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
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