HOW THE LINER WENT TO HER DOOM.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12772, 25 May 1912, Page 5

HOW THE LINER WENT TO HER DOOM.

THRILLING NARRATIVE OF THK GREAT TRAGEDY.

THE NIGHT IN THE BOATS

The San Francisco mail has brought to hand American and English newspapers with the full accounts of the Titanic disaster. Among them was' the following fine narrative, written up by the. New York Evening Post, from the stories of the survivors on the Ctirpathia : — The narratives of all the survivors (says the Post) agree on one point,, at least — nobody expected that the ship would sink, no matter how badly she might have been wounded. Tlie shock of the collision with the iceberg was so slight as scarcely to excite the passen-. gers, although it was sufficient to wake up those who were asleep. "It was close to midnight,'' said Moody, the sixth officer, m describing the accident, "and 1. was on the bridge with the second officer, who was m command. Suddenly he shouted, 'Port your helm.' I did so, but it was too late. We struck the submerged portion , of., the berg." -indeed, so' negligent were the passengers concerning the serious nature of I the accident that the men who rushed out of the smoking and card-rooms aftet the collision only -stared "upward .at the mass of ice miring high above them m the starlight with momentary curiosity. What was the use of being worried, they asked themselves. The Titanic, largest steamship afloat or ever |, built, had collided with an iceberg, i Well, so much the worse for the iceberg.

WATER BEGAN TO POUR IN. But m the meantime Captain Smith tuid his officers had become apprised of the fact that their vessel had suffered far more serious damage than would have resulted from a mere head-on collision. • The captain was m the smokingroOm at the time, according to 9110 account, there having seeemed no immediate need for his \ presence on " the bridge 1 ; but tlie watch officer on duty had promptly thrown the switch closing the doors m the collusion bulkheads. Yet, notAvithstanding this, Captain Smith, on reaching the bridge, found that the reports from the engine-room, fire-room and other parts of the bowels of the ship, were somewhat discouraging. The watertight compartments had been sealed, but the ship Avas taking Avater at an alarming rate. The commander went below to make a personal inspection of the damage, meamvhile .'. instructing the Avireless operators to flash the distress signal to the limit of their instrument's capacity. Captain - Smith's personal examination proved still more disquieting. Water avos floAving into th«*. Titanic m enormous quantities. He caused a general alarm ■to be sent through the ship for all passengers to ..come on deck, and went - along the decks m person to reassure them that there was no-need to be frightened. But, as a matter of fact, by this time •Captain Smith knew that practically the whole of. the lower port side and bottom of his /ship had been ripped off by the edge of the berg, over which the Titanic had scraped her .-way. He must have known, too, that,' m the circumstances the largest and strongest ship ever built .stood no more chance than a fishing dory. But, according to all the authentic accounts of eye-witnesses of the tragedy*, he Avas perfectly calm at this stage, *as at all others. He told the passengers; and he his officers to tell them,' that the damage was not serious, and that every effort would be made <to aA ? oid the '£hcbrivenience of .ordering them to the' lifeboats. Perhaps he knew the horrible situation Avhich would be created by recourse to the lifeboats. At any rate, he reassured such of the 'passengers as were dispqsed to be timorous, the.=e being comparatively few m number..

"Women and children first !" That ortler went up and down the Titanic's decks, a« the, >oats\yajh-s.^vhistk. summoned the lifeboats' crews to their stations by the davits. Ofiicers stood at intervals, revolvers ready, to enforce the order and to supervise the distribution of persons, for although women were faA r ored, it Avas not feasible to send only Avdmen m each boat. A Ww men were placed m each small craft, fo ?as •to- provide strong - arms the oars, m addition to the members of the regular crews.- Once, on one of the lower decks m the third-class section, a Avhitefaced steward", crazed with fear, fought his way into a boat, containing Avomen and children, and Avhen he refused to step back, the first officer's pistoj flashed, and 'he tumbled over the side. Again, m the steerage, a mob of men > driven hysterical by the sudden knowledge that all could not be saved, made a, rush for the boats into Avhich some of their women Avere being lowered, and four or five bad to be shot before the ringleaders were\ cowed.

