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YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

THE LOSS OP THE SS. TITANIC

'A

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THE LOSS OF THE
SS. TITANIC
ITS STORY AND ITS LESSONS
BY
LAWRENCE BEESLEY
B. A. (Cantab.)
Scbolu of Gonville and Cains College
ONE OF THE SDBVIVORS

BOSTON AND NEW YOHK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
(Clie Ctiber^ibe ^re^^ Cambritiae
1912

COPYRIOBT, 1912, BY LAWRENCE BEESLEY
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Published June iQis

PKEFACE
The circumstances in which this book came
to be written are as follows. Some five weeks
after the survivors from the Titanic landed in
New York, I was the guest at luncheon of
Hon. Samuel J. Elder and Hon. Charles T.
Gallagher, both well-known lawyers in Bos
ton. After luncheon I was asked to relate
to those present the experiences of the sur
vivors in leaving the Titanic and reaching
the Carpathia.
When I had done so, Mr. Robert Lincoln
O'Brien, the editor of the Boston Herald,
urged me as a matter of public interest to
write a correct history of the Titanic disas
ter, his reason being that he knew several
publications were in preparation by people
who had not been present at the disaster,
but from newspaper accounts were piecing
( V)

PREFACE
together a description of it. He said that
these publications would probably be erron
eous, full of highly coloured details, and gen
erally calculated to disturb public thought on
the matter. He was supported in his request
by all present, and under this general pressure
I accompanied him to Messrs. Houghton
Mifflin Company, where we discussed the
question of publication.
Messrs. Houghton Mifflin Company took
at that time exactly the same view that I
did, that it was probably not advisable to
put on record the incidents connected with
the Titanic's sinking: it seemed better to
forget details as rapidly as possible.
However, we decided to take a few days
to think about it. At our next meeting we
found ourselves in agreement again, — but this
time on the common ground that it would
probably be a wise thing to write a history of
the Titanic disaster as correctly as possible. I
( vi )

PREFACE
was supported in this decision by the fact
that a short account, which I wrote at inter
vals on board the Carpathia, in the hope that
it would calm public opinion by stating the
truth of what happened as nearly as I could
recollect it, appeared in all the American,
English, and Colonial papers and had exactly
the effect it was intended to have. This en
courages me to hope that the effect of this
work will be the same.
Another matter aided me in coming to a
decision, — the duty that we, as survivors
of the disaster, owe to those who went down
with the ship, to see that the reforms so
urgently needed are not allowed to be for
gotten. Whoever reads the account of the cries that
came to us afloat on the sea from those sink
ing in the ice-cold water must remember that
they were addressed to him just as much as to
those who heard them, and that the duty of
( vii )

PREFACE
seeing that reforms are carried out devolves
on every one who knows that such cries were
heard in utter helplessness the night the
Titanic sank.

CONTENTS
I. Construction and Preparations
FOR the First Voyage .... 1
II. From Southampton to the Night
OP the Collision  14
III. The Collision and Embarkation
IN Lifeboats  50
IV. The Sinking of the Titanic, seen
from a Lifeboat  88
V. The Rescue  124
VI. The Sinking of the Titanic, seen
FROM HER Deck  143
VII. The Carpathia's Return to New
York  195
VIIL The Lessons taught by the Loss
OF THE Titanic  228
IX. Some Impressions  281

ILLUSTRATIONS
The Titanic  Frontispiece
From a photograph taken in Belfast Harbour.
Copyrighted by Underwood and Underwood, New
York.
View of Four Decks of the Olympic,
sister ship of the Titanic  20
From a photograph published in the " Sphere," May
4, 1912.
Transverse (amidship) Section through
the Titanic  50
After a drawing fumished by the White Star Line.
Longitudinal Sections and Deck Plan
OF the Titanic  116
After plans published in the "Shipbuilder."
The Carpathia  140
From a photograph furnished by the Cunard Steam
ship Co.

THE
LOSS OF THE SS. TITAOTC
CHAPTER I
CONSTRUCTION AND PBEPAKATIONS FOR THE
FIRST VOYAGE
The history of the R.M.S. Titanic, of the
White Star Line, is one of the most tragically
short it is possible to conceive. The world
had waited expectantly for its launching and
again for its sailing; had read accounts of its
tremendous size and its unexampled complete
ness and luxury; had felt it a matter of the
greatest satisfaction that such a comfortable,
and above all such a safe boat had been de
signed and built — the "unsinkable lifeboat ";
— and then in a moment to hear that it had
gone to the bottom as if it had been the veriest
( 1 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
tramp steamer of a few hundred tons; and
with it fifteen hundred passengers, some of
them known the world over! The improba
bility of such a thing ever happening was
what staggered humanity.
If its history had to be written in a single
paragraph it would be somewhat as follows : —
"The R.M.S. Titanic was built by Messrs.
Harland & Wolff at their well-known ship
building works at Queen's Island, Belfast,
side by side with her sister ship the Olympic.
The twin vessels marked such an increase in
size that specially laid-out joiner and boiler
shops were prepared to aid in their construc
tion, and the space usually taken up by three
building slips was given up to them. The keel
of the Titanic was laid on March 31, 1909, and
she was launched on May 31, 1911; she passed
her trials before the Board of Trade officials
on March 31, 1912, at Belfast, arrived at
Southampton on April 4, and sailed the follow-
( 2 )

PREPARATIONS FOR FIRST VOYAGE
ing Wednesday, April 10, with 2208 passen
gers and crew, on her maiden voyage to New
York. She called at Cherbourg the same
day, Queenstown Thursday, and left for New
York in the afternoon, expecting to arrive the
following Wednesday morning. But the voy
age was never completed. She collided with an
iceberg on Sunday at 11.45 p.m. in Lat. 41°
46' N. and Long. 50° 14' W., and sank two
hours and a half later; 815 of her passengers
and 688 of her crew were drowned and 705
rescued by the Carpathia."!
Such is the record of the Titanic, the largest
ship the world had ever seen — she was three
inches longer than the Olympic and one thou
sand tons more in gross tonnage — and her
end was the greatest maritime disaster known.
The whole civilized world was stirred to its
depths when the full extent of loss of life was
learned, and it has not yet recovered from the
shock. And that is without doubt a good thing,
(3)

