WOMEN FORCED INTO THE LIFE-BOATS—WHY SOME MEN WERE SAVED BEFORE WOMEN—ASKED TO MAN LIFE-BOATS
SURROUNDED by his wife and members of his family, James McGough, of Philadelphia, a buyer for the Gimbel Brothers, whose fate had been in doubt, recited a most thrilling and graphic picture of the disaster.
As the Carpathia docked, Mrs. McGough, a brother and several friends of the buyer, met him, and after the touching reunion had taken place the party proceeded to Philadelphia.
Vivid in detail, Mr. McGough's story differs essentially from one the imagination would paint. He declared that the boat was driving at a high rate of speed at the time of the accident, and seemed impressed by the calmness and apathy displayed by the survivors as they tossed on the frozen seas in the little life-boats until the Carpathia picked them up.
The Titanic did not plunge into the water suddenly, he declared, but settled slowly into the deep with its hundreds of passengers.
"The collision occurred at 20 minutes of 12," said Mr. McGough. "I was sleeping in my cabin when I felt a wrench, not severe or terrifying.
"It seemed to me to be nothing more serious than the racing of the screw, which often occurs when a ship plunges her bow deep into a heavy swell, raising the stern out of water. We dressed hurriedly and ran to the upper deck. There was little noise or tumult at the time.
"The promenade decks being higher from the base of the ship and thus more insecure, strained and creaked; so we went to the lower decks. By this time the engines had been reversed, and I could feel the ship backing off. Officers and stewards ran through the corridors, shouting for all to be calm, that there was no danger. We were warned, however, to dress and put life-preservers on us. I had on what clothing I could find and had stuffed some money in my pocket.
PARTING OF ASTOR AND BRIDE
"As I passed the gymnasium I saw Colonel Astor and his young wife together. She was clinging to him, piteously pleading that he go into the life-boat with her. He refused almost gruffly and was attempting to calm her by saying that all her fears were groundless, that the accident she feared would prove a farce. It proved different, however.
"None, I believe, knew that the ship was about to sink. I did not realize it just then. When I reached the upper deck and saw tons of ice piled upon our crushed bow the full realization came to me.
"Officers stood with drawn guns ordering the women into the boats. All feared to leave the comparative safety of a broad and firm deck for the precarious smaller boats. Women clung to their husbands, crying that they would never leave without them, and had to be torn away.
"On one point all the women were firm. They would not enter a Life-boat until men were in it first. They feared to trust themselves to the seas in them. It required courage to step into the frail crafts as they swung from the creaking davits. Few men were willing to take the chance. An officer rushed behind me and shouted:
"'You're big enough to pull an oar. Jump into this boat or we'll never be able to get the women off.' I was forced to do so, though I admit that the ship looked a great deal safer to me than any small boat.
"Our boat was the second off. Forty or more persons were crowded into it, and with myself and members of the crew at the oars, were pulled slowly away. Huge icebergs, larger than the Pennsylvania depot at New York, surrounded us. As we pulled away we could see boat after boat filled and lowered to the waves. Despite the fact that they were new and supposedly in excellent working order, the blocks jammed in many instances, tilting the boats, loaded with people, at varying angles before they reached the water.
BAND CONTINUED PLAYING
"As the life-boats pulled away the officers ordered the bands to play, and their music did much to quell panic. It was a heart-breaking sight to us tossing in an eggshell three-fourths of a mile away, to see the great ship go down. First she listed to the starboard, on which side the collision had occurred, then she settled slowly but steadily, without hope of remaining afloat.
"The Titanic was all aglow with lights as if for a function. First we saw the lights of the lower deck snuffed out. A while later and the second deck illumination was extinguished in a similar manner. Then the third and upper decks were darkened, and without plunging or rocking the great ship disappeared slowly from the surface of the sea.
"People were crowded on each deck as it lowered into the water, hoping in vain that aid would come in time. Some of the life-boats caught in the merciless suction were swallowed with her.
"The sea was calm—calm as the water in a tumbler. But it was freezing cold. None had dressed heavily, and all, therefore, suffered intensely. The women did not shriek or grow hysterical while we waited through the awful night for help. We men stood at the oars, stood because there was no room for us to sit, and kept the boat headed into the swell to prevent her capsizing. Another boat was at our side, but all the others were scattered around the water.
"Finally, shortly before 6 o'clock, we saw the lights of the Carpathia approaching. Gradually she picked up the survivors in the other boats and then approached us. When we were lifted to the deck the women fell helpless. They were carried to whatever quarters offered themselves, while the men were assigned to the smoking room.
"Of the misery and suffering which was witnessed on the rescue ship I know nothing. With the other men survivors I was glad to remain in the smoking room until New York was reached, trying to forget the awful experience.
"To us aboard the Carpathia came rumors of misstatements which were being made to the public. The details of the wreck were wofully misunderstood.
"Let me emphasize that the night was not foggy or cloudy. There was just the beginning of the new moon, but every star in the sky was shining brightly, unmarred by clouds. The boats were lowered from both sides of the Titanic in time to escape, but there was not enough for all.
