Titanic Disaster.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 251, 23 April 1912, Page 5

Titanic Disaster.

EXTRAORDINARY DISCLOSURES. CRIMINAL CARELESSNESS. A SENATORIAL PROTEST. THE LOOKOUT'S WARNING. By C*kl«—PTefw Association—Copyright Received 22, 10.35 p.m. London, April 22. The Olympic has arrived. The officers •tate that they were 500 miles from the Titanic when a wireless message was received through the Celtic. The Olympic's stokers and engineers ..worked like Trojans and forced the for thirteen hours. The tension was relieved temporarily by a wirelesß message stating that all on board the Titanic had been saved, but the Carpathia later informed the Olympic of the truth. The Olympic then resumed her voyage. The Virginia states that she received a wireless message from Cape Race notifying that the Titanic was in danger at { 12.40. She was then ITS miles distant, j The wireless messages ceased at 1.47 a.m. abruptly. Three pearl necklaces the property of survivors, were insured at Lloyd's for [£140,000. It is believed that they were saved. New York, April 22. Wild reports, abetted by excitable, members of Congress, declare that Mr. Ismay was responsible for the wreck. He virtually superseded Captain Smith, and compelled him to take an unusually high northern course and maintain an excessive speed. Referring to Rayner's violent attack on Mr. Ismay, Senator McCumber, in the Senate, protested against the trial, conviction, sentencing and execution of Mr. Ismay without fair and honest consideration. When the feelings of the civilised world desired a victim upon whom to vent its wrath, the Senate should be particularly deliberate. Senator Lodge endorsed Senator McCumber's remarks. Received 22, 11.10 p.m. Whitelev, a first-class steward, who is in the hospital suffering from frozen feet, 6tates that he overheard two of the Titanic's crow's-nest lookouts. One, he said, fifteen minutes before the collision reported to Mr. Murdoch, first officer, on the bridge, that he fancied he saw an iceberg. Twice afterwards the lookouts gave warning. Mr. Murdoek was most indignant. No attention was paid to the warnings. One of the lookouts added, "No wonder that Murdoek shot liimself." Whitelev, while assisting to launch the lifeboats, was caught in a rope as it uncoiled, and was thrown into the sea. A lifebelt kept him afloat till he found an oak wardrobe, which rose to the surface after the Titanic Rank. Two men dropped off exhausted. At daybreak Whitley saw a collapsible raft black with men, all standing. He swam to it. but was not allowed on board, being told "Tt's thirty-one lives against yours!" "T preyed." he said, '"that someone on the raft might die so that I might take his place. Someone did die, and I was allowed aboard." Afterwards those on the raft were transferred to the Titanic's lifeboats. He believes that the lookouts are returning to England by the steamer Lapland. A deck passenger states that Andrews, one of the Titanic's engineers, went below and reported to a group of passengers that the vessel was torn to bits below, but would not sink if the bulkheads held. She was ripped by an underlying peak of ice, which tore many of the forward plates from the bolts. He added that it seemed impossible it could be true, and many of the group smiled. Bride was wheeled to the enquiry room at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, owing to his crippled feet. The press photographers exploded a flashlight. The chairman protested that this was intolerable. Oride stated that he intercepted a message from the California announcing that three l>ergs were in the vicinity. He gave the message to the captain, who acknowledged it. Bride added that the Frankfurt was the first vessel to answer his signals of distress. The •trength of the current showed that the Frankfurt was nearer the Titanic than the Carpathia by twenty minutes. The Frankfurt's operator wirelessed, "What's the matter?" Captain Smith was told of the question, and said, "The fellow's k fool." Phillips wirelessed to the Frankfurt's operator, "You're a fool! Keep out of it." Bride explained that Phillips preferred to reply to the Carpathia, which meanwhile wirelessed that she was hastening towards the Titanic. Lightoller, the second officer, stated that he discussed the nearness of the icebergs with Captain Smith, who did not tell him to slow up. CALLOUS TREATMENT. CONTRADICTORY STATEMENTS. THE RELIEF FUNDS. Received 23, i 12.15 a.m. London, April 22. Thomas McCormick is in the hospital, suffering from wounds on the head. He declared that he jumped when the Titanic was sinking, and got his hands on the gunwale of a lifeboat. The members of the crew struck him on the head and tore his hands loose. After repeated efforts lie swam to another boat and got the same reception. Finally two sisters, named Mary and Kate Murphy, pulled him aboard, despite the crew's efforts. ■Mrs. J. Brown, wife of a Denver mineowner, states that while things were •o informal it was difficult to realise the tragedy Men and women talked and laughed in little groups. "I was looking at the boats," she said, "when two men seized me and threw me in. saying 'You re* going, too.' After tucking the women in, many men went into the ship s restaurant to smoke Knowing ihow cold the water was I took off my lifebelt, because in the event of drowning I did not wish to linger. I then took an oar, which kept me warm, rowing.

