Voices from the Titanic (36 page)

It is generally believed that the two missing liners of the sixties, the
City of Washington
and the
City of Boston
, which disappeared with all hands, were lost by collision with icebergs.

(
Nottingham Evening News
, 16 April 1912)

That all the 800 steerage passengers of the
Titanic
went down with the liner after the collision with the iceberg was feared at first. While fortunes were spent by relatives of wealthy surviving and missing passengers for news incoming by wireless, there was no money to facilitate the obtaining of tiding anent the third-class passengers.

In the pitiful crowd of sad-faced men and women who remained on the pavement outside of the White Star offices were many who will not know the fate of relatives and friends for several days. The penalty of poverty will keep thousands in ignorance until the ships that searched for survivors over the
Titanic
's grave have made some port. For the names of steerage passengers are not being forwarded by wireless.

(
New York Call
, 17 April 1912)

Details of the great ocean disaster are still lacking, but it seems clear that only some 868 persons were saved when the
Titanic
foundered in the early hours of Monday morning after collision with an iceberg.

The following message from the King was received last night by the White Star Company:

Queen Alexandra telegraphed: ‘It is with feelings of the deepest sorrow that I hear of the terrible disaster to the
Titanic
and of the awful loss of life. My heart is full of grief and sympathy for the bereaved families of those who have perished.'

All the circumstances combine to invest the loss of the mammoth liner with the sense of supreme tragedy.

She was on her maiden voyage; she was the last word in mechanical skill and daring as applied to shipbuilding; she was, it was fondly thought, all but danger-proof.

The floating township of more than 2300 souls left the Old World amid rejoicings; the New World was awaiting to welcome her.

And then, after four brief days, when the voyage should have been nearing its triumphal end, came the wireless cry out of the night. The great steamer had struck an iceberg and was in deadly peril.

Even then the belief in her power to reach port, crippled but not vanquished, was slow to die. Throughout Monday the world listened for the wireless messages that came from over the Atlantic. They were sadly conflicting, but they did not wholly extinguish the hope that the
Titanic
's first voyage would not be her last. And they did suggest that the greater number of the passengers and crew would be safe.

Then, just after midnight yesterday, came the dread news that the
Titanic
had sunk. At first it was reported that the vessel had gone down without loss of life, but soon the extent of the disaster began to be revealed.

In special editions of the
Daily Graphic
the terrible story was briefly told. At that time the loss of life was thought to be some 1600, the number of the saved being returned as 675.

Now there is reason to hope that almost 200 more have been rescued by the Cunarder
Carpathia
, which reached the scene of the foundering some hours after it took place and picked the survivors up from the lifeboats to which they had committed themselves.

Beyond this there is nothing to minimize the remorseless extent of the disaster. Among the 1400 victims are believed to be scores of those whose names are familiar on both sides of the Atlantic – men such as the veteran journalist Mr W. T. Stead.

But in a disaster which overtakes the Anglo-Saxon race it is the men who wait behind to die, and the race will for long be proud to remember that it was the women and children on the
Titanic
who were saved, while the men went down with her. Of 248 names of the saved which have been reported only 79 are those of men.

Of the many liners that raced to the
Titanic
's rescue the
Carpathia
was the only one, as far as is known, to be rewarded by the rescue of survivors. She is steaming to New York, and by President Taft's orders is to be met by a fast United States scout cruiser which, equipped with a powerful wireless installation, will transmit to the American Government the full list of the saved.

It was at first thought that liners like the
Virginian
and the
Parisian
might have survivors on board. This hope, however, is now abandoned, and to the
Carpathia
, and the
Carpathia
alone, the anxious eyes of friends and relatives are turning.

(
Daily Graphic
, 17 April 1912)

Southampton is a stricken town. More than 700 of the
Titanic's
crew were Southampton men, and there is scarcely a street in the town which has not given toll.

Eager crowds last night besieged the White Star offices, and anxiously packed Canute Road. They went home at midnight happy in the belief that the report, ‘All saved' was correct.

But this morning brought a terrible awakening, and wives, mothers, sisters and sweethearts thronged the road outside the company's office from eight o'clock, and diminished and grew again throughout the whole of the day.

The message which was posted up soon after midday that 200 of the crew were on the
Carpathia
brought a gleam of hope, but with it a terrible nerve-racking suspense.

I stood by one woman for a few moments this afternoon. She had brought a sympathetic neighbour with her.

‘Bill's sure to be all right, ain't he?' she suggested pathetically to her friend. ‘He was always one of the lucky ones; look how he got out before.' The friend agreed eagerly.

