|
The « Titanic » disaster _________ Nearly 1,500 victims
We wanted to doubt. Even after the very alarming dispatch that we published yesterday morning, we still hoped, because the ambiguity, the impression of the news that arrived hourly during Monday night allowed us to have these vain hopes almost until the last minute. Today, this illusion is no longer possible. The Titanic disaster has surpassed in horror the most appalling disasters in maritime history. In the space of a few hours, this magnificent liner, the proud triumph of modern engineering, sank beneath the waves. And in the darkness of the night, as the steamers that had registered the accident hurried on - uselessly, alas! - the steamers that had recorded the wireless telegraphy call, the enormous ship sank. During these all too brief moments of mortal anguish, only a small proportion of the innumerable passengers were able to find a place in the lifeboats. Twelve hundred, fifteen hundred men, perhaps even more, had died on board. No doubt out of necessity, but also out of duty? Shouldn't the salvation of the women and children on board have been ensured first? Could the crew abandon the ship whose loss did not at first appear inevitable? It was the perilous dedication of these men that gave the disaster its tragic magnitude. It is fitting that we should bow our heads before so much grief and salute, along with the victims of this appalling misfortune, so many tearful families on both continents.
*** This is a disaster without precedent in the history of the navy. Sadly, nearly 1,500 people (1,492, according to a dispatch of the evening) died in this terrible disaster! It was on Sunday at ten o'clock in the evening - New York time - and therefore at around two o'clock in the morning - Paris time - that the giant liner and the ice floe met. We know this from the radiograms sent from the Titanic and received at the stations on the coast of the United States, in particular the one at Cape-Race, whose logbook recounts, moment by moment, the phases of the drama that was unfolding at sea: Cape Race, Sunday, 10.25 p.m. - The Titanic was heard making distress signals, which were answered by a number of ships, including the Carpathia, the Baltic, the Caronia and the Olympic. 10.55 p.m: Titanic signalled: ‘We are sinking by the bow’. 11.25 p.m. : Our station establishes a communication with the Virginian, informs her of the Titanic's urgent need for help and gives her position. The Virginian announces that she will proceed immediately to the scene of the disaster. 11 h. 36 in the evening: The Titanic informs the Olympic that she is getting the women into the boats. Midnight 27: The Titanic continues to send distress signals and indicate her position. The Virginian announces that she has received some confused signals which have stopped abruptly. This was the last radiogram sent by Titanic. It is probable that by this time the water had flooded the machinery and prevented the T.S.F. electrical equipment from working. These radiograms had affected various liners sailing in the same area: the Parisian, the Carpathia, the Virginian, the Baltic and the Olympic. Unfortunately, none of them were in the immediate vicinity of the ship in |
|
distress, and when the nearest of them, the Carpathia, arrived at the scene of the disaster at around five o'clock in the morning, she found only flotillas of lifeboats full of shipwrecked crew: she learned from them that at around two o'clock in the morning the Titanic had definitely sunk, taking with her all those who had not found a place in the lifeboats.
The other ships listed above arrived a little later. None of them picked up any shipwrecked crew, and yesterday afternoon the following telegram was sent from New York:
New York, 16th April. The administration of the White Star Line no longer holds out any hope of learning that any passengers other than those currently on board the Carpathia have been rescued.
