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Sinking of the Titanic and Great Sea Disasters
L >> Logan Marshall >> Sinking of the Titanic and Great Sea Disasters Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 Sinking of the Titanic
and Great Sea Disasters
Edited by Logan Marshall
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Pre-Frontispiece Caption:
THE TITANIC
The largest and finest steamship in the world; on her maiden voyage,
loaded with a human freight of over 2,300 souls, she collided with
a huge iceberg 600 miles southeast of Halifax, at 11.40 P.M. Sunday
April 14, 1912, and sank two and a half hours later, carrying over
1,600 of her passengers and crew with her.
Frontispiece Caption:
CAPTAIN E. J. SMITH
Of the ill-fated giant of the sea; a brave and seasoned commander
who was carried to his death with his last and greatest ship.}
Sinking of the Titanic
and
Great Sea Disasters
A Detailed and Accurate Account of the Most
Awful Marine Disaster in History, Constructed
from the Real Facts as Obtained from Those on
Board Who Survived .. .. .. .. ..
ONLY AUTHORITATIVE BOOK
INCLUDING
Records of Previous Great Disasters of the Sea,
Descriptions of the Developments of Safety and
Life-saving Appliances, a Plain Statement of
the Causes of Such Catastrophes and How to
Avoid Them, the Marvelous Development of
Shipbuilding, etc.
With a Message of Spiritual Consolation by
REV. HENRY VAN DYKE, D.D.
EDITED BY
LOGAN MARSHALL
Author of "Life of Theodore Roosevelt," etc.
ILLUSTRATED
With Numerous Authentic Photographs and Drawings
Dedication
To the 1635 souls who were lost with the
ill-fated Titanic, and especially to those
heroic men, who, instead of trying to
save themselves, stood aside that women
and children might have their chance; of
each of them let it be written, as it was
written of a Greater One--
"He Died that Others might Live"
"I stood in unimaginable trance
And agony that cannot be remembered."
--COLERIDGE
Dr. Van Dyke's Spiritual Consolation
to the Survivors of the Titanic
The Titanic, greatest of ships, has gone to her ocean
grave. What has she left behind her? Think clearly.
She has left debts. Vast sums of money have been lost.
Some of them are covered by insurance which will be paid.
The rest is gone. All wealth is insecure.
She has left lessons. The risk of running the northern
course when it is menaced by icebergs is revealed. The
cruelty of sending a ship to sea without enough life-boats and
life-rafts to hold her company is exhibited and underlined
in black.
She has left sorrows. Hundreds of human hearts and
homes are in mourning for the loss of dear companions and
friends. The universal sympathy which is written in every
face and heard in every voice proves that man is more than
the beasts that perish. It is an evidence of the divine in
humanity. Why should we care? There is no reason in
the world, unless there is something in us that is different
from lime and carbon and phosphorus, something that makes
us mortals able to suffer together--
"For we have all of us an human heart."
But there is more than this harvest of debts, and lessons,
and sorrows, in the tragedy of the sinking of the Titanic.
There is a great ideal. It is clearly outlined and set before
the mind and heart of the modern world, to approve and follow,
or to despise and reject.
It is, "Women and children first!"
Whatever happened on that dreadful April night among
the arctic ice, certainly that was the order given by the brave
and steadfast captain; certainly that was the law obeyed by
the men on the doomed ship. But why? There is no statute
or enactment of any nation to enforce such an order. There
is no trace of such a rule to be found in the history of ancient
civilizations. There is no authority for it among the heathen
races to-day. On a Chinese ship, if we may believe the report
of an official representative, the rule would have been "Men
First, children next, and women last."
There is certainly no argument against this barbaric
rule on physical or material grounds. On the average, a man
is stronger than a woman, he is worth more than a woman,
he has a longer prospect of life than a woman. There is no
reason in all the range of physical and economic science, no
reason in all the philosophy of the Superman, why he should
give his place in the life-boat to a woman.
Where, then, does this rule which prevailed in the sinking
Titanic come from? It comes from God, through the faith
of Jesus of Nazareth.
