAT SHIP
John Snyder and his wife of Indianapolis told how
the boilers of the Titanic exploded and literally tore the
ship to pieces.
"We were in our stateroom and I was asleep," Mr.
Snyder said. "The jar that came when the ship struck
the berg did not even awaken me, and later when my
vvdfe aroused me we could hear persons running about
the ship. Then a steward came and told us that there
was danger and that we had better dress at once.
"We did dress and went on the second deck. There
seemed no great excitement among the passengers, al-
though the officers of the ship were giving orders to
82 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
the crew to lower the lifeboats and were telling the pas-
sengers to get into them.
"We were told to get into a boat and we did, al-
though at the time I much preferred staying on the
Titanic, It looked safe on the Titanic and far from safe
in the lifeboat. Before we knew what was being done
with us we were swung from the Titanic into the sea
and then the boat was so crowded that the women lay-
on the bottom to give the crew a chance to row.
TITANIC SANK GRADUALLY
"We went about 200 yards from the Titanic, We
could see nothing wrong except that the big boat
seemed to be settling at the bow. Still we could not
make ourselves believe that the Titanic would sink. But
the Titanic continued to settle, and we could see the pas-
sengers plimging about the decks and hear their cries.
"We moved farther away. Suddenly there came
two sharp explosions as the water rushed into the boiler
room and the boilers exploded.
"The explosions counteracted the eflPect of the suc-
tion made when the big boat went to the bottom and it
is more than probable that this saved some of the life-
boats from being drawn to the bottom.
EXPLOSIONS KILLED MANY
"Following the explosion we could see persons hang-
ing to the side railings of the sinking boat. It is my^
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 83
opinion that many persons were killed by these ex-
plosions and were not drowned.
"Others of the passengers were tossed into the water.
For an hour after the explosions we could see them
swimming about in the water or floating on the life
belts. We could hear their groans and their cries for
help, but we did not go to them. To have done this
would have swamped our own boat and everybody would
have been lost. Several persons did float up to our
boat and we took them on board.
"After we had got aboard the Carpathia we did not
see J. Bruce Ismay until today, when he came on deck
for a short time. He seemed badly broken up. You
would hardly have known him."
PERIL UNKNOWN AT FIEST
A Mr. Chambers, one of the survivors, had this to
say:
"The Titanic struck the iceberg. The passengers
ran out, but, believing that the ship could not sink and
being assured of this by the officers, again went back to
their staterooms. After about two hours the alarm
was sent out and the passengers started to enter the life-
boats. There was nothing like a panic at first, as all
beheved that there were plenty of lifeboats to go
around."
After the lifeboat in which Mr. Chambers was had
84 V/EECK OF THE TITANIC
gone about 400 yards from the ship, those in it saw the
Titanic begin to settle quickly and there was a rush for
the remaining lifeboats. One was swamped.
The great ship sank slowly by its head and no suc-
tion was felt by the boat in which Mr. Chambers was.
GREEN LANTERNS SAYED MANY
Henry Stengel of Newark said it was only the fore-
thought of a member of a boat crew who was quick
witted enough to snatch up three green lights that saved
a number of the lives of those adrift in the tin}^ lifeboat.
'*These green lights," he said, "shining through the
darkness enabled the othep boats' crews to keep close
together in the ice jfiUed waters."
Mr. Stengel put his wife in a boat and then fol-
lowed. He said that early the next morning, shortly
after they had been picked up, they saw floating far
away a gigantic iceberg, with two peaks shining in the
morning sun. There was the berg that sent the Titanic
to the bottom, he thought.
JUMPED INTO sea; PICKED UP
E. Z. Taylor of Philadelphia, one of the survivors,
jumped into the sea just three minutes before the boat
sank. He told a graphic story as he came from the
Carpathia,
*'I was eating when the boat struck the iceberg," he
said. "There was an awful shock that made the boat
V/RECK OF THE TITANIC 85
tremble from stem to stem. I did not realize for some
time what had happened. No one seemed to know the
extent of the accident. We were told that an iceberg
had been struck by the ship.
"I felt the boat rise and it seemed to me that it was
riding over the ice. I ran out on deck and then I could
see ice. It was a veritable sea of ice and the boat was
rocking over it. I should say that parts of the iceberg
were eighty feet high, but it had been broken into sec-
tions, probably by our ship.
"I jumped into the ocean and was picked up by one
of the boats. I never expected to see land again. I
waited on board the boat until the lights went out. It
seemed to me that the discipline on board was won-
derful."
SCENE AT RESCUE DESCRIBED
A passenger aboard the rescue ship Carpathian Miss
Sue Eva Rule, a sister of Judge Virgil Rule of St.
Louis, Mo., detailed the thrilling scenes which marked
the rescue of the survivors of the greatest maritime
tragedy of the age.
"Unknown to the sleeping passengers, the ship
turned abruptly to the north. None knew of the sud-
den change of course and the first intimation anybody
got of the fact that anything unusual was about to take
place was the order given the steward to prepare break-
fast for 3,000.
B6 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
"The tidings ran through the ship like wildfire and
long before the Cunarder had come within the scene of
the tragedy we were all on deck.
FIEST OF BOATS SIGHTED
**Just as day broke a tiny craft was sighted rowing
towards us and as it came closer we saw women huddled
together, the stronger ones manning the oars. The
first to come aboard was a nurse maid who had wrapped
in a coat an eleven-months-old baby, the only one of a
family of five persons to be rescued.
"The men and women both seemed dazed. Most of
them had almost perished with the cold, and some of
them who had been literally thrown into the lifeboats
perished from exposure.
"One of the most harrowing scenes I ever saw was
the service of thanksgiving, followed by the prayers for
the dead, which during the incoming of the little band
of survivors, took place in the dining saloon of the Car-
pathia. The moans of the women and the cries of Httle
children as their loss was brought home to them were
heartrending. The hope that by some means their be-
loved ones would be saved never left the survivors.
SUEVIVORS IN STBANGE DKESS
"How those who were saved survived the exposure
is a miracle. One woman came aboard devoid of under-
wear, a Turkish towel wrapped about her waist served
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 87
as a corset, while a magnificent evening wrap was her
only protection.
"Women in evening frocks and white satin slippers
and children wrapped in steamer rugs were ordinary-
sights and very soon the passengers themselves were
almost in as bad a plight as the rescued. Trunks were
unpacked and clothing distributed right and left. Fin-
ally the steamer rugs were ripped apart and sewed into
impromptu garments.
"My first view of the first boat sighted led ine to think
we were picking up the crew of a dirigible. Back of the
boat loomed in the shadowy dawn the huge iceberg
which had sent the Titanic to the bottom. The life-
boat looked like the usual boat which swings from a
balloon.
WOMEN DISCUSSED SCENES
"After an hour or so of rest the only relief the
women who had been literally torn from their husbands
seemed to have was in discussing the last scenes. Shoot-
ing was heard by many in the lifeboats just before
the ship took its final plunge and sank from sight,
and the opinion of many was that the men rather
than drown shot themselves.
*'Mrs. Astor, who was one of the first to come
aboard, was taken at once to the captain's room. Others
were distributed among the cabins, the Carpathia's pas-
sengers sleeping on the floors of the saloons, in the bath-
88 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
rooms, and on the tables throughout the ship in order
to let the survivors of the wreck have as much comfort
as the ship afforded.
"One woman came aboard with a six months' baby-
she had never seen until the moment it was thrust into
her arms as she swung into the lifeboat. Nothing could
equal the generosity and helpfulness of the Carpathians
passengers." J ;
DOUBTED W^OED AT FIRST
Mrs. Louise Mansfield Ogden, of Manhattan, des-
cribed tonight how she felt when she heard the Car-
patJua's whistle sounding early in the morning. Mrs.
Ogden asked her husband if there was a fog. Mr.
Ogden had left the stateroom, however, and did not
explain until some ten minutes later. The ship had
then slowed down perceptibly, and Mrs. Ogden was
pretty nervous.
Then her husband returned and told her that there
had been a great accident and that the Carpathia was
going to help.
"The passengers are asked to keep to their rooms,"
he said. "There isn't any need of being frightened.
There's been no fire on our boat, but there has been
an accident to the Titanic/^
Mrs. Ogden thought that an accident to the Titanic
was quite too ridiculous to think of and in that she
shared the impression which, so she learned afterward.
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 89
I
was current upon the Titanic after the latter had struck.
Mrs. Ogden dressed hastih^ and went out on deck.
BOATS FILLED WITH SURVIVORS
"I saw there on the bosom of the ocean," she said,
"a boat full of women and children. I suppose there
must have been sailors there too, but I did not see them.
There were only one or two women in evening dress, but
most of them were clad in fur coats over their kimonos
or nightgowns. They had on their evening slippers and
silk stockings. Some of them wore hats.
"Far in the distance were two or three other black
specks which we made out also to be boats. As day-
light grew we made out more and more boats, three on
one side of our ship and Bye on the other. Still later
I we picked up more.
"Here and there on the ocean's surface among the
field of ice were bits of wreckage from the broken
Titanic, and there were in sight many bergs eighty and
ninety feet high. The passengers of the Titanic were
taken aboard the Carpathia boatload by boatload up
sea ladders.
MOST WOMEN HOISTED ABOARD
"The women, most of them, were hoisted to the
decks of the Carpathia in swings but a few were hardy
enough to climb aboard by the sea ladders. The ocean
90
WRECK OF THE TITANIC
all this time was calm as a lake and it was not a difficult
task to take the excess passengers aboard.
"Some of the women helped out in the rowing in
the lifeboats themselves."
Mrs. Ogden said that she saw the hands of Mrs
Astor, Mrs. John B. Thayer and Mrs. George D,
Widener red from the oars. Most of the wot^en were
wet to the knees from the icy water that had ;^!oppe(
into the Titanic's Ufeboats.
— Indianapolis Star
Lest We Forget
CHAPTER X
SORROW AND HONOR AND MEMORY
EQUAL
Heroism Was Uniform and Universal and No Dis-
tinctions Need Be Drawn
There are differences between the statements of
those rescued from the perished Titanic, There are
contradictions as well as differences. The fact, how-
ever, but confirms the sincerity and the endeavor to be
truthful of all who try to tell the story. Agreement
on every detail would suggest collusion and impair faith
in what was said.
Readers who bear these facts in mind will get at the
substantial truth of the various accounts and draw the
correct conclusions from them. The one and great con-
clusion to be drawn is that which proves the bravery
and unselfishness of oflicers and crew and passengers,
the fortitude of women, the consideration of all for the
children, and the credit the entire story casts on the
unselfishness of human beings in a sudden and con-
certed exchange of worlds.
If the tragedy is sorrow's crown of sorrow, the
tragedy is likewise a justification of the claim of the lost
91
92 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
to the honor as well as to the pity of the race and to
the assurances they were as dear to the Heart of God
as they will forever be to the chronicles and traditions
of men. Every soul alone knows and can never fully
tell its own grief. Every household alone realizes and
can never fully tell its own loss. No riven heart can
ever beheve another's heart suffers woe like unto its
woe. That is universal because natural. It is also in
process of time consoling.
Equally true it is that there should be no compari-
sons instituted between exemplars of heroism where
heroism was uniform and universal. Any one of us well
knew friends who perished together, in one another's
arms maybe. But others, too, know friends of theirs
who met the same fate with the same courage. Com-
parison, contrast or competition of credit under such
circumstances were revolting and impossible.
The men who have died for men have won the
laurels of the race. The men who died for women
are entitled to the love as well as to the laurels of the
race. The men who died for little children are ever-
more shrined in the heart of Him "Who took the little
children in His arms and blessed them," as He said,
"For of such is the Kingdom of Heaven."
If there is any rose of distinction in the chaplet
memory, let it go to the husbands and wives who lil
erally loved, lived and died together, each refusing
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 93
survive the other. For those dead the portals of Eter-
nity swung wide open, but in the souls of those who
went through them together must have been special joy,
and for them well could be special honor and shall be
The equal and equally honored and equally mourned
dead should have and will have equal remembrance
among the living. For them let sudden death be held
to have been the assured glory of those who did die or
I were ready to die that others might live.
"For tliis cause shall a man lay down even his life,"
said He who once laid down even His for His enemies.
In this instance not a few surrendered their lives even
for strangers. The Friend and Father of all the race
has no rebuke for those made in His image who fol-
lowed His example. God accepts them. Christ receives
them. Humanity cannot forget them. The summons
all must answer, and most of us alone, is answered with
special pathos and power on the sea, in the night and
in grouped comradeship, with the consciousness and
comfort as time recedes and Heaven opens, that if for
them who live for others earth is well, for them who
die for others Eternity has an abundant entrance into
love ineffable.
94 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
THE LAST WORD FROM THE TITANIC
"We rowed frantically away from the Titanic anc
were tied to four other boats. I arose and saw the ship
sinking. The band was playing 'Nearer, My God to
Thee.' " — Mrs, W. J, Douton, a survivor, whose hus-
band was drowned.
Nearer, my Gk)d, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee!
E'en though it be a cross
That raiseth me;
Still all my song shall be
Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee!
Though Uke the wanderer.
The sun gone down,
Darkness be over me.
My rest a stone;
Yet in my dreams I'd be
Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee !
There let the way appear
Steps unto heaven;
All that thou sendest me
In mercy given;
WRECK OF THE TITANIC Ofi
Angels to beckon me.
Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee!
Then with my waking thoughts.
Bright with thy praise.
Out of my stony griefs
Bethel I'll raise;
So by my woes to be
Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee!
Or if on joyful wing
Cleaving the sky,
Sun, moon and stars forgot.
Upward I fly;
Still all my song shall be
Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee.
CHAPTER XI
THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR FATAL
SPEED
The Captain Was Undoubtedly Cakeying Out
Instructions of the Owners
The investigation of a committee of the United
States Senate brought out all the material facts hear-
ing upon the disaster that sent the Titanic and 1,595
persons to the bottom of the Atlantic. Mr. Bruce
Ismay, managing director of the White Star Line, the
first witness, deposed under oath that at the time of
the collision the ship was not going at full speed. That
is a matter of deduction from his testimony. "The
ship's full speed was 78 revolutions. We did not mak
more than 72." The Titanic could steam between 2!
and 23 knots an hour, so it is evident that her speed wa
at the rate of about 21 knots, and therefore high ii
an ice drift where bergs could be seen by daylight anc
might be encountered suddenly after dark.
It was a clear, starlight night, the sea was calm
and except for the presence of loose floes and masse
of ice with submerged bases there was no reason wh;
the Titanic should not have been making good tim
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^'dl^E^I
4;^^H
i^
"
^
"^^Mmmum^KBt
W^' ^mM
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 97
But the exception was very important. Obviously the
great ship was proceeding at a high rate of speed under
orders of the captain, who just as obviously was trying
to carry out the instructions of his employers. If the
Titanic was not as fast a ship as the Lusitania or the
Mauretania she was expected to make a good record on
her maiden trip, which could not be done unless she
held to a prescribed route. It was certainly in the
power of Mr. Ismay to have the Titanic' s course changed
to the south when dangerous ice was reported ahead.
The warning had come by wireless from the Amerika
the day before the disaster. But to take at once a
more southerly course would have involved a loss in
time of several hours at least on the maiden voyage of
the great Titanic,
After the tragic event it seems criminal that the
course was not changed if the new ship was to be
driven on at a speed of 21 knots. The alternative was
to proceed slowly through the ice field, but at a rate to
keep her under perfect control. A steamship of the
size of the Titanic must maintain a speed proportion-
ately greater than the speed at which a vessel of half
her tonnage can be handled in an emergency. What,
then, is the explanation of her forging through ice-
strewn water almost at maximum velocity? Can there
be any doubt that the risk was not understood? Swiftly
to condemn is to lose sight of the fact that the experi-
ce,
98 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
ence of captains of transatlantic liners with fields of ice,
particularly with bergs partly submerged, is negligibl
To the commander of the Titanic, a veteran who h
made the passage hundreds of times, the conditions tha
destroyed his ship presented no perils requiring him to
slow down to headway speed or to safe manoeuvring
speed. It was sufficient for him that the night was
clear, that the ice was loose. He believed, as he had
declared before he took charge of the ship, that she
was unsinkable. A faith fatal in its consequences, but
he knew nothing of the power of a great mass of float-
ing ice to tear out the side of a 45,000-ton ship and
smash in her watertight compartments. It is clear
enough that the loss of the Titanic and the sacrifice of
two-thirds of her passengers and crew was due more
to ignorance and misplaced confidence than to crim-
inal carelessness.
After the event the world knows that a fearful risk
was taken that ought to have been avoided. It is the
old painful story of implicit faith in experience that
proved valueless and in judgment that was falUble. A
thousand and a half lives seem to have been wantonly
sacrificed, but to place the responsibility without miti-
gation is not as simple as it seems in the shadow of the
awful disaster. The verdict will be pronoimced im-
flinchingly, but let the investigation be dehberate and
the evidence complete. — New York Sun,
CHAPTER XII
OTHER CONTRIBUTING CAUSES OF THE
DISASTER
In Addition to Lack of Lifeboats, Cbjews Did Not
Know How to Manage Those Thejy Had — Also
FiKE Raged in Coal Bunkers From the Start —
Inexperienced Crew
There was some criticism among the suimvors of the
Titanic crew's inability to handle the lifeboi^ts. "The
crew of the Titanic was a new one, of course,"' declared
Mrs. George N. Stone of Cincinnati, "and-had i^i^yer
been through a lifeboat drill, or any training in the rudi-
ments of launching, manning and equipping the boats.
Scores of lives were thus ruthlessly wasted, a sacrifice to
inefficiency. Had there been any sea running, instead
of the glassy calm that prevailed, not a single passenger
would have safely reached the surface of the water. The
men did not know how to lower the boats ; the boats were
not provisioned; many of the sailors could not handle
an oar with reasonable skill."
NO BOAT DRILLS HELD
Albert Major, steward of the Titanic ^ admitted that
there had been no boat drills and that the hf eboats were
poorly handled.
99
100 WBECK OF, THE TITANIC
"One thing comes to my mind above all else as I
live over again the -finking of the Titanic" he said.
"We of the crew rr/alfeed at the start of the trouble that
we were imorgariized, and, although every man did his
best, we were hi ndered in getting the best results because
we could not p^ull together.
"There hmd not been a single boat drill on the
Titanic, The; only time we were brought together was
when we wer e 'mustered for roll call about 9 o'clock on
the morning; we sailed. From Wednesday noon until
Sunday npjarly five days passed, but there was no boat
drin.^
,,. The White Star liner 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 on the day of land-
ing by the survivors of the crew who were sent back to
England on board the Red Star liner Lapland, was only
one of the many thrilling tales of the first — and last —
voyage of the Titanic.
"The Titanic sailed from Southampton on Wednes-
day, April 10, at noon," said J. Dilley, fireman on the
Titanic^ who lives at 21 Milton road, Newington,
London, North, and who sailed with 150 other members
of the Tiianic^s crew on the Lapland.
"I was assigned to the Titanic from the Oceanic,
where I had served as a fireman. From the dav we
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 101
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.
"Of course, sir," he went on, "the passengers knew
nothing of the fire. Do you think, sir, we'd have let
them know about it? No, sir.
"The fire started in bunker No. 6. There were hun-
dreds 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, sir,
and smoldered for days. The wet coal on top kept the
fiames from coming through, but down in the bottom of
the bunker, sir, the flames was a-raging.
"Two men from each watch of stokers were told off,
sir, to fight that fire. The stokers, you know, sir, work
four hours at a time, so twelve of us was fighting flames
from the day we put out of Southampton until we hit
the iceberg.
"No, sir, we didn't get that fire out, and among the
stokers there was talk, sir, 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 fireboats there to help
us put out the fire.
"But we didn't need such help. It was right under
bunker No. 6 that the iceberg tore the biggest hole in the
102 WRECK OE THE TITANIC
TiianiCj and the flood of water that came through, sir,
put out the fire that our tons and tons of water had not
been ahle to get rid of.
"The stokers were beginning to get alarmed over it,
but the officers told us to keep our mouths shut — ^they
didn't want to alarm the passengers."
Another story told by members of the Titanic' s crew,
was of a fire which is said to have started in one of the
coal bimkers of the vessel shortly after she left her dock
at Southampton, and which was not extinguished until
Saturday afternoon. The story, as told by a fireman,
was as follows :
"It had been necessary to take the coal out of sec-
tions 2 and 3 on the starboard side, forward, and when
the water came rushing in after the collision with the ice
the bulkheads would not hold because they did not have
the supporting weight of the coal. Somebody reported
to Chief Engineer Bell that the forward bulkhead had
given way and the engineer replied: *My God, we are
lost.'
"The engineers stayed by the pumps and went down
with the ship. The firemen and stokers were sent on
deck five minutes before the Titanic sank, when it was
seen that they would inevitably be lost if they stayed
longer at their work of trying to keep the fires in the
boilers and the pumps at work. The lights burned to the
last because the dynamos were run by oil engines."
CHAPTER XIII
MORE OF THE TRAGEDY
Death Waited for Everyone^ Rich and Poor
Alike^ On the Ill-Fated Ship
George D. Widener, the wealthy Philadelphian, and
Arthur L. Ryerson of New York went to their deaths
like men, is the statement by Mrs. Ryerson to her
brother-in-law, E. S. Ryerson, after her rescue. She
says that when the w^omen were put into the lifeboats
they saw Mr. Ryerson and Mr. Widener standing
behind the rail of the Titanic^ both waving their arms,
throwing kisses and calling farewell to their wives and
children. They believed there were boats enough for all.
Mrs. Ryerson had her two daughters, Susan and Emily
B., and a young son, John B., in the boat with her.
air-tight chambers proved death cells
That fifty or more steerage passengers of the Titanic
were immured in a steel prison from which escape was
impossible with the closing of the air-tight compartment
doors in the steerage deck forward of midships was the
statement made by a member of the ship's crew and who
himself verified the fact that escape had been shut off
for these imf ortunates.
103
104 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
To have opened the doors which shut off these steer-
age passengers from the decks and possible escape
would have been to shorten the life of the ship, he
declared, and hurry disaster on all of the hundreds
crowded about the boat davits high above.
NO CHANCE FOR LIVES
"I know that fifty or more steerage passengers,
whose quarters were on the same deck with the glory-
hole used by the stewards of the second cabin, never got
a chance for their lives," the informant said. "I know,
because I nearly got caught myself by the closing of the
water-tight doors leading from the working alley, which
opened from the forward deck through to all the fore-
part of the ship.
"At the first shock all of the stewards in my glory-
hole, forty all told, tumbled from their bunks and went
out through the working alley to see what the trouble
was : I heard some one give an order, 'Look out for the
water-tight doors.' A minute later I started to go back
to the glory-hole to get a life belt, the order having been
passed out to all members of the crew to equip them-
selves with these belts.
STEEL DOORS SLAMMED
"I could not get back through the alley to the glory-
hole because the water-tight doors had slammed tight
across the passageway. There was no way around it.
r
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 105
There was no way for those on the other side of it, in the
forepeak of the ship, to get out to open air.
"I know that none of the people from the steerage
sleeping quarters beyond that water-tight door got out
before it was shut, because they would have had to pass
me in the alley, and none of them did. I spoke to one
of the petty officers about the door being shut and all
those people in there, and he said: 'Well, what can we
do about it now? If those forward compartments hold,
then the air in them will keep us up all the longer.' '*
BELLBOYS AS WELL AS MILLIONAIRES
Among the many hundred of heroic souls who went
bravely and quietly to their end were fifty happy-go-
lucky youngsters shipped as bellboys or messengers to
serve the first cabin passengers. James Humphries, a
quartermaster, who commanded lifeboat No. 11, told a
little story that shows how these fifty lads met death.
Humphries said the boys were called to their regu-
lar 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. Through-
out the first hour of confusion and terror these lads sat
quietly 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
106
WRECK OF THE TITANIC
man was free to save himself if he kept away from the
lifeboats in which the women were taken, the bellboys
scattered to all parts of the ship.
Humphries 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 dis-
cipline.
^ Not one of them attempted to enter a lifeboat.
! Not one of them was saved.
S'Ho-wvr\<p T*lc3,ce ofi ifHe X'xGBL^'VGir*^-^
CHAPTER XIV;
ODDITIES OF THE WRECK
Fate Played Some Strange Feeaks Along With
THE HOEEOR — MoNEY LeSS VALUABLE ThAN
Oranges
One of the cabin passengers of the Titanic, Maj. A.
G. Peuehen of Toronto, left more than $300,000 in
money, jewelry and securities in a box in his cabin when
he left the ship. He went back to his cabin for the box,
but decided to take instead three oranges.
"The money seemed to be a mere mockery at that
time," said the major. "The only trinket I saved was
a little pin which I remembered had always brought me
luck. I picked up the pin and three oranges instead of
the money and the documents."
Maj. Peuehen, who is president of the Standard
Chemical Company of Canada and vice commodore of
the Royal Canadian Yacht Club, was thrust into one of
the boats by the captain and ordered to man an oar.
DEMANDED A BATH
G. Wikeman, the Titanic's barber, was treated for
bruises. He declared that he was blown into the water
107
108 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
by the second explosion on the Titanic, after her colli-
sion with the iceberg.
A passenger mIio was picked up in a drowning con-
dition caused grim amusement on the Carpathia by-
demanding a bath as soon as the doctors were through
with him.
JUMPED FROM THE DECK
Storekeeper Prentice, the last man off the Titanic
to reach the Carpathia, swam about in the icy water for
hours, but soon was restored. He said he had leaped
from the Titanic's poop deck.
Mrs. James Baxter and her daughter, Mrs. P. C.
Douglas of Montreal, Canada, when rescued were wear-
ing the evening dresses that they had on at the Sunday
night concert on the Titanic, having lost all their other
wearing apparel.
A ROMANCE OF THE WRECK
In the midst of death and horror, Cupid played a
httle game and won.
One of the girl survivors of the Titanic, Miss
Marion Wright of Somerset, England, was married in^
New York the day after landing, to Arthur Woolcott
of Cottage Grove, Ore. She came alone from her home
in England to meet her fiance and he had been in New!
WRECK OF THE TITANIC
109
York for nearly a week anxiously awaiting her arrival.
The pair were schoolmates in England and became
engaged before Mr. Woolcott left to become an Oregon
fruit grower.
11^ WORKp OVT
Gettin' the Lesson
— Indianapolis News
HYMN FOR SURVIVORS OF THE TITANIC
By Hall Caine
To the tune of "God, Our Help in Ages Past."
Lord of the everlasting hills,
God of the boundless sea.
Help us through all the shocks of fate
To keep our trust in Thee.
When nature's unrelenting arm
Sweep us like withes away.
Maker of man, be Thou our strength
And our eternal stay.
When blind, insensate, heartless force
Puts out our passing breath.
Make us to see Thy guiding light.
In darkness and in death.
Beneath the roll of soundless waves
Our best and bravest lie ;
Give us to feel their spirits live
Immortal in the sky.
We are Thy children, frail and small,
Formed of the lowly sod.
Comfort our bruised and bleeding souls.
Father and Lord and Gk)d.
110
CHAPTER XV
THE TERROR OF THE SEAS
By Feed S. Millek.
There is one, and but one, danger to navigation
against which the ingenuity of navigators is absolutely-
powerless, and this danger is formed by the vast ice-
bergs— ^floating ice-prairies, some of them — ^which every
month in the year, but more particularly in the winter
months, are sent in shoals from the Arctic and the Ant-
arctic regions to float down the currents of the ocean
until they are finally melted and mingled with warm
waters. A brief account of the origin of these marine
monsters, their action and the manifold dangers they
present to sailors, will be of interest.
Greenland is the breeder of the iceberg for the
northern seas. Greenland is a mysterious continent on
which no vegetable life can endure. Its exact limits
have never yet been traced, but is known to be compara-
tively flat, though covered to immense depths by snow
and ice. This snow and ice forms constantly throughout
the year, and has so formed since prehistoric times. It
heaps up so that the surface of Greenland may be
roughly compared to a vast hill. The enormous weight
111
112
DEPTH Of OCCAM
liiiii^i
/
■:-i
•( ' •'i'miimiiIi iMi'i
:^ .7--^
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 113
of this constantly forming ice causes movements of the
masses from the center to the sea, and thus the glaciers
are formed — vast processions of granite-hard ice which
"flow" very slowly but irresistibly and for vast extents
down to the water.
The size of these great moving plains is indeed
almost unbelievable. The Humboldt glacier is sixty
miles broad, its walls rise three hundred feet from the
place where it meets the sea, and as to its depth inland
it has been plumbed for half a mile. Every year it sends
out over the ocean a mass whose area is greater than that
of the State of New Jersey.
Another of the great Greenland glaciers, called the
Jacobshaven glacier, is two thousand feet broad and one
thousand feet high, and its output to the sea is estimated
as being over 400,000,000,000 cubic feet of ice yearly.
Thousands of miles of this matter are constantly
being emptied into the ocean, the rate of progress being
about forty-two feet a day. Immense masses of solid
ice creep along the shore, at the water's edge presenting
a vertical face of steel-blue ice hard as flint, against
which dash the angry waves of the Arctic. Out this ice
pushes, day after day, until finally its own weight or the
action of the water causes vast sections to break off with
a roar like that of a thousand thunder claps and with a
disturbance in the ocean that could only be compared to
the commotion caused bv the birth of a new island. Thus
114 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
born, the berg floats gently down the currents for the
Grand Banks of Labrador, where the fogs and mists
that continually wreathe that region, shut the icy menace
from view of the anxious mariner frequently until it is
too late for him to turn his vessel to avoid them. In
such weather it is of no help for the lookout on the tops
that the iceberg frequently towers hundreds of feet into
the air. It cannot be seen for the dense blanket of fog
that shuts out sight and shuts out sound, so that even
the wash of the waves dashing against the base of the
approaching destroyer cannot be heard. Only by the
cold radiated from it may its presence be guessed, but
if the wind is blowing from the vessel to the berg the
temperature cannot be felt lowering until the boat is so
near that it is impossible to turn it before the crash
comes.
Again, many of these great masses cannot be seen
above the surface of the sea as they only extend com-
paratively a few feet into the air. Nevertheless eight-
ninths of the berg is always under water, so that, espe-
cially at night, a vast plateau of ice may be gliding
towards a steamer and giving no indication of its
presence.
The steamer Saxde, coming over the same course as
that taken by the Titanic, was in 1890 subjected to
almost the same experience although she escaped as by
a miracle. Rushing along in the midnight gloom its
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 115
path was suddenly barred by a black rampart of steely
ice, 100 feet high. The lookout gave timely warning,
the engines were reversed and the helm put hard aport,
so that the steamer barely crunched along over the sub-
merged foot of the berg, bumping heavily a few times
and being shot off into deep water sidewise so that the
coal and cargo were shifted. This listed the vessel
heavily, in which plight she proceeded slowly to port,
her starboard rail barely clearing the water.
The Normania, in 1900, had a similar experience. It
turned just in time to avoid a direct impact with an
immense berg, but it ran alongside of the floating moun-
tain, shearing its sides and showering itself with ice
scraped off, which loaded the decks.