We saved many lives. Soon a great , wave came, and I knew the T'tanic was gone. One man began to complain that we had no food or water and no compass. I called to him to be quiet or go overboard. Dawn revealed a wonderful sight. At first it was grey, but then a flood of light and a ball of red fire illuminated forty miles of icebergs." Received 23, 12.30 a.m. London, April 22. The Daily Mail fund has reached £13,000, and the Daily Telegraph fund £0749. The Olympic is shipping sufficient collapsible boats for all aboard. New York, April 22. The steamer MacKav Rennet reports that she recovered sixty-four bodies identifiable, and others unrecognisable. They were buried at sea Bremen, April 22. The captain of the Frankfurt denies Bride's statement. He stal.es that he immediately steamed 140 miles, and arrived on the scene of the wreck at 10.49 a.m. FURTHER DETAILS. LADY GORDON'S STORY. (THE LAST OF THE DOOMED SHIP. "BEDLAM OF SHRIEKS AND CRIES." London, April 21. Lady Duff Gordon's narrative of the Titanic disaster, as it appears in the l)aily News, is as follows: "I was asleep when the crash occurred, but had been previously watching the fields of ice. An officer pointed out one apparently a hundred feet high and several miles long. I was awakened by a long grinding crash, and aroused Cosmo (her husband), and he ran to investigate. He returned and said we had hit a big berg. We adjusted our preservers, and went on deck. There was no excitement. The ship listed slightly, : but nobody dreamed she could sink. 1 There was little alarm even wlien the : officers came running and announcing that the women and children must go to the boats, this being thought an ordinary precaution. Our boat was the twelfth or thirteenth launched, and contained five stokers, two Americans ' named Solomon and Stengel, two sailors, Cosmo and myself, and Miss Frank, who 1 is an English girl. Numbers of men 1 who were standing near joked with us because we were going out on the ocean, saying, 'You'll get your death ' of cold out amid'the ice.' "We cruised around for two hours, ' and suddenly saw the Titanic give a •' curious shiver. There were no lights 1 on the ship, except a few lanterns. We ® heard several pistol shots and a great screaming from the decks. The Titanic's ' stern was lifted in the air with a tre- ' mendous explosion; then another cxplo- * sion, and the whole forward part went under, and the stern rose a hundred feet, like an enormous black finger against the sky. Little figures hung to the point of the finger, and then ( dropped into the water. The screaming | was agonising; I never heard such a f continuous chorus of utter agony. A minute or two later the Titanic's stern slowly disappeared, as though a great ( hand was pushing It gently under the waves.