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
It should not recover from it until the possi
bility of such a disaster occurring again has
been utterly removed from human society,
whether by separate legislation in different
countries or by international agreement. No
living person should seek to dwell in thought
for one moment on such a disaster except in
the endeavour to glean from it knowledge that
will be of profit to the whole world in the fu-
/ ture. When such knowledge is practically ap
plied in the construction, equipment, and
navigation of passenger steamers — and not
until then — will be the time to cease to think
of the Titanic disaster and of the hundreds of
Nmen and women so needlessly sacrificed.
A few words on the ship's construction and
equipment will be necessary in order to make
clear many points that arise in the course of
this book. A few figures have been added
which it is hoped will help the reader to follow
events more closely than he otherwise could.
( 4 )

PREPARATIONS FOR FIRST VOYAGE
The considerations that inspired the build
ers to design the Titanic on the lines on which
she was constructed were those of speed,
weight of displacement, passenger and cargo
accommodation. High speed is very expensive,
because the initial cost of the necessary power
ful machinery is enormous, the running ex
penses entailed very heavy, and passenger and
cargo accommodation have to be fined down
to make the resistance through the water as
little as possible and to keep the weight down.
An increase in size brings a builder at once
into conflict with the question of dock and
harbour accommodation at the ports she will
touch : if her total displacement is very great
while the lines are kept slender for speed, the
draught limit may be exceeded. The Titanic,
therefore, was built on broader lines than the
ocean racers, increasing the total displace
ment; but because of the broader build, she
was able to keep within the draught limit at
(5 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
each port she visited. At the same time she
was able to accommodate more passengers
and cargo, and thereby increase largely her
earning capacity. A comparison between the
Mauretania and the Titanic illustrates the
difference in these respects : —
Displacement Horse power Speed in knots
Mauretania 44.640 70,000 26
Titanic 60,000 46,000 21
The vessel when completed was 883 feet
long, 92i feet broad; her height from keel to
bridge was 104 feet. She had 8 steel decks, a
cellular double bottom, 5\ feet through (the
inner and outer "skins" so-called), and with
bilge keels projecting 2 feet for 300 feet of her
length amidships. These latter were intended
to lessen the tendency to roll in a sea; they no
doubt did so very well, but, as it happened,
they proved to be a weakness, for this was the
first portion of the ship touched by the iceberg
and it has been suggested that the keels were
( 6 )

PREPARATIONS FOR FIRST VOYAGE
forced inwards by the collision and made the
work of smashing in the two "skins" a more
simple matter. Not that the final result would
have been any different.
Her machinery was an expression of the
latest progress in marine engineering, being a
combination of reciprocating engines with
Parsons's low-pressure turbine engine, — a
combination which gives increased power with
the same steam consumption, an advance on
the use of reciprocating engines alone. The
reciprocating engines drove the wing-propel
lers and the turbine a mid-propeller, making
her a triple-screw vessel. To drive these en
gines she had 29 enormous boilers and 159
furnaces. Three elliptical funnels, 24 feet
6 inches in the widest diameter, took away
smoke and water gases; the fourth one was
a dummy for ventilation.
She was fitted with 16 lifeboats 30 feet long,
swung on davits of the Welin double-acting
(7)

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
type. These davits are specially designed for
dealing with two, and, where necessary, three,
sets of lifeboats, — i.e., 48 altogether; more
than enough to have saved every soul on
board on the night of the collision. She was
divided into 16 compartments by 15 trans
verse watertight bulkheads reaching from the
double bottom to the upper deck in the for
ward end and to the saloon deck in the after
end (Fig. 2), in both cases well above the
water line. Communication between the en
gine rooms and boiler rooms was through
watertight doors, which could all be closed
instantly from the captain's bridge: a single
switch, controlling powerful electro-magnets,
operated them. They could also be closed by
hand with a lever, and in case the floor below
them was flooded by accident, a float under
neath the flooring shut them automatically.
These compartments were so designed that if
the two largest were flooded with water — a
(8)

PREPARATIONS FOR FIRST VOYAGE
most unlikely contingency in the ordinary
way — the ship would still be quite safe. Of
course, more than two were flooded the night
of the collision, but exactly how many is not
yet thoroughly established.
Her crew had a complement of 860, made
up of 475 stewards, cooks, etc., 320 engineers,
and 65 engaged in her navigation.
The machinery and equipment of the
Titanic was the finest obtainable and repre
sented the last word in marine construction.
All her structure was of steel, of a weight, size,
and' thickness greater than that of any ship
yet known: the girders, beams, bulkheads,
and floors all of exceptional strength. It would
hardly seem necessary to mention this, were
it not that there is an impression among a
portion of the general public that the provis
ion of Turkish baths, gymnasiums, and other
so-called luxuries involved a sacrifice of some
more essential things, the absence of which
(9)

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
was responsible for the loss of so many lives.
But this is quite an erroneous impression. All
these things were an additional provision for
the comfort and convenience of passengers,
and there is no more reason why they should
not be provided on these ships than in a large
hotel. There were places on the Titanic's
deck where more boats and rafts could have
been stored without sacrificing these things.
The fault lay in not providing them, not in
designing the ship without places to put them.
On whom the responsibility must rest for
their not being provided is another matter and
must be left until later.
When arranging a tour round the United
States, I had decided to cross in the Titanic
for several reasons — one, that it was rather
a novelty to be on board the largest ship yet
launched, and another that friends who had
crossed in the Olj'mpic described her as a
most comfortable boat in a seaway, and it was
( 10)

PREPARATIONS FOR FIRST VOYAGE
reported that the Titanic had been still fur
ther improved in this respect by having a thou
sand tons more built in to steady her. I went
on board at Southampton at 10 a.m. Wednes
day, April 10, after staying the night in the
town. It is pathetic to recall that as I sat
that morning in the breakfast room of an
hotel, from the windows of which could be
seen the four huge funnels of the Titanic
towering over the roofs of the various shipping
offices opposite, and the procession of stokers
and stewards wending their way to the ship,
there sat behind me three of the Titanic's
passengers discussing the coming voyage and
estimating, among other things, the probabili
ties of an accident at sea to the ship. As I
rose from breakfast, I glanced at the group
and recognized them later on board, but they
were not among the number who answered to
the roll-call on the Carpathia on the following
Monday morning.
(11)