But these are merely lucky escapes. By far the
greater number of vessels, once they touch the fright-
ful mass of beetling crag and jagged base, are lost on
the moment of impact, the passengers being lucky if
they have the time and the boats to escape with. The
record of the sea is heavy with the account of gallant
ships that perished, some with all on board. Many is
the number that went down and were never heard from
nor a vestige of them seen, but which were supposed to
have been overborne by icebergs. Until very recent
years the wireless telegraph was unheard of and ships
suddenly overtaken could not communicate their plight
but must vanish without leaving a record that they had
116 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
ever been. In this way went the Ismalia, the Columbo,
the Homer, Zanzibar, Surbiton and Bernicia, and to
this day no light has been thrown on the mystery of their
loss. Of course there are many more similar eases, any
year of the last twenty being prolific with instances of
these mysteriously disappearing ships.
The only vessel that can hope to escape destruction
by contact with an iceberg is the especially strengthened
ship built for Arctic exploration. Ships like the Fram
of Amundson, or Peary's ship, are proof against even
a head-on collision as they are very strong and very
light. But an ocean liner is especially vulnerable.
Going at the rapid speed that is nearly always main-
tained on these palatial ships, and with their enormous
weight and displacement and their comparatively weak
structure, the momentum which they acquire shatters
them like glass when it is brought to an instant stop
against a sluggish-moving mass say a mile long, two
hundred feet above the water, 1,600 feet below the water,
of a weight incalculably great and of a hardness like
granite.
Much time has been spent and many efforts have
been made to devise some instrument or discover some
means whereby the presence of an approaching iceberg
might be detected, but so far little progress has been
made toward perfecting anything that at all answers
the requirements. The towering berg can of course be
^ WRECK OF THE TITANIC 117
seen for miles unless hidden by the fog, but what of the
immense masses that lie scarcely visible in the water yet
wholly destructive of whatever ship shall hurl itself
upon that jagged floating reef of ice-coral? Ships that
run on top of such bergs break literally in two, as their
keels are not made to sustain a strain of balancing or
"teetering" as the ship does when it runs upon the
uneven surface of the berg.
But if icebergs are terrible they are beyond doubt
among the most beautiful and superb manifestations of
nature. Think of a mass of glittering minarets and
towers, of domes, arches, collonades, spires and special
forms and features of its own uniquely beautiful — think
of such a mass irradiant with a thousand variations of the
rainbow hues and flashing in the sunlight of a northern
summer day; think of a landscapeful of this delirious
beauty, a bulk as large as the State of Rhode Island,
moving majestically to the open ocean, breaking into
mysterious peals of thunder as it dominates the sea!
Perhaps it will receive and override some goodly vessel
in its unruffled progress from the cold inconceivable
%vhich brought it forth. Perhaps the luckless voyagers
will view its dreadful shape with an awe that will impel
them rather to perish in the deep than to eiidevor to seek
refuge on the sheer and frigid walls that have o'erborne
their ship. But presently the enormous edifice of ice
itself shall sink and perish in the sea, merged with the
118 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
enervating waters of the Gulf Stream — o'erborne as all
things are and set to uses new by that emanation called
Dy the learned "the opposition of forces" and by the wise
called God, which keeps His ministering miiverse in
equipoise and holds its balance true.
— Indianapolis Star
The Toll of the Sea
»
CHAPTER XVI
HEROES AT THE POST OF DUTY
Duty as Steen a Mistress as Despair Gave Many
Opportunities for the Display of Bravery —
Held Prayer Service as Ship Sank
The Rev. Thomas R. Byles, whose requiem mass
was sung on Saturday at the hour he was to have
officiated at his brother's marriage, was last seen leading
a group in prayer on the second cabin deck of the
Titanic when that ship sank. On the morning of the
day the boat struck the iceberg Father Byles had
preached to the passengers in the steerage and most of
them knew him by sight.
I When the Titanic struck the priest was on the upper
deck walking back and forth reading his office, the daily
prayers which form part of the duties of every Roman
Catholic priest. After the real danger was apparent,
survivors say Father Byles went among the passengers,
hearing confessions of some and giving absolution. At
the last he was the center of a group on the deck where
the steerage passengers had been crowded and was lead-
ing in the recitation of the rosary.
119
120 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
This information was given by Miss Agnes McCoy,
who was taken, as soon as she landed from the Car-
pathian to St. Vincent's Hospital. She and her sister,
Alice, were with their brother in the steerage. The two
girls were put into a lifeboat and saw their brother
swimming in the icy water. They called to him to get
into their boat. He tried to grasp the side of the boat,
but one of the sailors beat him back with an oar. In a
minute one of the girls had reached the sailor and held
his arms while the other sister pulled her brother aboard.
"I saw Father Byles when he spoke to us in the
steerage," said Agnes McCoy, "and there was another
priest with him there. He was a German and spoke in
that language. I did not see Father Byles again until
we were told to come up and get into the boat. He was
reading out of a leather bound book"^ — ^his priest's book
of hours — "and did not pay any attention. He thought
as the rest of us did that there wasn't really any danger.
Then I saw him put the book in his pocket and hurry
around to help women into the boats. We were among
the first to get away and I didn't see him any more.
"But there was a fellow^ on the Carpathia who told
me about Father Byles. He was an English lad who
was coming over to this country with his parents and
several brothers and sisters. They were all lost. He
was on the deck with the steerage passengers until the
boat went down. He was holding to a piece of iron, he
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 121
told me, and had his hands badly cut. One of the
explosions threw him out of the water and he was picked
up later.
He said that Father Byles and another priest stayed
with the people after the last boat had gone and that a
big crowd, a hundred maybe, knelt about him. They
were Catholics, Protestants and Jewish people who were
kneeling there, this fellow told me. Father Byles told
them to prepare to meet God and he said the rosary.
The others answered him. Father Byles and the other
priest, he told me, were still standing there praying
when the water came over the deck.
"I did not see Father Byles in the water. But that
is no wonder, for there were hundreds of bodies floating
there after the ship went down. The night was so clear
that we could see plainly and make out faces of those
near us. The lights of the boat were bright almost to
the last. They went out after the explosion. Then we
could hear the people in the water crying for help and
moaning for a long time after the boat went down/'
STUCK TO THEIR POST
Postmaster General Hitchcock recommended that &
provision be inserted in the pending Postoffice Appro-
priation bill authorizing the payment of $2,000, the
maximum amount prescribed by law for payment to the
representatives of railv/ay postal clerks killed while on
122 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
duty, to the families of each of the three American ^ea
post clerks who lost their lives on the Titariic,
"The bravery exhibited by these men," Mr. Hitch
cock said, "in their efforts to safeguard under such try-
ing conditions the valuable mail intrusted to them should
be a source of pride to the entire postal service, and
deserves some marked expression of appreciation from
the government."
When last seen by those who survived the disaster
these three clerks, John S. Marsh, William L. Gwynn
and Oscar S. Woody, were on duty and engaged with
the two British clerks, lago Smith and E. D. WiUiam-
son, in transferring the 200 bags of registered mail con-
taining 400,000 letters from the ship's postoffice to the
upper deck. An officer of the Titanic stated that when
he last saw these men they were working in two feet of
water.
BAND KNEE DEEP IN WATER
Mrs. John Murray Brown, of Acton, Mass., who
with her sisters, Mrs. Robert C. Cornell and Mrs. E. D,
Appleton, was saved, was in the last lifeboat to get
safely away from the Titanic,
"The band played, marching from deck to deck, and
as the ship went under I could still hear the music,"
Mrs. Brown said. "The musicians were up to thei/
knees in the water when I last saw them. Mv sisters
and I were in different boats. We offered assistance to
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 123
Captain Smith of the Titanic when the water covered
the ship, but he refused to get into the boat."
The names of six Englishmen, a German and a
Frenchman go down upon the roll of honor in the
Titanic ivsigedy :
Krins.
Clark.
Hume.
Bratley.
Taylor.
Breicoux
Woodward.
Hartley.
In the list of second cabin passengers on the Titanic,
the names of the eight are linked under the title of
"bandsmen." When the last faint hope was gone, the
eight musicians lined up on deck. Then solemnly and
quietly the kader waved his baton, hands flew to instru-
ments and over the ice laden water floated the strains
of one of the most sadly beautiful hymns ever written.
It was "Nearer, My God, to Thee."
To their playing more than fifteen hundred souls
passed from life.
heroism at home
Plucky Mary Downey at her switchboard played a
hero's part as well as any of the rest of those of whom
the Titanic disaster made heroes. During the days of
suspense following the first news of the accident to the
Titanic, while there were hundreds of people at the
124 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
White Star offices and while even more were calling up
either by local or long distance 'phone, one young
woman sat at the White Star switchboard and bore the
worst of everything. She was there to answer the first
inquiries of relatives and friends of the Titanic's pas-
sengers, to give them what hope she honestly could, to
tell of the latest developments when there were any, to
meet the quick demands of the officials of the line, and
lastly to give immediate service to the throng of report-
ers that camped about the offices. All this, and more,
too, when she had an unbelievably small amount of sleep.
The girl's name is Mary Downey. By the time the
Carpathia had brought to port the remnants of the
Titanic's crew and passengers Miss Downey was as
much of a hero among the White Star people as any
one could be. A good many who were in a position to
know have had much to say about her sticking to the
job day and night. She was about the most composed
person in the offices during those troubled times. Even
Mr. Franklin, the general manager, took time once to
remark to several reporters that Miss Downey "was a
wonder."
The news of the disaster reached New York early
on Monday morning, Miss Downey reached her place
at 6 o'clock. She was there almost continuously unti!
8 o'clock on Tuesday morning. Part of the time she
had an assistant. That afternoon after a few hours
I
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 125
rest, but without having gone to her home, she returned
and again took up the answering of the endless
inquiries. The greater proportion of them she referred
to clerks, but every one had to be looked into first by
her. And when the clerks were all occupied she herself
met the brunt of whatever words of sadness or criticism
came over the wire.
Miss Downey had no idea how many 'phone calls
she answered or made, but she knows that there are
eleven trunk lines coming into the White Star offices,
and that it was only during the hours of the night that
these were not all in use.
f^- The newspaper men who stayed around day and
night appreciated as much, if not more, than any one
else the service which Miss Downey rendered. For
instance, when Mr. Franklin announced that the
Titanic had sunk there were nearly a dozen reporters
who rushed to office 'phones. Within a minute each had
his own office on the wire and was flashing the news.
126
WRECK OF THE TITANIC
-Toledo News-Bee
** Nearer, My God, to Thee"
CHAPTER XVII
WILLIAM THOMAS STEAD, SCHOLAR,
DREAMER AND HUMANITARIAN;
THE GREATEST AND MOST NO-
TABLE MAN ON BOARD THE
TITANIC WHEN SHE SANK
Born in Poverty^ He Rose by His Natural Genius
FOR Accomplishment to Be a World Power;
Always Original^ Always Independent, True
TO His Ideals, First a Worker and Always a
Believer in Good Books
"And you shall be kicked to death in the streets of
London !"
So said the clairvoyant. So prophesied the seer into
the future, the gazer into the crystal bowl — but the
crystal and the future were wrong.
W. T. Stead, world figure, human question inark,
the man of the "automatic hand," who rose and rose and
rose into the world from a beginning of nothing; a
believer in the occult in the voices of the spheres, was not
kicked to death in the streets. London did not see him
die, as the clairvoyant had said- For it was in the whirl-
ing suction which followed the burial of the Titanic, in
127
128 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
the rush and swH and horror of fear dumbed death at
sea that W. T. Stead went into that land from which in
life he believed he drew messages.
And a figure of wonderful, almost grotesque interest
went to death that night in the berg-ripped wreck of the
steamer Titanic,
There was only one thing that could stop him in
his course. That one thing was death. Prison could not
stop his career, the anger of royalty could not check
him, the deafening roar of a nation's displeasure caused
him only to smile grimly and still keep on at what he had
chosen to do.
He was born into the home of a Congregational
minister on July 5, 1849, at Embleton, Northumber-
land, England. The father was a poor man. He had a
large family. The boy's lot was a hard one. His child
life was prosaic — and yet in everything, to him, there
was a bit of a finer appeal, a wonderful yearning to find
out the "why" of things, to know the reason for the
being of this world, to remedy that which seemed wrong.
At 14 entered poverty, stalking, ghastly poverty. A
position was open as errand boy in a merchant's office.
The salary was 4 shillings a week. All except 3 pence,
or 6 cents a week, went toward the support of the
family. The rest he could spend as he wished — 6 cents !
Instead William T. Stead hoarded it, with a pur-
pose, a goal that comes only from ambition. There were
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 129
books to be bought; he must learn. He must study to
satisfy the cravings of his mind. And so penny by
penny the money was saved, to be disbursed now and
then for some cheap edition of a book that was desired,
a book that would be poured over and caressed and
studied and absorbed in the hours of the night.
Then at 17 came the great good fortune. The Boy's
Own Magazine w^as offering prizes for essays. Stead
wTote one on Oliver Cromwell and a guinea came in
payment. But the prize w^as not in money. It was in
books, and perhaps that pleased the boy more than any-
thing else could. Among the volumes that were selected
by him was the poems of James Russell Lowell — and
that volume was the making of William T. Stead's
journalistic career.
In Russia, in Ireland, in Rome, in prison it was
always his prized possession. He carried it with him
always, thumbed almost to pieces, underscored and
marked in the margin.
In those "later years" the question of the unem-
ployed came to Stead. It appealed to him. He pursued
every account of work for the relief of the "out of
works." He worked for the betterment of men w^ho
suffered through unemployment. He was made assist-
ant editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, then virtual editor.
And it was then that William T. Stead began to
wake up England.
130 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
London was rotten with a leprosy of white slavery.
Nobles, members of parliament, dukes, lords, all were in
a great traffic in young girls that was carrying them
down and down into a whirlpool from which there was
no means of escape. London knew of the adder in its
breast, but London tried not to see. London was aware
that girls were being sold and bartered. But London
did not seek further knowledge.
William T. Stead saw and knew. He looked farther
into the future, and conceived what it would mean to
bring all this to the surface, to expose it, and force it so
visibly upon the people that they would demand action.
The whole great reform might recoil upon the reformer
and drown him in its tide of frenzied awakening.
The slothful morals might resist the efforts of the
man who sought to arouse them and crush him. But
Stead, grim faced, determined, decided to make the try.
His name, his reputation, his freedom was on one side,
against the torture of souls on the other. He might lose
what he possessed in the effort to free the other, but
then
He took the dice box of fate into his hands and
shook forth the cubes. They tumbled upon the green
cloth of fortune, they wavered, then turned against him,
then settled. He won.
And it was thus that they turned to the winning
angle: Stead had found indisputable evidence of whaj
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 131
he wished to prove. He knew that power was against
him, that money was against him, and that corruption
was against him. He knew that the one element that
could save him was the angry indignation of the popu-
lace. He set out to win that.
Bit by bit he gathered his testimony, name after
name w^as secured, incident after incident was placed in
sequence, and then, one morning in 1885, the blow that
changed England's morals, or at least a part of them,
fell. London awoke to stare, to gasp. Stead had called
his exposure "The Maiden Tribute of Babylon," and
there was truth to back every statement.
One exposure followed another, every fact was there,
every bit of testimony stood forth in a nakedness of
truth that was horrifying in its plainness.
Stead was arrested. He was thrown into prison on
the charge that he had committed an infraction of the
laws. But he only smiled. He knew that he had won,
that parliament would be forced to pass a law that would
wipe out the white slavery. And parliament did.
Twenty years after visitors who went to the office
of William T. Stead found him wearing a prison garb,
numbered as it had been in the days when he suffered for
the cause that he knew to be right. They were sur-
prised. Wilham T. Stead informed them that it was
merely his anniversary, his means of celebrating a
victory of the past.
132
WRECK OF THE TITANIC
It was in 1893 and 1894 that William T. Stead made
himself best known to Chicagoans. For it was then that
he came here, and, being impressed with Chicago and
its inner workings, began the writing of a book that
made him more famous than ever all over the world.
That book was called "If Christ Came to Chicago.'*
When it was published it swept the country.
Wm. T. Stead was, beyond doubt, the personal
friend of more living and dead monarchs than any
private citizen on earth. He interviewed more celebrities
than any one writer in history.
— H. Norherg in Kansas City 8tai
The Spirit op Grief
i
CHAPTER XVIII
MANY MEMORIAl.S FOR TITANIC
TRAGEDY
Churches All Over Country Unite in Holding
Services Devoted to the Disaster — New York
Mass Meeting
Expressions of tender, heartfelt sympathy for those
who were in great grief; sorrow for those who died;
glowing words of tribute for the heroism which had
thrilled the world and then strong words urging legisla-
tion and regulation to prevent a recurrence of the
Titanic catastrophe marked the memorial meeting at
the Broadway Theater Sunday afternoon, April 21,
1912. Solemn as the occasion was, the great audience
which jammed the auditorium from orchestra to top-
most balcony could not forbear testifying its approval
of that which was said at times or in joining in hearty
approval of the resolutions which crystallized the sen-
timent.
The meeting was presided over by Frederick Town-
send Martin and the principal speaker was William
Jennings Bryan.
Mr. Martin made a brief introductory address. The
133
134 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
greater the sorrow the less the tongue could say, he
declared; there are some sorrows too great to dwell
upon. We can only mourn for those who perished; we
can only sympathize with those that are suffering today.
"We have rejoiced," he said, *'over the great strides of
business and commerce. We have beUeved in it, aided it
until this commerce has grown too greedy and it has
taken advantage of our confidence. It has preferred
to spend its millions in extravagances and pennies for
safety; we now reap the result of that policy."
Mr. Martin said that sorrow is a great educator.
"We sometimes see further through a tear than through
a telescope." It might be that out of this will come
great good to the future. He called the conduct of
those in the wreck heroic, showing a heroism "that only
the angels can surpass, far greater than that shown on
the greatest battlefield in the world's history." At the
conclusion of his speech he introduced Mr. Bryan.
The epigram about seeing further through the tear
than through the telescope had appealed to Mr. Bryan
and he used it as a text at the outset. "May we see
through these tears now," he said.
"Our coming here today is an evidence that some-
times all of us can meet together, and we do meet
together when drawn by a common purpose. There
is a difference in education between us, much more than
WRECK OF. THE TITANIC 135
there should be, I fear; there is a difference in wealth,
much more than there should be ; there is a difference of
church, much more than there should be, but we are all
one when our hearts are touched, when we meet together
upon the foundation of the heart."
Many more people had died in a given period than
the Titanic catastrophe had called for, "it is not because
so many died in a shorter period that we come here, but
because of the suddenness of the death, the awfulness of
it." Mr. Bryan used then the figure of a river and its
tributaries. The storm of a single tributary had no
effect on its volume; it is only when there is a general
storm, when the water pours in from everywhere that the
mighty stream rises, sweeps over its banks. "So these
people dying in a single moment have broken down all
man made boundaries — we rush forth oversweeping
everything that would prevent us.
"An occasion of this kind teaches its lessons," Mr.
Bryan continued. "A great emergency is like a stage
upon which the people play a part as before an audience.
In the street you cannot tell the hero from the villain,
but when you come upon the stage you see them all ; they
show us the little and the great, the rich and the poor,
the wise and the simple as they really are ; and this catas-
trophe has given us a chance to see how many heroes
there are who only need a call forward to vindicate their
right to be admired.
130 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
"I am proud of what we hare learned of these men
and these women, proud to know of their self-control
that has given them the power to face death undismayed,
aye, to stand back and say: 'Before irie.'
"It is very easy to be polite when there is no danger
in waiting; it is harder when delay, even for a moment,
may mean death. I am proud of the records that have
been made and glad that these illustrious examples come
from every class.
"Some of the names are known. But it is not only
they that need to be remembered at such a time as this.
A gentleman was telling me yesterday a story he had
heard from one of the survivors in that busy hour when
all were seeking a means of escape. One of the passen-
gers, a woman, was putting on a life preserver, and said
\o the steward : * Where is yours ?' The answer was : 'I
Jam afraid there are not enough to go round.'
"He was doing v/hat he could to save the others, and
I am sure that none has read the story without being
touched b}^ it, of those wives who would not leave their
husbands, who preferred to share the dangers of remain-
ing with them to seizing the opportunity to escape. I
knew one of these men in Congress. I w^as a colleague
of Mr. Straus twenty years ago, and it is pleasant to
know that he was a hero and not afraid ; and it is sweet
to know that the wife who had been his companion for
so many years was true to the history of that earlier
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 137
Ruth and preferred not to leave him — 'Entreat me not
to leave thee.' These examples of manliness and woman-
liness are the heritage of our people. They make us
proud of those whom we knew, who were a part of us.
* 'Nothing that we can say can bring back the dead,"
said Mr. Bryan a little further on. "And little that we
can say can soothe those who are under the shadow of a
great personal loss.
"Those occasions are for the future more than for
now, for others more than for ourselves." Mr. Bryan
told then of a conversation with a lawyer in a Western
city years ago, who had said : "Without the shedding of
blood there can be no remission of sins."
"He said," the speaker continued, " *You cannot cor-
rect a great wrong until somebody is killed; you may
talk about dangers, but they will not listen.' Not until
the tragedy of death shocks us will we pay attention.
Often we do not know what needs to be done or provided
until emergency throws its light upon the situation."
He told of his own experience in the West Indies last
year when the ship upon which he was traveling ran
upon a coral reef. The experience was not dangerous;
there was no peril. "But I learned then for the first
time," he continued, "that they had but one wireless
operator upon ships of that size and that by agreement
the operators slept from 1 :30 till 6 o'clock, four hours
138 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
in the night when a sinking ship could not call another
ship even if but a few miles away.
"The moment w^e found out the situation we were
anxious that a law should be passed to require not less
than two operators on a ship that there might be no
delay in the securing of succor. We were not in danger
and we could wait ten hours, but in tliree hours the
Titanic went down. We learned then we needed more
operators and bills are now before Congress to remedy
this, and I have no doubt that this great disaster, this
greater, this gigantic, this Titanic disaster will result in
legislation that will be beneficial to those who come
after.
"I venture the prediction that the wireless system
will be made more immediately effective and efficient
over a wider area and that the chance of danger will be
diminished. I venture the assertion that as the result of
the investigation now going on better preparations will
be made with the lifeboats for the safety of passengers.
I venture the assertion that less attention will be paid to
comforts and luxuries that can be dispensed with and
more thought given to the lives of those entrusted to the
care of those shipbuilders and shipowners. I venture
to assert also that the mania for speed will receive a
check and that people will not be so anxious to get across
the ocean in the shortest time as they will be to get
across."
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 139
Mr. Bryan in conclusion referred to an old Greek
game where the prize was to him that carried a lighted
candle to a goal. "And so these shipowners must learn
that the race is not to the swift, but to those who can
carry the light of life all the way over and not extin-
guish it on the way.
"I am glad to be one of this vast multitude to thus
testify by presence and word to the fact that we are all
one in heart and feeling. I link my heart with yours
in an expression of profound sorrow and in expression
of deepest sympathy, and I link my hope to yours that
this great, unspeakable disaster will bear a fruitage of
good in larger safety to those who go down to the sea
in ships."
Professor Felix Adler in his address to the Ethical
Culture Society said in part:
"Heedlessness and culpable neglect brought on the
Titanic disaster. The public in general must share the
blame. It is pitiful to think of those golf links and
swimming pools on the steamship which is now 2,000
fathoms deep. Though human weakness brought on
the disaster sublime qualities were illustrated after its
occurrence. The rule of the sea is based on moral
equality of women and men. The statement made by
some that women should have declined the preference
well illustrates the rule. Inferior strength and less
140 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
power of endurance is offset by; a better chance for
safety.
"There were places in the lifeboats for the physically
weaker of the women and life belts for the physically
stronger men. It has also been said that more valuable
lives should have had preference, but those for whom
this claim was made were the first to disdain it and they
consorted with the undistinguished people in the steer-
age in the fine democracy of death.
"The most admirable feature was the calmness of
those left behind."
"If the builders of the Titanic had had a real faith
in the almightiness of God," said the Rev. Dr. Charles
A. Eaton in the memorial service at the Madison Avenue
Baptist Church, "they would not have believed that they
could build something to master His seas. It was
science they called upon, science, which since the days
of Martin Luther has grown to be the mentor of the
world. It gave them swimming pools, elevators, gor-
geous suites and promenades, every comfort that a
depraved anl luxurious nation loves. When that proud
ship sailed it had tortured the brains of the race in pro-
duction and incarnated all of complex modern science.
But science, which has brought the world between us
and God, can never produce anything that will not
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 141
crumple at the touch of God. That unconquerable boat
went down.
"That one event has done more to dispel the
wretched selfishness and sleepiness of our age than any-
thing within my lifetime. With its best engines, its
best staterooms, music, provender, diversions, its best
people, it went down at a touch from God. We had
forgotten the brooding deep and all that lies behind.
We had not taken lifeboats.
"The managing director in his palatial saloon, the
crew who did not drill, the man whose duty it was to
bring up a bucketful of sea water for his thermometer
and who filled it at the nearer faucet instead, all of them
secure in their unsinkable ship — fools."
Twenty- two survivor^ from the Titanic, possibly
more, attended the memorial service at the Cathedral
of St. John the Divine Sunday morning after the
disaster. Some of these survivors remained after the
service to speak to the bishop and other clergy to thank
them as they had in the service, thej^ said, thanked God
for their preservation.
At the bases of the chancel arch were great anchors
of purple violets and upon the arches themselves were
the British and American colors. Upon the fronts of
the choir stalls were palm leaves and all doorways were
draped in black and purple. The psalm from the burial
142 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
service was sung while the people knelt, and the choir
came in and at the close of the long and solemn service
went out again in silence. The anthem was Sullivan's
"Yea, though I walk through the shadow of the valley
of death," and the prayers were from the same prayer
book office for the dead.
The Bishop of New York, the president of the house
of deputies of the General Convention, the Archdeacon
of New York, ex-President Smith of Trinity College
and Canons Voorhees, Clover and Watson, with the
cathedral dean, were among those who took part. So
great was the number of people that they were seated
in the choir stalls. Even then many stood. Bishop
Greer's sermon was short, and near its close he bade
the people pray and read a prayer for those in afflic-
tion, which brought the soler^ii occasion to its climax.
Maj. Archibald W. Butt, aid to the President, was
educated at the University of the South, Sewanee, Tenn.,
and about twenty of his classmates, residents of New
York and vicinity, attended a memorial service at St.
Mark's Church, Second avenue and Tenth street. The
Holy Communion service, a part of the memorial one,
was especially for persons who knew the Major.
Seventy-four came forward to receive it.
The rector of St. Mark's, the Rev. W. N. Guthrie,
w^as a classmate of Major Butt and preached the sermon.
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 143
His topic was "How Shall We View God in the Light
of Such a Disaster?" After the service a committee
was named to draw up resolutions of sympathy and
forward them to the Major's family, which resides in
Washington. Classmates w^ho are members of the com-
mittee are Dr. John P. H. Hutchin, Beverly Wrenn,
T. Channing Moore, Robert B. Elliott and William M.
Puckette.
JEWS MOVEN
Services in the Jewish temples of New York were
occasions of mourning for ^e dead in the Titanic dis-
aster. At several of the synagogues the catastrophe
was the subject of the sermon.
At Temple Beth-El, Fifth avenue and Seventy-sixth
street, of which Mr. and Mrs. Isidor Straus, who died
loyally together, were members, all the representatives
of the Straus family now in the city were present. They
were ex- Ambassador Oscar Straus, brother of the dead
philanthropist; Percy Straus, his son; Mrs. Percy
Straus and her sisters, Mrs. Percy Straus' mother, Mrs.
Abraham Abraham, widow of the late Mr. Straus'
business partner; Mrs. Lazarus Kohns, his sister; Lee
Kohns, his nephew, and Mrs. Edmund E. Wise, his
niece.
The Rev. Dr. Samuel Schulman, who during his
fourteen years incumbency as rabbi of the temple had
144 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
been closely associated with Mr. Straus, could scarcely
control his emotions as he spoke. He said in part :
"I knew Isidor Straus for fourteen years. He was
a man with a great intellect, a sensitive conscience, a
great heart, a loyal son of his people, and a loyal
American — a great man.
"God's ways are not our ways. Therefore we should
not attempt to define His motive in this tragic end of a
great person. God sometimes, in His infinite wisdom,
selects a man to designate that his life may be remem-
bered by all mankind. At the conclusion of the Civil
War it seemed to every one that the life of Abraham
Lincoln was complete. His work, a great work, had
been accomplished. Yet God saw one thing lacking.
To perpetuate through the annals of time itself, one
thing was essential. And God designated him and made
a martyr of him.
"Isidor Straus was a great Jew. All the traditions
of the Jew were dear to his heart. In the past we, as
Jews, have been able to say the Jews are great philan-
thropists. Now when we are asked, *Can a Jew die
bravely?' there is an answer in the annals of time. When
we are asked, 'What enabled Isidor Straus to do all
these things V our answer must be, 'God blessed him and
gave him Ida Straus.' Isidor and Ida Straus were two
persons with a single thought. Beloved and adored of
each other in life, in death they were not separated."
Copyright Harris & Ewing
MAJ. ARCHIBALD BUTT
Aid to President Taft. One of the heroic dead, stepping aside
that others might be saved
Cop.vritrlit by P;icli l?ios., N. Y.
ISIDOR STRAUS
The New York millionaire, who lost his life with the sinkiiij
of the ill-fated Titanic
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 145
At Temple Emanu-El, Fifth avenue and Forty-
third street, the "Dead March in Saul" was played dur-
ing the silent prayer. Sounds of sobbing filled the great
edifice throughout the service, which was attended by
Mrs. Benjamin Guggenheim, who was widowed by the
Titanic catastrophe; Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Seligman,
JNIrs. De Witt Seligman, sister of Mr. Guggenheim;
George Rosenheim, whose brother perished in the dis-
aster; Mrs. Leo Greenfield and her son, and Mrs. Edgar
Meyer, the last three of whom were survivors of the
wreck.
"God is the Law Giver of the universe," said the
Rev. Dr. Joseph Silverman, who preached the sermon,
"and His laws are for the benefit of all, not of the few.
When we violate the fundamental laws of nature we
must suffer.
"Men learn by experience. Many may take com-
fort in the thought that the same errors will not again
be committed, and that there will be no great sacrifice
of life in the future from the same causes. All the
progress in the world has been brought about by suf-
fering on the part of individuals. Thousands have
died and many more thousands have suffered in the
cause of science. Millions have died on battlefields for
the sake of liberty. Those on the Titantic when it went
down must be added to the great roll of martyrs to
^^rogress."
146 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
SPECIAL SEHVICE FOR MAJOR BUTT
President and Mrs. Taft attended services at St.
Paul's Episcopal Church in Washington on Sunday
in memory of Maj. Archibald W. Butt, the President's
military aid, who lost his life in the Titanic disaster.
Major Butt was a member of St. Paul's Church.
The services were held at 9 o'clock, before the regu-
lar morning service. Secretary of the Treasury Mac-
Veagh, Secretary of War Stimson, Charles D. Hilles,
secretary to the President, and many persons prominent
in Washington society, including members of the Diplo-
matic Corps, were present.
The services were opened by the singing of "Nearer,
My God, to Thee," the hymn which the heroic bands-
men on the Titanic played as the ship sank. The Rev.
Frank Talbot, pastor of the chmch, took as the text of
his sermon:
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man
lay down his life for his friend."