"As she sank, the screaming of the poor souls aboard seemed to grow louder. We were two hundred yards away, and watched her go down slowly, almost peacefully. For the moment there was an awful silence, then from the water where the Titanic had been arose a bedlam of shrieks and cries of men and women clinging to the wreckage in the icy water. It was at least an hour before the awful chorus of shrieks ceased, gradually dying into a moan of despair. The very last cry was a man's. "My God! my God!" was his monotonous cry, until it fell to a hopeless wail. •

"There was one iceberg, possibly the one the Titanic struck, which seemed to pursue us. The rowers made frantic efforts to get past it. "At last morning came. On one side of us were icefloes and big bergs, while on the other side we were horrified to see a school of tremendous whales. We then caught sight of the Carpathia looming in tlie distance, heading straight for us. We were tdo numb with cold and horror to utter a sound. "There were more than fifty women who had lost their husbands, including fifteen brides. The gloom on the Carpathia wag ghastly. I buried myself in a cabin, and did not come on deck till New York was reached." THE SECOND OFFICER'S STORY. DIED LIKE A GENTLEMAN. HEROIC (POSTAL CLERKS. London, April 21. Mr. Lightoller, the second officer, states that though ice was reported he did not think an additional lookout was necessary. He heard the captain's last command to put the women and children in the boats and lower away. Mr. Lightoller says, "Whenever I saw women I put them aboard, except the stewardesses." Alfred White, an oiler, said it was so black that the iceberg was difficult to see. They ma do coffee after the vessel struck. James Etches, a steward, assisted Mr. Guggenheim and his secretary to get dressed and put lifebelts and sweaters on. He afterwards found them in evening dress, helping the women. Mr. Guggenheim said. "We will go. down like gentlemen. Tell my wife I tried to do my duty." New York, April 21. Survivors state that five postal clerks continued carrying two hundred sacks of registered mails to the upper deck until the last. None were saved. The Titanic's crew, except those subpoenaed. sailed in the Lapland. Interviewed. they state that they had no boat drill during the voyage. When tli# boats were being launched they believed

t th«y saw the lights of fishing ara&oki s five miles away. Some boats rowed t desperately in that direction, but failed . to find them. ) The Hamburg-America and CanadianI Pacific lines have decided to provide lifeboats for all the passengers and crew. The subscriptions in Britain total £IOO,OOO, and in New York £20,000. The steerage passengers included 120 from Marseilles. AN INSOLENT ATTACK. CHEAP NOTORIETY. London, April 21. Ben Tillet, on behalf of the Dock and Wharf Workers' Union, has issued a manifesto protesting that the vicious class antagonism shown in the refusal to permit the third-class passengers to be saved was a disgrace to our common civilisation. Correspondents protest that Ben Till6t% foul insult was made in order to gaift cheap notoriety. SAVED BY SUPERSTITION. New York, April 21. Superstition saved the life of Mrs. Tison, a resident of Vancouver, who was visiting England. Reading in an almanack that a great sea disaster was likely to occur in the middle of April ' she refused to return, although her hus- : band urged her to come aboard the , Titanic. THE SENATE COMMITTEE. ] MR. ISMAY'S EVIDENCE. New York, April 