STORY OF HAROLD BRIDE, THE SURVIVING WIRELESS OPERATOR OF THE TITANIC, WHO WAS WASHED OVERBOARD AND RESCUED BY LIFE-BOAT—BAND PLAYED RAG-TIME AND "AUTUMN"
ONE of the most connected and detailed accounts of the horrible disaster was that told by Harold Bride, the wireless operator. Mr. Bride said:
"I was standing by Phillips, the chief operator, telling him to go to bed, when the captain put his head in the cabin.
"'We've struck an iceberg,' the captain said, 'and I'm having an inspection made to tell what it has done for us. You better get ready to send out a call for assistance. But don't send it until I tell you.'
"The captain went away and in ten minutes, I should estimate the time, he came back. We could hear a terrific confusion outside, but there was not the least thing to indicate that there was any trouble. The wireless was working perfectly.
"'Send the call for assistance,' ordered the captain, barely putting his head in the door.
"'What call shall I send?' Phillips asked.
"'The regulation international call for help. Just that.'
"Then the captain was gone Phillips began to send 'C. Q. D.' He flashed away at it and we joked while he did so. All of us made light of the disaster.
"The Carpathia answered our signal. We told her our position and said we were sinking by the head. The operator went to tell the captain, and in five minutes returned and told us that the captain of the Carpathia, was putting about and heading for us
GREAT SCRAMBLE ON DECK
"Our captain had left us at this time and Phillips told me to run and tell him what the Carpathia had answered. I did so, and I went through an awful mass of people to his cabin. The decks were full of scrambling men and women. I saw no fighting, but I heard tell of it.
"I came back and heard Phillips giving the Carpathia fuller directions. Phillips told me to put on my clothes. Until that moment I forgot that I was not dressed.
"I went to my cabin and dressed. I brought an overcoat to Phillips. It was very cold. I slipped the overcoat upon him while he worked.
"Every few minutes Phillips would send me to the captain with little messages. They were merely telling how the Carpathia was coming our way and gave her speed.
"I noticed as I came back from one trip that they were putting off women and children in life-boats. I noticed that the list forward was increasing.
"Phillips told me the wireless was growing weaker. The captain came and told us our engine rooms were taking water and that the dynamos might not last much longer. We sent that word to the Carpathia.
"I went out on deck and looked around. The water was pretty close up to the boat deck. There was a great scramble aft, and how poor Phillips worked through it right to the end I don't know.
"He was a brave man. I learned to love him that night and I suddenly felt for him a great reverence to see him standing there sticking to his work while everybody else was raging about. I will never live to forget the work of Phillips for the last awful fifteen minutes.
"I thought it was about time to look about and see if there was anything detached that would float. I remembered that every member of the crew had a special life-belt and ought to know where it was. I remembered mine was under my bunk. I went and got it. Then I thought how cold the water was.
"I remembered I had an extra jacket and a pair of boots, and I put them on. I saw Phillips standing out there still sending away, giving the Carpathia details of just how we were doing.
"We picked up the Olympic and told her we were sinking by the head and were about all down. As Phillips was sending the message I strapped his life-belt to his back. I had already put on his overcoat. Every minute was precious, so I helped him all I could.
BAND PLAYS IN RAG-TIME
"From aft came the tunes of the band. It was a rag-time tune, I don't know what. Then there was 'Autumn.' Phillips ran aft and that was the last I ever saw of him.
"I went to the place where I had seen a collapsible boat on the boat deck, and to my surprise I saw the boat and the men still trying to push it off. I guess there wasn't a sailor in the crowd. They couldn't do it. I went up to them and was just lending a hand when a large wave came awash of the deck.
"The big wave carried the boat off. I had hold of a row-lock and I went off with it. The next I knew I was in the boat.
"But that was not all. I was in the boat and the boat was upside down and I was under it. And I remember realizing I was wet through, and that whatever happened I must not breathe, for I was under water.
"I knew I had to fight for it and I did. How I got out from under the boat I do not know, but I felt a breath of air at last.
"There were men all around me hundreds of them. The sea was dotted with them, all depending on their life-belts. I felt I simply had to get away from the ship. She was a beautiful sight then.
"Smoke and sparks were rushing out of her funnel, and there must have been an explosion, but we had heard none. We only saw the big stream of sparks. The ship was gradually turning on her nose just like a duck does that goes down for a dive. I had one thing on my mind—to get away from the suction. The band was still playing, and I guess they all went down.
"They were playing 'Autumn' then. I swam with all my might. I suppose I was 150 feet away when the Titanic, on her nose, with her after-quarter sticking straight up in the air, began to settle slowly.
"When at last the waves washed over her rudder there wasn't the least bit of suction I could feel. She must have kept going just as slowly as she had been.
"I forgot to mention that, besides the Olympic and Carpathia, we spoke some German boat, I don't know which, and told them how we were. We also spoke the Baltic. I remembered those things as I began to figure what ships would be coming toward us.
"I felt, after a little while, like sinking. I was very cold. I saw a boat of some kind near me and put all my strength into an effort to swim to it. It was hard work. I was all done when a hand reached out from the boat and pulled me aboard. It was our same collapsible.