THE LOSS OP THE SS. TITANIC
Between the time of going on board and
sailing, I inspected, in the company of two
friends who had come from Exeter to see me
off, the various decks, dining-saloons and libra
ries; and so extensive were they that it is no
exaggeration to say that it was quite easy to
lose one's way on such a ship. We wandered
casually into the gymnasium on the boat-
deck, and were engaged in bicycle exercise
when the instructor came in with two photo
graphers and insisted on our remaining there
while his friends — as we thought at the time
— made a record for him of his apparatus in
use. It was only later that we discovered that
they were the photographers of one of the il
lustrated London papers. More passengers
came in, and the instructor ran here and there,
looking the very picture of robust, rosy-
cheeked health and "fitness" in his white
flannels, placing one passenger on the electric
"horse," another on the "camel," while the
( 12 )

PREPARATIONS FOR FIRST VOYAGE
laughing group of onlookers watched the inex
perienced riders vigorously shaken up and
down as he controlled the little motor which
made the machines imitate so realistically
horse and camel exercise.
It is related that on the night of the disaster,
right up to the time of the Titanic's sinking,
while the band grouped outside the gymna
sium doors played with such supreme courage
in face of the water which rose foot by foot
before their eyes, the instructor was on duty
inside, with passengers on the bicycles and the
rowing-machines, still assisting and encour
aging to the last. Along with the bandsmen it
is fitting that his name, which I do not think
has yet been put on record — it is McCawley
— should have a place in the honourable list
of those who did their duty faithfully to the
ship and the line they served.

CHAPTER II
FROM SOUTHAMPTON TO THE NIGHT OF THE
COLLISION
SooN after noon the whistles blew for
friends to go ashore, the gangways were with
drawn, and the Titanic moved slowly down
the dock, to the accompaniment of last mes
sages and shouted farewells of those on the
quay. There was no cheering or hooting of
steamers' whistles from the fleet of ships that
lined the dock, as might seem probable on the
occasion of the largest vessel in the world put
ting to sea on her maiden voyage; the whole
scene was quiet and rather ordinary, with
little of the picturesque and interesting cere
monial which imagination paints as usual in
such circumstances. But if this was lacking,
two unexpected dramatic incidents supplied a
thrill of excitement and interest to the depar-
( 14 )

SOUTHAMPTON TO THE COLLISION
ture from dock. The first of these occurred
just before the last gangway was withdrawn:
— a knot of stokers ran along the quay, with
their kit slung over their shoulders in bundles,
and made for the gangway with the evident
intention of joining the ship. But a petty
officer guarding the shore end of the gangway
firmly refused to allow them on board; they
argued, gesticulated, apparently attempting
to explain the reasons why they were late, but
he remained obdurate and waved them back
with a determined hand, the gangway was
dragged back amid their protests, putting a
summary ending to their determined efforts
to join the Titanic. Those stokers must be
thankful men to-day that some circumstance,
whether their own lack of punctuality or some
unforeseen delay over which they had no con
trol, prevented their being in time to run up
that last gangway! They will have told —
and will no doubt tell for years — the story of
( 15 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
how their lives were probably saved by being
too late to join the Titanic.
The second incident occurred soon after
wards, and while it has no doubt been thor
oughly described at the time by those on
shore, perhaps a view of the occurrence from
the deck of the Titanic will not be without
interest. As the Titanic moved majestically
down the dock, the crowd of friends keeping
pace with us along the quay, we came to
gether level with the steamer New York ly
ing moored to the side of the dock along with
the Oceanic, the crowd waving "good-byes"
to those on board as well as they could for the
intervening bulk of the two ships. But as
the bows of our ship came about level with
those of the New York, there came a series of
reports like those of a revolver, and on the
quay side of the New York snaky coils of
thick rope flung themselves high in the air and
fell backwards among the crowd, which re-
( 16)

SOUTHAMPTON TO THE COLLISION
treated in alarm to escape the flying ropes.
We hoped that no one was struck by the
ropes, but a sailor next to me was certain he
saw a woman carried away to receive atten
tion. And then, to our amazement the New
York crept towards us, slowly and stealthily,
as if drawn by some invisible force which she
was powerless to withstand. It reminded me
instantly of an experiment I had shown many
times to a form of boys learning the elements
of physics in a laboratory, in which a small
magnet is made to float on a cork in a bowl of
water and small steel objects placed on neigh
bouring pieces of cork are drawn up to the
floating magnet by magnetic force. It re
minded me, too, of seeing in my little boy's
bath how a large celluloid floating duck would
draw towards itself, by what is called capil
lary attraction, smaller ducks, frogs, beetles,
and other animal folk, until the menagerie
floated about as a unit, oblivious of their na-
( 17)

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
tural antipathies and reminding us of the
"happy families " one sees in cages on the sea
shore. On the New York there was shouting
of orders, sailors running to and fro, paying
out ropes and putting mats over the side
where it seemed likely we should collide; the
tug which had a few moments before cast off
from the bows of the Titanic came up around
our stem and passed to the quay side of the
New York's stern, made fast to her and
started to haul her back with aU the force her
engines were capable of; but it did not seem
that the tug made much impression on the
New York. Apart from the serious nature of
the accident, it made an irresistibly comic pic
ture to see the huge vessel drifting down the
dock with a snorting tug at its heels, for all
the world like a small boy dragging a diminu
tive puppy down the road with its teeth
locked on a piece of rope, its feet splayed out,
its head and body shaking from side to side in
( 18)

SOUTHAMPTON TO THE COLLISION
the effort to get every ounce of its weight
used to the best advantage. At first all ap
pearance showed that the sterns of the two
vessels would collide; but from the stem
bridge of the Titanic an officer directing op
erations stopped us dead, the suction ceased,
and the New York with her tug trailing be
hind moved obliquely down the dock, her
stern gliding along the side of the Titanic
some few yards away. It gave an extraordin
ary impression of the absolute helplessness of
a big liner in the absence of any motive power
to guide her. But all excitement was not yet
over: the New York turned her bows inward
towards the quay, her stern swinging just
clear of and passing in front of our bows,
and moved slowly head on for the Teutonic
lying moored to the side; mats were quickly
got out and so deadened the force of the col
lision, which from where we were seemed to be
too slight to cause any damage. Another tug
( 19)

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
came up and took hold of the New York by
the bows; and between the two of them they
dragged her round the corner of the quay
which just here came to an end on the side of
the river.
We now moved slowly ahead and passed
the Teutonic at a creeping pace, but notwith
standing this, the latter strained at her ropes
so much that she heeled over several degrees
in her efforts to follow the Titanic: the crowd
were shouted back, a group of gold-braided
officials, probably the harbour-master and his
staff, standing on the sea side of the moored
ropes, jumped back over them as they drew up
taut to a rigid line, and urged the crowd back
still farther. But we were just clear, and as
we slowly turned the comer into the river I
saw the Teutonic swing slowly back into her
normal station, relieving the tension alike of
the ropes and of the minds of all who wit
nessed the incident.
(20)

ii J!