21. , ! The Senate Committee re-examined ] Mr. Ismay. . < The officers of the Titanic gave evi- 1 dence that she followed strictly the ] southernmost track for West bound j steamers. She had encountered no ice < previously to the disaster, and was pro- 5 ceeding with vigilant lookouts at full speed but reduced consumption of coal, and was probably doing 21 or 22 knots. Mr. Lightoller, second officer, stated that when the first boat was lowered the deck was seventy feet above the water, and when the last went it was s only a few feet. c The Committee at first refused to " allow Mr. Ismay or any of the officers j! or crew to return to England. After- l wards it was decided that Mr. Ismay, 6 four of the officers and twelve of the ) * crew should remain. j : Mr. Ismay, interviewed, said: "The,! Committee is brutally unfair. My con-' c science is clear. I took the opportunity to escape when it came, but did not ? seek it." Mr. Ismay has instructed the liners ( of the International Mercantile Marine a Company to be equipped with lifeboats ' and rafts sufficient for all aboard. " MEMORIAL SERVICES. o I London, April 19. t The Lord Mayor, members of the T Cabinet, Sir William Hall-Jones, Am- ° bassadors, shipping representatives, and <, 5000 others attended the memorial ser- i: vices at St. Paul's and '.V TTsman : Catholic services at Westminster Cathe- J dral * In numerous churches and chapels references were made to the disaster. ) The Dead March was played and dumb " peals were rung. s> V New York, April 19. v Hundreds attended Mr. W. T. Stead's h memorial service in the Carnegie Hall. !l Sydney, April 22. 'J Pulpit references were made to the „ Titanic disaster in all the leading o churches. £ ii CAPTAIN AMUNDSEN. By Telegraph—Press Association. -1 Auckland. Yesterday. Captain Amundsen, in terviewed with 0 regard to the Titanic di.-nster, remarked 3 U that one account which said that the 8 berg met with was one mile in length a was surely exaggerated. Most probably s ' a line of bergs was er wintered that " was a mile or so in length. Nor did it seem to him probable that very little of the berg could have been showing n above water. If one could depend upon a the cablegrams, tons of ice had fallen " on the deck, sinking the liner, which was } particularly high out of the water. It £ was exceptionally early in the year to meet icebergs off the coast of Newfound- ?' land. He could only account for their presence if there had been an abnor- ? mally heavy wind in the north for sev- 11 eral weeks previous to the disaster ?' Questioned as to the facilities for ! s ascertaining that icebergs are in a " given vicinity, Captain Amundsen de- 1 clined to say much on th-> point. One a method was to take the temperature £ regularly. One thing was certain, when the .enquiry was concluded it would be- a found that the captain and iiis officers 11 had done their duty (' LIFE-SAVING 'APPLIANCES. ° POSITION ON NEW ZEALAND LINERS. fl C Auckland, April 18. The Titanic disaster lias caused inter- r ' est as to the custom and practice in re- n gard to the provision of boats on ocean- ]i going steamers, and with a view to as- c certaining what the New -Zealand regula- v tions are, the 'Superintendent of Marine *" (Captain Fleming) was seen. He made a a definite statement that no vessels com- 1 ing under the jurisdiction of the New a Zealand Government are allowed to leave t( any port in the Dominion with less than the full provision of life-saving appliances the law allows.