THE REST WERE BRAVE MEN. But these incidents .jeount for little m view of the countless cases of fearlessness and self-sacrifice that abounded elseAvhere. One likes Ub think; -'"above; all else, perhaps, of the. plucky stokers', who stuck to their jobs, way. down ny the depths of the ship, and fed r the fires until the Avater rolled over their \ grates, and the last ,'of. them were swept off the ladders by the inrushing Avaves, There is no end to the list. All of. the time the passengers Avere embarking m the lifeboats, and until within two minutes of the Titanic's end the ships band played m the saloon. And as the lifeboats ' plllled slowly away from her, the last figure they -saw Avas the figure of Captain Smith, standing- erect on the bridge, fulfilling his duty to the very end. These things' blot out the memory, of the few awful incidents .that .might otherwise, mar a glorious page m the story Of the trans-Atlantic travel. As it is, no man need be ashamed- of the end of the Titanic. More than, one man, as the last boats were putting off, stepped back, and gave his place to another weaker than himself. A pity it is these men must be nameless.. The Victoria Cross would not have -been too good tor any of them. WOMEN WHO STOOD BY HUSBANDS. Mrs Strauss was not the only woman Avho refused to leave her husband. Some refused to go,, and were picked up bodily and carried to the rail. It Avas not a time m which men stopped to think of the way of doing things. Certain things had to be done, certain standards maintained, certain rules of life upheld. They did them. They did them Avith cool asurance, as a matter of course, that did much to rob the scene of its tragic side. In fact, all the survivors commented upon the lack of tensity on the Titatiifcs decks. Comparatively, feAv kneAv of the dramatic riioment m the steel-age, or of the pistolling of the steAvard by the first officer — who Averit down Avith the skipper at his post, by the Avay, true Jo ,the principles of the British mercantile marine. The Titanic's enormous size prevented people from keeping track of all that went on.

WHEN BOATS WERE LOWERED. The first iifeboat to leave the ship, after all hope had been abandoned, contained only thirteen persons, s.iryiA'ors said, although it had a. minimum capacity of fifty. This Avas said to have been due to confusion, resulting from heroism on- the part of male passengers, who declined to enter a boat until all the ,vomen had been accommodated. The Titanic at that time' Avas slowly sinking by the port lioav, and the first boat, dropped from that side, had to be got away quickly , m consequence. Notwithstanding the.^precautions taken, however, this boat Avas cither crushed m the surrounding ice or sAvamped when it struck the water, for none of its occupants is known to haA'.e been saved. The last boat to leave the Titanic Avas said] 'to- have been' the one Avhich carried Mr Bruce Ismay to safety, the White Star official assuming, command of the boatl in' the absence of the first" officer of the^ Titanic, avlio remained oh board.

GAVE THEIR COATS TO WOMEN. Strange as it may seem, m view, of the fact that a ' considerable nuriiber or minutes had elapsed since the collision, m^ny of the passengers Avho Avere put m lifeboats had neglected to provide them-

selves with anything like adequate clothing. The women were the chief sufferers'in this way. Some of them had on nothing but night-dresses, covered by light kimonos. Others were little more warmly clad, and the first thing done by the men m the lifeboats was to strip off their outer garments, if they had any, and wrap, them around the women, who needed them most.

As the group of' lifeboats, eighteen m all, crept away from the settling hull of the giant liner, these thinly-clad voyagers we're already beginning to. suffer. They looked at the tremendous hulk of the Titanic, still seemingly safe, for all the sinister list to port, her lights flashing through a myriad of portholes, the steady throb of her engines pulsing over the ice-filled sea,, and above all other noises the plaintively-triumphant music of her band, playing the ship to the. bottom, as it were—^and, perhaps, they thought that they had not been wise to abandon such a. refuge for the insecurity of overcrowded open boats. A few women took up the notes of the hymn the* band was playing, but towards the end of tlie verse they hushed their .-voices. The men who were playing were playing m fullest expectation of realising the sentiment, of the words Avithin the next f e-w seconds. So only the piercing wail of the violins and flutes prevailed iri' the melody.

But even as they looked, it became; apparent that the tragedy was nearing its final stage. Through all her 882 ft. of length a shudder shook the Titanic, and her bow, which had been setting gradually, rolled deeper, with every plunge. On her decks could be seen iittle groups and knots of figures, some motionless and calm, some running hither and thither m obvious excitement and consternation. Presently the shudder ceased, and it looked as if the sea was rising iip along her massives sides. For a moment nobody realised what it meant. Then, a scream went up from the group of lifeboats. The Titanic Avas sinking. Slowly, very sloAvly. almost without any perceptibe regularity, ■ she ' settled farther and farther down, m the water.; The most dramatic moment came when the lights on the lowest deck winked out. Then, one by one, the lights on the other decks were extinguished. It looked as if somebody had thrown off a series of switches, one regulating the lights on each deck.

LEAPED INTO THE WATER. - As she settled the figures on her deck began to leap o\ r erboard. All of tho steerage passengers left aboard had swarmed up from, their quarters to the liigher decks, and Avere mingled Avith the first and second cabin people, who had been unable to find room m the boata. But' many men, and the few women left on board, seemed to face the icy plunge with the stoicism of wonderful courage or despair. At any rate, here and there one saw people standing, even as Captain Smith and first officer, Merdock, stood on the bridge, motionless, with arms folded. One report was that Merdock shot himself just before the ship sank, 'but this could not be authenticated. ' ' ■ „ • The Titanic sank so gradually j that few were able to appreciate the fact that she was going until just before her upper decks Avere aAvash, Avhen she suddenly heaved up her stern, a full sixty feet into the air, according to the onlookers, revealing her- racing propellers and massive rudder, and stood momentarily on her beam ends. Then, Avith a* buckling and grinding of plates and frames, she broke m two iri the middle, part of her stern floating off and remaining on the surface of the water for a feAV instants, Avhile the rest of her enormous hull sank, to the accompaniment of a. series of explosions of her boilers and decks. Inside^Uvo minutes there Avas nothing, to* Bho\y where she had been, save a litter of wreckage and hundreds of bodies.'

