The times dispatch. [volume], April 17, 1912, Page 8, Image 8

About The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914

Image provided by: Library of Virginia; Richmond, VA

                
NOTABLE PASSENGERS WHO WERE ON BOARD LOST VESSEL
TOLL ?FtHE DEAD
FELT WORLD OVER
(Continued Kroin First Page.)
With trie lowest ttital and the high?
es-, list of saved, there would bt 1.300
lost, and with highest or both. 1,500.
wit.-, highest of both, 1,500.
But no comparison can lessen the
dreadful story of broken Families, of
partings sadder than the iinaginati in
can grasp, of weak nnd suffering wo?
men wrenched cruelly from dear ones
jWhose life- was n matter of hours
Perhaps it was easier to die than to
I Mrs In that short space of time while
.tlie Titanic staggered in her1 shroud
ipf fog. Her veteran captain, I.. J.
k?mtth, knew the peril that lay ahead
of htm along the westerly track of
.at earn* hip a Other navigators had
'found and avniiled those pallid shapes
in a smother of fog that remain the
'.wnoonoijerab.e enemies of ships Only
a few hours before the Titanic shat?
tered her tremendous bulk; the Ham
.Innrg-Arnei lean liner Amerika wire
leased to the Titanic that there were
two large icel'^r^s a little west and
routh of the place where the White
fitar colossus was finally it, collision!
Thru was on f-unday, and very shortly
after receiving ??te news the Triable
herieif relayed it to a station from
which the hydrographle olflcj heard of
lt.- Aud then. t::r:< seems little rea?
son to doubt, the Tit. nit plunged on?
ward and hurled herself against these,
very bergs.
A Shndorry Hint of Horror.
A afhadowy bin: .f what followed
then has omt from that area of
j waters that are rul?d by I g and frosi
The wireless, modern mlraolo as :t is,
?could r>?* achieve ?. r.i Impossible and
.'snatch toward the Titanic In thna to
leave her people thj greyhounds that
were hundreds of miles away
Cora Ahrad Where Deutln} Points.
The wireless has told of thi bitter
cold in the air, the acebmpanti ion! al?
ways of the Ice paekii that tear
ffrbm Arctic glaciers and fat; soul re?
ward with the currents, 1 ?
warning chill seemed to deflect the
ship from her course, ?he strove ahead
as destiny pointed her and no li
tlpn cf man or Interfere- of Provi?
dence swetved her from n fatal cours<
Her ears, tlie snbmeriied telephones
Slaced on either side of the vessel Just
below the water line to tattle of tlie
proximity of solid objects near or dls
| tunt, gave no warning In time. And]
lit happened swiftly that she went
headlong Into icy derelicts that wore
j more substantial than the work of
j nu n's > hands; such vast bulks of Ice
were to make a mock of human In-1
When the Titanic struck she struck]
j hard. There was something more than!
lit rending and tearing of bow plates,
ja flooding of a few forward compart-j
I incuts'. As the whispering of the
wireless is picked together, the Titanic
must have recoiled from her destroyer
m shattered anil riven ship. So tre-j
mendous an impact would crumple up
tlie very bud plates, shake the mighty
engines from their foundation, open:
up watertight compartments, buckle
plans from end to i nd and start
rivets everywhere It Is likely that;
Water rushed 'Into her hull from all
I side:), for hoi keel must have been In-j
lured by the terrltlc drive on a mass!
as hard as rnek. And that Jar niusli
have |Ucnched the ship's lights by In-i
Jurlng her electrical apparatus. It;
Is known that tlie wireless worked i
weakly when I'hllllns, the Operator,!
set about his desperate task of reach-1
inn out for help, while the women and
I children In the boats rocked off some-l
whore la tho dark, and the men wait.'
cd with Fluking hearts. And the wlre-i
less ceased muttering !n Iosb than two
hours. A flutter or two and it wai
gone.
Not Alarmed 1? j-Slrens.
'Pho blasting shriek of the sirens
had not alarmed tho great company of
the Tltanto, because such steam calls
are an Incident of travel In seas where
fogs roll Mtyfcy undoubtedly had gon.i
to tied, but tue hour. 1:40 A. M, was
hoi too l.iie for the friendly contact
of saloomr and pnioklng rooms. It
was Sunday night, and probably -the
ship's concert had ended, hut there
were many hundreds up and moving
among r>ie pay lights, nnd many no
doubt on derk with their eyes strained
toward the mysterious west where
home lay. And In one Jarring breath- ,
sweeping moment, nil of these, asleep j
or aw.ike, were at the mercy of Chance.
Pew among the. more than 2,000 could j
have a though) of danger. Tho man
Who would have Htond up in the smok?
ing room io say 'that the Titanic was
. jilnerabln or t>.at In a few minutes
two-thirds of her people would 1>e face
t" face with death would have been
considered a fool or a lunatic. No
ship '-ver sailed the <-ens that gave
her passengers more confidence or mor.'
cool security; then, In the >'-'?< of a
cluck, and all was changed.
The extent of that catastrophe
might have been apparent to passen?
gers as wall as officers. Husbands
eought for wives nnd children. Fami?
lies gathered together; .Those who
were asleep hastily caught up their
clothing and rushed on deck. It Is
evident that discipline was preserved.
The belief is that Captain Smith, first
of nil, tried tha switch that oloBOd the
watertight compartments, and then
had the boatswain sound the call to
ciunrters. The officers were assigned