POUR DECKS OF OLYMPIC, SISTER SHIP OF TITANIC

SOUTHAMPTON TO THE COLLISION
Unpleasant as this incident was, it was
interesting to all the passengers leaning over
the rails to see the means adopted by the
officers and crew of the various vessels to
avoid collision, to see on the Titanic's docking-
bridge (at the stern) an officer and seamen
telephoning and ringing bells, hauling up and
down little red and white flags, as danger of
collision alternately threatened and dimin
ished. No one was more interested than
a young American kinematograph photo
grapher, who, with his wife, followed the
whole scene with eager eyes, turning the
handle of his camera with the most evident
pleasure as he recorded the unexpected inci
dent on his films. It was obviously quite a
windfall for him to have been on board at
such a time. But neither the film nor those
who exposed it reached the other side, and the
record of the accident from the Titanic's deck
has never been thrown on the screen.
(21 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
As we steamed down the river, the scene
we had just witnessed was the topic of every
conversation: the comparison with the
Olympic-Hawke collision was drawn in every
little group of passengers, and it seemed to
be generally agreed that this would confirm
the suction theory which was so successfully
advanced by the cruiser Hawke in the law
courts, but which many people scoffed at when
the British Admiralty first suggested it as the
explanation of the cruiser ramming the
Olympic. And since this is an attempt to
chronicle facts as they happened on board
the Titanic, it must be recorded that there
were among the passengers and such of the
crew as were heard to speak on the matter,
the direst misgivings at the incident we had
just witnessed. Sailors are proverbially super
stitious; far too many people are prone to
follow their lead, or, indeed, the lead of any
one who asserts a statement with an air of
( 22 )

SOUTHAMPTON TO THE COLLISION
conviction and the opportunity of constant
repetition; the sense of mystery that shrouds
a prophetic utterance, particularly if it be an
ominous one (for so constituted apparently is
the human mind that it will receive the im
press of an evil prophecy far more readily
than it will that of a beneficent one, possibly
through subservient fear to the thing it
dreads, possibly through the degraded, mor
bid attraction which the sense of evil has for
the innate evil in the human mind), leads
many people to pay a certain respect to super
stitious theories. Not that they wholly be
lieve in them or would wish their dearest
friends to know they ever gave them a second
thought; but the feeling that other people do
so and the half conviction that there "may be
something in it, after all," sways them into
tacit obedience to the most absurd and child
ish theories. I wish in a later chapter to dis
cuss the subject of superstition in its refer-
(23 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
ence to our life on board the Titanic, but will
anticipate events here a little by relating a
second so-called "bad omen" which was
hatched at Queenstown. As one of the tend
ers containing passengers and mails neared
the Titanic, some of those on board gazed up
at the liner towering above them, and saw a
stoker's head, black from his work in the
stokehold below, peering out at them from
the top of one of the enormous funnels — a
dummy one for ventilation — that rose many
feet above the highest deck. He had climbed
up inside for a joke, but to some of those who
saw him there the sight was seed for the
growth of an "omen," which bore fruit ia an
unknown dread of dangers to come. An
American lady — may she forgive me if she
reads these lines! — has related to me with
the deepest conviction and earnestness of
manner that she saw the man and attributes
the sinking of the Titanic largely to that.
( 24 )

SOUTHAMPTON TO THE COLLISION
Arrant foolishness, you may say! Yes, in
deed, but not to those who believe in it; and
it is well not to have such prophetic thoughts
of danger passed round among passengers
and crew : it would seem to have an unhealthy
influence. We dropped down Spithead, past the shores
of the Isle of Wight looking superbly beautiful
in new spring foliage, exchanged salutes with
a White Star tug lying-to in wait for one of
their liners inward bound, and saw in the dis
tance several warships with attendant black
destroyers guarding the entrance from the
sea. In the calmest weather we made Cher
bourg just as it grew dusk and left again about
8,30, after taking on board passengers and
mails. We reached Queenstown about 12 noon
on Thursday, after a most enjoyable passage
across the Channel, although the wind was
almost too cold to allow of sitting out on
deck on Thursday morning. (25 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
The coast of Ireland looked very beautiful
as we approached Queenstown Harbour, the
brilliant morning sun showing up the green
hillsides and picking out groups of dwellings
dotted here and there above the rugged grey
cliffs that fringed the coast. We took on
board our pilot, ran slowly towards the har
bour with the sounding-line dropping all the
time, and came to a stop well out to sea, with
our screws churning up the bottom and turn
ing the sea all brown with sand from below.
It had seemed to me that the ship stopped
rather suddenly, and in my ignorance of the
depth of the harbour entrance, that perhaps
the sounding-line had revealed a smaller
depth than was thought safe for the great size
of the Titanic: this seemed to be confirmed
by the sight of sand churned up from the
bottom — but this is mere supposition. Pas
sengers and mails were put on board from two
tenders, and nothing could have given us a
( 26 )