"It is not my purpose," saio Mr. Talbot, "to dwell
at length on the life, character and death of the gallant
soldier who sacrificed his life for his brother men. This
is not the place to speak nor to listen to human words,
although we are here together in this little church, where
our beloved friend was accustomed, as he said, to slip
in from time to time to attend early communion service,
with which his duties did not interfere, but we are here
WRECK OR THE TITANIC 147
to listen to the words of that Man of Nazareth, who cen-
turies ago died that men might live."
The Rev. Mr. Talbot indorsed the proposal to erect
a monument to the memory of Major Butt.
"After all," he said, "length of days does not count
much. It seems to me that had our friend lived to a
ripe old age his influence for bravery and for nobility
of character could not have been greater than it is today.
His name and his valiant death will be treasured in song
and story for centuries to come."
W^ASHINGTON MOURNS
The President also attended the regular services at
'AH Souls Unitarian Church, and in the afternoon went
to the memorial services at St. John's Episcopal Church
in honor of the Washington victims of the disaster. The
Rev. U. G. B. Pierce, the pastor, referred to the Titanic
disaster in his sermon.
"This is a memorial service," he said, "but during
the last week our hearts have been so taxed, we have
been strained with so many and so many conflicting
emotions that the virtue of this service must be the vir-
tue of self-restraint. We have heard enough. We have
felt too much and we are here now to drink anew at
the fountain of life and to fan into flame the flickering
torch of our faith. We need strength todaj^ in the face
of this affliction."
148 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
The Titanic disaster was the topic of the sermons in
many other Washington churches. The Rev. Samuel
H. Greene, of Calvary Baptist Church, said :
"In the events of the last week we have seen how
sweet and beautiful womanhood could be and how noble
manhood could be at its best, and we have seen how thin
are the partitions that separate the fortunate from the
unfortunate, the rich from the poor. It is not what a
man has but what a man is that counts in the crisis of
life.
"On that night men stood back that women and chil-
dren might reach a place of safety. The millionaire and
the steward stood side by side and both alike were heroes,
"But some one must bear the responsibility for that
disaster through the years to come. So many went
down, and they were not responsible for it. Let us wait
patiently the result of a full and fair investigation."
In nearly all the Catholic churches of the city it was
announced that requiem masses would be sung for the
souls of the victims of the disaster.
MANY MEMORIAL SERVICES IN CHICAGO
Every seat of the auditorium was filled, and hun-
dreds were turned away from the service in the Epis-
copal Cathedral because they were unable to gain an
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 149
entrance. Rt. Rev. Theodore N. Morrison, bishop of
Iowa, occupied the pulpit with Dean Sumner.
HONOR IN DISASTER
"This is not a time for many words," said Dean
Sumner. "Sentences are hollow and sentiments are
commonplace and trite in the face of such an appalling
disaster — disaster from the worldly standpoint, but an
honor to God from the religious point of view.
"It has sobered the world. As we celebrate the
death of little children as martyrs on Holy Innocents'
day we will memorialize those who sank on the Titanic
as the martyrs of this age sacrificed by God to arouse
the world to a deeper spiritual realization, to a desire
for a more splendid type and a consciousness that life
is ever ending and we must be prepared to meet death
when it comes.
"In the risen Christ we find promise of that life to
come, not only for those who have gone before but for
those who remain."
Special prayers were offered up for the dead and
special music by the choir.
PROOF THAT MEN ARE GOOD
Rev. Johnston Myers, of Immanuei Baptist Church,
said:
"We may safely say that the Titanic was the most
perfect human achievement up to the present time, the
150 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
triumph of building on land and sea. In one hour last
Suiiday it was made a pitiful wTeck, and in four hours
the ocean closed over it forever.
"People are better than we think they are. Only
a few months ago pubhc opinion condemned as unfit
one of the men who died as heroes and who is today
acclaimed. The millionaires are not all bad men as it
turns out.
"The nations are remembering God today as not
before. People are praying this Sunday who did not
pray last Sunday."
FALLOWS CONDEMNED OWNERS
Bishop Samuel Fallows, D. D., LL. D., rector of
St. Paul's Reformed Episcopal Church, said:
"We cannot sufficiently condemn those in charge of
the Titanic for dashing ahead in the face of danger of
which they had been forewarned. But let us not forget
that there is a well-nigh insane desire among us all for
excessive speed, both on land and sea.
"It has been clearly demonstrated that in case of
accidents provision is not made as to the nvmiber of
lifeboats for caring for all on board any of the ocean
lines. Must not this be remedied?"
BLOW TO CLASS PREJUDICE
Frederick E. Hopkins, pastor of Park Manor Con-
gregational Church, said:
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 151
*'Among many lessons that we could learn from such
a terrible calamity, one of the most important would
seem to be this: That it ought to be for a long time
more difficult than ever to arouse class prejudice, when
this catastrophe has so clearly shown that the first and
last thought the first cabin passenger had about the
poorest woman in the steerage was that she should be
given the first chance for her life no matter what hap-
pened to the man or woman of millions and of fame."
GUILT AS OUR OWN
Rev. William E. Danforth, pastor of Christ Church,
Elmhurst, said:
"In our dazed pondering of this Titanic disaster let
us confess that the situation which shivered the ship shat-
ters self-deluding ethics. The guilt is not that of any
individual or corporation, but ours, in an age of mania
for speed and smashing records. The one on whom to
fasten the blame is every man to whom all else palls
unless he rides in the biggest ship and the fastest possi-
ble. He will be guilty in his automobile tomorrow."
DUE TO SPEED MANIA
Rev. W. H. Carwardine, pastor of the Windsor
Park M. E. Church, said:
"Fifteen hundred human lives were sacrificed, sent
to a watery grave, with the good ship Titanic^ to satisfy
152 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
the lust for speed, greed and the maritime supremacy
on the sea of an Atlantic steamship company.
"The dare-devil insolence and pride of the human
heart that would drive a vessel at such speed through a
sea of ice and in spite of warning as to danger is stag-
gering and incomprehensible.''
A THOUGHTLESS PEOPLE
Rev. Ingram E. Bill, pastor of the North Shore
Baptist Church, said:
"The lust for conquest and a reckless disregard of
human life is the glaring crime of the hour.
"What if the Titanic had evaded the icebergs and
had swung into sight at the mouth of New York harbor
hours before schedule time, smashing all the trans-
Atlantic records?
"A thoughtless people, who now condemn the tak-
ing of a risk which resulted in the death of 1,500 pre-
cious souls, would have hailed with hysterical delight
this new conqueror of the waves and yelled themselves
hoarse in their demand for more speed and bigger and
better achievements."
REMEMBERED MANHOOD
M. M. Mangasarian spoke before the Independent
Religious Society in the Studebaker Theater. He said
in part :
" 'Noblesse Oblige' — that glorious human precept
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 153
was strictly observed by the splendid crew and passen-
gers of the stricken Titanic. 'Be Britishers!' cried the
veteran Captain Smith through a megaphone from his
bridge. There is nothing more inspiring in any of the
Bibles in the world, except it be the more universal and
thrilling challenge, *Be men!' The Titanic episode has
vindicated human nature grandly. Jew and Christian
and agnostic forgot race and religion to remember that
they were men."
154 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
— St. Louis Olole-Bimocrai
The Tragedy of the Titanic
CHAPTER XIX
STORIES OF THE RESCUED
Scores of First Hand Accounts Reveal More of
THE Actual Happenings, the Bravery Dis-
played, THE Anguish Felt and the Desperation
OF THE Situation Than Do the Most Graphic
Stories of Experienced Writers.
On the four days' cruise back to New York many
who had realized that their experiences would be awaited
by an anxious world put their stories on paper while
their nerves were still at tension from the excitement of
the disaster they had escaped. Many others were inter-
viewed on landing in New York or after reaching their
homes. While these accounts vary and conflict often as
to detail they point unanimously to the universal heroism
of crew and passengers that stamped the disaster with a
character peculiarly its own.
MISS hippach's graphic story.
"Yes, it was terrible. But it already seems like a
dream to me."
So said Miss Gertrude Jean Hippach, aaughter of
Mr. and Mrs. L. A. Hippach, of 7360 Sheridan Road,
Chicago, when questioned in regard to the frightful dis-
aster to the Titanic and its human freight.
15S
156 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
Mrs. Hippach and her daughter left home the first
week in January to spend three months abroad, their
object being to improve Mrs. Hippach's health, and to
visit relatives. Both mother and daughter had been
abroad several times, four times together. As Miss
Hippach remarked: "It was my eighth voyage across
the Atlantic; but I can't imagine I shall ever w^ish to
cross it another time."
"We had expected to return by the Olympic, but
found we were not allowing ourselves time enough for
the short visit in Paris we had planned; so we engaged
passage on the Titanic, which we boarded at Cherbourg.
We touched at Queenstown and then turned toward
America.
"The Titanic was so huge that it is hard to give an
idea of it. It was over eight hundred feet, two blocks
long, and wide in proportion. The staterooms were like
rooms in a hotel. We had a regular bed and a handsome
dressing table and chairs; and there was the lavatory
with hot and cold water and there were electric lights
and an electric fan, and an electric curling iron and of
course push buttons — everything you could think of.
One of our friends, when her husband asked her
if she could think of anything to add to the equipment —
laughed and said, 'Well, we might have butter spreaders ;
I can't think of anything else.' "
"Yet, there was no searchlight," suggested a friend.
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 157
Miss Hippach's face was grave as she echoed in a low
tone, "No searchlight!"
"We had been to the concert in the evening till half
past ten. There was lovely music. The orchestra gave
three fine programs every day; before luncheon, in the
afternoon and after dinner every evening. They were
all real musicians and were appreciated by the people
on board, who w^re the finest lot of people I ever crossed
with — people of leisure and good breeding, all of them.
"Well, we were asleep when the crash came; it was
on our side and we awoke instantly and sat up in bed.
Then the big boat shivered from the shock and then
there was a long scraping, grating kind of noise and
bumping, and then it was still.
"We ran out and found everybody out in the cor-
ridor, asking what was the matter. A steward came
along and said it was nothing; we had only grazed an
iceberg. He advised us to go back to bed. We went
back. But mother said, 'I've never seen an iceberg, and
I'm going to put on some clothes and go on deck.' I
tried to persuade her to go back to bed, but she was
determined. I didn't want to be left alone, so I dressed,
too. I was so sleepy it took me a long time to get
dressed; but we both put on real warm clothes.
"If it had not been for Mr. Astor I believe we would
have been among the lost. The last lifeboat was being
lowered when Mr. Astor saw us. He ordered the boat
158 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
raised so that my mother could get into it. *Don't lowei
that boat until this woman gets in,' said Mr. Astor. We
were compelled to climb through a porthole in order to
reach the boat, but mother would not get into it unless I
joined her. Mr. Astor again showed chivalry by plead-
ing with the officers to permit me to get into the lifeboat,
and they did.
"Colonel Astor was the calmest man during the
exciting moments on the Titanic I ever saw. He smiled
as he engineered the work of putting the women and
children aboard the lifeboats. *Don't worry, the Titanic
will not sink, and we will all be saved,' said Mr. Astor,
as he aided the frightened passengers into the boats.
"Well, we got into the lifeboat, though it didn't seem
necessary, and it was so cold and so far down to the sea.
But everybody was getting in. Ours was the last boat.
Mrs. J. B. Thayer was in it. She rowed all night, hardly
resting at all. She was so brave, although she must
have known that her son and her husband — you know,
she was the one who said her husband had ^better die
than live dishonored.'
"And Mrs. Astor, too, was in our boat. We already
knew her, that is, we knew who she was. She was crying
and her face was bleeding from a cut. One of the oars
struck her somehow. There was a little bride in our
boat with her husband. She clung to him and cried that
she would not go and leave him, so the officers finally
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 159
pushed tliem both in together. There were about thirty-
five in all in our boat, mainly from the steerage."
In describing the lifeboat Miss Hippach indicated
its length roughly as about thirty feet and explained that
the air compartments were up just under the gunwale
all around. She said that it was about five feet deep,
with seats against the sides.
"We had gone back for our hfe belts before we got
in, as the ofiicers told us to do. I got mine on wrong
side before and the ofiicer changed it. That was the
reason, perhaps, why some people couldn't sit down with
them on. And we went back still another time and got
some heavy steamer rugs, two of them, as the ofiicers
said it was going to be very cold on the water and we
might have to stay out several hours. Even then we
didn't expect the Titanic to go down, you see. The rugs
were more than we needed, and we gave them to a poor
woman who had on only a night gown and a waterproof
coat and her baby was in a night gown only. That poor
httle baby! It slept through everything!
"After we had pushed away a little we looked at the
steamer and I said to mother, *It surely is sinking. See
the water is up to those portholes!' And very soon it
w^ent under. To the last those poor musicians stood
there, playing ^Nearer, My God, to Thee' " — and the
girl's voice trembled and stopped.
"We had only one or two in the boat w^ho knew any-
160 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
thing about rowing and they kept turning it this way
and that and again and again it seemed as if we might
be capsized. But we did get away from the Titanic a
little distance before it went down.
*'We picked up eight men from the water, all third-
class passengers, I think. The water was very still and
the sky — so many stars! Xothing but the sea and the
sky. You can't think how it felt out there alone by
ourselves in the Atlantic. And there were so many
shooting stars ; I never saw so many in all my life. You
know they say when you see a shooting star some one is
dying. Vie thought of that, for there were so many
dying, not far from us.
"It was so long, such a long, long night. At last
there was a little faint light. The first thing we saw
we thought was one of the Titanic's funnels sticking out
of the water. But it wasn't ; it was the raft, the collaps-
ible boat that didn't open, with twelve men on it, stand-
ing close together. They came up to us and demanded
that we take them. But we thought they ought to say
who they were; we were already pretty full and the
water was getting rough. But they said they would
jump in anyhow, so we let them come aboard, as we_
knew that jumping would surely capsize us. They were
all stewards and waiters, men of the service of th<
Titanic, After we took them in it got still rougher, s(
that we sometimes shipped water. In fact, there was
MR. AND MRS. WILLIAM T. STEAD
The great educator and editor, Mr. Stead, mourned by the whole
world, went down with the Titanic
f'op.viiglit by Campbell Studio, N. Y.
COLONHL JOHN JACOB ASTOR
Lost with the Titanic, and his young bride, who was rescued
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 161
nearly a foot of water in the bottom of the boat and we
hadn't a basin^ or dipper, not so much as a cup to dip it
out with. Meanwhile the waves were rising and if we
hadn't been picked up when we were, another half hour
would surely have been the end of us."
"How did you find things on the Carpathia?" was
asked.
"Just lovely," exclaimed Miss Hippach with enthu-
siasm. "Nobody could have been kinder than they were.
They kept their own people waiting and just took care
of us. There was a warm blanket ready for each one
and they had hot punch ready for us, or hot coffee and
food.
"We couldn't sleep till night. We had to be crowded
in somewhat. The passengers of the Carpathia gave up
their rooms or shared them. We were with two old
ladies who were very nice. But the first night we gave
up our chance to two little brides who were very, very
ill. They were from the Titanic. We slept on sofas in
the dining saloon. The next night we had mattresses on
the floor of the stateroom with the little brides and the
old ladies slept somewhere else. The third night we slept
in a regular bed."
Asked about the officers and servants of the ill-fated
vessel, Miss Hippach said:
"They said cheerful things right through. You
know they are under orders never to alarm the passen-
162 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
gers, no matter what happens. So tlie stewardesses
spoke soothingly, and assured us it was only a little
accident, that we should all be coming back on board
again in the morning, probably. But they knew, they
knew they were lying."
JACQUES FUTRELLE A HERO.
Mrs. May Futrelle, whose husband, Jacques Fu-
trelle, the novelist, went down with the ship, was met by
her daughter. Miss Virginia Futrelle, who was brought
to New York from the convent of Notre Dame in Balti-
more. Miss Futrelle had been told that her father had
been picked up by another steamer.
Mrs. Charles Copeland of Boston, a sister of the
writer, who also met Mrs. Futrelle, was under the same
impression. Miss Futrelle and Mrs. Copeland, with a
party of friends, awaited at a hotel the arrival of Mrs.
Futrelle from the dock.
"I am so happy that father is safe, too," declared
Miss Futrelle, as her mother clasped her in her arms.
It was some tim^e before 3Irs. Futrelle could compose
herself.
"Where is Jack?" Mrs. Copeland asked.
Mrs. Futrelle, afraid to let her daughter know the
truth, said: "Oh, he is on another ship."
Mrs. Copeland, however, guessed the truth and
became hysterical. Miss Futrelle also broke down.
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 163
"Jack died like a hero," Mrs. Futrelle said. "He
was in the smoking room when the crash came — the
noise of the smash was terrific — and I was going to bed.
I was hurled from my feet by the impact. I hardly^
found myself when Jack came rushing into the state-
room.
" 'The boat is going down, get dressed at once!" he
shouted. When we reached the deck everything was in
the wildest confusion. The screams of women and the
shrill orders of the officers were drowned intermittently
by the tremendous vibrations of the Titanic' s deep bass
fog horn. The behavior of the men was magnificent.
"They stood back without murmuring and urged the
women and children into the lifeboats. A few cowards
tried to scramble into the boats, but they were quickly
thrown back by the others. Let me say now that the
only men who were saved were those who sneaked into
the lifeboats or were picked up after the Titanic sunk.
"I did not want to leave Jack, but he assured me that
there were boats enough for all and that he would be
rescued later.
" 'Hurry up. May ; you're keeping the others wait-
ing,' were his last words as he lifted me into a Ufeboat
and kissed me good-bye. I was in one of the last life-
boats to leave the ship. We had not put out many
minutes when the Titanic disappeared. I almost
thought, as I saw her sink beneath the water, that I could
164 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
see Jack, standing where I had left him and waving at
me.
SAW ASTORS PART.
Mrs. Futrelle said she saw the parting of Col.
John Jacob Astor and his young bride. Mrs. Astor
was frantic. Her husband had to jump into the lifeboat
four times and tell her that he would be rescued later.
After the fourth time, Mrs. Futrelle said, he jumped
back to the deck of the sinking ship and the lifeboat
bearing his bride made off.
LADY DUFF-GORDON's VIVID STORY.
I was asleep. The night was perfectly clear. I was
awakened by a long grinding sort of shock. It was not
a tremendous crash, but more as though some one had
drawn a giant finger all along the side of the boat. I
awakened my husband and told him that I thought we
had struck something. There was no excitement that I
could hear, but Sir Cosmo went up on deck. He
returned and told me that we had hit some ice, apparently
a big berg, but there seemed to be no danger.
We were not assured of this, however, and Sir Ccsmo
went upstairs again. He came back to me and said :
"You had better put your clothes on, because I heard
them give orders to strip the boats."
We each put on a life preserver, and over mine I
threw some heavy furs. I took a few trinkets and we
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 165
went up to the deck. There was no excitement at that
time. The ship had listed shghtly to starboard and was
down a little at the head.
As we stood there one of the officers came running
and said:
"The women and children are to go in the boats."
No one apparently thought there was any danger.
We watched a number of women and children and some
men going into the lifeboats. At last one of the officers
came to me and said :
"Lady Gordon, you had better go in one of the
boats."
I said to my husband :
"Well, we might as well take the boat, although I
think it will be only a little pleasure excursion until
morning."
The boat was the twelfth or thirteenth to be launched.
It was the captain's special boat. There was still no
excitement. Five stokers got in and two Americans,
A. L. Solomon of New York and Dr. Stengel of
Newark. Besides these there were two of the crew. Sir
Cosmo, myself and a Miss Frank, an English girl.
There were a number of other passengers, mostly
hien, standing near by and they joked with us because
we were going out on the ocean.
"The ship can't sink," said one of them. "You will
get your death of cold out there in the ice."
166 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
We were slung off and the stokers began to row us
away. For two hours we cruised around. It did not
seem to be very cold. There was no excitement aboard
the Titanic. We were probably a thousand feet away.
Suddenly I clutched the sides of the lifeboat. I had
seen the Titanic give a curious shiver. Almost immedi-
ately we heard several pistol shots and a great screaming
arise from the decks. Then the boat's stem lifted in the
air and there was a tremendous explosion. After this
the Titanic dropped back again. The awful screaming
continued. Two minutes after this there was another
great explosion.
The whole forward part of the great liner dropped
down under the waves. The stern rose a hundred feet,
almost perpendicularly. The boat stood up like an
enormous black finger against the sky.
Little figures hung to the point of the finger and
dropped into the water. The screaming was agonizing.
I never heard such a continued chorus of utter despair
and agony.
The great prow of the Titanic slowly sank as though
a great hand was pushing it gently down under the
waves. As it went the screaming of the poor souls left
on board seemed to grow louder. It took the Titanic
perhaps two minutes to sink after that last explosion.
It went down slowly without a ripple.
Then began the real agonies of the night. Up to
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 167
that time no one in our boat, and I imagine no one on
any of the other boats, had really thought that the
Titanic was going to sink. For a moment an awful
silence seemed to hang over all, and then from the water
all about where the Titanic had been arose a bedlam of
shrieks and cries. There were women and men clinging
to the bits of wreckage in the icy waters.
It was at least an hour before the last shrieks died
out. I remember next the very last cry was that of a
man who had been calling loudly:
"My God! My God!"
He cried monotonously, in a dull, hopeless way. For
an entire hour there had been an awful chorus of shrieks^
gradually dying into a hopeless moan, until this last cry
that I speak of. Then all was silent.
CALIFORNIAN NOT ALARMED
George Broden of Los Angeles, CaL, an athlete
and head of a cement manufacturing concern, who was
rescued by the Carpathian said:
"I was in my cabin and was preparing to retire
when the crash came. It did not seem serious then. I
put on an overcoat and went to an upper deck. Fifteen
minutes later — ^there had been little excitement up to
this time — a lifeboat was lowered. Shortly after this
everyone rushed to the deck. Lifeboats were lowered
on all sides.
168 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
"I was beside Henry B. Harris, the theatrical man-
ager, when he bade liis wife good-by. Both started
toward the side of the boat where a lifeboat was being
lowered. Mr. Harris was told it was the rule for women
to leave the boat first.
" 'Yes, I know. I will stay/ Harris said. Shortly
after the lifeboats left, a man jumped overboard. Other
men followed. It was like sheep following a leader.
"Capt, Smith was washed from the bridge into the
ocean. He swam to where a baby was drowning and
carried it in his arms while he swam to a lifeboat which
was manned by officers of the Titanic. He surrendered
the baby to them and swam back to the steamer.
"About the time Capt. Smith got back there was
an explosion. The entire ship trembled, I had secured
a life j)reserver and jumped over.
"I struck a piece of ice and was not injured. I
swam about sixty j^ards from the steamer, when there
was a series of explosions. I looked back and saw the
Titanic go down, bow first. Hundreds of persons were
in the water at the time. When the great steamer went
down they shrieked hysterically.
"When I jimiped from the steamer into the water
the band was still playing. The lights on the Titanic
were lit imtil she sank.
"I was in the water two hours, clinging to a piece
TVBECK OF THE TITANIC 169
of wreckage when I was picked up by a lifeboat. About
6 o'clock in the morning the Carpathia appeared.
"I saw one of the stewards of the ship shoot a for-
eigner who tried to press past a number of women and
enter a lifeboat."
COUNTESS COMMANDS BOAT
Miss Ahce Farnam Leader, a New York physician,
escaped from the Titanic on the same boat which car-
ried the Countess Rothes.
"The countess is an expert oarswoman," said Dr.
Leader, "and thoroughly at home on the water. She
practically took command of our boat when it was found
that the seamen who had been placed at the oars could
not row skillfully.
"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."
LADY ROTHEs' OWN STORY
"It was pitiful, our rowing toward the lights of a
ship that disappeared," she said. "We in boat No. 8
saw some tramp steamer's mast headlights and then
saw the glow of red as it swung toward us for a few
minutes, then darkness and despair.
"There were two stewards in boat No. 8 with us
and thirty-one women. The name of one of the stew-
170 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
ards was Crawford. We were lowered quietly to the
water and when we had pushed off from the Titanic's
side I asked the seaman if he would care to have me take
the tiller, as I knew something about boats. He said,
'Certainly, lady.' I climbed aft into the stern and asked
my cousin to help me.
*'The first impression I had as we left the ship was
that, above all things, we mustn't lose our self posses-
sion; we had no officer to take command of our boat
and the little seaman had to assume all responsibility.
He did it nobly, alternately cheering us with words of
encouragement, then rowing doggedly. Then Signora
de Satode Penasco began to scream for her husband.
It was too horrible. I left the tiller to my cousin and
slipped down beside her, to be of what comfort I could.
Poor woman, her sobs tore our hearts and her moans
were unspeakable in their sadness. Miss Cherry stayed
at the tiller of our boat until the Carpathia picked us up.
"The most terrible part of the whole thing was see-
ing the rows of portholes vanishing one by one. Sev-
eral of us wanted to row back and see if there was not
some chance of rescuing anyone that had possibly
survived, but the majority in the boat argued that we
had no right to risk their lives on the bare chance of
finding anyone alive after the final plunge.
"Indeed I saw — ^we all saw a ship's lights not more
than three miles away. For three hours we pulled
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 171
steadily for the two masthead lights that showed bril-
liantly in the darkness. For a few minutes we saw the
ship's port light, then it vanished, and the masthead
lights got dimmer on the horizon until they too dis-
appeared."
APPEALS WERE IGNORED
Mrs. Lucine P. Smith of Huntington, W. Va.,
daughter of Representative James Hughes of West
Virginia, a bride of about eight weeks, whose husband
was lost in the .wreck, gave her experiences through the
medium of her uncle. Dr. J. H. Vincent of Hunting-
ton, W. Va.
"The women were shoved into the lifeboats," said
Dr. Vincent. "The crew did not wait until the lifeboat
was filled before they lowered it. As a matter of fact,
there were but twenty-six people in the boat, most all
women, when an officer gave instructions to lower it.
Mr. Smith was standing alongside the boat when it was
lowered. There was plenty of room for more people
to get into the lifeboat, the capacity being fifty.
"Mrs. Smith implored Capt. Smith to allow her
husband in the boat, but her repeated appeals were
ignored.
"This lifeboat was permitted to be lowered with but
one sailor in it, and he was drunk. His condition was
such that he could not row the boat and therefore the
172 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
women had to do the best they could in rowing about
the icy waters.
"Mrs. Smith was in the third boat that was launched,
and in that boat was Mrs. John Jacob Astor."
HER SON LEFT BEHIND
Mrs. Alexander T. Compton and her daughter,
Alice, of New Orleans, were completely prostrated over
the loss of Mrs. Compton's son, Alexander, who went
down with the big liner. "When we waved good-by
to my son," said Mrs. Compton, "we did not realize the
great danger, but thought we were only being sent out
in the boats as a precautionary measure. When Capt.
Smith handed us life-preservers he said cheerily: *They
will keep you warm if you do not have to use them.'
Then the crew began clearing the boats and putting the
women into them. My daughter and I were lifted in
the boat commanded by the fifth officer.
"There was a moan of agony and anguish from
those in our boat when the Titanic sank, and we insisted
that the officer head back for the place where the Titanic
had disappeared. We found one man with a life pre-
server on him struggling in cold water, and for a minute
I thought that he was my son."
CHAPTER XX
SURVIVORS' STORIES CONTINUED
Vivid Recollections and Pictures of the Wreck
BY More of the Rescued
Mrs. Turrell Cavendish, who was Miss Julia Siegel,
daughter of the former Chicago millionaire merchant
and clubman, Henry Siegel, was one of the survivors
who landed from the Carpathia, Her husband was
drowned. Mrs. Cavendish's father, Mr. Siegel, is part
owner of Siegel, Cooper & Co. and is interested in a
number of big ventures. Mrs. Cavendish is well known
in Chicago society circles. Following is her story of
the Titanic' s sinking:
"I was asleep," she said, "when Mr. Cavendish
awoke me and said the ship had met with an accident.
I hurriedly put on a wrapper and one of my husband's
overcoats and we both rushed to the upper deck.
"There were many persons there and the stewards
were assuring them that the steamer was in no danger
of sinking. They started to fill the lifeboats with
women passengers when the cry, 'Save your lives!'
rang out.
"I was in the second boat. My husband kissed me
173
I
174 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
and bade me to remain in the boat, declaring he was
all right. There was no light, but the sky was clear.
"Just as the lifeboat was lowered, I again kissed
my husband.
"One man tried to get into the boat, but a sailor,
after questioning him, threw him aside. A Canadian,
who stated that he could row, turned to a group of
men on the deck who were watching the proceedings
and said:
" 'I can row, but if there is room for one more let
it be a woman. I am not a coward.'
"The women in the boat beseeched the man to row
the boat for them, and those on the deck urged him
to do so. With a parting handclasp he lowered himself
by a rope to the boat and took his position there.
"I am prostrated by the loss of my husband, but
rejoice in the fact that my two-year-old baby is saved,
having been left at home."
VIVID PICTURE OF WRECK
Miss Daisy Minahan, of Fond du Lac, Wis., who
was with her brother. Dr. W. E. Minahan and his wife,
told a graphic story of the shipwreck and the rescues.
Dr. Minahan, she said, did his part in the saving of
the women. Then with a farewell smile and the last
words, "Be brave," to his wife, he went back on the
deck, which even then was awash under his feet.
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 175
"There were more than a score of brides in our
party on the Titanic/^ said Miss Minahan, "all coming
back after their happy honeymoons abroad. We
brought twenty of them, widowed by the terrible catas-
trophe, to homes of mourning and tears instead of
happiness and bliss.
"We were sitting on t!:e Titanic's deck in the eve-
ning enjoying the crisp air and the starlit night. Old
sailors told us the sea never had seemed so calm and
glassy. About 9 :30 o'clock the atmosphere took a sud-
den drop, which drove everybody inside the cabins. We
must have been going at a terrific rate right in the
direction of the icebergs, for the air became so chilly in
a few minutes that we found it impossible to keep warm
even when we put wraps and blankets around us.
"We had retired when there was a dull shaking of
the Titanic, which was not so much like a shake as it
was a slowing down of the massive craft. I noticed that
our boat had come to a standstill and then we heard the
orders of the captain and went on deck to see what it
all meant.
"I never saw such composure and cool bravery in
my life as the men of the first and second cabins dis-
played. Colonel Astor seemed to be the controlling fig-
ure. He, Major Butt, Mr. Guggenheim, Mr. Widener
and Mr. Thayer clustered in a group as if they were
176 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
holding a quick consultation as to what steps should be
taken next.
"Then Col. Astor came forward with the cry, 'Not a
man until every woman and child is safe in the boats.'
"Many of the women did not seem to want to leave
the vessel. Mrs. Astor clung to her husband, begging
him to let her remain on the Titanic with him. When
he insisted that she save herself, she threw her arms
around him and begged him with tears to permit her to
share his fate.
"Col. Astor picked her up bodily and carried her to
a boat, which was the one just ahead of ours^ and placed
her in it.
"I lingered with my brother and his wife, loath to
leave them, although we all knew the ship was sinking
and that the ocean would soon swallow up all that
remained of the steamer. We both begged my brother
to come with us, but he said: 'No, I will remain with the
others, no matter what happens.'