to tho task of filling the boats nnd
getting thorn overboard.
There were boats enough only for
the women and children and a few
of the men. In this respect tho In?
strument of the Titanic was similar
to that of her sister ship, the Olympic.
She carried sixteen lifeboats and four
collapsible boats, which were actually
life rafts. They were supposed to bo
capable of accommodating about 1,100,
but many less than that for the places
on them.
Until the Carpathla arrives Thurs?
day night bearing those who wore torn
away from their loved onos, nobody
may know the dreodfulness of tho
hours that followed. With no other
ship for 2?? miles around there was
nothing to do for the men of tb.9 com,-,.
pany eave to bid farewell to their
wives and families and hope that help
would come before tho Titanic found?
ered.
floats Are JRovred Aivny.
Boats were rowed so far away that
their oocupants couldn't moke out the
Titanic as sho elowly filled. How
long tho occuparjts of the boats waited
before tho Titanic went under is not
known exactly, but Phllllps's messages
indicated that tho boats had been low?
ered almost at once after tho ship
struck. It was at 2:20 A. M. when sho
finally foundered.
It was long after daylight when the
Ounnrdor Carpathia, which was more
than ?00 miles oast of the Titanic
whon she caught the appeal for help,
got to the aceno and found the twenty
boatloads of exhausted, grief-stricken
peoplo. The sea was covered with
wreckage, tho odds and ends wrenched
loose when tho Titanic struck and
floated when she foundered.
It is suppo8od that many clung to
pieces of debris until cold nnd weak?
ness released, their hold." -Apparently,
'.ho Carpathia took aboard the refugees
without great difficulty, and then, af?
ter communicating with the Olym?
pic, since her own wireless apparatus
Tas not powerful enough to carry to
/and, started for this city.
Later on the Allan liner yirtflntani*
the first ship to plok up Phtllips'a cries
I for help, made her appearance. But
the had lost the race against time).
What living- there were had been taken
on board the Carpathla. There wns
nothing for the. Virginian to do but to
/eport to her line oflice at Montreal
and continue eastward to Glasgow with
her malls. The Allan IAno oflice at
Alontreol gave out to-day this report:
"We aro In receipt of a Marconi via
Cape Race from Captain uombeii, of
the Virginian, stating that ho arrived
at the scene of the dlsr.ster too late to
be of service, nnd 1b proceeding on his
voyage to Llvorpool.
"The Parisian reported via Sablo Is?
land that she had no passengers from
tho Tltanlo on board. Tho Parisian
had Just como In touch with the Sable
Island wireless station."
From the wireless messages sent hy
the Pnrlslan, which was westbound for
Montrenl out of Glasgow when she
plckod up .tho Titanic's call on Sun?
day night, much haB been learned as
to ana and weather conditions on Mon?
day.
. Like the Virginian, the Parisian
searched first for tho Titanic, too far
to the northward, acting oh the lo?
cation given by that ship when she
sent out her calls. But tho Titanic,
had crept thirty miles to the south
beforo sbo foundere.dj and l^jva^ Jlftt J
until after n. careful eearch thRt both
ships made their way to the scene of
the disaster.
The Parisian steamed through fields
of heavy leo looking for passengers
from the Titanic. Everywhere a
green Boa churned between masses
from the Arctic. Progress was necoa
sarlly slow. The liner found much
wreckage from tho Tltanla, but ob?
served no bodies. Bho found no life?
boats or rafts, and none of the
Tltanic's company remained, as tho
Parisian's oftlccra had hoped, afloat
on wreckage.
Going on her way after a cireful
search, tho Parisian reported that the
Weather wa cold, and even If there
had boon persons adrift on wreckage
they would In all probability have
perished before they could have been
picked up. The Parisian is due In
Halifax this morning.
The Sable Island cablesnip Mlnla,
by the direction of the Canadian gov?
ernment, put out to* the scene of the
wreck on the chance that she might
bo In time to save life. It was hoped
at first that the Mlnia, which pro?
ceeded from Cape Itaco soon after the
Tltanic's signals reached land, had
tucked up some of tho passengers.
That hope was destroyed to-day when
the cableahlp reported to Halifax that
nothing was to bo seen on the spot
where the Titanic foundered but a
Krent mass of wreckago churning In
the Ice.
To-da messages from the sea picked
up by the Marconi people said that
thunderstorms had swept the area
whore the Titanic went down. Storms
were interfering with the transmission
of messe gefi. '
AJLL PRECAUTIONS TAUEN.
Not Known Whjr Safety Devices Prov?
ed JiirmiHclcut.
Hamburg, Germany,. April 18.?Al?
bert Mauin. managing director of the
Hamburg-American Lino, in reply to
an inquiry, to-day, saidj referring -to
the possibility of incorporating fur?
ther safety devices on largo vessels:
"The great Bhlpplng companies must
try to enlarge and improve upon the
extensive measures of precaution
which they have taken, nnd which, in
their opinion, and In that of the un?
derwriters, nlready give tho highest
possible security. It will bo clear to
any reasonable -man thnt tho size,
speed nnd other qualities of the un?
fortunate Titanic hod nothing to do
with her Iobs. I am further firmly con?
vinced that the voaae.l was fully pro?
vided with all ntbdern safety appll