It is the ideal of self-sacrifice. It is the rule that "the
strong ought to bear the infirmities of those that are weak."
It is the divine revelation which is summed up in the words:
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down
his life for his friends."
It needs a tragic catastrophe like the wreck of the Titanic
to bring out the absolute contradiction between this ideal
and all the counsels of materialism and selfish expediency.
I do not say that the germ of this ideal may not be found
in other religions. I do not say that they are against it. I
do not ask any man to accept my theology (which grows
shorter and simpler as I grow older), unless his heart leads
him to it. But this I say: The ideal that the strength of
the strong is given them to protect and save the weak, the
ideal which animates the rule of "Women and children first,"
is in essential harmony with the spirit of Christ.
If what He said about our Father in Heaven is true, this
ideal is supremely reasonable. Otherwise it is hard to find
arguments for it. The tragedy of facts sets the question
clearly before us. Think about it. Is this ideal to survive
and prevail in our civilization or not?
Without it, no doubt, we may have riches and power and
dominion. But what a world to live in!
Only through the belief that the strong are bound to
protect and save the weak because God wills it so, can we
hope to keep self-sacrifice, and love, and heroism, and all the
things that make us glad to live and not afraid to die.
HENRY VAN DYKE.
PRINCETON, N. J., April 18, 1912.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
FIRST NEWS OF THE GREATEST MARINE DISASTER IN HISTORY
"The Titanic in collision, but everybody safe"--Another triumph
set down to wireless telegraphy--The world goes to sleep peacefully--The
sad awakening
CHAPTER II
THE MOST SUMPTUOUS PALACE AFLOAT
Dimensions of the Titanic--Capacity--Provisions for the comfort
and entertainment of passengers--Mechanical equipment--The army of
attendants required
CHAPTER III
THE MAIDEN VOYAGE OF THE TITANIC
Preparations for the voyage--Scenes of gayety--The boat sails--
Incidents of the voyage--A collision narrowly averted--The boat on fire--
Warned of icebergs
CHAPTER IV
SOME OF THE NOTABLE PASSENGERS
Sketches of prominent men and women on board, including Major
Archibald Butt, John Jacob Astor, Benjamin Guggenheim, Isidor Straus,
J. Bruce Ismay, Geo. D. Widener, Colonel Washington Roebling, 2d,
Charles M. Hays, W. T. Stead and others
CHAPTER V
THE TITANIC STRIKES AN ICEBERG!
Tardy attention to warning responsible for accident--The danger
not realized at first--An interrupted card game--Passengers joke among
themselves--The real truth dawns--Panic on board--Wireless calls for help.
CHAPTER VI
"WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST"
Cool-headed officers and crew bring order out of chaos--Filling the
life-boats--Heartrending scenes as families are parted--Four life-boats
lost--Incidents of bravery--"The boats are all filled!"
CHAPTER VII
LEFT TO THEIR FATE
Coolness and heroism of those left to perish--Suicide of Murdock--
Captain Smith's end--The ship's band plays a noble hymn as the vessel
goes down.
CHAPTER VIII
THE CALL FOR HELP HEARD
The value of the wireless--Other ships alter their course--Rescuers
on the way.
CHAPTER IX
IN THE DRIFTING LIFE-BOATS
Sorrow and suffering--The survivors see the Titanic go down with
their loved ones on board--A night of agonizing suspense--Women help
to row--Help arrives--Picking up the life-boats.
CHAPTER X
ON BOARD THE CARPATHIA
Aid for the suffering and hysterical--Burying the dead--Vote of
thanks to Captain Rostron of the Carpathia--Identifying those saved--
Communicating with land--The passage to New York.
CHAPTER XI
PREPARATIONS ON LAND TO RECEIVE THE SUFFERERS
Police arrangements--Donations of money and supplies--Hospital
and ambulances made ready--Private houses thrown open--Waiting for
the Carpathia to arrive--The ship sighted!