SOUTHAMPTON TO THE COLLISION
better idea of the enormous length and bulk
of the Titanic than to stand as far astern as
possible and look over the side from the top
deck, forwards and downwards to where the
tenders rolled at her bows, the merest cockle
shells beside the majestic vessel that rose deck
after deck above them. Truly she was a mag
nificent boat ! There was something so graceful
in her movement as she rode up and down on
the slight swell in the harbour, a slow, stately
dip and recover, only noticeable by watching
her bows in comparison with some landmark
on the coast in the near distance; the two
little tenders tossing up and down like corks
beside her illustrated vividly the advance
made in comfort of motion from the time of
the small steamer.
Presently the work of transfer was ended,
the tenders cast off, and at 1.30 p.m., with the
screws churning up the sea bottom again, the
Titanic turned slowly through a quarter-
( 27 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
circle until her nose pointed down along the
Irish coast, and then steamed rapidly away
from Queenstown, the little house on the left
of the town gleaming white on the hillside for
many miles astern. In our wake soared and
screamed hundreds of gulls, which had quar
relled and fought over the remnants of lunch
pouring out of the waste pipes as we lay-to in
the harbour entrance; and now they followed
us in the expectation of further spoil. I
watched them for a long time and was aston
ished at the ease with which they soared and
kept up with the ship with hardly a motion of
their wings : picking out a particular gull, I
would keep him under observation for min
utes at a time and see no motion of his wings
downwards or upwards to aid his flight. He
would tilt all of a piece to one side or another
as the gusts of wind caught him: rigidly un-
bendable, as an aeroplane tilts sideways in a
puff of wind. And yet with graceful ease he
( 28 )

SOUTHAMPTON TO THE COLLISION
kept pace with the Titanic forging through
the water at twenty knots: as the wind met
him he would rise upwards and obliquely for
wards, and come down slantingly again, his
wings curved in a beautiful arch and his tail
feathers outspread as a fan. It was plain that
he was possessed of a secret we are only just
beginning to learn — that of utilizing air-cur
rents as escalators up and down which he can
glide at will with the expenditure of the mini
mum amount of energy, or of using them as a
ship does when it sails within one or two
points of a head wind. Aviators, of course,
are imitating the gull, and soon perhaps we
may see an aeroplane or a glider dipping
gracefully up and down in the face of an
opposing wind and all the time forging ahead
across the Atlantic Ocean. The gulls were
still behind us when night fell, and still they
screamed and dipped down into the broad
wake of foam which we left behind; but in the
( 29 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
morning they were gone: perhaps they had
seen in the night a steamer bound for their
Queenstown home and had escorted her back.
All afternoon we steamed along the coast of
Ireland, with grey cliffs guarding the shores,
and hills rising behind gaunt and barren; as
dusk fell, the coast rounded away from us to
the northwest, and the last we saw of Europe
was the Irish mountains dim and faint in the
dropping darkness. With the thought that we
had seen the last of land until we set foot on
the shores of America, I retired to the Ubrary
to write letters, little knowing that many
things would happen to us all — many experi
ences, sudden, vivid and impressive to be
encountered, many perils to be faced, many
good and true people for whom we should
have to mourn — before we saw land again.
There is very little to relate from the time
of leaving Queenstown on Thursday to Sun
day morning. The sea was calm, — so calm,
( 30)

SOUTHAMPTON TO THE COLLISION
indeed, that very few were absent from meals:
the wind westerly and southwesterly, —
"fresh" as the daily chart described it, —
but often rather cold, generally too cold to
sit out on deck to read or write, so that many
of us spent a good part of the time in the li
brary, reading and writing. I wrote a large
number of letters and posted them day by
day in the box outside the library door: pos
sibly they are there yet.
Each morning the sun rose behind us in a
sky of circular clouds, stretching round the
horizon in long, narrow streaks and rising tier
upon tier above the sky-line, red and pink and
fading from pink to white, as the sun rose higher
in the sky. It was a beautiful sight to one who
had not crossed the ocean before (or indeed
been out of sight of the shores of England) to
stand on the top deck and watch the swell of
the sea extending outwards from the ship in an
unbroken circle until it met the sky-line with
(31 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
its hint of infinity : behind, the wake of the ves
sel white with foam where, fancy suggested, the
propeller blades had cut up the long Atlantic
rollers and with them made a level white road
bounded on either side by banks of green,
blue, and blue-green waves that would pre
sently sweep away the white road, though as
yet it stretched back to the horizon and dipped
over the edge of the world back to Ireland
and the gulls, while along it the morning sun
glittered and sparkled. And each night the
sun sank right in our eyes along the sea, mak
ing an undulating glittering pathway, a golden
track charted on the surface of the ocean which
our ship followed unswervingly until the sun
dipped below the edge of the horizon, and the
pathway ran ahead of us faster than we could
steam and slipped over the edge of the sky
line, — as if the sun had been a golden ball
and had wound up its thread of gold too
quickly for us to follow.
( 32)

SOUTHAMPTON TO THE COLLISION
From 12 noon Thursday to 12 noon Friday
we ran 386 miles, Friday to Saturday 519
miles, Saturday to Sunday 546 miles. The
second day's run of 519 miles was, the purser
told us, a disappointment, and we should not
dock until Wednesday morning instead of
Tuesday night, as we had expected; however,
on Sunday we were glad to see a longer run
had been made, and it was thought we should
make New York, after all, on Tuesday night.
The purser remarked: "They are not pushing
her this trip and don't intend to make any fast
running: I don't suppose we shall do more
than 546 now; it is not a bad day's run for the
first trip." This was at lunch, and I remember
the conversation then turned to the speed and
build of Atlantic liners as factors in their
comfort of motion : all those who had crossed
many times were unanimous in saying the
Titanic was the most comfortable boat they
had been on, and they preferred the speed we
(33)

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
were making to that of the faster boats, from
the point of view of lessened vibration as well
as because the faster boats would bore through
the waves with a twisted, screw-like motion
instead of the straight up-and-down swing of
the Titanic. I then called the attention of our
table to the way the Titanic hsted to port (I
had noticed this before), and we all watched
the sky-line through the portholes as we sat
at the purser's table in the saloon : it was plain
she did so, for the sky-line and sea on the
port side were visible most of the time and on
the starboard only sky. The purser remarked
that probably coal had been used mostly from
the starboard side. It is no doubt a common
occurrence for all vessels to list to some degree;
but in view of the fact that the Titanic was
cut open on the starboard side and before she
sank listed so much to port that there was
quite a chasm between her and the swinging
lifeboats, across which ladies had to be thrown
(34 )

SOUTHAMPTON TO THE COLLISION
or to cross on chairs laid flat, the previous
listing to port may be of interest.
Returning for a moment to the motion of
the Titanic, it was interesting to stand on the
boat-deck, as I frequently did, in the angle
between lifeboats 13 and 15 on the starboard
side (two boats I have every reason to remem
ber, for the flrst carried me in safety to the
Carpathia, and it seemed likely at one time
that the other would come down on our heads
as we sat in 13 trying to get away from the
ship's side), and watch the general motion of
the ship through the waves resolve itself into
two motions — one to be observed by con
trasting the docking-bridge, from which the
log-line trailed away behind in the foaming
wake, with the horizon, and observing the
long, slow heave as we rode up and down. I
timed the average period occupied in one
up-and-down vibration, but do not now re
member the figures. The second motion was a
(35)

