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Read Ebook: Sinking of the Titanic and Great Sea Disasters by Marshall Logan Editor
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Ebook has 1627 lines and 74814 words, and 33 pages
"The Titanic in collision, but everybody safe"--Another triumph set down to wireless telegraphy--The world goes to sleep peacefully--The sad awakening
Dimensions of the Titanic--Capacity--Provisions for the comfort and entertainment of passengers--Mechanical equipment--The army of attendants required
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
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
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.
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!"
Coolness and heroism of those left to perish--Suicide of Murdock--Captain Smith's end--The ship's band plays a noble hymn as the vessel goes down.
The value of the wireless--Other ships alter their course--Rescuers on the way.
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.
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.
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!
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.
How the Titanic sank--Water strewn with dead bodies--Victims met death with hymn on their lips.
Collision only a slight jar--Passengers could not believe the vessel doomed--Narrow escape of life-boats--Picked up by the Carpathia.
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.
Women forced into the life-boats--Why some men were saved before women--Asked to man life-boats.
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".
Passengers and crew dying when taken aboard Carpathia--One woman saved a dog--English colonel swam for hours when boat with mother aboard capsized.
Nations prostrate with grief--Messages from kings and cardinals--Disaster stirs world to necessity of stricter regulations.
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.
Sending out the Mackay-Bennett and Minia--Bremen passengers see bodies--Identifying bodies--Confusion in names--Recoveries.
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.
Titanic not fully insured--Valuable cargo and mail--No chance for salvage--Life insurance loss--Loss to the Carpathia.
Captain E. K. Roden, Lewis Nixon, General Greely and Robert H. Kirk point out lessons taught by Titanic disaster and needed changes in construction.
Deadly danger of icebergs--Dozens of ships perish in collision--Other disasters.
Evolution of water travel--Increases in size of vessels--Is there any limit?--Achievements in speed--Titanic not the last word.
Wireless telegraphy--Water-tight bulkheads--Submarine signals--Life-boats and rafts--Nixon's pontoon--Life-preservers and buoys--Rockets.
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.
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.
"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.
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