CHAPTER XII
THE TRAGIC HOME-COMING
The Carpathia reaches New York--An intense and dramatic moment
--Hysterical reunions and crushing disappointments at the dock--Caring
for the sufferers--Final realization that all hope for others is futile--List
of survivors--Roll of the dead.
CHAPTER XIII
THE STORY OF CHARLES F. HURD
How the Titanic sank--Water strewn with dead bodies--
Victims met death with hymn on their lips.
CHAPTER XIV
THRILLING ACCOUNT BY L. BEASLEY
Collision only a slight jar--Passengers could not believe the vessel
doomed--Narrow escape of life-boats--Picked up by the Carpathia.
CHAPTER XV
JACK THAYER'S OWN STORY OF THE WRECK
Seventeen-year-old son of Pennsylvania Railroad official tells moving
story of his rescue--Told mother to be brave--Separated from parents--
Jumped when vessel sank--Drifted on overturned boat--Picked up by Carpathia.
CHAPTER XVI
INCIDENTS RELATED BY JAMES McGOUGH
Women forced into the life-boats--Why some men were saved before
women--Asked to man life-boats.
CHAPTER XVII
WIRELESS OPERATOR PRAISES HEROIC WORK
Story of Harold Bride, the surviving wireless operator of the Titanic,
who was washed overboard and rescued by life-boat--Band played ragtime
and "Autumn".
CHAPTER XVIII
STORY OF THE STEWARD
Passengers and crew dying when taken aboard Carpathia--One woman
saved a dog--English colonel swam for hours when boat with
mother aboard capsized.
CHAPTER XIX
HOW THE WORLD RECEIVED THE NEWS
Nations prostrate with grief--Messages from kings and cardinals--
Disaster stirs world to necessity of stricter regulations.
CHAPTER XX
BRAVERY OF THE OFFICERS AND CREW
Illustrious career of Captain E. J. Smith--Brave to the last--
Maintenance of order and discipline--Acts of heroism--Engineers died at posts
--Noble-hearted band.
CHAPTER XXI
SEARCHING FOR THE DEAD
Sending out the Mackay-Bennett and Minia--Bremen passengers
see bodies--Identifying bodies--Confusion in names--Recoveries.
CHAPTER XXII
CRITICISM OF ISMAY
Criminal and cowardly conduct charged--Proper caution not exercised
when presence of icebergs was known--Should have stayed on board
to help in work of rescue--Selfish and unsympathetic actions on board
the Carpathia--Ismay's defense--William E. Carter's statement.
CHAPTER XXIII
THE FINANCIAL LOSS
Titanic not fully insured--Valuable cargo and mail--No chance for
salvage--Life insurance loss--Loss to the Carpathia.
CHAPTER XXIV
OPINIONS OF EXPERTS
Captain E. K. Roden, Lewis Nixon, General Greely and Robert H.
Kirk point out lessons taught by Titanic disaster and needed changes
in construction.
CHAPTER XXV
OTHER GREAT MARINE DISASTERS.
Deadly danger of icebergs--Dozens of ships perish in collision--
Other disasters.
CHAPTER XXVI
DEVELOPMENT OF SHIPBUILDING
Evolution of water travel--Increases in size of vessels--
Is there any limit?--Achievements in speed--Titanic not the last word.
CHAPTER XXVII
SAFETY AND LIFE-SAVING DEVICES
Wireless telegraphy--Water-tight bulkheads--Submarine signals--
Life-boats and rafts--Nixon's pontoon--Life-preservers and buoys--Rockets.
CHAPTER XXVIII
TIME FOR REFLECTION AND REFORM
Speed and luxury overemphasized--Space needed for life-boats
devoted to swimming pools and squash-courts--Mania for speed records
compels use of dangerous routes and prevents proper caution in foggy
weather--Life more valuable than luxury--Safety more important than
speed--An aroused public opinion necessary--International conference
recommended--Adequate life-saving equipment should be compulsory--
Speed regulations in bad weather--Co-operation in arranging schedules
to keep vessels within reach of each other--Legal regulations.