Incoming vessels, Captain Fleming stated, are not inspected here, but would have to be equipped in accordance with the regulations at Home before tliev would be allowed to leave port. The Superintendent of Marine added that in the case of vessels having bulkheads like the Titanic, certain exemptions are allowed by the Board of Trade from the regulations governing the miniber of boats to be carried.

From the representatives of large local shipping companies, reassuring information was gained that no risks are taken as regards safeguarding the lives of those who travel to and from New Zealand in their vessels.

I'ew steamers are adequately provided with boats, in the opinion of' Mr. R. F. Bell, travelling associate of Mr. Havelock Wilson, secretary of the British Seamen's Federation, who was seen on the subject. He said that no doubt shins nowadays are well built, but lie declared that when it comes to the question of the accommodation in boats in ease of possible mishaps, the answer often is that

i 1 such safeguards are unnecessary. For j I the largest vessels to carry a sufficient I I number of boats to take the full comI plement of passengers and crew would ) only entail the reserving of more deck ■ space, said Mr. Bell. The tendency was, , however, to crowd in passenger accommodation on modern vessels to such an extent that there was little space for anything else. So far as the Board of Trade was concerned, he looked upon it as practically useless. As at present constituted, it consists of permanent officials, and he was of the opinion that the survey of ships sometimes went less far than it should go. He thought the question of life-saving appliances should be dealt with by the Advisory Committee of the Board of Trade, and not by the permanent officials on the Board. WOULD THE TITANIC SINK? PRESSURE IN OCEAN DEPTHS. Auckland, April 19. A well-known shipmaster, in conversation with an Auckland reporter, advanced the theory that the Titanic could not have sunk to the ocean bottom If there was, as stated, a depth of water at the spot where she sank of two and a-haif miles. According to calculations, upward pressure of the water at such a depth would be 2.5 tons to the square inch. I When the vessel sank to a point where I the upward pressure and downward pres- [ sure of the water were equal she would, j hp thought, remains stationary, or, what | was more probable, drift with the set of the current till she reached a spot where the downward pressure was sufficient to | counteract the upward pressure to such an extent as to sink her. The captain is of the opinion that it should not be presumed that the Titanic was travelling at a speed of eighteen knots, and attempting to tireak a record, when she struck.. It was quite possible, he said, for the vessel to sustain such damage as to cause her to sink when travelling at a little more than half that speed. Shipmasters were well aware that if a 10,000-ton line swung against a heavily-constructed wharf with only her own weight carrying her, the impact 1 would be sufficient to buckle several plates at the point of impact, so that if 1 a vessel four times her size struck an iceberg while proceeding at only a moderate speed it must be seen that the result would he disastrous. 1 WHITE STAR LINE. 1 GENESIS OF A GREAT FLEET. The White Star flag, which is now so 1 familiar to all who travel, used to fly 1 originally at : the masthead of a fleet of sailing clippers. In 1867 the managing 1 owner of the White Star line retired; 1 Mr. T. TJ. Ismay took over the control, ' and began by introducing iron for the 1 clippers instead of wood. Two years I later a fleet of steamships, specially con- ' structed for the American passenger 1 trade, was ordered to be built. The 1 order was given to the famous Belfast ( firm, (Messrs Harland and Wolff, who ' have built the White Star steamships J ever since. I t

In August of 1870 was launched the first Oecanic, which made the old-fash-ioned folk rub their eyes in surprise and shake their heads in distrust. For the Oceanic threw convention to the winds, and set going an entirely new order of things in the steamship world. Her immense length in proportion to her beam ('42 oft by 42ft) at once attracted attention, and it was also noticed that the old heavy bulwarks were done away with. In this vessel the saloon passengers for the first time in steamship construction were placed amidships, forward of the machinery. An improved type of watertight doors was introduced, oil instead of candles was used for lighting, and revolving arm chairs were used in the saloon instead of forms. The Oceanic was in her time the fastest liner afloat, and attained a speed of 14% knots. She had a tonnage of 3808 gross.

j This initial success was followed up ) by the building of the Britannic and Germanic in 1574. As originally built, the Britannic was fitted with a propeller which could work at different levels, as it was hoped that by lowering it to the level of the keel the racing of the screw in rough weather could be avoided. The arrangement was not a success. These two vessels had each a tonnage of 5000 gross. The .Britannic broke the record of her speed of 16 knots. In 1872 in the Adriatic the company had tried gas lighting, but abandoned it. From 1873 to 1884 the White Star fleet was the fastest on the Atlantic. In that • year, however, came the Cunard liners Etruria and Umbria, with an average ocean speed of 18% knots, and it was not until 1889 that the White Star line regained the blue ribbon with the Teutonic and 'Majestic. The tonnage of these vessels was about 10,000, and. one of the innovations in them was the overlapping twin screws.

The Germans in 189* took up the running with the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, a vessel of 14,000 tons gross, attaining a' mean speed of 22.81 knots. The ship had to run a trial trip across the Atlantic before the company took her from the builders. The British reply to the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse came in size, but not in speed, with the building of a' new Oceanic by the White Star Company in 1809. This vessel was the first to exceed the Great Eastern in length, and is about 13ft longer though 14y 2 ft less in the beam. She has a tonnage of 17,274 gross, a length of 705 ft over all, a beam of GB.4ft, a daught of 32% ft, and an average sea speed of 20 knoto' Two other of the "intermediates" were added to the White Star fleet in 1901 and 1903 respectively. They were the Celtic (20,080 tons gross) and the Cedric (21 034 tons gross), with a speed each of lfi knots,

The Germans retained the blue ribbon for speed until the Lusitania, of the Cunard line, came on the scene, and the White Star line has not since attempted record-breaking times. The company, meantime, pursued its policy of building large vessels of moderate speed. The comparative profitableness of the latter vessels may he gauged from the fact that the Baltic of 1004, with her 24,000 tons and speed of 16% knots, is said to require only m tons of fuel a day, whereas the Majestic of 18& D, with her 10,000 tons and speed of 19 knots, consumes 310 tons of coal.