"There was just room for me to roll on the edge. I lay there, not caring what happened. Somebody sat on my legs; they were wedged in between slats and were being wrenched. I had not the heart left to ask the man to move. It was a terrible sight all around—men swimming and sinking.
"I lay where I was, letting the man wrench my feet out of shape. Others came near. Nobody gave them a hand. The bottom-up boat already had more men than it would hold and it was sinking.
"At first the larger waves splashed over my head and I had to breathe when I could.
"Some splendid people saved us. They had a right-side-up boat, and it was full to its capacity. Yet they came to us and loaded us all into it. I saw some lights off in the distance and knew a steamship was coming to our aid.
"I didn't care what happened. I just lay, and gasped when I could and felt the pain in my feet. At last the Carpathia was alongside and the people were being taken up a rope ladder. Our boat drew near, and one b{y} one the men were taken off of it.
"The way the band kept playing was a noble thing. I heard it first while we were working wireless, when there was a rag-time tune for us, and the last I saw of the band, when I was floating out in the sea, with my life-belt on, it was still on deck playing 'Autumn.' How they ever did it I cannot imagine.
"That and the way Phillips kept sending after the captain told him his life was his own, and to look out for himself, are two things that stand out in my mind over all the rest."
PASSENGERS AND CREW DYING WHEN TAKEN ABOARD CARPATHIA—ONE WOMAN SAVED A DOG—ENGLISH COLONEL SWAM FOR HOURS WHEN BOAT WITH MOTHER CAPSIZED
SOME of the most thrilling incidents connected with the rescue of the Titanic's survivors are told in the following account given by a man trained to the sea, a steward of the rescue ship Carpathia:
"At midnight on Sunday, April 14th, I was promenading the deck of the steamer Carpathia, bound for the Mediterranean and three days out from New York, when an urgent summons came to my room from the chief steward, E. Harry Hughes. I then learned that the White Star liner Titanic, the greatest ship afloat, had struck an iceberg and was in serious difficulties.
"We were then already steaming at our greatest power to the scene of the disaster, Captain Rostron having immediately given orders that every man of the crew should stand by to exert his utmost efforts. Within a very few minutes every preparation had been made to receive two or three thousand persons. Blankets were placed ready, tables laid with hot soups and coffee, bedding, etc., prepared, and hospital supplies laid out ready to attend to any injured.
"The men were then mustered in the saloon and addressed by the chief steward. He told them of the disaster and appealed to them in a few words to show the world what stuff Britishers were made of, and to add a glorious page to the history of the empire; and right well did the men respond to the appeal. Every life-boat was manned and ready to be launched at a moment's notice. Nothing further could be done but anxiously wait and look out for the ship's distress signal.
"Our Marconi operator, whose unceasing efforts for many hours deserve the greatest possible praise, was unable at this time to get any reply to the urgent inquiries he was sending out, and he feared the worst.
"At last a blue flare was observed, to which we replied with a rocket. Day was just dawning when we observed a boat in the distance.
ICEBERG AND FIRST BOAT SIGHTED
"Eastward on the horizon a huge iceberg, the cause of the disaster, majestically reared two noble peaks to heaven. Rope ladders were already lowered and we hove to near the life-boat, which was now approaching us as rapidly as the nearly exhausted efforts of the men at the oars could bring her.
"Under the command of our chief officer, who worked indefatigably at the noble work of rescue, the survivors in
{illust. caption = Above: MAIN STAIRWAY ON TITANIC. TOP E DECK Below: SECOND LANDING. C DECK. GRAND STAIRWAY}
{illust. caption = MRS. JOHN B. THAYER
Mrs. Thayer and her son were....}
{illust. caption = JOHN B. THAYER
Second Vice-President of the...}
the boat were rapidly but carefully hauled aboard and given into the hands of the medical staff under the organization of Dr. McGee.
"We then learned the terrible news that the gigantic vessel, the unsinkable Titanic, had gone down one hour and ten minutes after striking.
"From this time onward life-boats continued to arrive at frequent intervals. Every man of the Carpathia's crew was unsparing in his efforts to assist, to tenderly comfort each and every survivor. In all, sixteen boatloads were receives, containing altogether 720 persons, many in simply their night attire, others in evening dress, as if direct from an after-dinner reception, or concert. Most conspicuous was the coolness and self-possession, particularly of the women.
"Pathetic and heartrending incidents were many. There was not a man of the rescue party who was not moved almost to tears. Women arrived and frantically rushed from one gangway to another eagerly scanning the fresh arrivals in the boats for a lost husband or brother.
A CAPSIZED BOAT
"One boat arrived with the unconscious body of an English colonel. He had been taking out his mother on a visit, to three others of her sons. He had succeeded in getting her away in one of the boats and he himself had found a place in another. When but a few-yards from the ill-fated ship the boat containing his mother capsized before his eyes.
"Immediately he dived into the water and commenced a frantic search for her. But in vain. Boat after boat endeavored to take him aboard, but he refused to give up, continuing to swim for nearly three hours until even his great strength of body and mind gave out and he was hauled unconscious into a passing boat and brought aboard the Carpathia. The doctor gives little hope of his recovery.