"Then, when it was time to go, when the last boat was
being lowered to the water line, we were hurried into it
by my brother, who bade us good-bye and said calmly
but with feeling: *Be brave; no matter what happens,
be brave.' Then he waved his hand and our boat shot
out just in time to escape being borne down by the
suction of the Titanic^ as it went down.
"As the ship settled there was a terrific explosion,
^^^•^z'tsh^^iti
THE SAD PARTING— THE LAST "GOOD-BYS."
IN THE LIFEBOATS
PLACING WOMEN
3 7:
w S i!
00 o c
w -^ 1«
Uh 43 >.
U J3
4)
y
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WRECK OF THE TITANIC 177
which rent it in two, and as it sank beneath the waves we
could see my brother waving his hand to us, although ii
is hardly possible that he could see us, for none of us had
a light. We had nothing except the clothes we had
hastily donned. None of us had thought of putting pro-
visions or water in the boats, for we knew the CarpatJiia
had been signaled to come to our rescue and was on its
way.
"We heard a number of shots as the boats were being
lowered, but w^e were told it was the officers who were
keeping the steerage passengers from stampeding into
the small boats, which they repeatedly tried to do.
"There were no outcries anywhere except from the
steerage.
"I shall never forget the calmness and quiet bravery
that the men on board showed as they stood on deck and
aw^aited the inevitable doom. Occasionally some of theni
V70uld peer into the night toward our boats and wave at
us. Then they would walk back to a group and every-
thing would grow still again.
"I saw Guggenheim, Widener, Thayer and Ismay in
conversation with Colonel Astor just after the ship
struck the berg."
A MOUNTAIN OF GLASS.
Thomas Whitley, a waiter on the Titanic, vvho was
sent to a hospital with a fractured leg, was asleep five
decks below the main saloon deck. He ran upstairs and
178 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
saw the iceberg towering high above the forward deck of
the Titanic,
"It looked like a giant mountain of glass," said
Whitley. "I saw that we were in for it. Almost im-
mediately I heard that stokehold No. 11 was filling with
water and that the ship was doomed. The watertight
doors had been closed, but the officers fearing that there
might be an explosion below decks called for volunteers
to go below to draw the fires.
"Twenty men stepped forward almost immediately,
and started down. To permit them to enter the hold it
was necessary for the doors to be opened again, and after
that one could almost feel the water rushing in. It was
but a few^ minutes later when all hands were ordered
on deck with life belts."
EXPERIENCE OF MRS. HENRY B. HARRIS
Mrs. Henry B. Harris, wife of the theatrical man-
ager, who lost his life, told the following story :
"We were in our stateroom when the word was
passed for all passengers to put on life preservers and
go on deck. This order followed within a few seconds
after the ship struck. We did not realize the seriousness
of the crash, thinking some slight trouble had happened
to the engines. Even when the order was brought to
us to put on life preservers and come on deck we stiU
failed to realize the situation.
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 179
"As we went on deck we passed groups of men and
women who were laughing and joking. When we
reached the main deck, forward, and saw the Kf eboats
being swung overboard the seriousness of the matter
began to dawn on us. Then came the command:
'Women and children first.'
"Officers and members of the crew went about repeat-
ing the words, 'women and .children first.' Many women
had to be forced into the boats; some thinking it was a
joke and others refusing to be parted from their
husbands, fathers or brothers.
"When the passengers saw the seriousness with which
the officers and crew of the Titanic went about their
business they began to reahze that something terrible
had happened and began to make their way towards the
lifeboats.
"Colonel Astor and Mrs. Astor were standing near
us. When the men of the Titanic came to her and told
her to get into a lifeboat she refused to leave her
husband's side. Then I was asked to enter one of the
boats. My husband told me to go but I did not want to
leave him. He reassured me, saying the danger was not
serious and that he would follow after me in a short time.
Still I could not believe that everything was as he said.
I felt that if I left him something terrible would happen.
iThe officers told me I would have to get into a lifeboat.
180 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
My husband told me to and finally I was led to the side
and lowered into a boat.
"Mrs. Astor had left her husband and had been
placed in another boat. As I was being lowered over the
side I saw my husband and Colonel Astor standing to-
gether. Jacques Futrelle was standing near them. My
husband waved his hand. That was the last I saw of
him.
"For hours we sat freezing in the lifeboat. Then we
saw the Carpathia and the men began to row in her
direction. Then the Carpathia stopped and ropes were
thrown to us and we were pulled against her side. Then
rope ladders and swings were lowered and I was placed
in a swing and pulled up to the deck. I stood watching
the boats as they arrived and the passengers came on
deck thinking every moment that my husband would
appear. And then, when the la^t boat had been emptied
I began to realize that he had gone down with the
Titanic, which was nowhere in sight.
HOW AN IRISH GIRL WAS SAVED
When there was only one seat left in the last lifeboat
of the Titanic, had Mrs. John Burke taken it the chances
are that Miss Annie Kelly, a seventeen-year-old Chicago
girl, might be at the bottom of the sea. So she told
friends who gathered at her home to celebrate her lucky
escape when the ship sank.
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 181
JVIiss Kelly told in a graphic manner the conditions
in the steerage at the time the ship struck the iceberg
and also how she was pushed into the last seat in the last
boat.
With Miss Kelly when she arrived in Chicago was
fifteen-year-old Annie McGowan, niece of Thoinas Mc-
Dermott, of Chicago, whose aunt. Miss Kate McGowan,
perished in the lost ship. The girl was wrenched from
her aunt's side and thrust into a boat, which pushed away
from the ship. She never saw her relative again.
Annie Kelly and Annie McGowan embarked in the
third cabin of the Titanic with the Burke family, which
consisted of Mr. and Mrs. John Burke, who were com-
ing to Chicago on their honeymoon; and Catherine and
Margaret Burke, cousins of John and Margaret Manion,
who w^ere bound for Chicago to join their brother,
Edward Manion.
"I should not have been saved except for Mrs.
Burke's refusal to leave her husband and the Misses
Burke saying they would not go if their uncle and aunt
could not go with them," said Miss Kelly. *'I went in
the very last boat and I was the very last passenger.
The officer said there was room for just one more.
"I was aroused by the call of the stewardess, who
told us all to dress as quickly as we could, though she
did not explain what was the trouble. I dressed and
went upon the second deck. Annie McGowan was wdth
182 WBECK OF THE TITANIC
me when I was going up the stairs, but she became sepa-
rated from me at the head of the stairway, and was
carried by the throng over to the other side of the ship.
I did not see her again until I was on the Carpathia,
"On the side where I was carried, some wild-looking
men were trying to rush into the boats, and the officers
and crew fired at them. Some of the men fell. Others
were beaten back by the officers, who used pistols on
them."
TWO HEEOIC CATHOLIC PRIESTS
Survivors of the Titanic, especially those from the
steerage, told of the heroism of two CathoHc priests who,
after assisting women and children into the last boat,
gathered about them the doomed passengers and calmly
sought to comfort them in the face of approaching death.
The story of hope and faith evidenced in that hour
by Father Eyles of England and Father Peruschoetz, a
German, entitles them to a high place in the roll of
honor.
The two priests had held Sunday services in the
morning and evening — for the Catholics of various
nationalities, addressing them in German and English.
The rosary and litanies had been recited by all.
The first news of the disaster brought the priests to
the scene, where they joined with the other men in assist-
ing to preserve order and insure the safety of the women
and children. When men of all nationalities gathered
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 183
about them and sought comfort and hope the two priests
raised their voices and calmly, as if in the sanctuary,
repeated over and over again the rosary.
No man, according to the story of those present, was
turned away. The priests ministered to Catholics and
non-Catholics alike. As the sinking vessel listed more
and more the crowd about the priests grew larger, and
all joined fervently in the prayers. Those in the boats
pulling away from the vessel could see the men kneehng
on the deck, but it is related that in the last moment,
when the lights went out, no shrieks were heard nor cries
of terror from the group where the faithful pastors
serenely and devoutly sought to comfort those about
them.
VETERAN LAKE CAPTAIN WAENS
Another stor}^ of self-possession and undaunted
courage in tlie face of death was that of Capt. E. G.
Crosby, of Milwaukee, veteran Lake Michigan navi-
gator and president of the Crosby Transportation Com-
pany. "Better dress; all the other passengers are doing
it," were his calm words to his wife and daughter as he
entered their stateroom shortly after the collision. Capt.
Crosby was lost, but his wife and daughter were saved.
The majority of those who perished were caught
sound asleep in their berths, according to Miss Crosby.
The warning to his wife and daughter given, Capt.
184
WRECK OF THE TITANIC
Crosby hurried on deck to assist the other men. That
was the last seen of him by Mrs. Crosby or her daughter.
They were helped into the next to the last boat that left
the vessel.
— Cincinnati Post
CHAPTER XXI
ON THE ROLL OF HONOR
Splendid Public Tributes to Well-Known Men
Among the Heroes of the Titanic
isidor and ida straus
Who that hereafter writes of Isidor Straus can fail
to write of Ida Straus? Linked in loyal life they were
joined forever in a noble death.
If Isidor Straus was a great merchant, a great phi-
lanthropist, a clear-headed economist and a noble citizen,
Ida Straus was a great woman, also a great philanthro-
pist, a noble mother, a loyal, loving wife.
If Isidor Straus was the patriarch and honored head
of a great family, Ida Straus was the serene and indis-
pensable mistress of an honored home.
If Isidor Straus was a civic and commercial power,
Ida Straus was a social and domestic force.
If Isidor Straus, after a life of honorable living,
died a hero's death, so Ida Straus, after forty years of
loyal loving, found of her own choice a heroine's end.
The beautiful examples of noble living and of nobler
dying meet in these remembered names.
In an age of material absorption they have given a
185
186 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
new and gentler illustration of the fidelity and t :nder-
ness of love.
In an age of domestic disloyalty and divorce they
have wreathed a fadeless beauty around the deathless tie
of marriage.
In life they were united. In death they refused to
be divided.
As the world was better for their united living, so it
shall be better for their loyal and undivided death.
MAJOR ARCHIBALD BUTT
In all the gallant band of men and gentlemen who
went down to glory in the Titanid's wreck, there is no
knightlier and more chivalric figure than Archibald W.
Butt.
He was a journalist, a gentleman, a courtier and a
soldier in the armies of his country — ^measuring finely
and fully to the high standards of each calling that he
adorned.
It is not too much to say that even in the hst of
heroes in this epic of the sea there is a more than ordi-
nary tenderness that wraps about the memory of the
young chevalier of the new South — so gentle, so genial,
so gifted, so tender and so true.
Born in Georgia of its bluest blood, Archibald Butt
fought his way up like his fellows from the ashes of
the South of the '60s — emerged from the ranks into
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 187
dignity and high repute. As a Washington corre-
spondent he was hrilliant and popular. As a volunteer
in the Spanish- American war he was a valiant and
effective soldier in the ranks and as an officer. As the
personal aid and social director of the White House
he was the beloved of two Presidents of the United
States, and won golden opinions from the American
public.
And in the final supreme emergency — thinking
always of others rather than himself, joining gentle-
ness, serenity and firm authority with loftiest sacrifice
— he mingled the finest pulses of his race and creed,
and, wrapping the mantle of the English Sidney about
his knightly shoulders, went down — to immortality.
COL. JOHN JACOB ASTOR
The name of John Jacob Astor, which has run for
a hundred years through the commercial and social life
of the metropolis, has taken on a new and nobler color
in the passing of the last wearer of a famous name.
The last John Jacob Astor was a good soldier, a
good sailor, an inventor of note, a builder of stately
public houses, an author and a generous citizen. He
was one among the few rich men of the metropolis
who gave their money and themselves to the service of
their country. He equipped a full battery of artillery
and faced the bullets of the Spaniards at Santiago.
One of the richest men in America, a leader of its
188 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
ultimate social circle, newly married to a yomig and
beautiful woman, John Jacob Astor had perhaps as
much about him to make life sweet and to make death
terrible as any man in all the great company of the
Titanic.
And yet when the great moment came he laid down
his hfe as bravely as a soldier, as calmly as a philos-
opher, and with as sweet and quiet a philanthropy as
if his days were without color and his years without
hope.
If the John Jacob Astors of the century past have
lived like princes, this one but yesterday died like a
man.
And the great name he bore is better known and
better honored for his life and death.
The brave young wife who remembered others in
mercy on that dreadful night has won the country's
sympathy and respect.
GEORGE D. WIDENER
The Wideners of Philadelphia are a hearty race.
Their money has not sapped their manhood. George
D. Widener was big, red-blooded, genial — a man of
courage and tenderness, so tried and proved that when
the news came that there had been need for men to die
on the Titanic in order that women and children might
live his friends all knew that Widener was dead.
Men like J. Bruce Ismay may write voluminous
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 189
statements and bring many witnesses to excuse their
conduct, but the more they excuse, the more they accuse
themselves. They can never answer the indictment of
the men who die for the weak. Their clamor for ex-
culpation is drowned by the deep silence of men like
Widener.
It is recorded of George D. Widener that "he went
down with the ship, fighting for the rights of the women
and children."
A hero is a man who actually does what everybody
knows a man ought to do. To die for the women and
children, in emergencies, when the issue is plain, is a
matter of instinct with brave men. It is useless to
argue against it — ^because it is not a theory.
It is a perception.
Widener understood. The man who could not resist
an impulse to carry the clothes basket of an overbur-
dened washer woman understood perfectly.
WILLIAM T. STEAD
In his death as in his life, Mr. Stead stands domi-
nant in the foreground of the greatest news. He was
the Examiner's staff correspondent in London — a mas-
ter journalist, comprehending not only the outside of
the news, but also its inner implications.
His eye was prophetic. He looked through events
and beyond. He both made history and recorded it.
190 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
If he had a generous dream of what ought to lie, he
was the first to help it to come true.
Because of his passion for the improvement of the
world, Stead was religious. He was on his way to
!America to preach a single sermon — and return. That
sermon would have been preached Monday night, April
22, at Carnegie Hall.
Stead did not miss his engagement; the sermon was
preached, indeed. It was flung to the world, with sub-
lime persuasion — wireless, wordless — from the place
where the Titanic went down.
For Stead was one of that group of immortals —
of imperishable memory like the men of the Alamo —
who would not leave the ship because there was no way
to leave it with honor and humanity.
He died as he had lived — ^journalist, prophet, evan-
gelist. Already his name was known everywhere ; now
his fame also is everywhere known — ^with a mourning
affection that rejoices in the estabhshed greatness of
his heart.
BENJAMIN GUGGENHEIM
It is related that the great Napoleon — as he sat
on his horse observing a detachment of troops that were
moving forward into the thick of a desperate action
— called the attention of his aids to the pale, set face of
a certain common soldier, saying:
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 191
"There is a brave man; for he knows his danger,
yet faces it."
The stories of Benjamin Guggenheim's death do
not say that he was pale or perturbed in the face of the
great disaster; but they do say that he showed by his
words and deeds that he knew his danger. Indeed,
there is no other man in the long roll of Titanic heroes
who left behind so clear a record of that consciousness
of desperate peril which was Napoleon's test of perfect
courage.
Whatever may be said of any other man, it is cer-
tain that Benjamin Guggenheim was not nerved to
his deed of chivalry and sacrifice by any hope that the
price would not need be paid. To Johnson, his room-
steward, whose superior prowess as a swimmer gave
him an exceptional chance to be saved, Mr. Guggen-
heim said:
*'i chink there is grave doubt that the men will get
off. Tell my wife that I played the game out straight
and to the end. My duty now is to the unfortunate
women and children on this ship. Tell her I will meet
whatever fate is in store for me, knowing that she will
approve." — Chicago Examiner.
192
WRECK OF THE TITANIC
— St. Louis Globe-Democrct
Geteve NoTj the Spirit of Manhood Still Lives
I
t
i
CHAPTER XXII
COMMENTS OF THE PRESS
Some or the Pertinent Expressions of Opinion by
Leading Journalists of America
people in too much hurry
The trouble nowadays is that people wish to go
with a rush. Subway trains whiz along through the tun-
nel at top speed; automobiles dash through the streets
at a speed of a mile in two minutes, and ocean liners
tear through the water, each striving to break a record.
The Titanic was moving at a speed of twenty-one miles
when she struck the iceberg which sent her do^vn. So
large and unwieldy was this ship that it could not be
stopped inside of three miles. And yet it tore on
through the night in the midst of ice fields. The pas-
sengers paid the penalty of speed. Not all the blame
should rest on Captain Smith. It is not reasonable to
suppose that he risked his own life, the safety of more
I than two thousand persons, and a valuable ship merely
for the glory of making a record on a maiden trip. Not
at all ; Captain Smith went at high speed because every
one was in a hurry; because the persons on the vessel
193
194 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
wished to get to New York as soon as possible. The
speed was deadly; and there is a lesson in this awful
shipwreck. Do not rush when rushing imperils life. —
Morning Telegraph, New York.
THE ILIAD TURNED EPIC NOW
The seas have been swept by an epic that will live
while the memory of man endures.
The world has had a new baptism of heroism and
splendid sacrifice, and the race of men is consecrated
anew by subhme example to chivalry and unselfish
faith.
It comes timely to a carping age, this message of
denial which the remorseless sea sends above its^ engulf-
ing billows to this old world, said to be sordid^ and
thought to be hard and cold.
There were no distinctions of race or creed or cul-
ture in the altruistic heroism which from the sinking
decks of the Titanic enriched history and inspired the
world.
There stood the splendid Englishman at the wheel
and there stood the splendid Americans on the deck.
The stanch Catholic, the loyal Protestant, the gentle
Hebrew, and even the gambler, without creed, mounted
the heights of godhke heroism before they went to death
in the sea.
Captain Smith was born in Surrey, Colonel Asto;
I
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 195
was born in New York. Isidor Straus, a great Jew,
wrapped his arms about Ida Straus, a great Jewess,
and they went smiling down to death together. Colonel
John Jacob Astor was a man of millions, which are said
to make men cold. He was a type of fashion, a master
of cotillons, and a leader of the 400 in the brightest city
in the world.
William T. Stead was a man of letters, a pale,
patient student, in whose thoughtful veins the red blood
of resolution might have been expected to go slowly.
Henry B. Harris was a playwright and a master in
the mimic world, where life's passions and splendors
are said to be unreal. And Archie Butt was born of
the chivalric South, cavalier in manner and gallant in
speech — ^the velvet-gloved and iron-handed Archie —
perhaps the gentlest and the knightliest soul of all that
hero band.
"For there was neither East nor West
Border nor breed nor birth
When these brave men stood face to face,
Though they came from the ends of the earth."
So that it was the race — the race of men who have
blazoned in light and glory against the aurora of tliat
solemn dawn, the inspiring, the glorious fact that neither
greed nor gold, neither ambition nor power, neither
fashion nor folly have corrupted or crushed the inde-
196 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
structible chivalry and sacrifice that lives in the hearts
of men.
Take heart, oh doubter, and let cynic and skeptic
go henceforth slow. The race is not degenerate, and
the future of our country is secure. The Titanic, sink-
ing, uncovered the universal heart-beat that can always]
be reached by life's noblest appeal.
To protect the weak and to love your neighbor as
yourself is the highest Divine and human law condensed
through a thousand years of living.
In this high conception the stupendous incident may
reach its noblest meaning. The Titanic's heroes have
not died in vain. It was worth the majestic steamship,
and even worth two thousand human lives, if the world
comes once more to believe in its better self — if the
race is inspired and led to better living and to better
dying — ^to greater charity and to nobler hope.
And so this vast iliad of the ocean may soften at last
into the most serene and splendid epic ever writ on
land or sea. — John Temple Graves, in the Chicago
Examiner.
BEGULATION OF WIRELESS REQUIRED
America may make, as the London papers have
said, "hasty and often cruel verdicts," but in the Titanic
case America is becoming daily more glad that the
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 197
investigating committee of United States senators had
the energy and vision to board the Carpathia before
she docked. Else, who knows how little of the truth
about the wreck we would ever have known?
The testimony has taught us that even the wire-
less, the wonderful instrument for lessening the perils
of the sea, may become in unworthy hands an instru-
ment for capitalizing human agony instead of alleviat-
ing it. We have learned that this new force must be
sternly regulated if it is to perform its due service to
humanity — Chicago Evening Post.
MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN THESE THREE
We call our age, commercial, material. In a sense
it is. But we are apt to carry our meaning far. Espe-
cially as regards women we imply that chivalry is
passed, "A gentleman of the old school," we say. Our
epithets of courtesy are taken from the Middle Ages.
Of late years, with women among the workers, the
keen edge of gallantry, we say, is lost. With suffragists
demanding equal rights, there has been lament for the
good old days of "woman's sphere" and man's gentle-
ness in power.
And now —
"Women and children first!" — on the listing deck
of the Titanic,
198 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
Stoker, valet, millionaire, responded true to the
primal instinct — ^true, too, to the finest culture. Stories
there are (probably true) of some frenzy, of some
unmanliness. Let them pass. Cowards were of the
brave Stone Age. Cravens were a reproach to knight-
hood. The large fact stands undimmed — women and
children were the first care. Not many women were
lost save by some act of devotion on their part, or some
mischance. Few men were saved except by some good
chance, or some rare fortitude.
The greatest sea tragedy of history is in the mate-
rial Twentieth Century. More sacrificial idealism
relieved it than any recorded incident of the Golden
World affords.
We may cherish that and build high hopes on it.
We may cherish it for what it means for the women and
children of the race. Man still has the patriarchal
impulse to protect his womankind. A tremendous inci-
dent disclosed it in tragic beauty. Less dramatically,
the same impulse has shown itself as clearly to hearts
of faith.
A civiHzation whose men of all individual types
stand back from the lifeboats for the women and chil-
dren is only superficially material. What of neglect
and cruelty oppress its women and children will not
endure.
It is wTitten:
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 199
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man
lay down his life for his friends."
The sacrificial love of the man race for the woman
race, the child race — that endures. — Kansas City Star^
"from these honored dead"
Most of the dead on the Titanic died heroically,
yielding their hves both that the women and children
of the ship's company might live and that the lives of
thousands of others totally unknown to them might be
spared in the future. They perished for their fellows
as truly as soldiers who give their lives in a nation's
defense, for the world can never forget what they did
and suffered in a supreme crisis, and will be made wiser
and better for their inspiring sacrifice.
It is a painful thought that some must die that
others may be saved and many suffer that a succeeding
generation may benefit. But that is the law of this
imperfect world, slowly struggling toward distant goals
of a moral and material betterment. Progress can
seldom be accomphshed without the martyrs whose suf-
ferings stir the public imagination and set at work the
influences which compel another forward movement. It
is for the living always, as Lincoln said at Gettysburg,
to take increased devotion to the cause for which the
dead have given the last full measure of devotion. The
\
200 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
heroes of the Titanic will not have died in vain if by
their sacrifice the perils of the sea are henceforth mate-
rially lessened and the recklessness with which those
perils have been faced becomes a discreditable memory.
— New York Tribune.
'VOMEN AND CHILDREN SAVED^^
After the world had settled down to the belief that
no lives had been lost by the accident to the great ocean
liner, the Titanic ^ it learned with horror that more than
1,500 of the passengers and crew went to the bottom
of the Atlantic in that ill fated vessel.
The shock of this terrible loss is accompanied by
feelings of pride and admiration because the men on
board, facing death, stood back and gave the women
and children the places in the boats that were launched
as the big ship settled down into its grave. There were
heroes in plenty on board the Titanic j as well as men of
great wealth and wide renown.
The human race mourns its heavy loss, but it accepts
the boatloads of rescued women and children as a
precious token of the high courage and the loving self-
sacrifice of the men who took the plunge to the bottom
of the deep that the weaker companions of their peril
might live.
Greenland's glaciers, which in Melville bay and
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 201
elsewhere expose at the water's edge sheer fronts of
ice having a width of twenty-five to thirty miles, calved
the icebergs that thronged the pathway of ocean vessels
in the North Atlantic.
While the old deadly perils still haunt the sea lanes
— perils that, as the unhappy Titanic has demonstrated,
even the greatest ships cannot face with safety — ^the
wireless is now available to summon help in any time
of calamity. It is a bitter disappointment to learn that
aid promptly extended did not suffice to save many hun-
dreds of those on the Titanic, The one bit of con-
solation from the calamity is that the world has been
enriched by another example of tender devotion to
others on the part of men who were facing imminent
death. — Chicago Daily News.
NO HERO DIES IN VAIN
For the rest of the world, for the millions whom the
disaster did not touch personally, the lasting thought
will be this:
Every great disaster, every great affliction, rightly
interpreted and rightly used, is a lesson and a help to
all of the human race throughout the future.
No martyr, no hero, dies in vain. The safety and
the progress of the world are built upon the afflictions
and the sufferings of those that have gone before us.
202 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
The children of the men and women that died on
the Titanic will find the last expression of their duty
in Lincoln's immortal words of dedication upon the
battlefield of Gettysburg:
"We have come to dedicate a portion of that field
as a final resting place for those who here gave their
lives that the nation might live. It is altogether fitting
and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger
sense, we cannot dedicate — ^we cannot consecrate — we
cannot hallow — ^this ground. The brave men, living and
dead, who struggled here have consecrated it far above
our poor power to add or detract. The world will
little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but
it can never forget what they did here. It is for us,
the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished
work which they who fought here have thus far so
nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedi-
cated to the great task remaining before us — that from
these honored dead we take increased devotion to that
cause for which they gave the last full measure of devo-
tion— ^that we highly resolve that these dead shall not
have died in vain."
Life is one great battlefield. This earth has been a
field of battle through all the thousands of centuries of
life here. And for many centuries to come it still must
remain a field of battle.
Those that survive must find their comfort in the
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 203
heroism of the dead. And the race must find its lesson
and its growth in the experiences and the suffering
of the past.
Far out in the Atlantic ocean there is a dreary spot,
with here and there, perhaps, a broken oar, or a float-
ing body. Desolate and wide the ocean spreads beneath
the dark sky, at the spot where the great ship sank.
But in all space that ocean and the planet upon
which it rolls are but a speck.
Time is the real ocean, the ocean that has no limit
to its depths and that has no boundaries.
The brave men and women of the Titanic are added
to the heroes of that great ocean of time — the ocean
that covers all tlie past, the ocean beneath whose waves
brave men and women lie at rest, all the brave spirits
that have lived honorably and died courageously on
this planet.
It is a glorious thing for a man or a woman to have
his name added to the list of those consecrated by time
and by courage.
Every noble death does its good work. Other human
beings will travel more safely and many thousands of
lives will be saved as a result of the disaster so needless,
so cruel. — Chicago Sunday Examiner.
204
WRECK OF THE TITANIC
FROM CAPTAIN SMITH'S WIDOW
The widow of Captain Smith, commander of the
Titanic, wrote a pathetic message which was posted
outside the White Star offices in London on the Thurs-
day following the wreck. It read as follows:
"To My Poor Fellow Sufferers: My heart over-
flows with grief for you all and is laden with sorrow
that you are weighed down with this terrible burden
that has been thrust upon us. May God be with us and
comfort us all Yours in deep sympathy,
"Eleanor Smith.
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FACTS ABOUT THE TITANIC
The Titanic's length over all was 882 feet 6 mches.
182^ feet more than the height of the Metropolitan
tower in New York City, and 3 1-3 times the height of
Chicago's highest building. The Bunker Hill monu-
ment is one-fourth as high, and the Washington monu-
ment itself 300 feet shorter.
Some of the statistics follow:
Tonnage, registered 45,000
Tonnage, displacement 66,000
Length over all 882 feet, 6 inches
Breadth over all 9^ feet, 6 inches
Breadth over boat deck 94 feet
Height from bottom of keel to boat
deck 97 feet, 4 inches
Height from bottom of keel to top
of captain's house 105 feet, 7 inches
Height of funnels above casing .... 72 feet
Height of funnels above boat deck 81 feet, 6 inches
Distance from top of funnel to keel 175 feet
Number of steel decks 11
Number of watertight bulkheads 15
Passengers carried 2,500
Crew 860
Cost $10,000,000
205
im WRECK OF THE TITANIC
Every line was calculated to be a little more impres-
sive than that on any ship previously built. The great
steel plates used in the hull included some as long as
86 feet, weighing 4^ tons each. Some of the great
steel beams were 92 feet long, weighing 4 tons.
The rudder itself weighed 100 tons and of course
was operated by electricity. The center turbine
weighed 22 tons, and each of the two wing propellers
38 tons. The big boss arms from which the propellers
were suspended tipped 73 tons. Even the anchor chains
contributed their dimensions to the amazing total, with
each link tipping 175 pounds. The 3,000,000 rivets
used in construction weighed in aggregate 1,200 tons.
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Diagram Showing Location and Distance From Titanic of Other Si
ON Night of Disaster
A Cross Section op the Titanic, Showing the Numerous Decks
207
CHAPTER XXIII
GREAT MARINE DISASTERS IN RECENT
YEARS
1866, January 11 — Steamer London on its way to
Melbourne, foundered in the Bay of Biscay; 220
lives lost.
1866, October 3 — Steamer Evening Star from New
York to New Orleans, foundered ; 250 lives lost.
1867, October 29 — Royal Mail steamers Rhone and
Wye, and about 50 other vessels driven ashore and
wrecked at St. Thomas, West Indies, by a hurri-
cane; 1,000 lives lost.
1873, January 22 — British steamer Northfleet sunk in
collision off Dungeness; 300 lives lost.
1873, November 23 — White Star liner Atlantic wrecked
off Nova Scotia ; 547 lives lost.
1875, May 7 — Hamburg mail steamer Schiller wrecked
in fog on Scilly isles, 200 lives lost.
1875, November 4 — American steamer Pacific in col-
lision 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.
208
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AWAITING THE END
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 209
1878, September 3 — British iron excursion boat Prin-
cess Alice sunk in collision in the Thames ; 700 lives
lost.
1878, December 18 — French steamer Byzantin, sunk
in collision in the Dardanelles, with the British
steamer Rinaldo; 210 lives lost.
1880, January 31 — British training ship Atlanta left
Bermuda with 290 men and was never heard from.
1889, March 16 — United States warships Trenton, Van-
dalia and Nipsic and German ships Adler and Eber
wrecked on Samoan Islands; 147 hves lost.
1891, March 17 — Anchor Liner Utopia in collision with
British steamer Anson off Gibraltar and sunk; 574
lives lost.
1893, June 22 — British battleship Victoria sunk in col-
lision with the Camperdown off Syria; 357 lives
lost.
1894, June 25 — Steamer Norge wrecked on Bockall
Reef in North Atlantic ; nearly 600 lives lost.
1895, January 30 — German steamer Elbe, sunk in col-
lision with British steamer Crathie in North Sea;
335 lives lost.
1895, March 11 — Spanish cruiser Reina Regenta foun-
dered in Atlantic at entrance to Mediterranean; 400
lives lost.
210 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
1898, July 2 — Steamship Bourgogne rammed British
steel sailing vessel Cromartyshire and sank rapidly ;
571 lives lost.
1904, June 15 — General Slocum, excursion steamboat
with 1,400 persons aboard; took fire while going
through Hell Gate, East River; more than 1,000
lives lost.
1905, September 12 — Japanese steamship Mikasa
wrecked by explosion; 599 lives lost.