CHAPTER XXIX
THE SENATORIAL INVESTIGATION
Prompt action of the Government--Senate committee probes disaster
and brings out details--Testimony of Ismay, officers, crew passengers
and other witnesses.
FACTS ABOUT THE WRECK OF THE TITANIC
NUMBER of persons aboard, 2340.
Number of life-boats and rafts, 20.
Capacity of each life-boat, 50 passengers and crew of 8.
Utmost capacity of life-boats and rafts, about 1100.
Number of life-boats wrecked in launching, 4.
Capacity of life-boats safely launched, 928.
Total number of persons taken in life-boats, 711.
Number who died in life-boats, 6.
Total number saved, 705.
Total number of Titanic's company lost, 1635.
The cause of the disaster was a collision with an iceberg in latitude
41.46 north, longitude 50.14 west. The Titanic had had repeated
warnings of the presence of ice in that part of the course.
Two official warnings had been received defining the position of the
ice fields. It had been calculated on the Titanic that she would
reach the ice fields about 11 o'clock Sunday night. The collision
occurred at 11.40. At that time the ship was driving at a speed
of 21 to 23 knots, or about 26 miles, an hour.
There had been no details of seamen assigned to each boat.
Some of the boats left the ship without seamen enough to man
the oars.
Some of the boats were not more than half full of passengers.
The boats had no provisions, some of them had no water stored,
some were without sail equipment or compasses.
In some boats, which carried sails wrapped and bound, there
was not a person with a knife to cut the ropes. In some boats the
plugs in the bottom had been pulled out and the women passengers
were compelled to thrust their hands into the holes to keep the
boats from filling and sinking.
The captain, E. J. Smith, admiral of the White Star fleet, went
down with his ship.
CHAPTER I
FIRST NEWS OF THE GREATEST MARINE DISASTER IN HISTORY
"THE TITANIC IN COLLISION, BUT EVERYBODY SAFE"--
ANOTHER TRIUMPH SET DOWN TO WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY--
THE WORLD GOES TO SLEEP PEACEFULLY--THE SAD AWAKENING.
LIKE a bolt out of a clear sky came the wireless message
on Monday, April 15, 1912, that on Sunday night
the great Titanic, on her maiden voyage across the
Atlantic, had struck a gigantic iceberg, but that all the
passengers were saved. The ship had signaled her distress and
another victory was set down to wireless. Twenty-one
hundred lives saved!
Additional news was soon received that the ship had collided
with a mountain of ice in the North Atlantic, off Cape Race,
Newfoundland, at 10.25 Sunday evening, April 14th. At
4.15 Monday morning the Canadian Government Marine
Agency received a wireless message that the Titanic was sinking
and that the steamers towing her were trying to get her into
shoal water near Cape Race, for the purpose of beaching her.
Wireless despatches up to noon Monday showed that the
passengers of the Titanic were being transferred aboard the
steamer Carpathia, a Cunarder, which left New York, April
13th, for Naples. Twenty boat-loads of the Titanic's passengers
were said to have been transferred to the Carpathia
then, and allowing forty to sixty persons as the capacity of
each life-boat, some 800 or 1200 persons had already been
transferred from the damaged liner to the Carpathia. They
were reported as being taken to Halifax, whence they would
be sent by train to New York.
Another liner, the Parisian, of the Allan Company, which
sailed from Glasgow for Halifax on April 6th, was said to be
close at hand and assisting in the work of rescue. The Baltic,
Virginian and Olympic were also near the scene, according to
the information received by wireless.
While badly damaged, the giant vessel was reported as
still afloat, but whether she could reach port or shoal water
was uncertain. The White Star officials declared that the
Titanic was in no immediate danger of sinking, because of
her numerous water-tight compartments.
"While we are still lacking definite information," Mr.
Franklin, vice-president of the White Star Line, said later
in the afternoon, "we believe the Titanic's passengers will
reach Halifax, Wednesday evening. We have received no
further word from Captain Haddock, of the Olympic, or from
any of the ships in the vicinity, but are confident that there
will be no loss of life."