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
side-to-side roll, and could be calculated by
watching the port rail and contrasting it with
the horizon as before. It seems likely that
this double motion is due to the angle at
which our direction to New York cuts the
general set of the Gulf Stream sweeping from
the Gulf of Mexico across to Europe; but the
almost clock-like regularity of the two vibra
tory movements was what attracted my at
tention: it was while watching the side roll
that I first became aware of the list to port.
Looking down astern from the boat-deck or
from B deck to the steerage quarters, I often
noticed how the third-class passengers were
enjoying every minute of the time: a most
uproarious skipping game of the mixed-double
type was the great favourite, while " in and
out and roundabout " went a Scotchman with
his bagpipes playing something that Gilbert
says "faintly resembled an air." Standing
aloof from all of them, generally on the
(36)

SOUTHAMPTON TO THE COLLISION
raised stern deck above the "playing field,"
was a man of about twenty to twenty-four
years of age, well-dressed, always gloved and
nicely groomed, and obviously quite out of
place among his fellow-passengers: he never
looked happy all the time. I watched him,
and classified him at hazard as the man who
had been a failure in some way at home and
had received the proverbial shilling plus third-
class fare to America: he did not look resolute
enough or happy enough to be working out his
own problem. Another interesting man was
travelling steerage, but had placed his wife
in the second cabin: he would climb the stairs
leading from the steerage to the second deck
and talk affectionately with his wife across the
low gate which separated them. I never saw
him after the collision, but I think his wife
was on the Carpathia. Whether they ever
saw each other on the Sunday night is very
doubtful: he would not at first be allowed on
(37 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
the second-class deck, and if he were, the
chances of seeing his wife in the darkness and
the crowd would be very small, indeed. Of all
those playing so happily on the steerage deck
I did not recognize many afterwards on the
Carpathia. Coming now to Sunday, the day on which
the Titanic struck the iceberg, it will be in
teresting, perhaps, to give the day's events in
some detail, to appreciate the general attitude
of passengers to their surroundings just be
fore the collision. Service was held in the
saloon by the purser in the moming, and going
on deck after lunch we found such a change in
temperature that not many cared to remain
to face the bitter wind — an artificial wind
created mainly, if not entirely, by the ship's
rapid motion through the chilly atmosphere.
I should judge there was no wind blowing at
the time, for I had noticed about the same
force of wind approaching Queenstown, to
( 38)

SOUTHAMPTON TO THE COLLISION
find that it died away as soon as we stopped,
only to rise again as we steamed away from
the harbour.
Returning to the library, I stopped for
a moment to read again the day's run and
observe our position on the chart; the Rev.
Mr. Carter, a clergyman of the Church of Eng
land, was similarly engaged, and we renewed a
conversation we had enjoyed for some days: it
had commenced with a discussion of the re
lative merits of his university — Oxford —
with mine — Cambridge — as world-wide edu
cational agencies, the opportunities at each for
the formation of character apart from mere
education as such, and had led on to the lack
of sufficiently qualified men to take up the
work of the Church of England (a matter ap
parently on which he felt very deeply) and from
that to his own work in England as a priest. He
' " told me some of his parish problems and spoke
of the impossibility of doing half his work in
( 39 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
his Church without the help his wife gave. I
knew her only slightly at that time, but meet
ing her later in the day, I reaUzed something
of what he meant in attributing a large part of
what success he had as a vicar to her. My
only excuse for mentioning these details about
the Carters — now and later in the day — is
that, while they have perhaps not much in
terest for the average reader, they will no
doubt be some comfort to the parish over
which he presided and where I am sure he
was loved. He next mentioned the absence
of a service in the evening and asked if I knew
the purser well enough to request the use of
the saloon in the evening where he would like
to have a "hymn sing-song"; the purser gave
his consent at once, and Mr. Carter made pre
parations during the afternoon by asking all
he knew — and many he did not — to come
to the saloon at 8.30 p.m.
The library was crowded that afternoon,
( 40 )

SOUTHAMPTON TO THE COLLISION
owing to the cold on deck: but through the
windows we could see the clear sky with
brilliant sunlight that seemed to augur a fine
night and a clear day to-morrow, and the pro
spect of landing in two days, with calm weather
all the way to New York, was a matter of
general satisfaction among us all. I can look
back and see every detail of the library that
afternoon — the beautifully furnished room,
with lounges, armchairs, and small writing- or
card-tables scattered about, writing-bureaus
round the walls of the room, and the library
in glass-cased shelves flanking one side, —
the whole flnished in mahogany relieved
with white fluted wooden columns that sup
ported the deck above. Through the windows
there is the covered corridor, reserved by
general consent as the children's playground,
and here are playing the two Navatril child
ren with their father, — devoted to them,
never absent from them. Who would have
( 41 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
thought of the dramatic history of the happy
group at play in the corridor that afternoon!
— the abduction of the children in Nice, the
assumed name, the separation of father and
children in a few hours, his death and their
subsequent union with their mother after a
period of doubt as to their parentage! How
many more similar secrets the Titanic revealed
in the privacy of family life, or carried down
with her untold, we shall never know.
In the same corridor is a man and his wife
with two children, and one of them he is gener
ally carrying: they are all young and happy:
he is dressed always in a grey knickerbocker
suit — with a camera slung over his shoulder.
I have not seen any of them since that after
noon. Close beside me — so near that I cannot
avoid hearing scraps of their conversation
— are two American ladies, both dressed in
white, young, probably friends only: one has
( 42 )