"There were, I understand, twelve newly married couples aboard the big ship. The twelve brides have been saved, but of the husbands all but one have perished. That one would not have been here, had he not been urged to assist in manning a life-boat. Think of the self-sacrifice of these eleven heroes, who stood on the doomed vessel and parted from their brides forever, knowing full well that a few brief minutes would end all things for themselves.
"Many similar pathetic incidents could be related. Sad-eyed women roam aimlessly about the ship still looking vainly for husband, brother or father. To comfort them is impossible. All human efforts are being exerted on their behalf. Their material needs are satisfied in every way. But who can cure a broken heart?
SAVED HER POMERANIAN
"One of the earliest boats to arrive was seen to contain a woman tenderly clasping a pet Pomeranian. When assisted to the rope ladder and while the rope was being fastened around her she emphatically refused to give up for a second the dog which was evidently so much to her. He is now receiving as careful and tender attention as his mistress.
"A survivor informs me that there was on the ship a lady who was taking out a huge great Dane dog. When the boats were rapidly filling she appeared on deck with her canine companion and sadly entreated that he should be taken off with her. It was impossible. Human lives, those of women and children, were the first consideration. She was urged to seize the opportunity to save her own life and leave the dog. She refused to desert him and, I understand, sacrificed her life with him.
"One elderly lady was bewailing to a steward that she had lost everything. He indignantly replied that she should thank God her life was spared, never mind her replaceable property. The reply was pathetic:
"'I have lost everything—my husband,' and she broke into uncontrollable grief.
FOUR BOATS ADRIFT HE SAYS
"One incident that impressed me perhaps more than any other was the burial on Tuesday afternoon of four of the poor fellows who succeeded in safely getting away from the doomed vessel only to perish later from exhaustion and exposure as a result of their gallant efforts to bring to safety the passengers placed in their charge in the life-boats. They were:
"W. H. Hoyte, Esq., first class passenger.
"Abraham Hornner, third class passenger.
"S. C. Siebert, steward.
"P. Lyons, sailor.
"The sailor and steward were unfortunately dead when taken aboard. The passengers lived but a few minutes after. They were treated with the greatest attention. The funeral service was conducted amid profound silence and attended by a large number of survivors and rescuers. The bodies, covered by the national flag, were reverently consigned to the mighty deep from which they had been, alas, vainly, saved.
"Most gratifying to the officers and men of the Carpathia is the constantly expressive appreciation of the survivors."
He then told of the meeting of the survivors in the cabin of the Carpathia and of the resolution adopted, a statement of which has already been given in another chapter.
NATIONS PROSTRATE WITH GRIEF—MESSAGES FROM KINGS AND CARDINALS—DISASTER STIRS WORLD TO NECESSITY OF STRICTER REGULATIONS
YOUNG and old, rich and poor were prostrated by the news of the disaster. Even Wall Street was neglected. Nor was the grief confined to America. European nations felt the horror of the calamity and sent expressions of sympathy. President Taft made public cablegrams received from the King and Queen of England, and the King of Belgium, conveying their sympathy to the American people in the sorrows which have followed the Titanic disaster. The President's responses to both messages were also made public.
The following was the cablegram from King George, dated at Sandringham:
"The Queen and I are anxious to assure you and the American nation of the great sorrow which we experienced at the terrible loss of life that has occurred among the American citizens, as well as among my own subjects, by the foundering of the Titanic. Our two countries are so intimately allied by ties of friendship and brotherhood that any 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."
President Taft's reply was as follows:
"In the presence of the appalling disaster to the Titanic the people of the two countries are brought into community of grief through their common bereavement. The American people share in the sorrow of their kinsmen beyond the sea. On behalf of my countrymen I thank you for your sympathetic message.
The message from King Albert of Belgium was as follows:
"I beg Your Excellency to accept my deepest condolences on the occasion of the frightful catastrophe to the Titanic, which has caused such mourning in the American nation."
The President's acknowledgment follows:
"I deeply appreciate your sympathy with my fellow-countrymen who have been stricken with affliction through the disaster to the Titanic."
MESSAGE PROM SPAIN
King Alfonso and Queen Victoria sent the following cablegram to President Taft:
"We have learned with profound grief of the catastrophe to the Titanic, which has plunged the American nation in mourning. We send you our sincerest condolence, and wish to assure you and your nation of the sentiments of friendship and sympathy we feel toward you."
A similar telegram was sent to the King of England.
The many expressions of grief to reach President Taft included one signed jointly by the three American Cardinals, who were in New York attending the meeting of the trustees of the Catholic University. It said:
"TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:
"The archbishops of the country, in joint session with the trustees of the Catholic University of America, beg to offer to the President of the United States their expression of their profound grief at the awful loss of human lives attendant upon the sinking of the steamship Titanic, and at the same time to assure the relatives of the victims of this horrible disaster of our deepest sympathy and condolence.
"They wish also to attest hereby to the hope that the law-makers of the country will see in this sad accident the obvious necessity of legal provisions for greater security of ocean travel.