With the understanding that the survivors would be taken
to Halifax the line arranged to have thirty Pullman cars,
two diners and many passenger coaches leave Boston Monday
night for Halifax to get the passengers after they were landed.
Mr. Franklin made a guess that the Titanic's passengers
would get into Halifax on Wednesday. The Department of
Commerce and Labor notified the White Star Line that customs
and immigration inspectors would be sent from Montreal
to Halifax in order that there would be as little delay as
possible in getting the passengers on trains.
Monday night the world slept in peace and assurance.
A wireless message had finally been received, reading:
"All Titanic's passengers safe."
It was not until nearly a week later that the fact was
discovered that this message had been wrongly received in
the confusion of messages flashing through the air, and that
in reality the message should have read:
"Are all Titanic's passengers safe?"
With the dawning of Tuesday morning came the awful news
of the true fate of the Titanic.
CHAPTER II
THE MOST SUMPTUOUS PALACE AFLOAT
DIMENSIONS OF THE TITANIC--CAPACITY--PROVISIONS FOR
THE COMFORT AND ENTERTAINMENT OF PASSENGERS--
MECHANICAL EQUIPMENT THE ARMY OF ATTENDANTS REQUIRED.
THE statistical record of the great ship has news value
at this time.
Early in 1908 officials of the White Star Company
announced that they would eclipse all previous records in
shipbuilding with a vessel of staggering dimensions. The
Titanic resulted.
The keel of the ill-fated ship was laid in the summer of
1909 at the Harland & Wolff yards, Belfast. Lord Pirrie,
considered one of the best authorities on shipbuilding in the
world, was the designer. The leviathan was launched on
May 31, 1911, and was completed in February, 1912, at a
cost of $10,000,000.
SISTER SHIP OF OLYMPIC
The Titanic, largest liner in commission, was a sister ship
of the Olympic. The registered tonnage of each vessel is
estimated as 45,000, but officers of the White Star Line say
that the Titanic measured 45,328 tons. The Titanic was
commanded by Captain E. J. Smith, the White Star admiral,
who had previously been on the Olympic.
She was 882 1/2 long, or about four city blocks, and
was 5000 tons bigger than a battleship twice as large as the
dreadnought Delaware.
Like her sister ship, the Olympic, the Titanic was a four-
funneled vessel, and had eleven decks. The distance from
the keel to the top of the funnels was 175 feet. She had an
average speed of twenty-one knots.
The Titanic could accommodate 2500 passengers. The
steamship was divided into numerous compartments, separated
by fifteen bulkheads. She was equipped with a gymnasium,
swimming pool, hospital with operating room, and
a grill and palm garden.
CARRIED CREW OF 860
The registered tonnage was 45,000, and the displacement
tonnage 66,000. She was capable of carrying 2500 passengers
and the crew numbered 860.
The largest plates employed in the hull were 36 feet long,
weighing 43 1/2 tons each, and the largest steel beam used was
92 feet long, the weight of this double beam being 4 tons.
The rudder, which was operated electrically, weighed 100
tons, the anchors 15 1/2 tons each, the center (turbine) propeller
22 tons, and each of the two "wing" propellers 38
tons each. The after "boss-arms," from which were sus-
pended the three propeller shafts, tipped the scales at 73 1/2
tons, and the forward "boss-arms" at 45 tons. Each link
in the anchor-chains weighed 175 pounds. There were more
than 2000 side-lights and windows to light the public rooms
and passenger cabins.
Nothing was left to chance in the construction of the
Titanic. Three million rivets (weighing 1200 tons) held the
solid plates of steel together. To insure stability in binding
the heavy plates in the double bottom, half a million rivets,
weighing about 270 tons, were used.
All the plating of the hulls was riveted by hydraulic power,
driving seven-ton riveting machines, suspended from traveling
cranes. The double bottom extended the full
length of the vessel, varying from 5 feet 3 inches to 6 feet 3
inches in depth, and lent added strength to the hull.