SOUTHAMPTON TO THE COLLISION
been to India and is returning by way of Eng
land, the other is a school-teacher in America,
a graceful girl with a distinguished air height
ened by a pair of pince-nez. Engaged in con
versation with them is a gentleman whom I
subsequently identified from a photograph as
a well-known resident of Cambridge, Massa
chusetts, genial, polished, and with a courtly
air towards the two ladies, whom he has known
but a few hours; from time to time as they
talk, a child acquaintance breaks in on their
conversation and insists on their taking notice
of a large doll clasped in her arms; I have seen
none of this group since then. In the opposite
corner are the young American kinemato
graph photographer and his young wife, evi
dently French, very fond of playing patience,
which she is doing now, while he sits back in
his chair watching the game and interposing
from time to time with suggestions. I did not
see them again. In the middle of the room
(43 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
are two Catholic priests, one quietly reading,
— either English or Irish, and probably the
latter, — the other, dark, bearded, with broad-
brimmed hat, talking earnestly to a friend in
German and evidently explaining some verse
in the open Bible before him; near them a
young fire engineer on his way to Mexico, and
of the same religion as the rest of the group.
None of them were saved. It may be noted
here that the percentage of men saved in the
second-class is the lowest of any other division
— only eight per cent.
Many other faces recur to thought, but it
is impossible to describe them all in the space
of a short book: of all those in the library
that Sunday afternoon, I can remember only
two or three persons who found their way to
the Carpathia. Looking over this room, with
his back to the library shelves, is the library
steward, thin, stooping, sad-faced, and gener
ally with nothing to do but serve out books;
( 44 )

SOUTHAMPTON TO THE COLLISION
but this afternoon he is busier than I have
ever seen him, serving out baggage declara
tion-forms for passengers to fill in. Mine is
before me as I write: "Form for nonresidents
in the United States. Steamship Titanic: No.
31444, D," etc. I had filled it in that afternoon
and slipped it in my pocket-book instead of
returning it to the steward. Before me, too,
is a small cardboard square: "White Star
Line. R.M.S. Titanic. 208. This label must
be given up when the article is returned. The
property will be deposited in the Purser's safe.
The Company will not be liable to passengers
for the loss of money, jewels, or ornaments, by
theft or otherwise, not so deposited." The
"property deposited" in my case was money,
placed in an envelope, sealed, with my name
written across the flap, and handed to the
purser; the "label" is my receipt. Along with
other similar envelopes it may be still intact
in the safe at the bottom of the sea, but
(45 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
in all probability it is not, as will be seen
presently. After dinner, Mr. Carter invited all who
wished to the saloon, and with the assistance
at the piano of a gentleman who sat at the
purser's table opposite me (a young Scotch
engineer going out to join his brother fruit-
farming at the foot of the Rockies), he started
some hundred passengers singing hymns. They
were asked to chose whichever hymn they
wished, and with so many to choose, it was
impossible for him to do more than have the
the greatest favourites sung. As he announced
each hymn, it was evident that he was thor
oughly versed in their history: no hymn was
sung but that he gave a short sketch of its
author and in some cases a description of the
circumstances in which it was composed. I
think all were impressed with his knowledge
of hymns and with his eagerness to tell us all
he knew of them. It was curious to see how
(46)

SOUTHAMPTON TO THE COLLISION
many chose hymns dealing with dangers at
sea. I noticed the hushed tone with which all
sang the hymn, "For those in peril on the
Sea." The singing must have gone on until after
ten o'clock, when, seeing the stewards standing
about waiting to serve biscuits and coffee be
fore going off duty, Mr. Carter brought the
evening to a close by a few words of thanks to
the purser for the use of the saloon, a short
sketch of the happiness and safety of the voy
age hitherto, the great confidence all felt on
board this great liner with her steadiness and
her size, and the happy outlook of landing in a
few hours in New York at the close of a de
lightful voyage; and all the time he spoke, a
few miles ahead of us lay the "peril on the
sea" that was to sink this same great liner
with many of those on board who listened
with gratitude to his simple, heartfelt words.
So much for the frailty of human hopes and
(47)

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
for the confidence reposed in material human
designs. Think of the shame of it, that a mass of ice
of no use to any one or anything should have
the power fatally to injure the beautiful Ti
tanic! That an insensible block should be able
to threaten, even in the smallest degree, the
lives of many good men and women who think
and plan and hope and love — and not only to
threaten, but to end their lives. It is unbear
able! Are we never to educate ourselves to
foresee such dangers and to prevent them be
fore they happen? All the evidence of history
shows that laws unknown and unsuspected
are being discovered day by day: as this
knowledge accumulates for the use of man, is
it not certain that the ability to see and de
stroy beforehand the threat of danger will be
one of the privileges the whole world will util
ize? May that day come soon. Until it does,
no precaution too rigorous can be taken, no
(48)

SOUTHAMPTON TO THE COLLISION
safety appliance, however costly, must be
omitted from a ship's equipment.
After the meeting had broken up, I talked
with the Carters over a cup of coffee, said
good-night to them, and retired to my cabin
at about quarter to eleven. They were good
people and this world is much poorer by their
loss. It may be a matter of pleasure to many
people to know that their friends were perhaps
among that gathering of people in the saloon,
and that at the last the sound of the hymns
still echoed in their ears as they stood on the
deck so quietly and courageously. Who can
tell how much it had to do with the demean
our of some of them and the example this
would set to others?

CHAPTER III
THE COLLISION AND EMBARKATION IN
LIFEBOATS
I HAD been fortunate enough to secure a
two-berth cabin to myself, — D 56, — quite
close to the saloon and most convenient in
every way for getting about the ship; and on a
big ship like the Titanic it was quite a con
sideration to be on D deck, only three decks
below the top or boat-deck. Below D again
were cabins on E and F decks, and to walk
from a cabin on F up to the top deck, climbing
five flights of stairs on the way, was certainly
a considerable task for those not able to take
much exercise. The Titanic management has
been criticised, among other things, for sup
plying the boat with lifts : it has been said they
were an expensive luxury and the room they
took up might have been utilized in some way
( 50)

r

ex

ro^ s ^Q [a

8 <

• ill' ^

TAKING TO THE LIFEBOATS
for more life-saving appliances. Whatever
else may have been superfluous, lifts certainly
were not: old ladies, for example, in cabins on
F deck, would hardly have got to the top deck
during the whole voyage had they not been
able to ring for the lift-boy. Perhaps nothing
gave one a greater impression of the size of the
ship than to take the lift from the top and
drop slowly down past the different floors, dis
charging and taking in passengers just as in a
large hotel. I wonder where the lift-boy was
that night. I would have been glad to find
him in our boat, or on the Carpathia when we
took count of the saved. He was quite young,
— not more than sixteen, I think, — a bright-
eyed, handsome boy, with a love for the sea
and the games on deck and the view over the
ocean — and he did not get any of them. One
day, as he put me out of his lift and saw
through the vestibule windows a game of deck
quoits in progress, he said, in a wistful tone,
(51)