HOUSE ADJOURNED
Formal tribute to the Titanic's dead was paid by the House of Representatives when it adjourned for twenty-four hours.
The prayer of the Rev. Henry N. Couden in opening the House session was, in part:
"We thank Thee that though in the ordinary circumstances of life selfishness and greed seem to be in the ascendancy, yet in times of distress and peril, then it is that the nobility of soul, the Godlike in man, asserts itself and makes heroes."
The flags on the White House and other Government buildings throughout the country were at half-staff.
ROME MOURNED MAJOR BUTT
A special telegram from Rome stated that one of the victims most regretted was Major Butt, whose jovial, bright character made many friends there. Besides autograph letters from the Pope and Cardinal Merry del VaI{sic?} to President Taft, the major had with him a signed photograph of the Pontiff, given by him personally.
Cardinal Merry del Val had several conversations with Major Butt, who declared that the cardinal was "the first gentleman of Europe." Shortly before he was leaving Rome, regretting that he had not a signed picture of Cardinal Merry del Val, Major Butt entrusted a friend to ask for one. The cardinal willingly put an autograph dedication on a picture, recalling their pleasant intercourse.
LONDON NEWSPAPERS CONDEMN LAXITY OF LAW
British indignation, which is not easily excited, was aroused over the knowledge that an antiquated law enables steamship companies to fail to provide sufficient life-boats to accommodate the passengers and crew of the largest liners in the event of such a disaster as that which occurred to the Titanic. It will be insisted that there be an investigation of the loss of life in the Titanic and that the shortage of boats be gone into thoroughly.
The newspapers commented adversely on the lack of boats and their views were emphasized by the knowledge that no attempt has been made to change the regulations in the face of the fact that the inadequacy of boats in such an emergency was called to the attention of Parliament at the time of the collision between the White Star liner Olympic and the cruiser Hawke. It was pointed out at this time that German vessels, much smaller in size than the Olympic, carried more boats and also that these boats were of greater capacity.
T. W. Moore, Secretary of the Merchant Service Guild, when seen at the guild's rooms in Liverpool, said:
"The Titanic disaster is an example, on a colossal scale, of the pernicious and supine system of officials, as represented by the Board of Trade. Modern liners are so designed that they have no accommodations for more life-boats. Among practical seamen it has long been recognized that the modern passenger ship has nothing like adequate boat capacity.
"The Board of Trade has its own views, and the shipowners also have their views, which are largely based upon the economical factor. The naval architects have their opinions, but the practical merchant seaman is not consulted.
"The Titanic disaster is a complete substantiation of the agitation that our guild has carried on for nearly twenty years against the scheme that has precluded practical seamen from being consulted with regard to boat capacity and life-saving appliances.
HOUSE OF COMMONS INVESTIGATION
Immediate and searching inquiry into the Titanic disaster was promised on the floor of the House of Commons April 18th, by President Sidney Buxton, of the Board of Trade, which controls all sea-going vessels.
Buxton, in discussing the utterly inadequate life-saving equipment of the big liner, declared that the committee of the board in charge of life-saving precautions had recently recommended increased life-boats, rafts and life-preservers on all big ships, but that the requirements had been found unsatisfactory and had not been put in force. He frankly admitted the necessity for increased equipment without delay.
The board, he said, was utterly unable to compel the transatlantic vessels to reduce their speed in the contest for "express train" ships. He also said the board could not force ships to take the southerly passage in the spring to avoid ice.
The regulations under which the Titanic carried life-boat accommodations for only about one-third of her passengers and crew had not been revised by the committee since 1894. At that time the regulations were made for ships of "10,000 tons or more." The Titanic's tonnage was 45,000, for which the present requirements are altogether insufficient.
WORK OF RAISING RELIEF FUNDS PROMPT
Several foreign governments telegraphed to the British Government messages of condolence for the sufferers. The King sent a donation of $2625 to the Mansion House fund. Queen Mary donated $1310 and Queen Alexandra $1000 to the same fund.
Oscar Hammerstein proffered, and the lord mayor accepted, the use of his opera house for an entertainment in aid of the fund.
The Shipping Federation donated $10,500 to the Mayor of Southampton's fund, taking care to explain that the White Star Line was not affiliated with the Federation.
Some public institutions also offered to take care of the orphaned children of the crew.
Large firms contributed liberally to the various relief funds, while Covent Garden and other leading theaters prepared special performances to aid in the relief work.
INDIGNANT GERMANY DEMANDS REFORMS
All Germany as well as England was stunned and grieved by the magnitude of the horror of the Titanic catastrophe. Anglo-German recriminations for the moment ceased, as far as the Fatherland was concerned, and profound and sincere compassion for the nation on whom the blow had fallen more heavily was the supreme note of the hour.
The Kaiser, with his characteristic promptitude, was one of the first to communicate his sympathy by telegraph to King George and to the White Star Line. Admiral Prince Henry of Prussia did likewise, and the first act of the Reichstag, after reassembling on Tuesday, was to pass a standing vote of condolence with the British people in their distress.