1907, February 21 — English mail steamship BerUn
wrecked off the Hook of Holland; 142 lives lost.
CHAPTER XXIV
"THE TRAGEDY OF THE SEA"
By Rev. Andrew Johnson
"And the sea gave up its dead." — ^Rev. 20:13.
Prophets have prophesied, poets have sung of the
sea, sailors have sounded its hidden depths and painters
have painted its glory and its gloom.
"Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean;
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain."
Today the attention of a civilized world is focused
upon the fell disaster — ^that greatest of all disasters of
the sea. The dark graveyard of the Atlantic has
unfolded its bosom and taken to its trust over fifteen
hundred human victims.
The catastrophe "speaks a various language" and
makes a lasting impression upon art, science, business,
government and religion. The startling news of the
tragedy for the past days has flashed over the wires,
appeared on the pages of the press and lingered on the
hps of the public. It has faUen everywhere as the
"words of a fatal song."
212 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
These warning tones of the Titanic's fate will no
doubt ring loud and long in the ears of an awakened
world. One of the first lessons, taught in no uncertain
terms, is that of nature's supremacy over man. While
man is ruler in many realms and great in his delegated
lordship over many things, yet he must yield the palm,
the crown and the scepter to a higher power. For with
all his pomp and power and vaunted strength, with all
his grand records of past achievements, he is still hedged
about and hemmed in on all sides by the inflexible laws
of Deity, and the stern forces of nature. What, though
he has tunneled mountains, dug canyons, bridged rivers,
harnessed steam, coupled together continents, captured
the hghtning, soared through the air as on eagle's wings,
plucked messages out of the heavens and practically
annihilated space, yet for all that is he not baffled and
beaten by hitherto unsolved problems and unconquered
forces? Like a Mohammed or a Canute, he may com-
mand the mountain to come or the waves to go, only to
be defeated and disobeyed. I
Nothing like the recent wreck in all the annals of
history has so powerfully and keenly emphasized the
insecurity of man and the limitations of human strength.
At best, he is but a frail mortal in the midst of, and in
comparison to the greater forces of nature — a mere
atom, as it were, in the midst of immensity.
Relative to the famous and fateful Titanic^ there
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 213
are portrayed upon the minds of the people two pictures
of sharp contrasts, the one representing strength, power
and glory, the other revealing weakness, sorrow and
failure. No poet's pen, no orator's tongue, no painter's
brush could overdraw or overestimate the majesty of
that proud mammoth ship as, launched and loaded, she
starts on her maiden, her first, her last journey across
the Atlantic. The inventive genius of man was taxed
to its utmost in her wonderful construction and superb
equipment. All the modern comforts of life, all the
conveniences of land, all the luxuries of the rich, were
lavished upon her. There were golf grounds, tennis
courts, swimming pools, promenades, elegant parlors
and concert halls — all things except a sufficient number
of lifeboats in case of danger — that which should have
been first and foremost was last and least in the consider-
ation of this journey — a true type, however, of Amer-
ican and Anglo-Saxon life of today.
Thus fitted and furnished, the queen of the ocean,
the mistress of the sea, a veritable floating palace of
the deep, takes the commercial highway of the wide
waters and sails for her desired port, proudly plowing
the billows and breaking all records for speed. Meas-
uring nearly nine hundred feet in length, towering like
a city skyscraper, strong in her native strength and
structure of steel, she poses as the very personification
of safety. She claims and carries as her passengers.
214 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
millionaires, bankers, world-famed editors, authors,
actors, generals, pulpiteers, men of great renown and
national character. She was manned and controlled
by an expert and experienced sea captain and a large
crew. The finest bands of music played, the sun of
prosperity smiled, and it seemed that all things were
replete — ^that nothing could be added to the comfort
and convenience of those on board — ^all that remained
for them to do was to "eat, drink and be merry" and
enjoy the most pleasant journey of their lives.
Safely enfolded in the strong arms of the gigantic
steel structure of the White Star line, men laughed
to scorn all thoughts of danger and considered prayer
for journeying mercies and providential protection
needless. Why worry over wind, wave, hidden rocks
and treacherous shoals; the invincible vessel is sure of
her desired haven. Often when we feel we are the
safest, hidden dangers lurk the nearest. So it was with
the ill-fated ship Titanic. SaiUng along under the sil-
very veil of a star-lit night, her thousands of brilliant
lights flashing out on the surrounding air, she meets
a monster in her pathway. It is the crystal king of
the emerald waters, the "ghostly sentinel of the banks,"
mantled with mist and arrayed in long robes of cloudy
fog, a mountain of ice journeying southward, which
claims the right of way and disputes the supremacy
of the gallant ship. Then the art of man and the power
WBECK OF THIS TITANIC TiU
216 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
of nature measured arms. The trident of Neptune
was triumphant. Man's scepter fell, his crown was
broken, the sullen crash of the impact of boat and berg
has sounded around the world and aroused all nations.
The last act of the tragedy of the Titanic at best can
only be partially known, the full history of that final
and fearful moment is buried in the two-mile tomb of
the Atlantic, only to be fully revealed at the resurrec-
tion of the last day when the sea gives up its dead.
How suddenly the voice of mirth, the music of the
midnight dance is changed into a doleful funeral dirge.
Truly,
"Death rides on every passing breeze,
And lurks in every flower."
As worshippers gathered to the Lord's sanctuary on
the holy Sabbath day just a week from the time of the
awful disaster, they recognized, perhaps as they had
not for some time, that He who walked on the storm-
tossed waves of Galilee and made the yielding waters
a sapphire pavement under his feet, that He who stilled
the tempest with the voice of his imperative word, is
the only "Sovereign of the sea," the only Master of
nature.
The awful disaster brings to light more clearly than
ever that the curse of the world and the crime of this
age is the spirit of rivalry, the craze for speed, the desire
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 217
for luxury. The train of humanity, on account of this
dare-devil disposition for reckless adventure, is run-
ning so fast that it has. already developed a "hot box"
and is doubtless doomed to wreck if there isn't a halt
called soon. People generally are too reckless and rest-
less. There is witnessed on every hand, in all circles
and realms of twentieth century activity, an untem-
pered and untamed mania for speed. The regular move-
ments of modern machinery it seems can no longer
satisfy this depraved and abnormal desire. Hence the
strong hand of legislative enactment must, for the sake
of the public welfare, put up a safeguard. Instead of
luxury and speed, regard for safety and human life
should and must be the rule of those who "go down to
the sea in ships, that do business in great waters."
The element of heroism and self-sacrifice displayed
by some of the men and the undying devotion exhibited
by the wife who refused to leave her husband, are silver
linings to the dark cloud of the awful disaster, ar'^.
redeeming features to the dreadful calamity. This,
however, is only one of the innumerable instances of
the great law of vicarious sacrifice.
While death is taking such heavy toll from human
life, it is well for one and all to heed the admonition,
"Be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not
the Son of man cometh."
218 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
— 8t. Louis Qlobe-Democrat.
THE REFUGE
CHAPTER XXV
HELP FOR TITANIC SURVIVORS
The World Straightway Expressed Its Sympathy
BY Offering Practicai. PIelp
The suffering survivors, on landing from the Car-
pathia, were immediately taken to hospitals and homes
where they were fed, clothed, cared for and comforted
and then started on their way. All over the world the
people responded to the call for more lasting financial
assistance and contributions were taken in the churches ;
funds were started by mayors and newspapers imtil
quite a tidy sum was accumulated to help the destitute
ones.
Vincent Astor, the only son of CoL John Jacob
Astor, who was one of the victims, led off with his
$10,000 gift to Mayor Gaynor's fund.
This contribution was delivered in the form of a
check at the mayor's office by William A. Dobbyn, sec-
retary to the late Colonel Astor, who brought it with a
note from Vincent Astor.
"WiU you please accept the inclosed check as a con-
tribution from me to the fund for the needy survivors
21Q
220 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
of the Titanic disaster?" the message ran, and Mayor
Gaynor replied with this letter :
"Dear Mr. Astor: Your generous contribution to the
fund for the relief of the survivors of the Titanic dis-
aster and of the dependents of those who lost their lives
is at hand.
"Permit me to express to Mrs. Astor and to the
w^hole family through you my sympathy with you all
in the great loss which you have sustained. My acquaint-
ance with your father was a most agreeable one, and
the oftener I met him the more his generous, superior,
and democratic qualities grew on me. He was a man
among men. The heroic way in which he met his death,
disregarding himself and looking to the safety of others,
is exactly what every one well acquainted with him
knew to be the case even before authentic accounts were
received. Sincerely yours,
"W. J. Gaynor, Mayor.
"Vincent Astor, Esq., 23 West Twenty-sixth street.
New York City."
Funds were collected in all the large towns through-
out the country^ and contributions poured into the cities
from out-of-town places. Many "benefits" were also
held in the leading theaters in the cities, many theatrical
stars contributing to the programs.
George M. Cohan, the actor-manager, with the
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 221
assistance of friends and fellow actors, raised $9,000
for the Titanic sufferers. Of this amount .Mr. Cohan
gave individually $5,000.
By arrangement with the New York American, a
special edition of that newspaper headed the "George
M. Cohan Special" was printed and Mr. Cohan paid
$5,000 for the first copy. He sold copies at the Lambs,
Friars, White Rats, Comedy and Players Clubs and at
the Polo Grounds. Blanche Ring paid $100 for a copy,
Jerry Cohan, $100 ; Josephine Cohan, $100; WilUam R.
Hearst, $200, and Mrs. Hearst, $50. The total sales,
exclusive of his own copy, amounted to $1,500.
Saturday night at the Cohan Theater a special per-
formance was given for the same purpose. The theater
was crowded and about $2,500 realized. During the
intermission more of the special papers were sold in the
audience by Mr. Cohan and Frankie Bailey. The pro-
gram was made up of stars from various theaters and
vaudeville houses regardless of their syndicate and anti-
syndicate affiUation.
CHICAGO^S IMMEDIATE RESPONSE
Although horror-stricken by the tragic details of the
sinking of the Titanic, citizens of Chicago with the
promptness which always has been characteristic of
them in times of distress, arose to do their part in the
nation-wide movement to provide relief for the suffer-
222 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
ing survivors, their families and the famihes of the dead,
hundreds of whom are reported to be in want.
The appeal of Mayor Harrison confronted every
citizen of Chicago, high and low, and Chicago shared
generously in the big relief fund.
While leading and wealthy citizens of the city
joined hands with the less fortunate in a conmion cause
similar plans were rushed by all the churches of the city,
various corporations, business houses and others.
THE LONDON FUND
The various London relief funds for the assistance
of sufferers by the Titanic disaster five days after the
catastrophe amounted to more than $425,000. The
fund at the Mansion House alone reached $325,000.
The Gaekwar of Baroda contributed $2,500, and the
Prince of Wales 250 guineas ($1,250) .
The Southampton fund amounted to $50,000.
Within an hour after the opening of the relief fund
in Belfast $30,000 had been subscribed, including
$10,000 by Lord Pirrie and $5,000 by Harland & Wolff.
When the newspapers published at great length the
thrilling details of the evidence given before the sena-
torial commission at Washington, the extraordinary
flow of money to the relief fund was proof of the wide-
felt sympathy.
The total fund, including that in New York the
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 223
week following the disaster, approached $1,500,000.
Perhaps the most noteworthy was the Daily Mail fund,
which was contributed exclusively by women, and
amounted to $120,000. The lord mayor's fund reached
$545,000 and the Daily Telegraph's $87,775.
The fund at Southampton amounted to $72,700,
and that at Liverpool to $64,500. A large number
of special performances were given at various music
halls and theaters for the benefit of the sufferers.
TEMPORAEY HELP
Very full of interest is the story of the relief given
the survivors upon landing.
The task that was shouldered by the Women's
Relief Committee of supplying some of the immediate
needs of the Titanic's survivors took long forward
strides Saturday, the day after the Carpathia came in,
so that the corridors and wards of St. Vincent's Hos-
pital were astir with the distribution of warm clothes.
Before nightfall many of the shipwrecked were moving
on to their destinations.
It was the idea of the committee of women, organ-
ized on Tuesday evening by Mrs. Nelson H. Henry,
wife of the Surveyor of the Port, that there should be
hands extended to these people and particularly
women's hands when the Carpathia came in, but the
relief they offered was only for immediate needs, and
the larger fund collected by IMayor Gaynor and others
224 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
was for the work of more permanent benevolence for
those who lost so much when the big ship sank.
On Friday evening, it was announced that the com-
mittee had received plenty for all the work chat it could
do, but this had to be repeated, for the morning's mail
brought in a flood of contributions to the amount of
more than $1,700. Four of the benefit performances
offered were accepted, but the committee asked all
others to extend the offers to the Red Cross as a con-
tribution from the Women's Relief Committee.
The committee's work in its rooms on the sixth floor
of the Metropolitan Life Building was divided into two
departments. One took care of the receiving and dis-
tributing of clothes, and the other was devoted to the
questions of immediate relief, of money, transportation,
temporary homes, and arrangements for employment
later.
All this wa.s rapidly reduced to a catalogue, so that
when word came from St. Vincent's or other hospitals
and homes where survivors were taken, accompanied by
the certificate of assent from the Commissioners of
Immigration, the committee knew just what was
wanted, just what size clothes, just where the people
wanted to go, and just how much money was necessary.
The committee offered help for the first four weeks
after the shipwreck. Clothing, a railroad ticket, per-
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CAPT. ROSTRON
Of the Carpathia, whose ship brought the survivors of Titanic,
•ff<»r r^tcriitnor th«»m in N*»w Ynrk
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 225
haps, and a little money was bestowed in each case along
with a deal of comforting.
PROMINENT WOMEN WORKED HARD
But all this was no simple midertaking, and the
offices were jammed all the time. Women of promi-
nence could be seen moving about from task to task.
yiiss Anne Morgan was always busy, Mrs. August
Belmont and Mrs. Eugene Kelly helped with this case
and that, Mrs. Edward Hewitt was a tower of strength,
and Mrs. Henry Dimock was tireless as her bundles of
clothing arrived, stack on stack, and her motor car
carried her from one errand to another.
Representatives from different houses that had
opened their doors to survivors would appear with the
names and conditions of those who were ready to move
on. A priest from the Swedish Home was there to
i arrange for clothing and money for thirteen charges. A
I big man from the Salvation Army arrived with the list
of those under his care. He had been down to arrange
for the transportation of Mrs. Emily Goldsmith and her
little son, who must move on to Detroit without the
I husband and father that sailed with them from South-
ampton.
, There was one moment when the women paused to
I shake their heads sadly, for an application had come in
for an outfit for a young girl who lost her brother in the
226 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
wreck. And the man who brought the requisition asked
that the dresses be not black for the girl would not give
up hope.
Of the 106 Titanic people who were taken to St.
Vincent's Hospital, fully forty resumed their journey
Saturday. A dazed girl sailed back to Finland on
Wednesday. Her brother, her uncle, and the man she
was to marry were lost. A slender Uttle Swedish woman
hovered over her two babies, patting their hair and
smoothing down the new dresses that came from the
committee of women. She had one terrible moment
when she started do^n the rope to the already lowered
hf eboat and knew that she could carry only the smaller
child. The three-year-old girl she could not carry, but
the little girl clung terrified to the mother's skirt and
did not release the hold till all three were in the lifeboat.
CHAPTER XXVI
SOME PATHETIC FEATURES OF THE
TRAGEDY
So Many People Near Safety Just Missed It —
Helpless Ones Left and Their Pkotectoes
Taken
Pitiful tales were related by some of the steerage
passengers of the Titanic as they came off the Car-
pathia. Few of the passengers were met by relatives
or friends and a majority were taken in charge by
charitable persons.
A pathetic incident of the steerage was the placing
of seven children — four girls and three boys — into one
of the lifeboats. Their parents were lost. Two of the
little ones, whose names could not be ascertained, were
taken to hospitals. One has scarlet fever and the other
meningitis.
SOME DIED IN LIFEBOATS
H. Haven, of Indianapolis, said the Titanic was
going at high speed when she struck and that the
hehnsman apparently had seen the danger and put the
hehn over, for the boat veered to port and struck the
227
228 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
iceberg a glancing blow. This ripped off a large sec-
tion of the plates on the starboard side and the water
began to pour in.
"There was a great rush for the lifeboats as soon
as it was known that there was any real danger," he
said. "So precipitate was this rush that many in
apparent frenzy jumped over the ship's railing into the
sea. A remarkable thing was that the lights continued
to burn, although the Titanic settled lower and lower.
"When we were at some distance from the sinking
ship and could still see the figures of hundreds of people
on deck at the railings there were several explosions in
the ship. More people went overboard. Presently the
Titanic buckled amidships, and we could see the people
sliding off into the water, both fore and aft. Then the
boat settled somewhat by the bow, the lights went out
and that was the last we saw of the Titanic,
"The temperature must have been below freezing,
and neither the men nor the women in my boat were
warmly clad. Several of them died. The officer in
charge of the lifeboat decided it was better to bury the
bodies. So they were weighted and put overboard. We
could also see similar burials taking place from other
lifeboats that were all around us.
"Of course at that time we did not know the Cai^-
pathia was near. If we had these bodies would have i
been saved." .
I
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 229
HUNDREDS DROWNED
August Wennerstrom, a Swede, spied a collapsible
boat behind one of the smokestacks as the vessel was
sinking. With three other men he managed to tear it
from its lashings and the four jumped overboard with
it. The boat overturned four times, but each time they
managed to right it and finally all of them were saved
by the Carpathia, While drifting about, Wennerstrom
said he saw at least 200 men in the water who were
drovvned.
CREW OBLIGED TO JUMP
The chief steward of the Carpathia explained the
large number of the crew saved by saying that the
majority of them had jumped from the Titanic and
were picked up by the boats.
SORROW INSTEAD OF SURPRISE
This message was received from London two days
after the Carpathia came in by James W. Van Billiard,
of North Wales, Pa.:
"Austin and two oldest children sailed on Titanic.
Maude."
It is explained that Austin Van Billiard, son of
James W. Van BiUiard, Burgess of North Wales and
a wealthy marble dealer, accompanied by his two eldest
children, James, aged eleven, and Walter, aged nine,
had sailed from Liverpool on the Titanic.
It further explained to the Van BiUiard family that
2a0 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
it was their son whose name appeared in the list of steer-
age passengers who went down, and not some one with
a similar name as they had believed.
MEN HUNG ON RAiTS
One version of the deaths of John Jacob Astor and
WiUiam T. Stead was told by Philip Mock, who with
his sister, Mrs. Paul Schabert, were among the sur-
vivors.
"Many men were hanging on to the rafts in the sea,"
said Mr. Mock. ''William T. Stead, the author, and
Col. John Jacob Astor clung to a raft. Their feet
became frozen and they were compelled to release their
hold* Both were drowned."
ALL THAT IS LEFT
In the children's ward at St. Vincent's was a Uttle
girl four years old who was brought off the sinking
Titanic, Her name, she thought, was Annie Karens.
She hsped it and wanted her father and mother. People
kept telling the child that mamma might come after
awhile and that papa might come, too.
The wives and relatives and friends of the crew of
the Titanic gathered in the early hours of the morning
of the 19th at the White Star offices in Southampton,
England, to wait for the list of those officers and men
who had been saved. In some cases the posting of the
list brought relief, but the majority went away with
their worst fears confirmed.
CHAPTER XXVII
SOME FORTUNATE CIRCUMSTANCES
In the Midst of the Gloom of the Tragedy There
Are Still Some Bright Spots — Better Himself
Than His Wardrobe.
Alfred von Drachstedt, a tall, blonde German youth
of twenty years, who says that he has the right to pre-
fix "baron" to his name, appeared Thursday night on
the Cafyathia attired in a sweater, a pair of trousers,
and a life preserver and with only a few German marks
in his pocket. He left on the Titanic 750 German marks
and a wardrobe.
It was an elaborate wardrobe that young Von Drach-
stedt left behind him, and he felt bad over its loss, though
admitting that he was glad to have arrived himself.
To begin with, it was a brand new wardrobe, and it
cost, according to his itemized account, just $2,133,
counting in the jewelry, walking sticks, two sets of toilet
articles, and a fountain pen that went with it.
The young man Hves in Cologne and his mother is
a widow. It was his first trip from home.
231
I
232 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
SAVED BY DOING HIS DUTY
Rev. James M. Gray, dean of the Moody Bible
Institute, probably owed his life to his conscientious
desire to return to America in time to preach the bacca-
laureate sermon to the graduating class of the institute.
He was about to start for home when Rev. Dr. Harold
urged him to remain and embark on the Titanic on her
maiden voyage. He refused to do so on the plea that
he must be in Chicago to preach to the graduates. He
took another steamship a week earlier.
A POST CARD PROPHECY
A picture postal card, with the following jingle,
bore the first news to Rev. and Mrs. Mawbrey E. Col-
lett, of Port Byron, New York, that their son, the Rev.
Sidney C. Stuart Collett, had embarked on the ill-fated
Titanic, The card, bearing a picture of the Titanic,
said:
Mother put the kettle on, let's have a cup of tea
Ready for the dear old "Sid," who's coming home from
sea;
You'll be glad to see him, and kiss him with delight,
So mother put the kettle on, I'm coming home all right
(Signed) Sid.
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 233
That was all the news of the young traveler that
they had until they read his name among the hst of
survivors.
TRIBUTE TO MARCONI
Oscar Straus, brother of Isidor Strauc, the great
philanthropist who lost his hfe on the Titanic^ paid a
high tribute to the genius of Marconi and said that he
hoped a monument may be erected to the inventor dur-
fng his lifetime.
"But for the genius of Marconi," said Mr. Straus,
"every soul on the Titanic would probably have been
drowned and we would not have known what happened.
To him the survivors owe their lives, and no tribute we
can pay would be too great.
"What he has done to safeguard the Uves of those
who travel on the seas should not be underestimated,
and his inventions have made him one of the great
figures in the world today. I should like to see a monu-
ment erected to him while he lives so that he may see
that the world appreciates what he has done for
humanity."
ESCAPED ON ICE
A huge cake of ice was the means of aiding Emile
Portaluppi, of Aricgabo, Italy, in escaping death when
the Titanic went down. Portaluppi, a second-class pas-
senger, was awakened by the explosion of one of the
234
WRECK OF THE TITANIC
boilers 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
lifeboats picked him up. There were thirty-five other
people in the boat when he was hauled aboard.
— Detroit Netcs.
"Waiting
i
CHAPTER XXVIII
VARIOUS DESCRIPTIONS OF HOW THE
TITANIC DISAPPEARED
Every Sub-vivor Was Lett With a Vivid Impres-
sion OF THE Ship^s Tragedy — End of Titanic
Appatj.tng.
One of the most stirring accounts of the wreck and
its after effects was told by William Smith, assistant
manager for L. E. Waterman, 115 South Clark street,
Chicago.
With tears gushing from his eyes, though he tried
to wink them away. Smith told of the thrilhng experi-
ences of Mrs. Harry Collyer of Bishopstoke, near
Southampton, England, and her eight-year-old daugh-
ter Marjorie.
The Collyers numbered the husband, Harry Collyer,
thirty years old; his wife and daughter. They had
booked passage on the steamer New York, which was
delayed because of the British coal strike, and they were
transferred to the Titanic.
Collyer, who perished on the Titanic, had purchased
through tickets for the family to Payette, Idaho, where
235
236 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
he intended to buy a half -interest in a ten-acre apple
orchard. The CoUyers had sold their little grocery at
Bishopstoke, and the husband had all his money and
valuables sewed up in his clothes.
WOMAN DESCRIBED DISASTER
"Mrs. Collyer told me a terrible story of the disas-
ter," said Mr. Smith. "It was bad enough to meet her
at the dock when the Carpathia came in. I would not
suffer that experience again for $1,000.
"When the Titanic struck the iceberg the Collyers
were awakened from slumber in their berths and rushed
to the deck, thinly clad. Some one called out that all
the passengers should put on life preservers. Collyer
rushed away to find three of them for his family and
himself.
"His wife never saw him again. She was thrown
into a lifeboat with other women. Just before this she
said she saw three lifeboats, one after another, over-
turned with their human freight. It was this that fright-
ened the women on board and made them reluctant to
enter the boats.
''The result was, Mrs. Collyer said, that women were
sorn from the arms of their loved ones and thrown bodily
into the life craft.
"Officers stood by with pistols to keep away the men
from the steerage, who on at least one occasion
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 237
attempted a rusn. When occasion warranted the officers
did not scruple to fire. One of the men from the steer-
age jumped into one of the hfeboats. The officer in
charge threw him out into the water to drown.
"Mrs. CoUyer thought that the disaster caught the
crew of the Titanic unawares, as she said there was not
a proper response when the call to the lifeboats was
issued.
"The end of the Titanic she described as appaUing,
as seen from the lifeboats through the starlit night.
First one end of the steamer lifted, then the other; then,
with a great wail from hundreds still on board, it sank.
"For one hour, she averred the screams continued,
right up to the time when the Titanic disappeared for-
ever, and she said that this was the unforgettable impres-
sion of the wreck for her. The lifeboats had all they
could do to preserve their equiUbrium and to prevent
collision with the icebergs.
"The CoUyers are absolutely destitute, as the hus-
band carried to the bottom with him all they had in the
world."
NO SEARCHLIGHT
Miss Constance Willard, of Duluth, Minn., who left
the Titanic twenty minutes before the vessel sank,
recounted an interesting experience.
"One subject talked of after we were on board the
Carpathia/' she said, "was the fact the Titanic had no
238 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
searchlight. The crew said that it had been the inten-
tion of the owners to equip the vessel with a searchlight
after its arrival in New York.
"When I reached the deck after the collision the
crew were getting the boats ready to lower, and many
of the women were running about looking for their hus-
bands and children. The women were being placed in
the boats, and two men took hold of me and almost
pushed me into a boat. I did not appreciate the danger
and I struggled until they released me.
" 'Do not waste time ; let her go if she will not get in,'
an ofBcer said. I hurried back to my cabin again and
went from cabin to cabin looking for my friends, but
could not find them. A little English girl about fifteen
years old ran up to me and threw her arms about me.
HURKIED ABOARD A BOAT
" *0, 1 am all alone,' she sobbed, *won't you let me go
with you?' I then began to realize the real danger and
saw that all but two of the boats had been lowered.
Some men called to us and we hurried to where they
were loading a boat. All the women had been provided
with life belts. As the men lifted us into the boat they
smiled at us and told us to be brave. The night was
cold and the men who were standing about, especially
the steerage passengers, looked chilled, but the men
who were helping the women into the boats seemed dif-
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 239
ferent. Even while they smiled at us great beads of
perspiration stood out on their foreheads.
BEGGED HEE TO TAKE CHILD
"I never will forget an incident that occurred just
as we were about to be lowered into the water. I had
just been lifted into the boat and was still standing,
when a foreigner rushed up to the side of the vessel and
holding out a bundle in his arms cried with tears run-
ning down his face :
"O, please, kind lady, won't you save my little girl,
my baby. For myself it is no difference, but please,
please take the little one.' Of course, I took the child.
Most women were compelled to stand in the boats
because they all wore the Uf ebelts, which made it almost
impossible to sit down.
"In our boat there were seven men, about twenty
women, and several children. The night was dark.
Twenty minutes after leaving the Titanic we heard an
explosion and the vessel appeared to split in two and
sank. Then a foreign woman in our boat began singing
a hymn, and we all joined, although few knew the words.
All around us we heard crying and sobbing for perhaps
three minutes.
NO IDEA BOAT WOULD SINK
John B. Thayer, Jr., whose father, the second vice-
president of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, went
240 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
down with the Titanic^ while his mother was saved, dic-
tated at his home in Haverf ord, in the presence of mem-
bers of his family and officers of the railroad company,
an account of his thrilling experience in the great sea
tragedy. Young Thayer, who is seventeen years old,
said in part :
"Father was in bed and mother and myself were
about to get into bed. There was no great shock. I
put on an overcoat and rushed up on *A' deck on the
port side, but saw nothing there. I then went down to
our room and my father and mother came on deck with
me. The ship had then a fair list to port.
DESCRIBED FAREWELL TO MOTHER
"We then went down to our rooms, all dressing
quickly. We all put on life preservers, and over these
we put our overcoats. Then we hurried up on deck
and walked around until the women were all ordered to
collect on the port side. Father and I said good-by to
mother at the top of the stairs on 'A' deck.
"As at this time we had no idea the boat would sink,
we walked around. 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.
A crowd got in front of me and I v/as not able to catch
them and lost sight of them. That is the last time I
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 241
saw my father. This was about half an hour before
the ship sank. I then went to the starboard side with
Milton C. Long, of New York.
"On the starboard side the boats were getting away
quickly. We thought of getting into one of the boats,
but there seemed to be such a crowd around I thought
it wouldn't do to make any attempt.
JUMPED INTO OCEAN ; FOUND BOAT
"About this time people began jumping from the
stern. I thought of jumping myself, but was afraid of
being stunned on hitting the water. As the boat started
to sink we stood by the rail. Long and myself said
good-by to each other and jumped up on the rail. He
did not jump clear, but slid down the side of the ship.
I never saw him again.
"I jumped out feet first, went down, and as I came
up I was pushed away from the ship by some force.
"I was sucked down again 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 wreck-
age. My hand touched the cork fender of an over
turned lifeboat. I looked up and saw some men on the
[ top. One of them helped me up. In a short time the
I botton^' was covered with about twenty-five or thirty
I men. ^<^''
242
WRECK OF THE TITANIC
RESCUE BOAT AERIVED
"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 morning to come. The wireless man raised
our hopes 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 its mast lights.
"Two boats from the Carpathia came up. The first
took half and the other took the balance, including
myself. In about a half or three-quarters of an hour
later we were picked up by the Carpathia/^
CHAPTER XXIX
U. S. SENATORS OBTAIN FACTS OF WRECK
Speed of Ship Not Lessened on Waening — Wit-
nesses Also Showed Lack of Small Boats Cost
Many Lives — Ismay Described Wreck — ^Denied
He Fled Before Women Had Chance to Leave
THE Vessel — ^Described Rescue Efforts.
The seriousness of the inquirj'^ by the United States
Senate investigating committee into the Titanic disaster
was disclosed when Senator William Alden Smith of
Michigan, the chairman, at first flatly refused to let any
of the officers or the 200-odd members of the crew of the
sunken steamship get beyond the jurisdiction of the
United States government. The men were all to have
sailed back home on the steamer Lapland.
Later it was decided that the greater part of the crew
would be permitted to sail, but that the twelve men and
four officers among the survivors under subpoena, to-
gether with J. Bruce Ismay, would not be allowed to
depart.
It was explained that Mr. Ismay was anxious to
leave at once for Europe, as he had been worn out by his
experiences, and felt the need of returning quickly to
243
244 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
his English home for a rest. His pleas, however, were
unavailing.
MEN WHO TESTIFIED.
The first day brought out important features in con-
nection with the wreck. These were disclosed in the
examination of Mr. Ismay, Arthur Henrj^ Rostron,
captain of the rescue ship Carpathian and Second Officer
Lightoller of the Titanic, William Marconi, inventor of
the wireless telegraph; Thomas Cottam, the wireless
operator of the Carpathian and others.
Among other things, the first day's testimony"
showed:
That the biggest ship ever built sank in midoccan
because it was being rushed forward almost at top speed
and crashed into a field of icebergs after warnings had
been given to look out.