The rescued passengers How many passengers were rescued? According to the latest information received, their number is estimated at 868 (including 675 passengers and 193 crew members). And as there were a total of 2,360 people on board the Titanic, including passengers and crew, the death toll is a staggering 1,492. According to the evening's dispatches, the latest searches have failed to turn up any shipwrecked persons. Here is the dispatch we received from New York:
New York, 6 April. According to the latest official news, out of 325 first class passengers, 202 were saved, and out of 285 second class passengers, 114 were saved. Most of the 868 rescued were women and children. Understandably, the rule is that women and children must be loaded into the lifeboats first. There were 140 passengers in the first, 109 in the second and around 500 in the third, i.e. 749 women and children. Bearing in mind that the canoes were crewed by sailors, it follows that the canoes must have contained very few male passengers, and indeed a telegram we publish below, which gives an initial list of those rescued, contains almost only the names of women and children. Here is this partial list, as it was telegraphed to Cape Race: Mmes Edward W. Appleton, Rose Abbott, Mlles C. M. Burns, G.M. Burns, D.D. Casselbere, Mmes William Clarke, B. Chibinaco, MMlles E.G. Crossbie, H. E. Crossbie, Jean Hippact, Mmes H. B. Harris, Alex, Halverson, Mlle Margaret Hayes, M. Bruce Ismay, M. et Mme Ed. Kimberley, M.an F. A. Kenyman (ou Kenyon), M. Emile Kenchen, Mlle G. R. Longley, Mme A. F. Leader, Mlle Bertha Lavory, Mmes Ernest Linnes, Susan P. Ryerson, Mlle Emily B. Ryerson, Mmes Arthur Ryerson, John Jacob Astor, le jeune Allison et sa nourrice, Mlle Andrews, Mlle Mannette Panhart, Mlle E. W. Allen, Mme F. M. Warner, Mlle Helen Wilson, Mlle Villard, Mlle Mary Wicks, Mme George D. Widener et sa femme de chambre, Mme J. Stewart, Mlle Mary C. Lines, Mme Sigfrid Lindstroam, M. Gustave J. Lesneur, Mlle Georgietta Amadill, Mme Melicard, Mme Tucker et sa femme de chambre, M. et Mme Thayer junior, M. H. Woolner, Mlle Annie Ward, Mme J. Stuart White, Mme Mary Young, Mme Thomas Potter, Mme Edna S. Roberts, la comtesse de Rothes, M. C. Rolmane, M. et Mme D. H. Bailey, M. H. Blank, Mlle A; Barsina, Mme James Baxter, Mme George A. Bayton, Mlle C. Connel, M. et Mme J. M. Brown, Mlle G. C. Bowen, M. et Mme R. L. Beckwith, M. et Mme L. Henry, Mme W. A. Hooper, M. Mile, M. J. Flynn, Mlle Alice Fortune, Mme Robert Douglas, Mlle Hilda Slayter, M. H. Smith, Mme Brahan, Mlle Lucile Carter, M. William Carter, Mlle Roberts, Mlle Cummings, Mlle Minahan, Mme N. Rothschild, Mrs George Rheims. Among the men rescued were Mr Bruce Ismay, one of the owners of the White Star Line, Mr Simonius, President of the Swiss Bankverein, and Mr J.B. Hayes, President of the Pensylvania Railroad. Others include: Sir Cosma E. Duff Gordon and Lady Duff Gordon and Mr K. H. Behr, the famous tennis player.
The victims Mr W. T. Stead and Major Butt, Mr Taft's aide-de-camp, are feared drowned. William Thomas Stead is one of the best-known publicists in England and the United States. He is editor of the famous Review of Reviews, which he founded in 1890, just as he founded the American Review of Reviews in 1892. He is a bold and advanced thinker. In 1885 he published a violent pamphlet entitled: Maiden tribune of modern Babylon, for which he was imprisoned for three months. After his visit to the Tsar in 1898, he preached the crusade for peace and, in 1899, published a work on the United States of Europe. He was also responsible for studies on the labour movement, such as The Labour War in the United States (1894). Mr. Stead had been a frequent contributor in recent years to a number of radical London newspapers, notably the Daily Chronicle. It was to him, a year and a half ago, that we owe an interview with Gladstone's spirit, which caused quite a stir in England. Mr Stead is sixty-three years old. Colonel Astor is dead, but Mrs Astor is safe. |
|
Colonel John Jacob Astor was born on 13 July 1864. He was the grandson of the famous founder of the Astor dynasty, after whom he was named. After studying at Harvard University, John Jacob Astor specialised in the construction of palace hotels: the Waldorff Astoria, the Saint-Regis and the Knickerbocker. He was appointed Inspector General of Volunteers after donating a complete battery of artillery to the United States government at the time of the Spanish Civil War. He took part in the Cuban War, was at the siege of Santiago-de-Cuba and was delegated by Major General Shaffter to communicate the official terms of the capitulation of this place to the Ministry of War. Colonel Astor married Miss William Willing in 1891 and divorced her in 1910. Last year he remarried a twenty-year-old girl, to whom he gave a dowry of 50 million. This marriage of a man in his fifties to a girl in her twenties caused quite a stir in American society, and it will be remembered that a campaign was waged to prevent the religious blessing which a clergyman nevertheless gave, in return for 5,000 francs “for his poor”. Colonel Astor left America immediately with his young bride, returning, as we have said, from his wedding trip to Egypt and the Levant. A number of American dignitaries were reported to have been on board the Titanic, including Mr Bacon, the American ambassador in Paris, and Mr Alfred Vanderbilt. We learn that Mr Bacon changed his mind at the last minute and that he will be boarding the France, which is due to leave Le Havre on 20 April. As for. Mr. Alfred Vanderbilt, he has telegraphed his mother that he is safely in England.