In 1002 the White Star line was merged in the Morgan Combine, otherwise known as the. International Navigation Company, Ltd., which concern, according to the Investors' Year Book, now holds all the shares in it.

"ICE AHEAD, SIR!" PERILS OP THE BERG. AITALLTXC CATASTROPHE LONG EXPECTED. A sailor who has made some eighty voyages across the Atlantic in some of the fastest steamers, stated in an interview with a Dunedin Star representative:— "Crossing the banks of Newfoundland on a Winter's night the greyhound is no longer within the safer limits of the river, but is rushing on at a high-rate speed through a wild and dangerous latitude with telegraph rung over to 'Stand bv.' She is environed with icebergs, fishingsehooners and perhaps other frequenters of this dangerous region. A strong sou'-woster is blowing, a heavy

sea is running, and a dense fog pervades the scene. The powerful siren is kept blowing at intervals of a minute or

even less. The captain iB on the bridge; and officers stand at each telegraph ready to ring 'Stop' or 'Full Astern' as may be required. Look-outs are mounted in the crow's nest, and also on the bows. With the constant gazing into the fog the eyes become strained and sore, and all sorts of spectral forms rise before the tired vision, until suddenly the real thing appears ahead, and at once, in stentorian tones comes the cry 'lce ahead, sir!' The officer on watch accepts the signal and instantly issues the order 'Hard a port' or 'Starboard' as I his judgment may direct. I "An appalling catastrophe of more or less magnitude has long been expected by the men experienced in the Western Ocean trade. It was a general opinion on common ground that if the companies' eagerness for record-breaking did not cease, disaster was sure to result sooner or later. There has been much rivalry regarding the 'blue riband of the Atlantic.' The sailors often wonder what is the worth of this invisible trophy. Many a sleepless night searfarcrs have had on the same spot where that magnificent product of man's ingenuity, the Titanic, went down with its human freight. In imagination the vast ship can be seen rushing on at a high rate of speed into the impenetrable density in front, the look-out straining his eyes from his post on the bridge, crow's nest, or forecastle head, until his accustomed eye discerns the huge berg. Mechanically he sings out 'Jce ahead!' but too late to avoid the terrible impact.

"One source only of satisfaction presents itself to the appalled understand' ing, that the ship's company, from captain downward, would meet the situation with the cool composure and admirable self-sacrifice of British seamen."

The trip of the Arizona of the Guyon line was recalled. This vessel was travelling through the North Atlantic at a good speed when she collided head on with an iceberg. She rebounded and again struck tlie berg, but the impact, whilst it killed the officer on the bridge, did not sink the ship. Again, in the year 1890, a trip in the Sardinian was called up. This vessel was being carefully navigated through the dangerous seas in the vicinity of Newfoundland The look-out saw masses of ice on either bow, and, contrary to the usual custom, the ship was stopped altogether. She remained "hove to" all night. Next morning a total of twentyeight icebergs could be wen from the ship in all directions. If the vessel had not been stopped disaster would have almost been inevitable.

if the Titanic had struck the berg bow on she would probably be still afloat, as in the case of the Arizona, for instance, and many others that had occurred from time to time. She would probably have rebounded and would have been saved by her bulkheads. It seemett probable that the ice had been reported to the bridge, and that the officer thereon had given the order "hard aport" or "hard a starboard," according to his judgment, but the vessel would be too close to the ice at that time to sweep clear of it. She would thus catch it on either bow and her bilges would be ripped.