That the small number of lives saved was due to the
fact there were not enough lifeboats on board to accom-
modate the passengers.
ISMAY DESCRIBED THE WRECK.
Because of his position as managing director of the
White Star Line the testimony of Mr. Ismay was the
most important given.
Mr. Ismay, who plainty showed his nervousness while
on the stand, told in whispers of his escape from the
sinking liner from the time he pushed away in a boat
WRECK OF THE TITANIC
245
Time to Get Busy
— St. Louis RepuWc.
246 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
with the women until he found himself, clad in his
pajamas, aboard the Carpathia,
He was not sure in just what boat he left the Titanic^
nor was he sure how long he remained on the liner after
it struck. He added, however, that before he entered a
lifeboat he had been told that there were no more women
on the deck.
Mr. Ismay denied that there had been any censoring
of messages from the Carpathia. Other witnesses,
including Captain Rostron of the Carpathia^ bore him
out in this, with the explanation that the lone wireless
operator on the rescue ship, swamped with personal
messages, was unable to send matter for the press.
TEXT OF ISMAY TESTIMONY.
Mr. Ismay, in response to Senator Smith's question-
ings gave an account of his experiences. — "As near as I
remember, it was the 1st of April that the Titanic made
its trial trip, which was perfectly satisfactory. On the
voyage over, we left Southampton at 12 o'clock and
arrived at Cherbourg that evening, having made the run
at sixty-eight revolutions. We left Cherbourg and pro-
ceeded to Queenstown, arriving there, I think, at midday
on Thursday. We ranged, I think, about seventy
revolutions. We embarked passengers and proceeded
at seventy revolutions. I am not absolutely clear on the
run on the first day. I think it was between 464 and 474
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 247
miles. The second day we proceeded at seventy -two
revolutions, the third day at seventy-five. I think that
day we ran either 576 or 579 miles. The weather con-
tinued fine, except for about ten minutes of fog one
evening. The accident took place on Sunday night.
The exact time I don't know. I was in bed asleep when
it happened. The ship sank, I am told, at 2:20 in the
morning. The ship had never been at full speed. That
would have been seventy-eight revolutions, working up
to eighty. It hadn't all its boilers on. I may say that
it was intended, if we had fair weather Monday after-
noon or Tuesday, to drive the steamship at full speed.
Unfortunately the catastrophe prevented this.
"I presume the impact awakened me. I lay for a
minute or two and then I got up and went into the pas-
sageway, where I met a steward and asked him what
was the matter. He replied, *I don't know, sir.' Then
I went back to my stateroom, put on my overcoat and
went up to the bridge, where I saw Captain Smith.
*What has happened?' I asked him. 'We have struck
ice,' he replied. I asked if the injury was serious, and
he said he thought so. Then I came down and in an
entryway saw the chief engineer. I asked him if he
thought there was any serious injury. He said he
beheved there was. Walking along the deck I met an
officer on the starboard side and assisted him as best I
could in getting out the women and children. I stayed
248 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
up on deck until the starboard collapsible boat was
lowered." Mr. Ismay stated that an official representa-
tive of the builders, Mr. Thomas Andrews, was on board
to see that everjrthing was satisfactory and wherein
improvements might be made, but he was lost.
"Did you or the captain ever consult about the move-
ment of the ship?"
"Never."
SLOW INCREASE IN SPEED.
"Was it supposed that you could reach New York
by 5 o'clock Wednesday morning without putting the
steamship to its full capacity?"
"Oh, yes. Nothing was to be gained by arriving
sooner than that."
Mr. Ismay testified that the revolutions were being
gradually increased, as was customary with a new ship.
The speed on Saturday was 75 revolutions, but that was
nothing to full speed. Mr. Ismay did not know ice
had been reported, and had never seen an iceberg. He
expected that some time Sunday night they would come
into the ice region.
"Did you have any consultation with the captain
regarding the matter?"
"Absolutely none. It was entirely out of my prov-
ince. I was simply a passenger aboard the ship."
"On which decks were the boats?"
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 249
"The lifeboats were all on one deck — ^the sun deck,"
Mr. Ismay said.
FOUE MEN IN HIS BOAT.
They were filled, a crew put in, and they were sent
away. There were four men aboard the boat on which
Mr. Ismay escaped.
WOMEN SENT AWAY FIRST.
Mr. Ismay could not say that all the women and
children had been taken off. In his boat there were
about 45 people, which he thought was its capacity.
Three other boats he saw were loaded about the same.
There was no struggle by men to get into the boats
and the women were taken just as they came. Mr,
Ismay said he was on the Titanic practically until it
sank, perhaps an hour and a quarter.
"What were the circumstances of your departure
from the ship?" asked Senator Smith.
"I was immediately opposite the lifeboat. A certain
number of people were in it. An ofBcer called to know
if there were any more women. There were no women
in sight on the deck then. There were no passengers
about and I got in."
Nearly all the passengers Mr. Ismay saw had on
life preservers. He did not see anyone jump into the
sea. They steered their lifeboats toward a distant light
and spent about four hours in the open sea.
250 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
"How many lifeboats were there?"
"Twenty altogether, I think; sixteen ol them
wooden lifeboats, but I am not absolutely certain."
Mr. Ismay said the sea was very calm, a ripple on,
nothing more.
"What can you say about the sinking and disappear-
ance of the ship?" asked Senator Smith.
"Nothing; I did not see it go down."
"I was sitting with my back to the ship; I did not
wish to see it go. I was pushing with an oar. I am
glad I did not see it."
CONFORMED TO BOAKD RULES.
Mr. Ismay said the Titanic conformed to the British
Board of Trade's requirements, else it could not have
sailed. The lifeboats were the Titanic's own and not
borrowed from any other ship of the White Star line.
Mr. Ismay had nothing to do with the selection of the
men in his own Ufeboat; they were designated by Mr.
Wild, the chief officer.
SAPER THAN OTHER SHIPS.
Senator Smith wished to know how much water
the ship could hjld without sinking.
"The ship was especially constructed so as to float
with any two compartments — any two of the biggest
compartments — full of water, and I think I am righ^
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 251
in saying there are few ships today of which the same
can be said. When we built the ship we had this in
mind. If the ship had hit the ice head on, in all hmnan
probability that ship would have been afloat today, but
the information I received is that it struck a glancing
blow between the end of the forecastle and the captain's
bridge."
Mr. Ismay feared all the women and children were
not saved. He could say nothing of equipment and
so on, except that the Board of Trade rules had been
complied with in every way and that all data and in-
formation was at the committee's disposal. He had
made no attempt to interfere with the wireless service
in any way.
TESTIMONY OF CAPTAIN ROSTXON.
Capt. Rostron of the Carpathia followed Mr.
Ismay. He told Mr. Smith that he had been captain
of the Carpathia since last January, but that he had
' been a seaman twenty-seven years.
"What day did you last sail from New York with
I the Carpathia f^ asked Senator Smith.
"April 11," said Capt. Rostron, "bound for
j Gibraltar."
"How many passengers did you have?"
"I think 120 first-class, 50 second-class, and about
565 third-class passengers."
252 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
"Tell the committee all that happened after you left
New York."
"We backed out of the dock at noon, Thursday.
Up to Sunday midnight we had fine, clear weather.
At 12:35 Monday morning I was informed of the
urgent distress signal from the Titanic/^
"By whom?"
"The wireless operator and first ofiicer. The mes-
sage was that the Titanic was in immediate danger. I
gave the order to turn the ship around as soon as the
Titanic had given its position. I set a course to pick
up the Titanic^ which was fifty-eight miles west of my
position. I sent for the chief engineer; told him to put
on another watch of stokers and make all speed for the
Titanic. I told the first officer to stop all deck work,
get out the lifeboats, and be ready for any emergency.
The chief steward and doctors of the Carpathia I called
to my office and instructed as to their duties. They
were instructed to be ready with all supplies necessary
for any emergency."
HOW SURVIVORS WERE FOUND.
Arriving on the scene of the accident, Capt. Rostron
testified, he saw an iceberg straight ahead of him, and,
stopping at 4 a. m., he picked up the first lifeboat.
"By the time I got the boat aboard day was break-
ing," said the captain. "In a radius of four miles I
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 253
saw all the other lifeboats. On all sides of us were ice-
bergs; some twenty were 150 to 200 feet high, and
numerous small icebergs, or 'growlers.' Wreckage was
strewn about us. At 8:30 all the Titanic' s survivors
were aboard."
THE SERVICE OF PEAYER
Then, with tears filling his eyes, Capt. Rostron said
he called the purser.
"I told him," said Capt. Rostron, "I wanted to hold
a service of prayer — thanksgiving for the hving and a
funeral service for the dead. I went to Mr. Ismay.
He told me to take full charge. An Episcopal clergy-
man was found among the passengers and he conducted
the services."
Three members of the Titanic's crew were taken
from the lifeboats, dead from exposure. They were
buried at sea.
Asked about the lifeboats, Capt. Rostron said he
found one among the wreckage in the sea. The lifeboats
on the Titanic, Capt Rostron said, were all new and in
accordance with the British regulations.
"Was the Titanic on the right course when it first
spoke to you?" Senator Smith asked.
"Absolutely on its regular course bound for New
York," said the captain. "It was in what we call the
i southerly to avoid icebergs."
254 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
SILENT AS TO WABNING.
Capt. Rostron declined to say if Capt. Smith had
warning enough and might have avoided the ice if he
had heeded.
"Would you regard the course taken by the Titanic
in this trial trip as appropriate, safe and wise at this
time of the year?" Senator Smith asked.
"Quite so."
"What would be safe, reasonable speed for a ship
of that size and in that course?"
"I didn't know the ship," the captain said, "and
therefore cannot tell. I had seen no ice before the
Titanic signaled us, but I knew from its message that
there was ice to be encountered. But the Carpathia
went full speed ahead. I had extra officers on watch
and some others volunteered to watch ahead throughout
the trip."
CAEPATHIA HAD TWENTY LIFEBOATS.
Capt. Rostron said the Carpathia had twenty life-
boats of its own, in accordance with the British regula-
tions.
"Wouldn't that indicate that the regulations are out
of date, your ship being much smaller than the Titanic,
which also carried twenty lifeboats?" Senator Smith
asked.
i
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 255
"No. The Titamc was supposed to be a lifeboat
itself."
"You say that the captain of a ship has absolute
control over the movements of his vessel?"
"Yes, by law that is the rule," Capt. Rostron an-
swered. "But suppose we get orders from the owners
of our ship to do a certain thing. If we do not execute
that order we are Uable to dismissal. When I turned
back for New York with the rescued I sent a message
to the Cunard line office stating that I was proceeding
to New York unless otherwise ordered. I then imme-
diately proceeded. I received no order to change my
course."
Senator Smith said some complaint had been heard
that the Carpathia had not answered President Taft's
inquiry for Maj . Butt. Capt. Rostron declared a reply
was sent "not on board."
CAUGHT APPEAL BY CHANCE.
Absolutely no censorship was exercised, he said. The
wireless continued working all the way in, the Marconi
operator being constantly at the key.
In discussing the strength of the Carpathia s wire-
less, Capt. Rostron said the Carpathia was only fifly-
eight miles from the Titanic when the call for help came.
"Our wireless operator was not on duty," said Capt*
lostron, "but as he was undressing he had his apparatus
256 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
to his ear. Ten minutes later he would have been in
bed and we never would have heard."
MARCONI ON THE STAND. |
William Marconi, the wireless inventor, took the
stand as soon as the hearing was resumed. He said he
was the chairman of the British Marconi Company.
Under instructions of the company, he said, operators
must take their orders from the captain of the ship on
which they are employed.
"Do the regulations prescribe whether one or two
operators should be aboard the ocean vessels?"
"Yes, on ships like the Titanic and Olympic^ two
are carried," said Mr. Marconi. "The Carpaihia, a
smaller boat, carries one. The Carpathia wireless ap-
paratus is a short distance equipment. The maximum
efficiency of the Carpathia wireless, I should say, was
200 miles. The wireless equipment on the Titanic w?s
available 500 miles during the daytime and 1,000 miles
at night."
"Do you consider that the Titanic was equipped
with the latest improved wireless apparatus?"
"Yes; I should say that it had the best."
Senator Smith asked if amateur or rival concerns
mterfered with the wireless communication of the Car-
, vathia.
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 257
INTERFERENCE BY OUTSIDERS.
"I am unable to say. Near New York I have an
impression there was some sHght interference, but when
the Carpathia was farther out in touch with New York
and Nova Scotia there was practically no interference."
"Did you hear the captain of the Carpathia say in
his testimony that they caught this distress message
from the Titanic almost providentially?" asked Senator
Smith.
"Yes, I did. It was absolutely providential."
"Ought it not to be incumbent upon ships to have
an operator always at the key?"
"Yes, but the ship owners do not like to carry two
operators when they can get along with one. The
smaller boat owners do not like the expense of two
operators."
TESTIMONY OF SECOND OFFICER.
Charles Herbert Lightoller, second officer of the
Titanic, said he understood the maximum speed of
the Titanic, as shown by its trial tests, to have been
221/^ to 23 knots.
Senator Smith asked if the rule requiring life saving
pparatus to be in each room for each passenger was
omplied with.
"Everything was complete," said Lightoller. Dur-
ng the tests, he said, Capt. Clark of the British Board
258 WBECK OF THE TITANIC
of Trade was aboard the Titanic to inspect its
saving equipment.
"How thorough are these captains of the Boardj
Trade in inspecting ships?" asked Senator Smith.
"Capt. Ciark is so thorough that we called hh
nuisance."
Lightoller said he was in the sea with a life belt on
one hour and a half after the Titanic sank. When it
sank he was in the officers' quarters and all but one of
the life boats were gone. This one was caught in the
tackle and they were trying to free it.
HAD WARNING OF ICEBrSGS.
Lightoller said that on Sunday lie saw a message
from "some ship" about an iceberg ahead. He did not \
know the Ameriha sent the message, he testified. i
The ship was making about 21 to 211^ knots, the
weather was clear and fair, and no anxiety about ice
was felt, so no extra lookouts were put on.
"When Capt. Smith came on the bridge at five min*
utes of 9, what was said?"
"We talked together generally for twenty or twenty-
five minutes about when we might expect to get to the.i
ice fields. He left the bridge, I think, about twenty- £
five minutes after 9 o'clock, and during our talk hej
told me to keep the ship on its course, but that if I was|
the slightest degree doubtful as conditions developed
to let him know at once."
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 259
"What time did you leave the bridge?"
"I turned over the watch to First Officer Murdock
at 10 o'clock. We talked about the ice that we had
Iieard was afloat, and I remember we agreed we should
reach the reported longitude of the ice floes about 11
o'clock, an hour later. At that time the weather was
calm and clear. I remember we talked about the dis-
tance we could see. We could see stars in the horizon.
It was verv clear."
Lightoller testified that the TUanic's decks were ab-
Uitely intact when it went down. The last order he
heard the captain give was to lower the boats.
The last boat, a flat collapsible, to put off was the
one on top the officers' quarters. Men jumped upon it
on deck «ind waited for the water to float it oflF. Once
at sea it upset. The forward funnel fell into the water,
jjust missing the raft, and overturning it. The funnel
probably killed persons in the water.
"This was the boat I eventually got on. No one
\vas on it when I reached it. Later about thirty men
clambered out of the water on to it. All had on life
preservers."
"Did any passengers get on?" asked Senator Smith.
"J. B. Thayer, Col. Gracie and the second Marconi
operator were among them. All the rest taken out
of the water were firemen. Two of these died that night
nd slipped off into the water, I think the senior Mar-
260 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
coni operator was one of the three. We took on board
all we could and there were no others in the water near
at hand.
When Lightoller left he saw no women or children
on board, though there were a number of passengers on
the boat deck. The passengers were selected to fill the
boats by sex, Lightoller himself putting on all the
women he saw, except the stewardesses. He saw some
women refuse to go.
TWENTY-FR^ IN FIEST BOAT.
In the first boat to be put off Lightoller said he put
twenty to twenty-five. Two seamen were placed in it.
The officer said he could spare no more, and that the fact
that women rowed did not show the boat was not fully
equipped.
At that time he did not believe the danger was great.
Two seamen placed in the boat, he said, were selected
by him, but he could not recall who they were. He said
he named them because they were standing near. The
second boat carried thirty passengers, with two men.
"By the time I came to the third boat I began to
realize that the situation was serious, and I began to
take chances. I filled it up as full as I dared, sir — about
thirty-five, I think."
RAN SHORT OF SEAMEN.
In loading the fourth lifeboat, Lightoller said he
was running short of seamen. ^
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 261
"I put two seamen in and one jumped out. That
was the first boat I had to put a man passenger in. He
was standing nearby and said he would go if I needed
him.
"I said, *Are j^ou a sailor?' and he replied that he
was a yachtsman. Then I told him that if he was sailor
enough to get out over the bulwarks to the lifeboat, to
go ahead. He did, and proved himself afterward to
be a brave man. I didn't know him then, but afterward
I looked him up. He was Maj. Peuchen of Toronto."
Of the fifth boat Lightoller had no particular recol-
lection.
"The last boat I put out, my sixth boat," he said,
'Sve had difficulty finding women. I called for women
and none were on deck. The men began to get in —
and then women appeared. As rapidly as they did,
the men passengers got out of the boat again."
"The boat's deck was only ten feet from the water
when I lowered the sixth boat. When we lowered the
first the distance to the water was seventy feet."
All told, Lightoller testified, 210 members of the
crew were saved.
"If the same course was pursued on the starboard
side as you pursued on the port in filling boats, how do
you account for so many members of the crew being
saved?" asked Chairman Smith.
"I have inquired especially and have found that for
262 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
every six persons picked up five were either firemenj
stewards."
Some lifeboats, the witness said, went back after thi
Titanic sank and picked up men from the sea.
LightoUer said he stood on top of the officers' qi
ters and as the ship dived he faced forward
dived also.
"I was sucked against a blower and held there,
terrific gust came up the blower — ^the boilers must ha-i
exploded — and I was blown clear — ^barely clear. I was
sucked down again, this time on the 'Fidley' grating."
Col. Gracie's experience was similar. LightoUer
did not know how he got loose, perhaps another explo-
sion. He came up by a boat, on which he clambered.
TESTIMONY BY RELIEF MAN
Thomas Cottam, aged 21, of Liverpool, the Marconi
operator on the Carpathian was the next witness.
He said he had no regular hours for labor on the
Carpathia, Previous witnesses had testified he was not
"on duty" when he received the Titanic's signal for help.
He was uncertain whether he was required to work at
night. He had not closed his station for the night,
which is accomplished by switching the storage battery
out. He was listening for a confirmation message from
the Parisian, while he was preparing to retire, and «
caught the Titanic's distress signal by chance. |
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 263
"When you got the distress message from the
Titanic Sunday night, how did you get it?"
"I called the Titanic myself, sir."
"Who told you to call the Titanicr
"No one, sir; I did it of my own free will."
"What was the answer?"
" 'Come at once,' was the message, sir."
"I was in communication with the Titanic at regular
intervals until the final message," said Cottam. "This
was *Come quick; our engine room is filling up to the
boilers.' "
Cottam said that after the THanic's survivors were
picked up he worked practically continuously until
Tuesday, when he fell asleep at his post. He could not
tell when he dropped from exhaustion nor when he
"^^'oke.
I
264
WRECK OF THE TITANIC
—NfAO York World
Wireless Anarchy
CHAPTER XXX
INVESTIGATION CONTINUED
Blunders in Wireless Messages Contributed tc
Great Loss of Life
Testimony given before the Senate committee
showed that blunders in wireless service had much to
do with the great loss of life.
Harold S. Bride, who was relief operator on the
Titanic, said that when Chief Operator Phillips sent
out the call for help the first answer came from the
Frankfurt of the North German Lloyd line. The
operator on the Frankfurt apparently considered the
call trivial, for half an hour after receiving the impera-
tive appeal he called the Titanic to inquire specifically
just what was wrong.
"Mr. Phillips said he was a fool," Bride testified,
"and told him to keep out, but did not tell him the
Titanic was sinking.
No effort was made to re-establish communication
with the Frankfurt, although PhiUips felt certain the
vessel was much nearer than the Carpathia, with which
communication had been established.
265
266 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
BRIDE IGNORED CALIFORNIAN's CALL
Another* phase of the laxity of the wireless service^
was devc>oped when Chairman Smith drew from the
witness an acknowledgment that Sunday evening Bride
was sitting, the telephonic apparatus strapped to his
ears, adjusting his accounts, while the steamship Cali-
forniaUj seeking to warn the Titanic that icebergs were]
invading the lanes of ocean travel, called incessantly,
Bride said he heard the call, but did not answer be-
cause he was "busy."
It was not until a half hour later that the Calif or-
nian, striving to reach the steamship Baltic^ reached also
the Titanic, whereupon the warning that three great
icebergs had been sighted was noted by Bride and
verbally communicated to the Titanic's captain.
MARCONI CRITICISED OPERATOR
Senator Smith established by William Marconi that
the Titanic and the Frankfurt operated virtually the
same type of instruments.
Marconi also criticised the operator on the Frankfurt
for neglecting to act immediately after he received the
first call for help. It was the duty of the wireless
operator, he said, to tell his captain of the distress signal
so that that ship might have rushed to the rescue.
Both Bride and Thomas Cottam, wireless operators
on the Carpathian were mere boys, neither being over 23
years old.
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 267
Neither had any telegraphic experience previous to
taking up wii^eless telegraphy and both while on the
stand told tales of long hours at low wages and days
and nights spent without sleep.
This inexperience and the mental condition of the
young operators were the two points on which Senator
Smith bore persistently. He had put Cottam through
a gruelling examination, in which the youth testified that
he had not slept more than eight or ten hours between
Sunday night, when the Titanic called for help, and
Thursday night, when the vessel docked. Bride's story
bore out virtually all that Cottam's had established.
TESTIMONY OF OPERATOR BRIDE
"Wliat practical experience have you had?" asked
Senator Smith.
"I have crossed to the States three times and to Brazil
twice," said Bride.
Bride remembered receiving and sending messages
relative to the speed of the Titanic on its trial tests.
After leaving Southampton on the Titanic's fatal trip
he could not remember receiving or sending any mes-
sages for Ismay. Senator Smith asked particularly
about messages on Sunday. "
"I don't remember, sir," said Bride. "There was so
much business Sunday."
He was asked if Captain Smith received or sent any
messages Sunday.
268 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
"No, sir," was the reply.
After testifying he made no permanent record of the
iceberg warnings, Bride insisted he gave the memoran-
dum of the warning to the officer on the watch. The
name of the officer he could not tell. He did not inform
Captain Smith.
NOTIFIED OF THREE ICEBERGS
Later the witness told of having intercepted a mes-
sage from the Calif or nian intended for the Baltic, which
told of the presence of three great icebergs in the vicinity
of the former vessel.
"I gave the message to the captain personally," he
said.
MARCONI EXPLAINS "c. Q. D."
In an effort to determine whether the signal "C. Q.
D." might not have been misunderstood by passing ships
Senator Smith called upon Mr. Marconi.
"The *C. Q.'," said Mr. Marconi, "is an international
signal which meant that all stations should cease sending
except the one using the call. The 'D.' was added to
indicate danger. The call, however, now has been super-
seded by the universal call *S. O. S.' "
Senator Smith then resumed the direct examination
of Bride, who had said the North German Lloyd was the
first to answer the Titanic's distress signal.
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 269
"Have you heard it said that the Frankfurt was the
ship nearest to the Titanic?" the senator asked.
"Yes, sir; Mr. PhiUips told me that."
"How did he know?"
"By the strength of the signals," said the witness,
who added that the Carpathia answered shortly after.
In answer to further questions, Operator Bride said :
"We did not feel the shock when the ship struck. In
fact, I was asleep and was not even awakened by the
impact. When the engines stopped, Mr. Phillips called
me and I put on the telephone apparatus while he went
out to see what was the trouble. A little later he came
back. He said things looked *queer.' By 'queer' I sup-
pose he meant that everything was not as it should be.
"When I heard the confusion on deck I went out to
investigate, and when I returned I found Mr. Phillips
sending out a *C. Q. D.' call giving our position. We
raised the Frankfurt first, and then the Carpathia and
the Baltic, As I have said, we did not try for the Frank-
furt for any length of time, but concentrated our mes-
sages on the Carpathia, which had answered that it was
rushing to our aid.
"The captain came into the wireless cabin when the
Carpathia advised us of its position and figured out the
time when that vessel probably would arrive. He left
when that was disposed of, and proceeded to the bridge.
270 WBECK OF THE TITANIC
Then we began unofficially to keep in communication
with the Carpathia.
"From time to time either Mr. Phillips or I would
go on deck to observe the situation. The last time I went
I found the passengers running around in confusion
and there was almost a panic. They were seeking life
belts. All of the large lifeboats were gone, but there
was one life raft remaining. It had been lashed on the
top of the quarters on the boat deck. A number of men
were stri^dng to launch it.
PREPARED EOR SHIP's SINKINTG
'T went back to the wireless cabin then. Mr.
Phillips was striving to send out a final *C. Q. D.' call.
The power was so low that we could not tell exactly
whether it was being carried or not, for we were in a
closed cabin and we could not hear the crackle of the
wireless at the mast. Phillips kept on sending, however,
while I buckled on his life belt and put on my own.
Then we both cared for a woman who had fainted and
who had been brought into our cabin.
"Then, about ten minutes before the ship saiikj
Captain Smith gave word for every one to look to his
own safety. I sprang to aid the men struggling to
launch the life raft, and we had succeeded in getting it
to the edge of the boat when a giant wave carried it
away. I went with it and found mys^^'f underneath.
WRECK OF THE TITANIC
271
Struggling through an eternity, I finally emerged and
was swimming 150 feet from the Titanic when it went
down. I felt no suction as the vessel plunged.
"Captain Smith stuck to the bridge, and, turning, I
saw him jump just as the vessel glided into the depths.
He had not donned a life belt, so far as I could see, and
went down with the ship."
—Detroit yew*
SVESYTHING FOE ENJOYING LiFE, BUT NOT MUCII TO SaVE It
CHAPTER XXXI
THE INVESTIGATION IN WASHINGTON
Help Near at Hand^ Ignored Distress Call and
IsMAY^s Attempts to Get Back to England
Shown
In the Senate investigating committee, April 22,
Fourth Officer Boxall made a startUng revelation in
regard to a ship close at hand at the time of the wreck
which ignored all the Titanic's signals. Also, in
response to Senator Smith's questions he gave some
evidence about the lifeboats. Boxall said they had
had a lifeboat drill before sailing in the presence of
inspectors from the board of trade, in which only two
boats on the same side of the ship were lowered. He
declared that under the weather conditions at the time
of the collision, the lifeboats were supposed to carry
sixty-five persons. He said, too, that in accordance with
the British board of trade regulations, the boats con-
tained water breakers, water dippers, bread, bailers,
masts, sails, lights and supplies of oil when the Titanic
left Belfast, though he did not know if these things were
in when the ship left Southampton.
272
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 273
IP LAUDED HABITS OF OFFICEBS
Boxhall testified to the sobriety and good habits of
his superior and brother officers.
"LightoUer was on the bridge when I came on at 8
o'clock. He was relieved at 10 o'clock by Mr. Mur-
dock, who remained imtil the accident happened.
Moody, the sixth ofiicer, was on deck also. Fleland
Leigh and the bridge officer, Mr. Murdock, were on the
lookout," said Boxhall.
ADMITTED KNOWLEDGE OF BERGS
Under questioning Boxhall said Captain Smith had
told him of the position of certain icebergs which he
marked on the chart.
Senator Smith then asked the witness:
"Do you know whether the temperature of the water
taken from the sea was tested?"
"Yes, sir; I saw the quartermaster doing it. He
reported to the junior officer, Mr. Moody."
"Did you see the captain frequently Sunday night?"
asked Senator Smith.
"Yes, sir; sometimes on the upper deck, sometimes
in the chart room; sometimes on the bridge, and some-
times in the wheelhouse."
"Was the captain on the bridge or at any of the
other places when you went on watch at 8 o'clock?"
"No, I first saw the captain about 9 o'clock."
274 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
ISMAY NOT ON BEIDGE
"Did you see Mr. Ismay with the captain on the
bridge or in the wheelhouse?"
"No, sir; not until after the accident."
Boxhall said he did not believe the captain had been
away from the vicinity of the bridge at any time during
the watch.
"When did you see the captain last?" asked Senator
Smith.
"When he ordered me to go away in the boat."
"Where were you at the time of the collision?"
"Just approaching the bridge."
"Did you see what occurred?"
"No, I could not see."
"Did you hear?"
"Yes ; the senior officer said 'We have struck an ice-
berg.' "
"Was there any ice on the deck?"
"Just a little on the lower deck. I heard the report
of the crash."
"Did you see the iceberg?"
"No, sir."
rmST OFFICER EEPOETED ACCIDENT
Boxhall then went to the bridge, where he found the
first officer, Mr. Murdock; the sixth officer, Mr. Moody,
and Captain Smith.
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 275
Boxhall said the captain asked what was the trouble,
and the first officer rephed they had struck an iceberg,
and added that he had borne to starboard and reversed
his engines full speed after ordering the closing of the
water tight doors.
"Did you see the iceberg then?"
"Yes, sir. I could see it dimly. It lay low in the
water and was about as high as the lower rail of the ship,
or about thirty feet out of the water."
Boxhall said he went down to the steerage, inspected
all the decks in the vicinity of where the ship had struck,
found no traces of any damage, and went directly to the
bridge and so reported.
"The captain ordered me to send a carpenter to
sound the ship," he said, "but I found a carpenter com-
ing up with the announcement that the ship was taking
water. In the mail room I found mail sacks floating
about while the clerks were at work. I went to the
bridge and reported, and the captain ordered the hfe-
boats to be made ready.
ANOTHER BOAT NEARBY
Boxhall testified that at Capt. S'mith's orders he
took word of the ship's position to the wireless operators.
"What position was that?"
"41:46 north, 50.14 west."
"Was that the last position taken?"
276 . WRECK OF THE TITANIC
"Yes, the Titanic stood not far from there when it
sank."
After that Boxhall went back to the Hfeboats, where
there were many men and women. He said they had
life belts.
"After that I was on the bridge most of the time,
sending out distress signals, trying to attract the atten-
tion of boats ahead," he said. "I sent up distress rockets
until I left the ship, to try to attract the attention of
a ship directly ahead. I had seen its lights. It seemed
to be meeting us, and was not far away. It got close
enough, it seemed to me, to read our electric Morse
signals. I told the captain. He stood with me much
of the time trying to signal this vessel. He told me
to tell it in JMorse rocket signals, *Come at once — ^we
are sinking.' "
SAW NO ANSWERING SIGNAL
"Did any answer come?" asked the senator.
"I did not see them, but two men say they saw
signals from that ship."
"How far away do you think that ship was?"
"Approximately five miles."
Boxhall said he did not know what ship it was.
"What did you see on the ship?"
"First we saw its mast head lights, and a few min-
utes later its red side lights. It was standing closer."
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 277
"Suppose you had had a powerful searchlight on
the Titanic, could you not have thrown a beam on the
vessel and have compelled its attention?"
"We might."