TWO BOATS SUCKED DOWN. ' Such boats as Avere not too dangerously overloaded pulled rapidly toward the spot Avhere she had sunk. According to some -.accounts, two boats nearest to her Avere drawn dOAvn by suction. A pumber of- men who had donned life-pre-servers Aveve picked up - by the lifeboats, but most of tlftse who had been obliged to stick by ''the. doomed \ liner were either paralysed by the bitter cold of the water or else drawn down. by the powerful suction of the sinking hull and drowned. FRANTIC AND FROZEN IN BOATS. The two' hours and a half that passed, after the Titanic' sank 'were so many hours of torture to the hundreds huddled m the lifeboats. Besides the yterrible cold, a brisk wind had sprung tip whlbh formed 'a choppy sea, sending the big cajses of floe-ice crunching against the boats' sides, and there Avas the '•added misery of the bodies that y dotted ; the AvhOle expanse" of sea: ' % : 7Z r . : .'■'' Women who had left their husbands with wails of despair became more .and more hysterical as the minutes, passed. Sometimes they had to be forcibly restrained from jumping oA-erboard. Others, on the contrary, persisted m th«. belief that their men folk must be m some boat or perhaps on board one of the fishing smacks, several of which had been sighted, m the vicinity of the disaster. :

In orie boat tAvo women died irony exposure. Soon it became necessary v, to put the Avomen at the oars, not because the men were tired or unwilling ,to •work, but because the physical exercise , r Avas ther'only thing' that could keep their blood circulating and protect them' front tlie 'awful cold that bleAv upon them laden Avith the chill breath' of the scores of icebergs surrounding them. These people knew that wireless calls for assistance- had been sent out before the Titanic sank, but they did not know from Avl^ch direction the aid would | come, nor hoAv long it would be m appearing. They simply toiled and waited, always hoping, always searching the gray peVspective of the early dawn ! for the smoke of a rescue ship. It Avas just about sunrise when the Carpathia appeared on the horizon edge, steaming full speed through the broken field of bergs and ice floes on her errand of mercy. Those who Avere passengers on the Cunarder say they will never forget the scenes of that morning as long as they live. AH had been apprised "of the purpose of their sprint into '{he ice field, and most of 'her company "-Avere on deck, keeping Avatch witchofficers and qi'6av for tho first sign of survivors of 'the disaster. - It Avas still dark Avhen the look-out discerned-sev-eral isolated dots of light m the distance —the lamps hoisted to the tops. of the masts that stood m the bow of each lifeboat. < '

I CtiMINO OF THE CARPATHIA. By 5 o'clock the Carpathia was abreast of the first boat,* and from then until j 8 o'clock she Avas busied m picking up tne eighteen boats which she [ found, i Two of .these boats \vere . bottom up, hoAvever. .One of these Avas 7 that on Avhich a coal-trimmer of the Titanic was discovered, none the worse for his seven hours'^exposure to tjie cold., '-. . , Tho Carpathia's passengers and crew were appalled at Avjiat they saw m the boats that crept up alongside, one after another. . Women clad m filmy night robes and loAv-necked evening dresses Avith sailors' rough pea-jackets thrown over their ' shoulders, pulled at the oars — women Avhose teeth Avere clinched on lips that bled, whos6 , faces were contorted with' agony. Shrieks rose out of these boats teeming with agonised human 'beings; driven half mad by the sufferings of less than- 10 hours. Bodies lay limp across the thwarts. -. ■'■'.- T-he - Carpathia several hours cruising over the scene of the Titanic's sinking, after the 18 lifeboats had been picked --up, hut she saw nothing of the pther > two lifeboats Avhich ■, had been launched, nor did she see anything else save bodies of the drowned. There Avore literally 7 hundreds of these, scattered over a wide 'area of sea, and as the Cunarder steamed across this area, m the centre of. which .the "White Star liner had gone : down, a clergyman among the Carpathia's passengers stood at the rail and read the commitment service for the dead -at-s&i, s6 f that a, .Christian burial might be vouchsafed to the, 1500 Unfortunates Avho had perished..

By this time the Calif orniah of the Leyland line had appeared, arid as the Carpathia Avishedto land ' the Titanic's survivors as soon as 'possible, so that they might receiA r e adequate' medical attention and 5 ' she might continue her interrupted voyage to the : Mediterranean, she signalled tc^ the Calif orniah to take up the more or less perfunctory search, and turned back to New York,