MOST LUXURIOUS STEAMSHIP
Not only was the Titanic the largest steamship afloat but
it was the most luxurious. Elaborately furnished cabins
opened onto her eleven decks, and some of these decks were
reserved as private promenades that were engaged with the
best suites. One of these suites was sold for $4350 for the
boat's maiden and only voyage. Suites similar, but which
were without the private promenade decks, sold for $2300.
The Titanic differed in some respects from her sister ship.
The Olympic has a lower promenade deck, but in the Titanic's
case the staterooms were brought out flush with the outside
of the superstructure, and the rooms themselves made much
larger. The sitting rooms of some of the suites on this deck
were 15 x 15 feet.
The restaurant was much larger than that of the Olympic
and it had a novelty in the shape of a private promenade deck
on the starboard side, to be used exclusively by its patrons.
Adjoining it was a reception room, where hosts and hostesses
could meet their guests.
Two private promenades were connected with the two most
luxurious suites on the ship. The suites were situated about
amidships, one on either side of the vessel, and each was about
fifty feet long. One of the suites comprised a sitting room,
two bedrooms and a bath.
These private promenades were expensive luxuries. The
cost figured out something like forty dollars a front foot for
a six days' voyage. They, with the suites to which they are
attached, were the most expensive transatlantic accommodations
yet offered.
THE ENGINE ROOM
The engine room was divided into two sections, one given
to the reciprocating engines and the other to the turbines.
There were two sets of the reciprocating kind, one working each
of the wing propellers through a four-cylinder triple expansion,
direct acting inverted engine. Each set could generate 15,000
indicated horse-power at seventy-five revolutions a minute.
The Parsons type turbine takes steam from the reciprocating
engines, and by developing a horse-power of 16,000 at 165
revolutions a minute works the third of the ship's propellers,
the one directly under the rudder. Of the four funnels of the
vessel three were connected with the engine room, and the
fourth or after funnel for ventilating the ship including the
gallery.
Practically all of the space on the Titanic below the upper
deck was occupied by steam-generating plant, coal bunkers
and propelling machinery. Eight of the fifteen water-tight
compartments contained the mechanical part of the vessel. There
were, for instance, twenty-four double end and five single end
boilers, each 16 feet 9 inches in diameter, the larger 20 feet long
and the smaller 11 feet 9 inches long. The larger boilers had
six fires under each of them and the smaller three furnaces.
Coal was stored in bunker space along the side of the ship
between the lower and middle decks, and was first shipped
from there into bunkers running all the way across the vessel
in the lowest part. From there the stokers handed it into
the furnaces.
One of the most interesting features of the vessel was the
refrigerating plant, which comprised a huge ice-making and
refrigerating machine and a number of provision rooms on the
after part of the lower and orlop decks. There were separate
cold rooms for beef, mutton, poultry, game, fish, vegetables,
fruit, butter, bacon, cheese, flowers, mineral water, wine,
spirits and champagne, all maintained at different temperatures
most suitable to each. Perishable freight had a compartment
of its own, also chilled by the plant.
COMFORT AND STABILITY
Two main ideas were carried out in the Titanic. One was
comfort and the other stability. The vessel was planned to be
an ocean ferry. She was to have only a speed of twenty-one
knots, far below that of some other modern vessels, but she was
planned to make that speed, blow high or blow low, so that
if she left one side of the ocean at a given time she could be
relied on to reach the other side at almost a certain minute
of a certain hour.
One who has looked into modern methods for safeguarding
{illust. caption = LIFE-BOAT AND DAVITS ON THE TITANIC
This diagram shows very clearly the arrangement of the life-boats and
the manner in which they were launched.}
a vessel of the Titanic type can hardly imagine an accident
that could cause her to founder. No collision such as has
been the fate of any ship in recent years, it has been thought
up to this time, could send her down, nor could running against
an iceberg do it unless such an accident were coupled with
the remotely possible blowing out of a boiler. She would
sink at once, probably, if she were to run over a submerged
rock or derelict in such manner that both her keel plates and
her double bottom were torn away for more than half her
length; but such a catastrophe was so remotely possible that
it did not even enter the field of conjecture.
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