ROWED ABOUT AFTER WRECK
Boxhall said he had rowed in the seaboat three-
quarters of a mile when the Titanic went down. Before
that he had rowed around the ship's stern to see if h^
could not take off three more persons for whom there
was room. He abandoned that attempt, however,
because he had with him only one man who knew how
to handle an oar and he feared an accident. His boat,
he said, was the first picked up by the Carpathia, That
was about 4": 10 in the morning.
"Did you have any conversation with Mr. Ismay
that night?"
"Yes, sir, before I left the ship. On the bridge just
before the captain ordered me below to take an
emergency boat."
"When you boarded the Carpathia, did you see any
lights on any other lifeboats?"
"No. It was nearly daylight. It was daylight by
the time I got my passengers aboard the Carpathia/'
"Could you say any ^ther lifeboats had lights
besides yours?"
"I saw several with lanterns. These lanterns were
278 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
beside the helmsman in each case and on the bottom of
the boats. I would not say; all the boats had lights."
SAW ISMAY IN LIFEBOAT
Boxhail said he knew none of the American passen-
gers personally, but he knew the identity of Col. John
Jacob Astor.
"Did you see Ismay when you got into the lifeboat?"
"No."
"When did you next see Ismay after you left the
ship?"
"I saw him in a collapsible boat afterward."
"Any women in it?"
"Yes, it was full of them — ^well, not exactly full,
but there were many women — most of them foreigners."
"How long after you reached the Carpathia did
Ismay's boat arrive?"
"I cannot say exactly, but it was before daylight."
SAW NONE REFUSED RESCUE
Boxhail heard persons on the Titanic say some people
refused to enter the lifeboats, but he saw no one ejected
from the boats, nor prevented from entering.
"Did you see any who got in from the water or see
any in the water?"
"No, sir," said Boxhail. "If I had seen any in the
water I should have taken them in the boat."
Boxhail said the sea was calm and that in his opinio)
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 279
each of the lifeboats could have taken its full capacity.
How many he had in his small seaboat he never knew.
Senator Newlands returned to the subject of tlie
icebergs.
"You say you could not see these great icebergs
(when in the seaboat, but you could hear the water lap-
ping against them?"
"Yes, sir. It was an oily calin and we could see
nothing in the small boats."
"If the sea is smooth, then, it is difficult to discern
these icebergs?"
"Yes, sir. I believe if there had been a little ripple
on the water the Titanic would have seen it in time to
avoid it."
TESTIMONY OF FRANKLIN
P. A. S. Franklin was the next witness called. Mr.
Franklin described the business operations and extent
of the International Mercantile Marine.
"What is its capitalization?" asked Senator Smith'.
"One hundred million in common and preferred
shares, $52,000,000 in 41/2 per cent bonds, $19,000,000
in 5 per cent bonds and about $7,000,000 of underlying
bonds."
After Mr. Franklin had read a list of the officials and
(directors of the International, Senator Smith said:
"Did you know Capt. Smith of the Titamcr
280 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
"Ever since 1898," said the witness, adding that
Capt. Smith had commanded the Majestic, Adriatic,
Baltic J Olympic and the Titanic.
NO MESSAGES FROM SMITH
"So far as you know, did you or any of your sub-
ordinate officers have any communication with Capt.
Smith on his last voyage?"
"None at aU."
Mr. FrankKn said he had received no communica-
tion from Mr. Ismay except one by cable from South-
ampton. This, he said, was merely a cablegram announc-
ing the complete success of the Titani&s trial trip and
favorable prospect for a successful voyage.
Senator Smith then show^ed Mr. Franklin the tele-
gram received by Congressman Hughes of West Vir-
ginia from the White Star line, dated New York, April
15, and addressed to J. A. Hughes, Huntington, W.
Va., as follows:
"Titanic proceeding to Halifax. Passengers prob-
ably land on Wednesday. All safe.
"The White Star Line."
"I ask you," continued the senator, "whether you
know about the sending of that telegram, by whom it
was authorized and from w^hom it was sent?"
"I do not, sir," said Franklin. "Since it was men-
I
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 281
tioned on Saturday we have had the entire passenger
staff examined and we cannot find out."
FIRST WARNING OF TRAGEDY
Asked when he first knew the Titanic had sunk,
Franklin said he first knew it at 6:27 p. m. Monday.
He then produced a thick package of telegrams which
he had received Monday in relation to the disaster.
"How did you ascertain the location of the Olympic,
Baltic, and others?" asked the senator.
"We w^orked them out on our charts. We had no
direct communication from any of the ships. Our first
endeavor to communicate with our big ships was a
message sent April 15 at 3 o'clock a. m. This message
read as follows:
" *Haddock, Olympic:^ Make everj^ endeavor to
communicate Titanic and advise position and time.
Reply within the hour.' "
MESSAGE SENT TO OLYMPIC
Franklin said the Olympic was dispatched this
message :
"Haddock, Olympic: Rumored here Titanic sunk.
Cannot confirm here. Expect Virginia alongside.
Franklin."
"At 6:20 or 6:30 Monday evening," Mr. Franklin
continued, "a message was received telling the fateful
news that the Carpathia reached the Titanic and found
282 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
nothing but boats and wreckage; that the Titanic had
foundered at 2:20 a. m. in 41.16 north, 50.14 west; that
the Carpathia picked up all the boats and had on board
about 675 of the Titanic' s survivors, passengers and]
crew. This message was from Haddock also.
"After that we got another message from Haddock
stating that *Yamsi,' meaning Ismay, was on the
Carpathia/'
MESSAGES ENDED HOPE
One by one Mr. Franklin read telegrams that had
been hurled through the air from shore to the ships
and from them back to the shore. All hope that some
other vessels besides the Carpathia had picked up some
of the Titanic's survivors was dissipated when the
Olympic flashed word that neither the Baltic nor the
Tunisian had any of the Titanic's people aboard.
Senator Smith sought to discover who had been
"tampering with the wireless operators or had been
responsible for the failure of the wireless to get the news
to shore earlier." Mr. Smith repeatedly asked the wit-
ness whether he had not had a conference Monday morn-
ing with Mr. Marconi or Mr. Sammis, chief engineer
for the Marconi company.
"No, 'most emphatically," said the witness. "In no
way did I attempt or cause to be attempted any censor-
ship of the wireless."
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 283
"Did you receive at any time from any one or any
officer of your company a request that the steamship
Cedric be held at New York until the arrival of the
Carpathia?" Senator Smith asked.
"Yes, sir," said the witness, and began to read a
telegram from the CarpatJiia,
"What time was it received?"
"At 5:19," said the witness, who said the telegram
asked that the Cedric be held because the sender con-
sidered it "most desirable" that the members of the
crew be sent back on the Cedric and declaring his inten-
tion of sailing on that ship himself. The sender also
asked that clothing and shoes be brought to the dock
for him when the CarpatJiia got in.
ISMAY SIGNED IN CIPHER
"By whom was that signed?" asked Senator Smith,
"Yamsi."
"Do you know who Yamsi is?"
"Yes, sir. It is cipher for Mr. Ismay's signature.
I sent in reply the following :
" * Yamsi, CarpatJiia: Have arranged forward crew
Lapland, sailing Saturday, calling at Plymouth. We
all consider most unwise to delay Cedric considering cir-
cumstances.' "
Senator Smith then had Franklin read all the mes-
sages that passed between liimself and Ismay on the
CarpatJiia April 18. At 5 :30 a. m. of that day Franklin
284 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
received from Ismay this message: "Send responsible
White Star ship officer and fourteen men to two boats
to take charge of thirteen Titanic lifeboats at quaran-
tine."
Franklin testified that he received a message from
Ismay on the Carpathia a little later on the morning of
the 18th to join the Carpathia at quarantine and that
several other messages came from him urging that the
Cedric be held. After all these had come in Franklin
cabled Ismay:
"Think it most unwise to retain Cedric in New
York." This was followed by a reply from Ismay
which included: "Unless you have good and sufficient
reason to hold the Cedric^ kindly do so,"
LEAENED OF SENATE INQUIRY
In an effort to connect the attempted departure of
Mr. Ismay and the Titanic crew with the Senate's inves-
tigation, Senator Smith asked the witness when he had
learned the Senate had decided to investigate the dis-
aster.
"I think rbout 2 o'clock Thursday."
"Did you couimunicate the information to your com-
pany?"
"I did, that night, by cable, I think."
"When did you advise Mr. Ismay?"
"I told him of it when I got aboard the Carpathia/*
said the witness.
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 285
Senator Perkins took Mr. Franklin in hand and
questioned him at some length as to the safety equip-
ment of the Titanic,
The Titanic's equipment was in excess of the law,"
said the witness. "It carried its clearance in the shape
of a certificate from the British board of trade."
SAFEGUARDS ON OTHER SHIPS
Senator Bourne took up the same line of question-
ing.
"Has anything been done with the equipment of
other ships as a result of the disaster?" he asked.
"Most emphatically," answered Mr. Franklin. "On
last Friday Mr. Ismay ordered that all our vessels be
equipped with boats and rafts sufficient to take off every
passenger and every member of the crew in case of
accident."
"Do you know of any one, any officer or man, or
any official who you deem could be held responsible for
the accident and its attendant loss of life?"
"Positively not. No one thought such an accident
could happen. It was undreamed of."
Mr. Franklin volunteered a statement relating to
criticisms of the White Star Company for attempting
to return the crew of the Titanic to Europe immedi-
ately.
"I think there has been an awful mistake made about
that matter," said Franklin. "I would like to clear it
286 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
up. The criticisms have been made that we were try-
ing to keep those men from testifying. That is not so.
It was not the reason at all. As far as the crew are
concerned it was our duty to return them to their homes.
We assured you that we would hold any officers or men
that you wanted for this committee."
Senator Newlands brought out that the speed of
the Titanic at the time of the accident was about four
miles an hour below that of the Mauretania and Lusi-
tania,
"Do you have rules governing the running of a ship
in fog or when ice is in a ship's vicinity?"
"We have stringent rules. None of the commanders
that I have ever had communication with ever got the
idea from me that our company wanted records
broken."
CHAPTER XXXII
SENATE COMMITTEE EXAMINED LOOK-
OUT AND PASSENGER
Further Description of the Wreck by an Eye-
Witness IN Official Testimony — Marine
Glasses for Lookout Migqt Have Prevented
Wreck
Failure to provide binoculars or spy glasses for the
lookouts on the Titanic was one contributing cause of
that ship's loss and, with it, the loss of 1,600 lives.
Two witnesses before the Senate investigating com-
mittee agreed on this. They were Frederick Fleet, a
lookout on the liner, and Maj. Arthur Godfrey
Peuchen, Canadian manufacturer and yachtsman, who
was among the rescued passengers.
MIGHT have avoided BERG
Fleet acknowledged that if he had been aided in his
observations by a good glass he probably could have
spied the berg into which the ship crashed in time to have
warned the bridge to avoid it. Major Peuchen also
testified to the much greater sweep of vision afforded by
binoculars and, as a yachtsman, said he believed the
287
288 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
presence of the iceberg might have been detected in
time to escape the coUision had the lookout men been
so equipped.
It was made to appear that the blame for being with-
out glasses did not rest with the lookout men. Fleet
said they had asked for them at Southampton and were
told there were none for them. One glass, in a pinch,
would have served in the crow's nest.
LACKED EXPERIENCED SAILORS
Major Peuchen criticised in strong terms the lack
of experienced sailors on board the Titanic. He said
that when the call to quarters was sounded not enough
of the crew responded to undertake the work required
in lowering and filling the boats. Furthermore, he said,
no drills had been held from the time the ship left South-
ampton, although it was customary to hold such drills
every Sunday.
Herbert J. Pitman, third officer of the Titanic, told
of his failure to turn back the lifeboat in which he and
his passengers were idly drifting, to attempt the rescue
of others when the Titanic went down. Shuddering at
the recollection, he said the cries for help made "one
long, continuous moan."
The passengers insisted that to go back to aid would
mean their destruction, he said, so that after starting
in the direction of the cries he rescinded his orders and
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 289
waited for the dawn. Twice he begged to be spared a
recital of the facts, but Senator Smith pressed him.
ISMAY KEPT IN CAPITAL
J. Bruce Ismay, managing director o£ the Inter-
national Mercantile Marine, and Vice President P. A.
S. Franklin of the White Star Line, urgently requested
the committee to permit them to return to New York.
In executive session at the close of the hearing the
committee declined to allow either to leave Washington
until he was no longer needed.
I PKOTOGRAPHEKS DRIVEN OUT
The importunities and activities of a squad of pho-
tographers so aroused Senator Smith that he indig-
nantly ordered them all excluded from the chamber.
"This inquiry is official and solemn,'' he said in expla-
nation, "and there will be no hippodroming or com-
mercializing of it. I will not permit it."
An amateur photographer managed to slip past
the guard later, but was summarily ejected when he
sought to get a snap of the scene.
CROWD EXCLUDED
Owing to the constant interruptions during the inter-
rogation of witnesses the Senate committee determined
to exclude the general public. To accomplish this the
hearing was transferred to a smaller room in the Senate
office building. Only witnesses, those particularly inter-
290 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
ested in the inquiry and members of the press were
admitted to the room.
Herbert J. Pitman, third officer, was the first wit-
ness of the day. It had been expected that J. B. Box-
hall, fourth officer, would be recalled, but it was
announced he was ill.
ONLY SIXTEEN MEN DRILLED
Pitman said that in the boat drill conducted by the
board of trade at Southampton approximately eight
men went in each of the two boats used in the drill.
The witness maintained that virtually the only way
to discover the proximity of icebergs was to see them,
asserting that, while science may hold there are numer-
ous ways, they never have been demonstrated.
Pitman was on the bridge of the Titanic from 6 to
8 o'clock the night of the collision. After that he went
to his berth. Half asleep at the time of the accident, he
said he wondered sleepily where they were anchoring.
It was nearly time for his next watch, so he dressed
leisurely and was lighting his pipe when Mr. Boxhall
told him the ship had struck an iceberg. He went
forward and saw ice, and then walked back, where a
number of firemen coming up told him there was water
in the hatch.
ISMAY REALIZED PERIL
Going on deck he met a man whom he afterward
learned was Mr. Ismay, who said, "Hurry, there's no
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 291
time for fooling." Mr. Ismay helped him load the boat
in which Pitman embarked on orders from Mr. Mur-
doek after calling for more women passengers and find-
ing there was none in sight.
The witness said that just before the boat pulled
away Mr. Murdock leaned over, shook his hand, and
said, "Good-by and good luck, old man."
"When you shook hands with Murdock did you
expect to see him again?"
"Certainly."
"Do you think he expected to see you again?"
"Apparently not, but I expected fully to be back on
the ship in a few hours."
GOING AT FUIJL SPEED WHEN BERG WAS STRUCK
Pitman told of the placing on the chart of crosses
indicating the presence of icebergs by the fourth officer
and said that the speed had been increased from twenty
and one-half knots on leaving Southampton to twenty-
one and one-half knots and that he supposed the ship
was going at top speed when it struck.
The witness said he had not seen any Morse signals
on the Titanic and did not of his personal knowledge
know of the presence of another ship, but that he later
had heard that one had passed.
SOUNDED WARNING OF BERG
Fleet said that he went into the crow's nest at 10
o'clock and, obeying a warning, kept a sharp lookout for
292 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
ice. At 11:30 o'clock he reported a black mass ahead,
but could not tell how long it was before the collision
came. He sounded three bells and telephoned to the
bridge that there was an iceberg ahead, and soon the
ship started to turn to port.
When Fleet first saw the berg it appeared about the
size of two big tables, he said, but when struck it proved
to be fifty or sixty feet high.
Fleet said that when the collision came there was
little impact and "just a sharp grinding noise."
"Did it alarm you?" asked the senator.
"No, I thought it was a narrow shave."
HAD XO SPY GLASS
"Did you have glasses?" asked Senator Smith.
"No, sir."
"Isn't it customary for the lookouts to use glasses in
their work?"
"Yes, sir, but they didn't give us any on the Titanic.
We asked for them at Southampton, but they said there
were none for us."
COULD HAVE ESCAPED
"We had a pair from Belfast to Southampton, but
none from Southampton to the place of the accident."
"What became of the glasses you had from Belfast?"
"We do not know."
"If you had had glasses could you have seen the ice-
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 298
I berg sooner?" asked Senator Smith.
"We could have seen it a bit sooner," said Fleet.
"How much sooner?"
"Enough to get out of the way."
"Were you and Leigh disappointed that you had no
glasses?"
"Yes."
"Did the officers on the bridge have glasses!"
"Yes."
MAJOR THOUGHT SHOCK WAVE
Major Peuchen was the first passenger witness to
appear before the committee. All ten of his friends with
whom he was traveling lost their lives in the wreck. The
major told of the trip and said:
"There was no mention of fire and we were all
pleased with the trip until the crash. After 11 o'clock
I went to my stateroom. I scarcely was undressed when
I felt a shock, I thought merely that a large wave had
struck the ship.
"Fifteen minutes later I met Charles M. Hays of
the Grand Trunk-Pacific. I asked him, 'Have you seen
the ice?' He said *No.' Then I took him up and
showed him. Then I noticed the boat was listing. I
said to Mr. Hays :
" 'It's listing; it shouldn't do that.'
"He said : *Oh, I don't know. This boat can't sink.'
294. WRECK OF THE TITANIC
He had a good deal of confidence and said : *No matter
what we have struck it's good for eight or ten hours.'
SEEMED SHORT OF SAILORS
"I met my friend Beattie, who said: *The order is
for the lifeboats. It is serious.' I couldn't beheve it at
first, but went to my cabin and changed to some heavy
clothes."
The witness said when he got on deck the boats were
being prepared for lowering on the port side.
"They seemed to be short of sailors around the life-
boats were I was. When I came on deck first it seemed
to me that about 100 stokers came up with their gunny
sacks and crowded the deck. One of the officers, a
splendid man, drove these men right off the deck. He
drove them like sheep."
CALLED SMITH ATTENTIVE
"Do you think the captain was attentive to hiss
duties?"
"Yes, I do."
Major Peuchen praised the women who rowed in the
boats. He said there was room in some boats which left
from the port side and he could not imderstand why
more men were not taken off.
NO GENERAL ALARM SOUNDED
Several senators asked if the fact that there was no
general alarm sounded after the collision might account
WRECK OF THE TITANIC
295
for the failure of many women to appear on the decks in
time for the lifeboats. He thought that probable.
Major Peuehen told the committee he thought that
if the lookouts on the Titanic had had glasses the ship
might have been saved from the coUision.
!■
FIREPROOI'
'•^olumbua Evening Despatch
CHAPTER XXXIII
MEMBERS OF SHIP'S CREW ON STAND
Members of the Crew Told Their Stories Offi-
cially^ Describing for the Most Part the
Loading of the Lifeboats and the Conduct
OF ISMAY.
Harold G. Lowe, fifth officer of the Titanic, told his
story of the wreck before the investigating committee.
His testimony revealed the fact that, with a volunteer
crew, he rescued four men from the water, saved a sink-
ing collapsible lifeboat by towing it and took off twenty
men and one woman from the bottom of an overturned
boat, all of whom he landed safely on the Carpathia,
Lowe testified that he looked over the lifeboats in Belfast
Harbor and found everything in them, except a dipper
which was missing from one. He was not sure whether
a fire drill had been held or not. He did not know
whether the officers were at their right places on the side
of the ship where he was or not. He was not on duty
Sunday night and could not be induced to make a
positive statement of the ship's position, though he had
a memorandum of the speed on that day as a fraction
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 297
below 21 knots an hour. He asserted that he was a
temperate man.
TOLD OF LOADING BOATS.
The witness said he did not know when he was
awakened. He said he dressed hurriedly and went on
deck and found people with life belts on the boats being
prepared. He began working at the lifeboats.
"I was working the boats under First Officer
Murdock," he said. "Boat No. 5 was tlie first one
lowered.
"There were about ten officers helping, two at each
end, two in the boat, and others at the ropes."
ORDERED ISMAY TO KEEP QUIET.
"A steward met me on the Carpathia, He said to
me, *What did you say to Ismay that night on the deck?'
I said that I did not know that I had said anything to
Mr. Ismay. I did not know him. Well, the steward on
the Carpathia said I had used strong language to Mr.
Ismay. I happened to talk to Ismay because he
appeared to be getting excited. He was saying
excitedly, Xower away, lower away, lower away.' "
Chairman Smith asked Mr. Ismay about the lan-
guage and Mr. Ismay suggested that the objectionable
language be written down to see if it was appropriate.
This was done. They returned to the question of hfe-
298 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
boats after Lowe explained that Ismay "was interfermg
with our work. He was interfering with ine, and I
wanted him to get back so that w^e could work. He was
trying to get in the boat."
DENIED TALKING WITH WOMEN.
"How many men were in the boat?"
"I'm not sure, sir, but I should say about ten."
Lowe denied having conversed with Mrs. Douglas
or Mrs. Ryerson on board the Carpathia,
Senator Smith asked Lowe if in his opinion the life-
boat before it was lowered was loaded to its proper
capacity.
Lowe tried to avoid making a direct answer. Senator
Smith insisted upon an answer.
"Yes, sir," said Lowe, finally, "I think it was
properly loaded for lowering."
"What is the official quota for such a lifeboat?"
"It can carry sixty-five adults and say, a boy or
girl."
"Then you wish the committee to understand that a
lifeboat under British regulations could not be lowered
with safety w^ith new tackle and equipment containing
more than fifty people?"
"The dangers are if you overcrowd the boat it will
buckle up from the two ends," said Lowe. "The 65.5
is a floating capacity. If you load from the deck to
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 299
lower I should not like to put more than fifty in a life-
boat."
Senator Smith referred to Third Officer Pitman's
testimony in which he said there were thirty-five persons
in lifeboat No. 5. That being the case, he asked why^
Pitman could not have gone to the rescue of the drown-
ing, whose cries he heard plainly, but did not heed.
"Had he attempted to rescue those in the water he
would have endangered the lives of those with him,"
Lowe asserted.
DENIED LACK OF OARSMEN.
Senator Smith asked if it were not true that the
reason why the boats were not properly loaded was
because the crew were not able to row. The witness
denied this.
'*What was the drill for at Southampton?" asked the
chairman.
"It was for the board of trade."
"There were eight men to a boat then. They were
all oarsmen. Where were they when you were loading
lifeboat No. 5?"
"You must remember, sir, we were in harbor and we
had the pick of the men. At the time of the collision the
men went down with the 'bosun' to clear away the gang-
way doors to make way for the loading."
300 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
The witness said the discipline was excellent. Only
one boat, a collapsible one, overturned.
Senator Smith asked the number of the crew and
the witness said so far as he knew there were 903 of
them.
"And with 903 men aboard," said the senator, "you
did not have enough to man twenty lifeboats properly?"
The witness demurred and the chairman showed his
disapproval, going to the extent of criticising the officer's
refusal to make direct replies.
DID NOT REFUSE ANY ONE.
Senator Smith then sought to discover whether any
men, women, or children had been refused admission to
the boats or were put out of the boats after they had
gotten in. The officer said no one was refused and
declared the only confusion was by the passengers inter-
fering with the lowering gear.
"There was no such thing as selecting. First we
took the women and children, then others as they came.
There was a procession at both ends of the boat; in little
knots they were, little crowds."
"Was Mr. Ismay there?"
"Yes, he was ; he was right alongside of me. I didn't
know it was Mr. Ismay then, but I know now. It was
the same man whom I had ordered not to interfere in
lowering No. 5. But he took hold and was helping
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 301
afterward. I could see his face in the glare of the
rockets, and he aided in lowering boat No. 3."
Lowe told of tying five of the lifeboats together,
transferring the passengers from his boat, and then
called for volunteers to row back to the wreck.
"We rowed back and around the wreck," said the
witness, ''and we picked up four men who were strug-
gling in the water."
"You said a moment ago that you had waited before
returning to the wreck until 'things quieted down/ " said
Senator Smith. "What did you mean by 'quieted
down'?"
"Until the cries ceased."
"The cries of the drowning?"
"Yes, sir. We did not dare go into the struggling
mass. It would have sunk us. We remained on the
edge of the scene, but it would have been suicide to have
gone in."
"How long did it require for things to get quiet?"
"About an hour and a half."
"How many persons were on your boat when you
w^ent alongside the Carpathia?"
"About forty-five. I took them off a sinking col-
lapsible boat. I left the bodies of three men."
Senator Smith wanted to know about the shooting
on board the Titanic while it was sinking. Lowe said he
302 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
had fired three shots into the water to scare away some
immigrants on one of the decks who he feared were
about to swamp a loaded boat by jmnping. He was
certain the shots struck no one.
TESTIMONY GIVEN BY LIGHTOLLER.
Chief interest in the testimony of C. H. Lightoller,
second officer of the Titanic, was centered in his story of
the actions of J. Bruce Ismay.
Senator Burton asked the witness to relate his con-
versation with Ismay on the Carpathia. Lightoller said
he and his brother officers talked over the sailing of the
Cedric and had agreed it would have been a "jolly good
idea" if they could catch the vessel. It would result in
keeping the men together and let every one get home.
*'Mr. Ismay, when the weather thickened, remarked
to me," said Lightoller, "that it was hardly possible that
we could catch the boat. He asked me if I thought it
desirable that he send a wireless to hold the Cedric. We
were all agreed that it was the best course and we all
advised it."
ISMAY DEPLORED EESCUE.
"I wiU say that at that time Mr. Ismay was in no i
mental condition to transact business," said Lightoller.
"He seemed to be possessed with the idea that he ought
to have gone down with the ship because there were
women who went down. I tried my best to get that idea
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 303
out of his mind, but could not. I told him that there
was more for him to do on earth and that he should not
let the idea possess him that he had done a wrong in not
staying back to drown. The doctor on the Carpathia
had trouble with Mr. Ismay on the same ground.
"I was told on the Carpathia that Chief Officer
Wild, who was working at the forward collapsible boat,
told Mr. Ismay there were no more women to go. Ismay
still stood back and Wild, who was a big, powerful man,
bundled him into the collapsible boat."
Senator Smith asked Li^htoUer why when he testi-
fied in New York he did not tell about the sending of the
telegram from the Carpathia urging that the Cedric be
held.
*'I did not say anything about it then because there
had been nothing said about the telegram at that time,"
said Lightoller.
"Did you know when you sent the message the
Senate was going to hold an investigation?"
"Most certainly not, or the telegram would never
have been sent. Our sole idea was to keep witnesses to-
gether for just such an investigation, which we knew
would be made in England."
Lightoller said that S. Hemmings, a lampman, who
was waiting to testify before the committee, walked the
length of the ship just before it sank and had seen only
two women.
CHAPTER XXXIV
THE BEREFT IN THE BOATS
By Feed S. Miller
In the first stories of the Titanic disaster sent broad-
cast by the press of two continents, the obvious and si)ec-
tacular features were of course most emphasized. Sen-
sational columns-full lauded the heroism of the hun-
dreds dead, and told the chief est incidents of the wreck;
then came shrieking denunciation of the ship owners,
as their recklessness was revealed in the senatorial
inquiry. And now that all the facts are known, the
account bids fair to stand thus in men's minds: for the
heroes, praise to the skies; damnation for the guiltily
responsible, whose laxity or greed brought about the
tragedy.
One item is too little dwelt upon. Although we
judge unsparingly all criminal carelesness, and while we
fittingly remember those who gave their lives to rescue
others, we owe a tender duty also to the rescued, who
were hurried over the vessel's side amid the midnight
agony and uproar — ^good-byes said in the sudden bewil-
derment of terror above which rang the fearful summons
"Women and children first!"
d04
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 305
At this it had taken much manly authority to induce
these wives to be saved, also (glory of humanity!) a
deal of lying.
"It's best for you to get in the boat, dear, though
of course there's no real danger in my staying here I
The Titanic' s unsinkable, you remember. Captain Smith
wants all the women and children — ^why just think of
ours! — away, so as to be on the safe side, that's all,
There's another steamer coming, and when it picks you
up in the morning you'U find me right here!"
And so forth. Those husbands, how they laid it on.
"Men were deceivers ever!" Thus they stayed a panic;
doing all that inexperienced brave men could do in that
crisis of the wreck to turn a few scant boatsful from the
yawning gulf into which the ship was every instant
sinking, sinking.
So the women and their little ones were hurried to
the rail and lowered to the blackness far beneath. Row-
ing away, they could turn their eyes to the steamer
which yet showed no evidence of collapse, as it loomed
across the water, its huge hulk outlined quite from end
to end by rows of glowing lights — ^when on an instant
these lights faded sicklily, then died! as though to shut
from those who longingly looked back a last faint ray
of hope, left as they were now quite cut off, adrift in
the unutterable profound. Beneath, two-thousand-
fathoms-deep of heaving ocean, over which they poised
306 WBECK OF THE TITANIC
buoyed only by the boat's inch planks; above, the deeper
depth, black midnight far as the illimitable stars.
All sense of distance and direction speedily was lost
for them; we may imagine the awed conjectures:
"Where is the vessel?"
''Over there, very dimly seen — so far we must have
come !
''But what is that other shape? how strange, a huge
hill rising awful in the sea!"
"No! the iceberg on which the steamer struck."
"I had thought the Titanic would have shivered any-
thing of ice ; yet there the berg uprears itself unmoved,
as though it lingered patient to see the end!"
Also we may imagine that they comforted one
another and soothed the wailing children, as is the
wont of women; prayed to the good God and were
heartened so — prayers for the safety of the stricken ship
yet faithful to its trust of keeping safe their loved ones.
So they drifted, an hour in the chill northern night,
suffering intensely, seeing nothing but their own dim
huddled forms, hearing nothing but a faint, confused,
deceiving murmur from the vessel, and the harsh grind-
ing of the ice cakes littering the ocean all about. It
had been the captain's orders that they keep to the boats ;
they would do their duty — never mind the cold — blindly
obey — theirs not to reason why! Joy cometh in the
morning; and when the blessed light should prove the
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 307
[fear of wreck had only been a temporary' vague alarm,
tliey would row back to where— each felt assured— was
one who longed for her as she was longing now. Saved
from the sea, then; reunited! never to be parted more!
Who may conceive their feelings when with a horror
of amazement the explosion came, and sheets of fire sent
soaring from the steamer's funnels revealed to land and
sea that all was lost. When the pierced monster, with a
rending roar, reared its prodigious bulk full upright in
the ocean, poised so for an instant and then plunged,
quenching all hope, leaving the waste of waters blacker
with despair and night. We may believe that none of
the terror of the scene v/as felt by those to whom it
brought an overwhelming desolation. They were not
appalled — ^no more than were those other women when
* 'there was darkness over all the land until the ninth
hour," when the rocks were rent and the graves opened.
Perhaps they were awed by the contemplation of a sac-
rifice, for the first time comprehending why the men
gave up their places in the boats; perhaps they were
stricken numb with a grief too great for tears.
And would that that were all! For thence the night
brought forth a cruder infliction. Wliat had been, was
frightful; but what ensued was an exquisite torture for
the pitiful unoffenders, forced to hear the agony of
those drowning, who moaned amid the lacerating ice
cakes, cried with a loud voice and yielded up the ghost,
308 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
or called again beseeching help where help was none.