The captain of the Titanic Captain Smith, who commanded the Titanic, and who would have died the last man on board, probably with all his officers, was in command of the Olympic when that liner collided with the cruiser Hawke in the waters off the Isle of Wight last September. He was sixty years old and had been in the service of the White Star Line for thirty-eight years. Born in Staffordshire, Captain Smith had learned his perilous seafaring trade in the Liverpool shipbuilding firm of Gibson and Co. Since 1887, he had been in the service of the White Star Line, which had successively entrusted him with command of its finest ships, the Republic, the Britannia, the Majestic, which he commanded for nine years, the Baltic and the Adriatic. His vast experience of navigation led to his appointment as a member of the Merchant Navy Council.
The latest research During the night, our New York correspondent telegraphs us:
New York, 16th April. « In spite of the instructions given by the Leyland Company, by wireless telegraph, to the captain of the Californian to remain at the scene of the disaster and to give all possible assistance until he is relieved or until he runs out of coal, all hope has been abandoned of finding any other passengers alive or sailors from the Titanic than those carried by the Carpathia. « This afternoon, all the steamers cruising in the vicinity of the disaster resumed their journey. And it was telegraphed from Halifax that the Parisian saw neither raft nor corpse among the wrecks floating over a vast expanse. According to a radiogram from this steamer, it was very cold and, even if people had taken refuge on the wrecks, they would have frozen to death before they could be rescued. « The Parisian is expected in Halifax shortly. « As for the Carpathia, according to dispatches from her captain, she is making slow progress with the survivors through a sea strewn with icebergs and ice floes thirty kilometres wide. It will arrive in New York on Thursday afternoon. The customs authorities have ordered a waiver of the disembarkation regulations. Finally, the cable-carrying vessel Minia announced to Halifax, in a radiotelegram received at Sable Island this afternoon, that she had sighted a large mass of wreckage, but no longboat or raft from the Titanic. Thus disappears the last remaining hope that the Minia, anchored in sight of Cape Race when the Titanic sent her first S.O.S., might have picked up some of the shipwrecked there.
Impression in London
(FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT /INDIVIDUAL)
London, 16th April. The dreadful Catastrophe of the Titanic is causing deep consternation in London. The news was so reassuring last night that the dispatches published this morning by the newspapers have produced a thunderbolt. There is hardly a person in English society who has not had either a relative or a friend on board the Titanic. This disaster, beyond anything imaginable, is certain to deal a further blow to London's “season”, already so compromised by the miners' strike. American high finance is in mourning, and many London salons will remain closed this summer. Since early this morning the White Star offices in Cockspur Street have been besieged by a crowd of frantic friends and relatives who have rushed to get the news. Most of the major shipping companies in Cockspur and Pall Mall flew their flags at half-mast. The city of Southampton has been the hardest hit by the disaster. Almost all the members of the crew, about nine hundred men, live in this port, and there will be few families, in the middle classes as well as the common people, who will not have to mourn the death of a relative or a friend. Mr. Asquith, speaking in the House of Commons this afternoon, expressed, on behalf of Parliament, his great admiration for the way in which everything had been done on board the Titanic in accordance with the highest traditions of the English navy. And he added a few moving words, expressing the deep sympathy of Parliament and the nation for the victims of the disaster. Expressions of sympathy came from all over the world. King George, Queen Mary, Queen Alexandra, the Emperor of Germany and Prince Henry of Prussia have all sent messages of condolence. Although it is said that the only survivors of the disaster are on board the Carpathia, there is hope that there are others on board some of the other ships. The exact circumstances of the disaster are still unknown - J. COUDURIER.
Condolences from the Reichstag
Berlin, 16th April. At the sitting of the Reichstag, the President, M. Kaempf, expressed in a few warm words the emotion caused in Germany by the news of the sinking of the Titanic, which affects above all the English people. The President's words were listened to standing by the members of the Reichstag.
An alarm on board the « Niagara » A similar disaster almost occurred on board a French liner. A telegraph was sent from New York: « The French transatlantic liner Niagara has arrived. « He reported that on Wednesday night, almost at the point where the Titanic sank, the Niagara hit an ice bank. The impact was so violent that the captain immediately sent the distress message S. O. S. over the radio. « The fog was intense at the time. The transatlantic was travelling at a reduced speed, and had been skimming over small icicles for some time, when a very violent impact occurred, throwing the passengers seated at dinner and the clerks on board, in a mishmash of glasses and plates, onto the wooden floor. « The passengers, in great alarm, rushed en masse to the deck. « The captain quickly inspected the ship, then sent a new radiogram by wireless telegraph, saying that she could continue to sail to New York under her own power.