The next moment a clerk made his appearance for a moment on the office steps. The crowd surged towards him with one tumultuous impulse, and fifty voices pleaded for news.

The boy looked abashed. ‘We haven't any,' he said slowly and sorrowfully. ‘As soon as we have we'll tell you.'

From time to time women with dragging steps and backward glances detached themselves from the crowd and went home to get tea for the children or – forlorn hope! – to see if by chance there were a telegram; for every wife knows that the company will not keep her in suspense a moment longer than can be helped.

At six o'clock a notice was posted on the west gate of the docks. Two constables stood guard by the few words upon a piece of foolscap telling that the names of the survivors among the crew would be posted there as soon as they were received. They would be received by wireless, and there might be delay, ran the words significantly; but from then onwards an ever-swelling crowd clustered about the gates and spread over the green.

The two stalwart Hampshire policemen were full of patience and tact. To every inquiry throughout the long evening (and they came at the rate of about ten to every sixty seconds) they replied kindly and sympathetically. They reiterated the same sad story, ‘No news.'

One woman stood dry-eyed and haggard for hours. A baby was in her arms; two mites clung to her skirts. The children grew fretful, and wanted supper and bed. She soothed them in a whisper, and when at last the baby awoke with a whimper she fed it. It was like waiting at a pit mouth after some terrible mine disaster.

As I left to write this I heard a girl sobbingly say, ‘And they were so proud to be on
Titanic
too.' It is the greatest tragedy Southampton has ever known.

(
Daily Graphic
, 17 April 1912)

No element of tragedy seems to have failed to contribute its share to the overwhelming catastrophe of the
Titanic
. Not the least bitter aspect of this, perhaps, the greatest disaster in the grim record of the sea, was the confident news of the safety of every soul involved that came immediately with the announcement of the wreck and prevailed, and continued, indeed, to be strengthened, for many hours thereafter. In our earlier issues of yesterday there was every reason to believe with a great thankfulness that a mishap, pregnant with dread possibilities, had miraculously been spared loss of life. Most bitterly, and wringing with a dreadful poignancy hearts that had been bound up with relief and gratitude, this confidence has been falsified. The miracle was too great for man's endeavours to encompass. The forces of nature shook themselves free from the chains with which he would bind them, burst in all their power from the limits in which he has sought to confine them, and dealt him a blow that has sent mourning through two nations. His last word in ship construction, equipped with every last device making for safety, or for aid in case of need, met at her maiden issue with the sea a challenge that broke her utterly and took her in toll with over 1200 of the lives she carried.

The magnitude of such a disaster leaves the mind as incapable of expressing the emotions aroused in it as its agencies were powerless to avert the catastrophe. For years we take our eager, heedless way, demanding more and more of life, increasingly impatient of its hindrances to our pleasure and our business, increasingly bold and cunning in overcoming them, and never pausing but to congratulate ourselves upon our triumphs. Every now and then comes some cataclysmic reminder that, if it is not possible to go too far and too fast, it is very possible to congratulate ourselves too well. For a brief moment we are brought to a full stop. We are at such a full stop now; and the lightest among us can scarcely reflect upon its cause without bowed head and thoughts too deep for words. It is in that atmosphere that we trust the relatives of those who have perished may find some solace. They have been called upon to suffer a grief almost unendurable to bear; but at least they suffer it amidst that deepest sympathy which only when we are brought to face the realities of life can be aroused. For us, as for them, moreover, there is heartening thought in one thing that already can be read into the disaster from the facts that have come to light. It is now clear that the rescuing liners did not reach the
Titanic
until too late. It is terribly clear that scenes of most dreadful horror must have taken place in the few hours between her striking and her disappearance. And it is clear, finally, from the fact that women and children form by far the greater majority of the saved, that in this dire emergency the imperilled rose to supreme heights of courage and devotion. Millionaire and steer-age emigrant alike were called upon: alike they have presented us with that most inspiring of all spectacles – the inherent nobility of mankind.

(
Daily Graphic
, 17 April 1912)

On 17 April most daily newspapers published a preliminary list of passengers rescued from the
Titanic
by the
Carpathia
, as sent from New York. The list contained numerous omissions and inaccuracies. For example railroad boss Charles M. Hays was listed as among those saved when it subsequently emerged that he had gone down with the ship. On the other hand, a quantity of passengers not included on this list – and who were therefore presumed lost – emerged safe and well when the
Carpathia
docked in New York. This initial round-up of names made grim reading for many that morning.