Help? "The depth saith it is not in me^ and the sea
saith it is not with me!" Those in charge of the boats
returned as pitiless a silence. Although the women
begged, they dare not venture back among the gasping
hundreds batthng desperately with death amid the icy,
waves.
For an hour the dying cries kept on — a long, intol-
erable and agonizing hour, a blended hum of multi-
farious woe upwelling from the waters, a mystery of
awful utterance in the blackness of the night. How it
smote on those who could not save! Also there were
other voices, right at hand, as here:
"Oh, mamma, listen! that's papa! I hear hi'm call-
ing, calling! Why don't the men row back? It's so
cold for him in the water!"
"We can't go back after those stiffs!" is the answer
of a boatswain, as sworn to in the Senate's inquiry. A
man can be more callous than the elements ; not even the
iceberg's adamant can match that piece of netherstone,
his heart.
How wives and mothers listened yet endured it all
may never be described. Mercifully only one went mad.
Also by mercy's grace the rest, with gratitude unbeliev-
able, could note the mounting quiet as the moans grew
less and the deep claimed its sacrifice of saviors. Finall]
all were gone — not a gasp, not another choking sigh — ^
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 309
the offering accepted, the immolation made complete;
with the sea laid smooth again and swept with the pro-
claiming breeze and the minutest first faint light streaks
of the dawn.
Then o'er the waves came human kind bringing
rescue, bringing the love and outpoured pity of the
world of men.
Doubtless, human sympathy is the divine consola-
tion. That they could bring the story of that midnight
to the universal heart, laying thereon the sacrifice of their
heroic dead — ^this privilege soothed away, for the bereft
in the boats and for their pitying friends world 'round,
the dark and bhghting aspects of a tragedy unhuman
and terrific. For we are all fellow partakers of a rev-
erence for unselfishness; we all hunger and thirst after
the righteousness of saviors; and we are all allied against
unpitying nature, sharing the yoke of domineering
chance and diange — ^bound in affection so.
Thus is preserved, from all the wreck of the Titamc,
only the memory of an exalted offering. Quickened,
also, the assurance that man is, somehow, kin to the
Giver of every good and perfect gift.
This assurance persists, triumphant over man's every
overthrow by his adverse environment. Whence comes
it, in despite of the despairing, harsh vicissitudes that
torture and perplex their puppet here, affirming at each
unmerited assault — there is no God! It springs from
310
WRECK OF THE TITANIC
human kindness; it is bom of our mutual helplessness
and our reliance on each other; confirmed by deeds ofi
devotion and the reverence that accepts them. By the
hour-long sacrificing death in icy waters, by the anguish
of the ones who hovered near but were too weak to save.
So is revealed humanity's refuge and strength, called
by them of old time "the fear of the Lord." Our priv-
ilege is to recognize it in every helpful act, in every
kindly thought. Yea, in manifold nature also it is our
highest wisdom to perceive it, even when her mysterious
climaxes seem to laugh all human effort, faith and trust
to scarn; when the pitiless depth saith it is not in me,
and the angry sea saith it is not with me!
— Oolumhus Evening Dispatch,
CHAPTER XXXV
TITANICS DEAD BROUGHT BACK
Return of the Funeral Ship Mackay-Bennett
WITH THE Bodies of 190 Victims of the Disaster
Picked Up at Sea
By arrangement with the officers of the TVhite Star
line, the cable ship Mackay-Bennett was despatched to
the scene of the disaster to pick up as many of the
bodies of the victims as possible. She returned to Hali-
fax, N. S., on April 30, leaving another vessel, the Minia,
to continue the grewsome search.
Steaming slowly into Hahfax harbor, the Mackay-
Bennett reached her dock in the navy yard shortly after
9:30 a. m., while tlie city's church bells tolled and British
flags fluttered at half mast.
It was announced that the total number of bodies
on board was 190 and that it had been found necessary"
to bury 116 at sea. Among those brought to port were
the bodies of two women.
ASTOR^S BODY TAKEN TO MORGUE
Colonel Astor's body was taken from the ship shortly
before noon and borne with others to the morgue.
Capt. F. H. Larnder described the work of the
311
312 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
Mackay •Bennett at sea. The number of bodies found,
he said, was 306. Of these 116, most of them members
of the Titanic's crew and unidentified, were consigned
to the sea. Only eighteen bodies of women were found
afloat.
ReHcs of the great Titanic dotted the sea over an
area thirty miles square. Captain Larnder said. Doors,
windows and chairs by the score were found floating,
but to none of them were bodies lashed. In several
instances there were groups of floating bodies number-
ing fifty or more. Colonel Astor was found almost erect
in liis lifebelt.
Small boats were lowered by the Mackay-Bennett
whenever a group of bodies was sighted, and into these
the dead were piled three or four at a time. Hauled
on board the cable ship, each was numbered with a large
canvas tag and the valuables and papers were placed in
a canvas sack similarly numbered.
CONDUCT SERVICES FOR DEAD
Canon K. O. Hind of All Saints' Cathedral, Hali-
fax, who was on board, conducted the services in connec-
tion with the burial at sea. On three separate occasions
services were held.
*'We buried so many at sea," said Captain Larnder,
**simply because we could not accommodate them. We
had limited embalming supplies, and it was necessary to
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 313
consign many to the deep. The majority of those sunk
were unidentified. We had instructions when we left
here to pick up all the Titanic's dead we found, but
under the conditions it was impossible to carry out these
instructions."
It was announced that there was no doubt of the
identification of Colonel Astor's body. In the pockets
$2,500 cash had been found and he wore a belt with a
gold buckle. The body identified as that of Mr.
Widener was buried at sea.
The bodies were all tenderly and respectfully cared
for. Those identified were delivered to relatives or
friends and the unidentified were given Christian burial
at Halifax, whose citizens purpose erecting a monument
to their honored memory.
8U WRECK OF THE TITANIC
TWO GREAT NATIONS MOURN
When the news of the disaster to so many noted
British subjects and American citizens was received,
messages of condolence were exchanged by King George
of England and President Taft as follows:
KING GEORGE^S MESSAGE
"The Queen and I are anxious to assure you and the
American nation of the great sorrow which we expe-
rienced 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 ts\^o
countries are so intimately allied by ties of friendship
and brotherhood that any misfortunes which affect the
one must necessarily affect the other, and on the present
terrible occasion they are both equally sufferers.
"George R. and I."
PBESmENT TAFT^S REPLY
"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 kins-
men beyond the sea. On behalf of my countrymen I
thank you for your sympathetic message.
"William H. Taft/'
WRECK OF THE TITANIC 315
316 WRECK OF THE TITANIC
CROSSING THE BAR
Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me*
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea.
But such a tide as moving seems asleep.
To© full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.
Twilight and evening bell.
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell.
When I embark.
For tho' from out our Bourne of Time and Place
The flood may betrr me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar.
— Alfred Lord Tennyson.
LIST OF THE DEAD
The following list of passengers missing from the
Titanic, revised from last reports from the Carpathia,
contains only 914 actual names out of the total of 1,635
lost, but many more are accounted for in the steerage
reports under the word "family." Still more of the vic-
tims in the steerage have not yet been named, and few,
if any, of the names of the missing among the crew have
been reported.
FIRST CABIN
Anderson, Harry.
Allison, H. J.
AlUhon, Mis., and maid
Allison, Miss.
Andrews. Thomas.
Artagavoytia, Ramon
Astor. Col. J. J., and
servant.
Anderson, Walker.
Beattie, T.
Brandies, E.
Mrs. Wm. Bucknell's
maid.
Baumann, J.
Baxter, Mr. and Mrs
Quigg-
Bjornstrom, H.
Birnbaum, Jacob.
Blackwell, S. W.
Borebank, J. J.
Bowden, Miss.
Brady, John B.
Brewe, Arthur J.
Butt, Major A.
Cfark, Walter M,
Clifford, George Q.
Colley, E. P.
Cardeza, T, D. M.,
servant of.
Cardeza, Mrs. J. W.
maid of.
Carlson, Frank.
Case, Howard B.
Cavendish, W, Tyrrell
Corran, F. M.
Corran, J. P.
Chafee, Mr. H. I.
Chisholm, Robert.
Compton, A. T.
Crafton, John B.
Crosby, Edward G.
Cumings, J. Bradley.
Davidson, Thornton.
Dulles. William G.
Douglas, W. D.
Nurse of Douglas,
Master R.
Eustis, Miss
M.
may be reported Klober, Herman.
saved as Miss Ellis.
Evans, Miss E.
Fortune, Mark.
Foreman, B. L.
Fortune, Charles.
Franklin. T. P.
Futrelle, J.
Gee, Arthur.
Goldenberg, E. L.
Goldschmidt, G. B.
Greenfield, G. B.
Giglio, Victor.
Guggenheim, BenJ.
Servant of Harper,
Henry S.
Hays, Charles M.
Maid of Hays, Mrs
Charles M.
Head, Christopher.
Hilliard, H. H.
Hopkins, W. F.
Hogenheim, Mrs. A.
Harris, Henry B.
Harp, Mr. and Mrs.
Charles M.
Harp, Miss Margaret,
and maid.
Hoyt, W. F.
Hoiverson, A. M.
Isham, Miss A. E.
Servant of J. Bruce
Ismay.
Julian, H. F.
Jones, C. C.
Kent, Edward A.
Kenyon, Mr. and Mrs.
F. B. (may be re-
ported saved as Ken
Chen and Kenny-
man).
Kimball, Mr. and Mrs.
E. N. (may be re-
ported saved as Mr.
and Mrs. E. Eimber-
ley).
reported
Mrs. Slgrld Lind
Strom).
Loring, J. H.
Lingrey, Edward.
Maguire, J. E.
McCaffry, T.
McCaffry, T., Jr.
McCarthy, T., Jr.
Marvin, D. W.
Middleton, J. C.
Millett, Frank D.
Minahan, Dr. and Mrs,
Marechal, Pierre.
Meyer, Edgar J.
Molson, H. M.
Moore, C, servant.
Natsch, Charles.
Newall, Miss T.
Nicholson, A. S.
Ovies, S.
Ostbv, E. C.
Ornout, Alfred T.
Parr, M. H. W.
Pears. Mr. and Mrs,
Thomas.
Penasco, Mr. Victor.
Partner, M. A.
Payne, V.
Pond, F., and maid.
Porter. Walter.
Reuchlin, J.
Maid of Robert, Mrs
Roeblin?. W. A.. 2d.
Rood, Huph R.
Roes, J. Hugo.
Maid of Cnts. Rotbe*.
Rothschild, M.
Rowe, Arthur.
Ryerson, A.
Shutes. Miss E. W.
(probably reported
saved as Miss Sbnt*
ter).
Lambert, Williams.
Lawrence, Arthur.
Long, Milton.
Lon^ley, Miss G. F.
Lewy. E. G.
Lindsholm, J. (may befMald of Mrs. G. Stone.
Straus, Mr. and Mra-
l3idor.
Sllvey, Willlaaa B.
Maid of Mrs. D. a
Spedden.
Spedcn, Master D.,
and nurse.
Spencer, W. A.
.Stead, W. T.
Stehli, Mr. and Mrs.
Max Frolisher.
Sutton, Frederick.
Smart, John M.
Smith, Clinch.
Smith, R. W.
Stewart, A. A. (may
be reported saved as
Frederick Stewart).
Smith, L. P.
Tau8.sig, Mrs. Emll.
Maid of Mrs. Thayer.
Thayer, John B.
Thome, C.
Vanderhoof, Wyckoff.
Walker, W. A.
Warren, F. M.
White, Perclval A.
White, Richard F.
Wldcner. G. D., and
servant.
Widener. Harry.
Wood, Mr. and Mr»,
Frank P.
Weir, J.
VVlck, Georjfe D.
Wllliaaas. Duane.
Wright, George.
317
B18
LIST OF THE DEAD
SECOND CABIN
Abelson. Samson.
Andrew, Frank.
Ashby, John.
Aldwortb, C.
Andrew, Edgar.
Beacken, James H.
Brown. Mrs.
Banfield, Fred.
Beight, Nail.
Braily, Bandsman.
Breicoux, Bandsman.
Bailey. Percy.
Bainbridge, C. R.
Byles, the Rev. Thos.
Beauchamp, H. .T.
Becsley, Lawrence.
Berg, Miss E.
Benthan, I.
Batemcn. Robert J.
Butler, Reginald.
Botsford. Hull.
Boweencr, Solomoi-.
Eerriaian, William.
Clarke, Charles.
Clark, Bandsman.
Corey, Mrs.
Carter, Rev. Ernest.
Carter, Mrs.
Coleridge, Reginald.
Chapman, Charles.
Cimningham. Alfred.
Campbell, William.
Collyer, Harvey.
Corbett, Mrs. Irene.
Chp man, John R.
Chapman, Mrs. E.
Colander, Erie.
Cotterill, Harry.
Charles, Wm. (prob
Del Vario. S.
Del Vario, Mrs.
Enander, Ingvar,
Eitmiller, G. F,
Frost, A.
Fynnery, Mr.
Faunthrope, H.
Fillbrook, C.
Fuuk, Annie.
Fahlstrom, A.
Fox, Stanley N.
Creenberg. S.
Giles, Ralph.
Gaskell, Alfred.
Gillespi, William.
Gi bert. William.
Gall, Harry.
Gall, S.
Gill, John.
! Giles, Edgar.
Cjles, Fred.
Gnk, Harry.
KGale, Phadruch.
Garvey, Lawrence.
Hickman, Leonard.
Hickman, Lewis.
HuPT^, bandsman.
Hickman, Stanley.
Hood, Ambrose.
Hodges, Henry P.
Hart. Benjamin.
Harris, AValter.
Harper, John.
HarhecK. W. H.
Hoffman, Mr.
Hoffman. Child.
Hofifman, Child,
erman, Mrs. S.
ably reported saved Howard, E
as Wm. Charles).
Deacon, Percy.
Davis, Charles (may
be reported saved as
John Davies).
Debben, William.
De Brits, Jose.
Danborny, H.
Drew, James.
Drew, Master M.
David, Master J. W.
Duran, Miss A.
Dounton, W. J.
Jenkin, Stephen.
Jarvis, John D.
Keane, Daniel.
Kirkland, Rev. C.
Karnes, Mrs. F. G.
Keynaldo, Miss.
Krillner, J. H.
Krins, ' bandsman.
Knight, R.
Karines, Mrs.
Kantar, Selna.
Kantar, Mrs. (probably
reported saved as
Miriam Kantou.)
Lengam. John.
Levy, p. J.
Lahtigan, William.
Lauch, Charles.
r^eyson, R. W. N.
Laroche, Joseph.
Lamb, J. J.
McKane, Peter.
Milling. Jacob.
Mantville, Joseph.
Malachard Noll, (may
iPengelly, P.
Pernot, Rene.
Peruschitz, the Rev.
Parker, Clifford.
Panlbaum, Frank.
Rogers, Getina ( prob-
ably reported saved
as Miss E. Rogers).
Renouf, Peter B.
Rogers, Harry.
Reeves, David.
Slemen, R. J.
Sjoberg, Hayden.
Slatter, Miss H. M.
Stanton, Ward.
Sinkkonen, A. (prob-
ably reported saved
as Anna Sinkkanea).
Sword, Hans K.
Stokes, Philip J.
Sharp, Percival.
Sedgwick. Mr.
Smith, Augustus.
Sweet, George.
Sjostodt, Ernst.
be reported saved as Toomey, Elles (may
and
Howard, Mrs. E
Hale, Reginald.
Hamatainen, A.
Infant son (probabl
eported saved as
Anna Harnlin).
Hilunen, M.
Hunt, George.
Jacobson, Mr.
Jaeobson, Mrs.
Jacobson, Sydney.
Jefifery, Clifford.
Jeffery, Ernest.
Mme. Melicard)
Moraweck, Dr.
Mangiovaccli, E.
McCfae, Arthur G.
McCrie, James M.
McKane. Peter D.
Mudd, Thomas.
Mack, Mary.
Marshall, Henry.
Mayberg, Frank H.
Meyer, August.
Myles, Thomas.
Mitchell, Henry.
Matthews, W. J.
Nessen, Israel.
Nicholls, Joseph C
Norman, Robert D.
Nasser, Nicholas (may
be reported saved
as Mrs. Nasser)
Otteo. Richard.
Phillips, Robert.
Ponesell, Martin (may
be reported saved as
M. P. Pososons)
Pain, Dr. Alfred.
Parkes, Frank.
be reported saved as
Ellen Formery).
Taylor, bandsman.
Turpin, William.
Turpi'!, Mrs. Dorothy.
Turner, John H.
Trouneansky, M.
Tervan, Mrs. A.
Trant, Mrs. Jesse
(probably reported
saved as Mrs. Jessie
Traut).
Veale, James.
Wilhelm, Chas. (prob-
ably reported saved
as Chas. Williams.)
Watson, E.
Woodward, bandman.
Ware, William C.
Weiz, Leopold.
Wheadou, Edward.
Ware, .John J.
Ware, Mrs. (may be
reported saved as
Miss F. Mani.)
West, E. Arthur.
Wheeler, Edwin.
Wenman, Samuel.
THIRD CLASS STEERAGE
Allum, Owen.
Alexander, William.
Adams, J.
Alfred, Evan.
Allen, William.
Akar, Nourealain.
Assad, Said.
Alice, Agnes.
Abbing. Anthony.
AkB, Tilly.
Attala, Malakka.
A.yont, Bancura.
Ahmed. All.
Alhomaki, Ilmari.
All, William.
Anders, Gustafson.
a. Ali.
Asin, Adola.
Anderson, Albert.
Anderson, Ida.
Anderson, Thor.
Aronson, Ernest.
Ahlin, Johanna.
Anderson, Anders,
family.
Anderson, Carl.
Anderson, Samuel.
Andressen, Paul.
Augustan, Albert.
Abelsett, Olai.
Adelseth, Karen.
Adolf, Humblin.
Anderson, Erna.
Angbeloff, Minko.
Arnold, Josef.
Arnold, Josephine.
Asplund, Johan.
Braun, Lewis.
Braun, Owen.
Bo wen, David.
and Beavan, W.
Bachini, Zabour.
Belmentoy, Hassef.
Badt, Mohamet.
Betros, Yazbeek.
Barry, ,
Buckley, Katharine.
Burke, Jeremiah.
Barton, David.
Brocklebank, William.
■Bostandyeflf, Cuentche.
■Benson, John.
Billiard, A., and
children.
Bontos, Hanna.
Baccos, Boulos.
Bexrous, Tannous
Burke, John.
Burke, Catharine;
Burke, Mary.
Burns. Mary.
Berglind. Ivar,
Balkie, Cerin.
Brobek, Carl.
Backstrom, Karl.
Berglund, Hans.
Bjorkland, Ernest.
Can, Ernest.
LIST OF THE DEAD
319
THIED CLASS — STEERAGE (CONTINUED)
Crease, Ernest.
CJohett, G'irshon.
Coutts, Winnie, and
two cli?'.dren,
Cribb, John.
Cribb, AliCv? C.
Catavelas, Vassilios.
Caram, Catharine.
Cannavan, P.
Carr, Jenny.
Chartens, David.
Conline, Tbomas.
Celloti, Francesco.
Christmann, Emil.
Coxon, Daniel.
Corn, Harry.
Carver, A.
Coolf, Jacob.
Chip, Chanp.
Chauinl, Georges.
Chrouopolous, D.
Connaghton, M.
Connors, P.
Carls, Anderson.
Carlssou, August.
Coelhe, Domingo.
Carlson, Carl.
Coleff, Sotie.
Coleff, Peye.
Cor, Ivan, and family
Calic, Manda.
Calic, Peter.
Cheskosic, Luka.
Cacic, Gego.
Cacic, Luka.
Cacic, Taria.
Carlson. Julius.
Crescovic, Maria.
Dugemin, Joseph.
Dean, Bertram.
Dorkings, Edward.
Dennis, Samuel.
Dennis, William.
Drazenovie, Josef.
Daher, Shedid.
Daly, Eugene,
Dwar, Frank.
Bavies, John.
Dowdell, E.
Davison, Thomas,
Davison, Mary.
Dahl. Charles.
Drapkln, Jennie.
Donahue, Bert.
Doyle, Ellen.
Dwyer, Tillie.
Dakic, Branko.
Danoff, Yoto.
Dantchoff. Christo.
Denkoff. Mitto.
Dintcheff, Valtcho.
Dedalic, Regzo.
Dahlberg. Gerda.
Demossemacker, E.
Demossemacker, G.
Dimic, Jovan.
Dahl, Mauri tz.
Dalbom, E,, and fam
Dyker, Adolph.
Dyker, Elizabeth.
Everett, Thomas.
Empuel, Ethel.
Elsbury, James.
Eiias, Joseph.
Elias, Joseph.
Qlias, Hannah.
«Elia3, Foofa.
limmet, Thoraas.
EcimoElc, Joso.
Edwarlson, Gustave.
Eklund, Hans.
Ekstrom, Johan.
Ford, Arthur,
li^ord, M., and family,
Franklin, Charles.
Poo, Cheong.
Farrell, James.
Flynn, James.
Fiynn, John.
Foley, Joseph.
Foley, William.
Finote, Lingi.
Ficcher, ELerhard.
Goodwin, F.. and fam,
Goldsmith, P., and
family.
Guest, Frank.
Gre( u, George.
Garfirth, John.
Cl^'inskl, Leslie.
GhcorgeCf, Stano.
Ghemat, Emar.
Gerios, Youssef.
Gerios, Assaf.
Ghalil, Saal.
Gallagher, Martin.
Ganavan, Mary.
Glinagh, Katie.
Glynn, Mary.
Gronnestad, Daniel.
Gustafsch, Gideon.
Goldsmith, Nathan.
Goncalves, Mancel.
Gustafpon, Johan.
Graf, Elin.
Gu"tafson, Alfred.
Hyman, Abraham.
Harknett. Alice.
Plane, Youssef, and
two children.
Haggendon, Kate.
Haggerty, Nora.
Hart, Henry,
floward. May.
Harmer, Abraham.
Hachini, Najib.
Helene, Eugene.
Healy, Nora.
Henery, Delia.
Flemming, Nora.
Hansen, Claus.
Hansen, Fanny.
Heininan, Wendla.
Hervonen, Helga, and
child.
Haas, Alalsa.
Hakkuralneu, Elln.
Hakkurainen, Pekka.
Hankomen. Eluna.
Hansen, Henry.
Hendekovlc, Iguaz.
Hickkinen, Laina.
Holm, John.
Hadman, Oscar.
Ilaglund, Conrad.
Flaglund, Ingvald.
Henriksson, Jenny.
Hilistrom, Hilda,
nolteu. Johan.
Ing, Hen.
lemenen, Manta.
limakaugas, Pista.
Ilmakangaa, Ida.
Ilieff, Kriste.
lileff, Yllo.
Ivanhoff, Kanie.
Johnson, A., and fara.
Jamila, N., and child
Jenymin, Annie.
Johnstone, W.
Joseph, Mary.
Jeannasr, Hanna.
Tohannessen, Berdt.
Johannessen, Elias.
Johansen, Nils.
Johanson, Oscar.
Johansson, Gustav.
Johkoff, Lazer.
Johnson, E., and fam
Johnson, Jakob.
Johnsson, Nils.
.Tansen, Carl.
Jardln, Joso.
Jensen, Hans.
Johansson, Eric.
Jussila, Eric.
Jutel, Henry.
.'ohnsson, Carl.
Jusila, Katrina.
Jusila, Maria.
Keefe, Arthur.
Kassen, Houssenl.
Karum, F., and child.
Kelly, Anna.
Kelly, James.
Kennedy, John.
Kerane, Andy.
Kelley, James.
Keeni, Fahim.
Khalil, Labia.
Kiernan, Philip.
Kiernan, John.
Kilgannon. Theo.
Kakic, Tido.
Karajis, Milan.
Karkson, Einar.
Kalvig, Johannes.
King, Vin., and fam.
Kallio, Nikolai.
Karlson, Nils.
KlasEon, K., two chll.
Lovell. .John.
Lob, William.
Lobb, Cordelia.
Lester, James.
Lithmau, Simon.
Leonard, I.
Lemberopolous, P.
;L:ikarian, Orsea.
Lane, Patrick.
Lennon, Dennis.
Lam, Ah.
Lam, Len.
Lang, Fang.
Ling, Lee.
Lockyer, Edward.
Latife, Maria.
Lennon, Mary.
Linehan, Michael.
Loinenen, Anttl.
Liudell, Edward.
Linden, Elin.
Llndqvist. Vine.
BLarson, Viktor.
■Lefebre, F., and fam.
■Lindblom. August.
■Lull*, Nicola.
iLuu al, Hans.
Lundstrom, Jan.
LyntakoCf, Stnnke.
Landegren, Auronu
Laitinen, Sotia.
Larsson, Bengt.
Lasson, Edward.
Lindahl, Anna.
Lundin, Olga.
•Moore, Leonard.
.Mackay. George.
Meek, Annie.
Mlkalsen, Sander.
Miles, Prank.
Mill's. Frederick.
Morlcy. Wlliiam.
AIcNameo, Neal.
McNamee, Ellen.
Meaaw'.'ll, Marian.
Meo, Alfonso.
Maljner, Simon.
Murdlin. Joseph
Aloore, Belle.
Moor, Meier.
Maria, Joseph.
Man tour, Mousea.
Moncarek, O., 2 cbH,
McElroy, Michael.
McGowan, Katharine.
McMahon, .
.McMahou, Martin.
Madigan, Maggie.
Manion, Margaret.
Mechan, John.
Mocklare. Ellis.
Moran, James.
Mulvlhlll, Bertha.
Murphy, Kate.
Mlkanen. John.
Melkebuk, Philemon.
Merms. Leon.
MIdtsJo, Carl.
Myhrman, Oliver,
Myster, Anna.
Makinen, Kale.
Mustafa, Nasr.
Mike, Anna.
Mustmans. Fatlua
Martin, Johan.
Malinoff, Nicola.
McCoy, Bridgi>t.
MarkoCr, Martin.
Marinko. Dimitri.
Mineff. Ivan.
Minkoff, lazar.
Mirko. Dika.
Mltkoff, Nltto.
Moen, Sigurd.
Nancarror, William.
Nomagh, Robert.
Nakle. Trotlk.
Naked, Maria.
Nosworthy. Richard.
Naughton, Hannah.
Norel, Manaeur.
XU>ls, .
Xlllson, Hertu.
Nyoven, Johan.
Naldenotf. Penke.
Nunkoff, MInku.
Nedelic, Petroff.
NenkoC, Christie.
Nllson, August.
Nlrva, Isak.
Nandewal?", Nestor^
O'Brien, Denula.
O'Brien. Hanna.
820
LIST OF THE DEAD
THIRD CLASS — STEERAGE (CONTINUED)
0*Brfen, Thomas,
O'Donnell. Patrick.
Odele, Catharine.
O'Connor, Patrick.
O'Neill, Bridget.
Olsen. Carl.
Olsen, Ole.
Olson, Elin.
Olson, John.
Ortin, Amin.
Odahl. Martin.
Olman, Velin,
Olsen. Henry.
Olman, Mara.
Olsen. Elide.
Orescovic, Teko.
Pedrnzzi, Joseph.
Perkin, John.
Pearce. Ernest.
Peacock. T., two chil. Sage, Jno., and fam
Potchett, George.
Peterson, Marius.
Peters, Katie.
Paulsson, A., and fam.
Panula, M., and fam.
Pekoaaml, E.
Peltomaki. Miheldl.
Pacruic, Mate.
Pacruic, Tamo.
Pastcho, Petroff.
Pietcharsky, Vasll.
Palovlc, Vtefo.
Petranec, Matilda.
Person, Ernest,
Pasic, Jacob.
Planke, Jules.
Peterson, Ellen.
Peterson, Olaf.
Peterson, Wohn,
Bouse, Richard.
JEush, Alfred,
Rogers, William.
Reynolds, Harold.
Riordan, Hannah.
Ryan, Edward.
Rainch, Razi.
Roufoui, Aposetun.
Read, j mes.
Robins, .tilexander.
Robins, Charity.
Risian, Samuel.
Risian, Emtja.
Runnestvet, Kristlan.
Randeff, Alexandre.
Rintamaki, Matti.
Rosblom, H., and fam
Ridegain, Charles.
Sadowitz, Harry.
Saundercock, W.
Shellark, Frederi.k
Sawyer, l"'rederick.
Spinner, Henry.
Shorney, Charles.
Sarkis, Lahound.
Sultanl, Meme.
Stankovie, Javan.
Salini, Antoni.
Seman, Betros.
Sadlier, Matt.
Scanlon, James.
Shaughnessay, P.
Simmons. John.
Serota, Maurice.
vSomertoD, P.
Slocovski, Selmen.
Sutchall, Henry.
Sather, Simon.
Storey, T.
Spector, Woolf.
Slrayman, Peter.
ISaiuaan, Jouseef.
Saiide, Barbara.
Saad, Divo.
Sarkis, Madireslan.
Shine, Ellen.
Sullivan, Bridget.
Salander, Carl.
Sepelelanaker, Alfons.
Skog, Wm., and fam.
Solvang, Lena.
Stranberg, Ida.
Strilik, Ivan.
Salonen, Ferner.
Sivic, Husen.
Svenson, Ola.
Svedst, .
Sandman, Mohan.
S:.ljilsvick, Anna.
Hchelp, Peter.
■Gi'vola, Antti.
Slabcnoff, Peter.
Staneff, Ivan.
Stoytcho. Mikoff.
Stoyte-ofif. Ilia-
Sydcoff, Todor.
Sandstrom, Agnes, and
two children.
Sheerlinch, Joan.
Smiljanik, Mile.
Strom, E., and child.
Svensson, John.
Swensson, Edwin.
Tobin, Roger.
Thomson, Alex.
Theobald, Thomas.
Tomlin, Ernest.
Thorncycroft, P.
TTiorneycroft, F.
Torber, Ernest.
Tremblsky, Berk.
Tilley, Edward.
Xamioi, HUiou.
Tannans, Daper.
Thomas, John.
Thomas, Charles.
Thomas, Tannous.
Turain, T., and Infant.
Tikkanen, Juho.
Tonglin, Gunner.
Turoin, Stefan.
Turgo, Anna.
Tedoreff, lalie.
Usher, Haulmer.
Nzelas, Jose.
Vander and family.
Vereruysse, Victor.
Vjoblom, Anna.
Vaciens, Adalle.
Vandersteen, Leo.
Vanimps, J., and fam.
Vatdevehde, Josep.
Williams, Harry.
Williams, Leslie.
Ware. Frederick.
Warren, Charles.
Waika. Said.
Wazli, Jousef.
Wiseman, Philip.
Werber, James.
Windelor, Einar.
Weller. Edward.
Wendal, Olaf.
Wistrom, Hans.
Wiklund, Jacob.
Wiklund, Carl.
Wenzel, Zinhart.
Wirz, Albert.
Wittewrongel, Camille.
Youssef, Brahim.
Yalsevac, Ivan.
Zakarian, Maprl.
Zlevens, Rene.
Zimmerman. Leow
0
oiWDlNG SECT A.,« >.
««6CT. AUG 4 1979
PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE
CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY
G Neil, Henry
530 Wreck and sinking of the
T6N4 Titanic
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