Precautionary measures The North Atlantic Navigation Companies have decided, in view of the break-up which, this year, is of a strength and earliness quite unaccustomed to, to choose from now on, for the voyage to North America, the more southerly route followed during the summer season.
Icebergs Sir Ernest Shackleton, the famous English navigator, interviewed by the Daily Mail, gave these details about icebergs and their dangers: "Icebergs are formed by masses of ice that come from glaciers on land and break off from them at the point where they emerge into the sea, when in the spring there is a break in the front of these glaciers. The danger zone is formed not only by icebergs, but also by the ice banks that descend southwards, until they melt on contact with the gulf stream. « As for the way to prevent icebergs from colliding with each other, it consists of measuring the temperature of the sea water every half hour. It should also be noted that, in general, when a ship approaches one of these masses of ice, it sails in a special kind of fog, caused by the difference between the respective temperatures of the water and the atmosphere. If the iceberg is in the wind at the same time as the ship, the latter has a very perceptible sensation of cold air; otherwise, it is very difficult to tell whether the ship is close to the dangerous obstacle or far from it. « The loss of a large number of ships, which has never been heard of and whose disappearance predates the use of wireless telegraphy, must be attributed to icebergs. « This year has been quite abnormal as far as the descent of the ice to the south is concerned, and in fog, even if you take the precaution of reading the water temperature every half hour, the iceberg can suddenly appear across the route followed by the ships. « The most dangerous thing is not the big iceberg that towers above the waves, but the iceberg that is almost submerged. This is what happens when one of these floating mountains finds itself in a current with a temperature a few degrees above zero. And when it's a ship going at high speed, the impact with these huge submerged blocks is as formidable as if it were a reef. « Most of the time, icebergs from Arctic regions are barely a seventh of their thickness above the surface of the water."
Maritime disasters The sinking of the Titanic is the deadliest of all maritime disasters. Here is a list of the major shipwrecks that have occurred since 1895: 1895 Elbe, German liner, 401 victims. 1896 Saller, German steamer, 280. 1896 Drummond-Castle, English steamer, 250. 1898 La-Bourgogne, French liner, 500. 1903 Le-Liban, French liner, 117. 1904 Gironde and Ange-Shiaffino, French liners, 106. 1905 Hilda, English liner, 128. 19J6 Sirio, Spanish liner, 200. 1907 Poitou, French liner, 58. 1908 Larache, Spanish steamer, 85. 1909 La-Seyne, French liner, 101. 1909 Two Japanese steamers, 700. 1910 Général-Chanzy, French liner, 156. 1910 Lima, English liner, 130. Two of these disasters have left poignant memories: that of the Bourgogne and that of the Général-Chanzy. On 4 July 1898, at five o'clock in the morning, the Bourgogne was struck by a large iron sailing ship, the Cromartyshire, which had not seen the liner because of thick fog, and drove its starboard jib bowsprit into her side, leaving a giant wound. Some of the boats were lowered into the sea; they were stormed and people even cut each other's throats to secure a place on board. There were horrific scenes. The ship's struggle against the invading waves lasted forty minutes. Only 267 people survived, including a single woman. As for the officers, they had done their duty and died at their posts. The sinking of the Général-Chanzy is more recent. Surprised by a storm on the night of 9 to 10 February 1910, it was driven by the waves against a rocky headland on the island of Menorca in the Balearic Islands. Only one of the 85 passengers and 69 crew managed to save themselves.
_______
LAST MINUTE In the last hour, a large number of rather confused and contradictory telegrams still arrive. Here are the most interesting ones:
Washington, 6 April. M. Taft sends the fast cruiser-aviso Salen, to go immediately to meet the Carpathia. The Salen is equipped with a very powerful wireless telegraphy installation, having a radius of one thousand miles. He was ordered to fax the full list of survivors to Mr. Taft.
Frankfurt, 16 April. A Antwerp dispatch says that a large part of the quantities of diamonds on board the Titanic belonged to Antwerp traders. The goods were insured by Lloyd’s of London. Several diamond dealers from Antwerp were passengers on the Titanic. There is still no news of them. A dispatch from Leipzig says that it was to be on the Titanic for 3 million marks of furs, coming from large auctions operated in London.
Le Havre, 16 April. We have just learned that Mr. Omont, a cotton broker from our city, left on Wednesday by car to go to Cherbourg. In this port, he took a first-class ticket for his passage on board the Titanic, bound for New York. It is feared that Mr. Omont may be among the victims, as his brother, a doctor of medicine in Le Havre, has not received any news from him. |