GERMAN LAWS ALSO INADEQUATE
The German laws, governing the safety appliances on board trans-oceanic vessels, seem to be as archaic and inadequate as those of the British Board of Trade. The maximum provision contained in the German statutes refers to vessels with the capacity of 50,000 cubic metres, which must carry sixteen life-boats. The law also says that if this number of life-boats be insufficient to accommodate all the persons on board, including the crew, there shall be carried elsewhere in the vessel a correspondingly additional number of collapsible life-boats, suitable rafts, floating deck-chairs and life-buoys, as well as a generous supply of life-belts.
A vessel of 10,000 tons was a "leviathan" in the days when the German law was passed, and it appears to have undergone no change to meet the conditions, imposed by the construction of vessels twice or three times 10,000 tons, like the Hamburg-American Kaiserin Auguste Victoria, or the North German Lloyd George Washington, to say nothing of the 50,000-ton Imperator, which is to be added to the Hamburg fleet next year.
The German lines seem, like the White Star Company, to have reckoned simply with the practical impossibility of a ship like the Titanic succumbing to the elements
PERSONAL ANXIETY
Although Germany's and Berlin's direct interest in the passengers aboard the Titanic was less than that of London, New York or Paris, there was the utmost concern for their fate.
Ambassador Leishman and other members of the American Embassy were particularly interested in hearing about Major "Archie" Butt, who passed through Berlin, less than a month before the disaster, en route from Russia and the Far East. Vice-president John B. Thayer and family, of Philadelphia, were also in Berlin a fortnight ago and were guests of the American Consul General and Mrs. Thackara. A score of other lesser known passengers had recently stayed in Berlin hotels, and it was local friends or kinsmen of theirs who were in a state of distressing unrest over their fate.
Their anxiety was aggravated by the old-fogey methods of the German newspapers, which are invariably twelve or fifteen hours later than journals elsewhere in Europe on world news events. Although New York, London and Paris had the cruel truth with their morning papers on Tuesday, it was not until the middle of the forenoon that "extras" made the facts public in Berlin.
William T. Stead was well and favorably known in Germany, and his fate was keenly and particularly mourned. Germans have also noted that many Americans of direct Teutonic ancestry or origin were among the shining marks in the death list. Colonel John Jacob Astor is claimed as of German, extraction, as well as Isidor Straus, Benjamin Guggenheim, Washington Roebling and Henry B. Harris. All of them had been in Germany frequently and had a wide circle of friends and acquaintances.
Only one well-known resident of Berlin was aboard the Titanic, Frau Antoinette Flegenheim, whose name appears among the rescued.
ILLUSTRIOUS CAREER OF CAPTAIN E. J. SMITH—BRAVE TO THE LAST—MAINTENANCE OF ORDER AND DISCIPLINE—ACTS OF HEROISM—ENGINEERS DIED AT POSTS—NOBLE-HEARTED BAND
IN the anxious hours of uncertainty, when the air cracked and flashed with the story of disaster, there was never doubt in the minds of men ashore about the master of the Titanic. Captain Smith would bring his ship into port if human power could mend the damage the sea had wrought, or if human power could not stay the disaster he would never come to port. There is something Calvinistic about such men of the old-sea breed. They go down with their ships, of their own choice.
Into the last life-boat that was launched from the ship Captain Smith with his own hand lifted a small child into a seat beside its mother. As the gallant, officer performed his simple act of humanity several who were already in the boat tried to force the captain to join them, but he turned away resolutely toward the bridge.
That act was significant. Courteous, kindly, of quiet demeanor and soft words, he was known and loved by thousands of travelers.
When the English firm, A. Gibson & Co.9 of Liverpool, purchased the American clipper, Senator Weber, in 1869, Captain Smith, then a boy, sailed on her. For seven years he was an apprentice on the Senator Weber, leaving that vessel to go to the Lizzie Fennell, a square rigger, as fourth officer. From there he went to the old Celtic of the White Star Line as fourth officer and in 1887 he became captain of that vessel. For a time he was in command of the freighters Cufic and Runic; then he became skipper of the old Adriatic. Subsequently he assumed command of the Celtic, Britannic, Coptic (which was in the Australian trade), Germanic, Baltic, Majestic, Olympic and Titanic, an illustrious list of vessels for one man to have commanded during his career.
It was not easy to get Captain Smith to talk of his experiences. He had grown up in the service, was his comment, and it meant little to him that he had been transferred from a small vessel to a big ship and then to a bigger ship and finally to the biggest of them all.
"One might think that a captain taken from a small ship and put on a big one might feel the transition," he once said. "Not at all. The skippers of the big vessels have grown up to them, year after year, through all these years. First there was the sailing vessel and then what we would now call small ships—they were big in the days gone by—and finally the giants to-day."
{illust. caption = VESSEL WITH BOTTOM OF HULL RIPPED OPEN
A view of the torpedo destroyer Tiger, taken in drydock after her collision with the Portland Breakwater last September; the damage to the Tiger, which is plainly shown in the photograph, is of the same character, though on a smaller scale, as that which was done to the Titanic.}
{illust. caption = A VIEW OF THE OLYMPIC
The sister-ship of the Titanic, showing the damage done to her hull in the collision with British war vessel, Hawke, in the British Channel.}
DISASTER TO OLYMPIC
Only once during all his long years of service was he in trouble, when the Olympic, of which he was in command, was rammed by the British cruiser Hawke in the Solent on September 20, 1911. The Hawke came steaming out of Portsmouth and drew alongside the giantess. According to some of the passengers on the Olympic the Hawke swerved in the direction of the big liner and a moment later the bow of the Hawke was crunching steel plates in the starboard quarter of the Olympic, making a thirty-foot hole in her. She was several months in dry dock.
The result of a naval court inquiry was to put all the blame for the collision on the Olympic. Captain Smith, in his testimony before the naval court, said that he was on the bridge when he saw the Hawke overhauling him. The Olympic began to draw ahead later or the Hawke drop astern, the captain did not know which. Then the cruiser turned very swiftly and struck the Olympic at right angles on the quarter. The pilot gave the signal for the Olympic to port, which was to minimize the force of the collision. The Olympic's engines had been stopped by order of the pilot.
Up to the moment the Hawke swerved, Captain Smith said, he had no anxiety. The pilot, Bowyer, corroborated the testimony of Captain Smith. That the line did not believe Captain Smith was at fault, notwithstanding the verdict of the board of naval inquiry, was shown by his retention as the admiral of the White Star fleet and by his being given the command of the Titanic.
Up to the time of the collision with the Hawke Captain Smith when asked by interviewers to describe his experiences at sea would say one word, "uneventful." Then he would add with a smile and a twinkle of his eyes:
"Of course there have been winter gales and storms and fog and the like in the forty years I have been on the seas, but I have never been in an accident worth speaking of. In all my years at sea (he made this comment a few years ago) I have seen but one vessel in distress. That was a brig the crew of which was taken off in a boat by my third officer. I never saw a wreck. I never have been wrecked. I have never been in a predicament that threatened to end in disaster of any sort."
THE CAPTAIN'S LOVE OF THE SEA
Once the interviewer stopped asking personal questions, Captain Smith would talk of the sea, of his love for it, how its appeal to him as a boy had never died.
"The love of the ocean that took me to sea as a boy has never died." he once said. "When I see a vessel plunging up and down in the trough of the sea, fighting her way through and over great waves, and keeping her keel and going on and on—the wonder of the thing fills me, how she can keep afloat and get safely to port. I have never outgrown the wild grandeur of the sea."
When he was in command of the Adriatic, which was built before the Olympic, Captain Smith said he did not believe a disaster with loss of life could happen to the Adriatic.
"I cannot conceive of any vital disaster happening to the Adriatic," he said. "Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that. There will be bigger boats. The depth of harbors seems to be the great drawback at present. I cannot say, of course, just what the limit will be, but the larger boat will surely come. But speed will not develop with size, so far as merchantmen are concerned.
"The traveling public prefers the large comfortable boat of average speed, and anyway that is the boat that pays. High speed eats up money mile by mile, and extreme high speed is suicidal. There will be high speed boats for use as transports and a wise government will assist steamship companies in paying for them, as the English Government is now doing in the cases of the Lusitania and Mauretania, twenty-five knot boats; but no steamship company will put them out merely as a commercial venture."
Captain Smith believed the Titanic to be unsinkable.
BRAVE TO THE LAST
And though the ship turned out to be sinkable, the captain, by many acts of bravery in the face of death, proved that his courage was equal to any test.
Captain Inman Sealby, commander of the steamer Republic, which was the first vessel to use the wireless telegraph to save her passengers in a collision, spoke highly of the commander of the wrecked Titanic, calling him one of the ablest seamen in the world.
"I am sure that Captain Smith did everything in his power to save his passengers. The disaster is one about which he could have had no warning. Things may happen at sea that give no warning to ships' crews and commanders until the harm comes. I believe from what I read that the Titanic hit an iceberg and glanced off, but that the berg struck her from the bottom and tore a great hole."
Many survivors have mentioned the captain's name and narrated some incident to bring out his courage and helpfulness in the emergency; but it was left to a fireman on board the Titanic to tell the story of his death and to record his last message. This man had gone down with the White Star giantess and was clinging to a piece of wreckage for about half an hour before he finally joined several members of the Titanic's company on the bottom of a boat which was floating about among other wreckage near the Titanic.
Harry Senior, the fireman, with his eight or nine companions in distress, had just managed to get a firm hold in the upturned boat when they saw the Titanic rearing preparatory to her final plunge. At that moment, according to the fireman's story, Captain Smith jumped into the sea from the promenade deck of the Titanic with a little girl clutched in his arms. It took only a few strokes to bring him to the upturned boat, where a dozen hands were stretched out to take the little child from his arms and drag him to a point of safety.
"Captain Smith was dragged onto the upturned boat," said the fireman. "He had a life-buoy and a life-preserver. He clung there for a moment and then he slid off again. For a second time he was dragged from the icy water. Then he took off his life-preserver, tossed the life-buoy on the inky waters, and slipped into the water again with the words: "I will follow the ship."
OTHER FAITHFUL MEN
Nor was the captain the only faithful man on the ship. Of the many stories told by survivors all seem to agree that both officers and crew behaved with the utmost gallantry and that they stuck by the ship nobly to the last.
"Immediately after the Titanic struck the iceberg," said one of the survivors, "the officers were all over the ship reassuring the passengers and calming the more excitable. They said there was no cause for alarm. When everything was quieted they told us we might go back to bed, as the ship was safe. There was no confusion and many returned to their beds.
"We did not know that the ship was in danger until a comparatively short time before she sank. Then we were called on deck and the life-boats were filled and lowered.
"The behavior of the ship's officers at this time was wonderful. There was no panic, no scramble for places in the boats."
Later there was confusion, and according to most of the passengers' narratives, there were more than fifty shots fired upon the deck by officers or others in the effort to maintain the discipline.
FIFTH OFFICER LOWE
A young English woman who requested that her name be omitted told a thrilling story of her experience in one of the collapsible boats which had been manned by eight of the crew from the Titanic. The boat was in command of the fifth officer, H. Lowe, whose actions she described as saving the lives of many people. Before the life-boat was launched he passed along the port deck of the steamer, commanding the people not to jump in the boats, and otherwise restraining them from swamping the craft. When the collapsible was launched Officer Lowe succeeded in putting up a mast and a small sail. He collected the other boats together, in some cases the boats were short of adequate crews, and he directed an exchange by which each was adequately manned. He threw lines connecting the boats together, two by two, and thus all moved together. Later on he went back to the wreck with the crew of one of the boats and succeeded in picking up some of those who had jumped overboard and were swimming about. On his way back to the Carpathia he passed one of the collapsible boats which was on the point of sinking with thirty passengers aboard, most of them in scant night-clothing. They were rescued just in the nick of time.
ENGINEERS DIED AT POSTS
There were brave men below deck, too. "A lot has been printed in the papers about the heroism of the officers," said one survivor, "but little has been said of the bravery of the men below decks. I was told that seventeen enginemen who were drowned side by side got down on their knees on the platform of the engine room and prayed until the water surged up to their necks. Then they stood up, clasped hands so as to form a circle and died together. All of these men helped rake the fires out from ten of the forward boilers after the crash. This delayed the explosion and undoubtedly permitted the ship to remain afloat nearly an hour longer, and thus saved hundreds of lives."
In the list of heroes who went down on the Titanic the names of her engineers will have a high place, for not a single engineer was saved. Many of them, no doubt, could not get to the deck, but they had equally as good a chance as the firemen, sixty-nine of whom were saved.
The supposition of those who manned the Titanic was that the engineers, working below, were the first to know the desperate character of the Titanic's injury. The watch called the others, and from that time until the vessel was ready for her last plunge they were too hard at work to note more than that there was a constant rise of water in the hull, and that the pumps were useless.
It was engineers who kept the lights going, saw to the proper closing of bulkhead doors and kept the stoke hole at work until the uselessness of the task was apparent. Most of them probably died at their post of duty.
The Titanic carried a force of about sixty engineers, and in addition she had at least twenty-five "guarantee" engineers, representatives of Harland and Wolff, the builders, and those who had the contract for the engineering work. This supplementary force was under Archie Frost, the builders' chief engineer, and the regular force was under Chief Engineer William Bell, of the White Star Line.
On the line's ships there is the chief engineer, senior and junior second, senior and junior third, and senior and junior fourth engineers. The men are assigned each to his own task. There are hydraulic, electric, pump and steam packing men, and the "guarantee" engineers, representing the builders and the contractors.
The duty of the "guarantee" engineers is to watch the working of the great engines, and to see that they are tuned up and in working order. They also watch the working of each part of the machinery which had nothing to do with the actual speed of the ship, principally the electric light dynamos and the refrigerating plant.
NOBLE-HEARTED BAND
"But what of the bandsmen? Who were they?"
This question was asked again and again by all who read the story of the Titanic's sinking and of how the brave musicians played to the last, keeping up the courage of those who were obliged to go down with the ship.
Many efforts were made to find out who the men were, but little was made public until the members of the orchestra of the steamship Celtic reached shore for the first time after the disaster. One of their first queries was about the musicians of the Titanic. Their anxiety was greater than that of any New Yorker, for the members of the band of the Celtic knew intimately the musicians of the ill-fated liner.
"Not one of them saved!" cried John S. Carr, 'cellist on the Celtic. "It doesn't seem possible they have all gone.
"We knew most of them well. They were Englishmen, you know—every one of them, I think. Nearly all the steamship companies hire their musicians abroad, and the men interchange between the ships frequently, so we get a chance to know one another pretty well. The musicians for the Titanic were levied from a number of other White Star ships, but most of the men who went down with the Titanic had bunked with us at some time."
"The thing I can't realize is that happy 'Jock' Hume is dead," exclaimed Louis Cross, a player of the bass viol. "He was the merriest, happiest young Scotchman you ever saw. His family have been making musical instruments in Scotland for generations. I heard him say once that they were minstrels in the old days. It is certainly hard to believe that he is not alive and having his fun somewhere in the world."
At least he helped to make the deaths of many less cruel.