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
" My ! I wish I could go out there sometimes ! "
I wished he could, too, and made a jestmg
offer to take charge of his lift for an hour while
he went out to watch the game; but he smil
ingly shook his head and dropped down in
answer to an imperative ring from below.
I think he was not on duty with his lift after
the collision, but if he were, he would smile at
his passengers all the time as he took them up
to the boats waiting to leave the sinking ship.
After undressing and climbing into the top
berth, I read from about quarter-past eleven to
the time we struck, about quarter to twelve.
During this time I noticed particularly the in
creased vibration of the ship, and I assumed
that we were going at a higher speed than at
any other time since we sailed from Queens
town. Now I am aware that this is an impor
tant point, and bears strongly on the question
of responsibility for the effects of the collis
ion; but the impression of increased vibration
(52 )

TAKING TO THE LIFEBOATS
is fixed in my memory so strongly that it
seems important to record it. Two things led
me to this conclusion — first, that as I sat
on the sofa undressing, with bare feet on
the floor, the jar of the vibration came up
from the engines below very noticeably; and
second, that as I sat up in the berth reading,
the spring mattress supporting me was vi
brating more rapidly than usual: this cradle
like motion was always noticeable as one lay
in bed, but that night there was certainly a
marked increase in the motion. Referring to
the plan,^ it will be seen that the vibration
must have come almost directly up from be
low, when it is mentioned that the saloon
was immediately above the engines as shown
in the plan, and my cabin next to the saloon.
From these two data, on the assumption that
greater vibration is an indication of higher
speed, — and I suppose it must be, — then I
* See Figure 2, page 116.
(53 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
am sure we were going faster that night at the
time we struck the iceberg than we had done
before, i.e., during the hours I was awake and
able to take note of anything.
And then, as I read in the quietness of the
night, broken only by the muffled sound that
came to me through the ventilators of stew
ards talking and moving along the corridors,
when nearly all the passengers were in their
cabins, some asleep in bed, others undressing,
and others only just down from the smoking-
room and still discussing many things, there
came what seemed to me nothing more than
an extra heave of the engines and a more than
usually obvious dancing motion of the mat
tress on which I sat. Nothing more than that
— no sound of a crash or of anything else : no
sense of shock, no jar that felt like one heavy
body meeting another. And presently the
same thing repeated with about the same in
tensity. The thought came to me that they
( 54 )

TAKING TO THE LIFEBOATS
must have still further increased the speed.
And all this time the Titanic was being cut
open by the iceberg and water was pouring in
her side, and yet no evidence that would indi
cate such a disaster had been presented to us.
It fills me with astonishment now to think of
it. Consider the question of list alone. Here
was this enormous vessel running starboard-
side on to an iceberg, and a passenger sitting
quietly in bed, reading, felt no motion or list
to the opposite or port side, and this must
have been felt had it been more than the usual
roll of the ship — never very much in the calm
weather we had all the way. Again, my bunk
was fixed to the wall on the starboard side, and
any list to port would have tended to fling me
out on the floor : I am sure I should have noted
it had there been any. And yet the explanation
is simple enough : the Titanic struck the berg
with a force of impact of over a million foot-
tons; her plates were less than an inch thick,
(55 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
and they must have been cut through as a
knife cuts paper: there would be no need to
list; it would have been better if she had listed
and thrown us out on the floor, for it would
have been an indication that our plates were
strong enough to offer, at any rate, some re
sistance to the blow, and we might all have
been safe to-day.
And so, with no thought of anything serious
having happened to the ship, I continued my
reading; and still the murmur from the stew
ards and from adjoining cabins, and no other
sound: no cry in the night; no alarm given; no
one afraid — there was then nothing which
could cause fear to the most timid person. But
in a few moments I felt the engines slow and
stop; the dancing motion and the vibration
ceased suddenly after being part of our very
existence for four days, and that was the first
hint that anything out of the ordinary had
happened. We have all "heard" a loud-tick-
(56)

TAKING TO THE LIFEBOATS
ing clock stop suddenly in a quiet room, and
then have noticed the clock and the ticking
noise, of which we seemed until then quite
unconscious. So in the same way the fact was
suddenly brought home to all in the ship that
the engines — that part of the ship that drove
us through the sea — had stopped dead. But
the stopping of the engines gave us no inform
ation: we had to make our own calculations
as to why we had stopped. Like a flash it
came to me: "We have dropped a propeller
blade : when this happens the engines always
race away until they are controlled, and this
accounts for the extra heave they gave " ; not a
very logical conclusion when considered now,
for the engines should have continued to heave
all the time until we stopped, but it was at the
time a sufficiently tenable hypothesis to hold.
Acting on it, I jumped out of bed, slipped on a
dressing-gown over pyjamas, put on shoes, and
went out of my cabin into the hall near the
(57)

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
saloon. Here was a steward leaning against
the staircase, probably waiting until those in
the smoke-room above had gone to bed and
he could put out the lights. I said, "Why
have we stopped?" "I don't know, sir," he
replied, "but I don't suppose it is anything
much." "Well," I said, "I am going on deck
to see what it is," and started towards the
stairs. He smiled indulgently at me as I
passed him, and said, "All right, sir, but it is
mighty cold up there." I am sure at that
time he thought I was rather foolish to go up
with so little reason, and I must confess I felt
rather absurd for not remaining in the cabin:
it seemed like making a needless fuss to walk
about the ship in a dressing-gown. But it was
my first trip across the sea; I had enjoyed
every minute of it and was keenly alive to note
every new experience; and certainly to stop
in the middle of the sea with a propeller
dropped seemed sufficient reason for going on
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TAKING TO THE LIFEBOATS
deck. And yet the steward, with his fatherly
smile, and the fact that no one else was about
the passages or going upstairs to reconnoitre,
made me feel guilty in an undefined way of
breaking some code of a ship's regime — an
Englishman's fear of being thought "un
usual," perhaps!
I climbed the three flights of stairs, opened
the vestibule door leading to the top deck,
and stepped out into an atmosphere that cut
me, clad as I was, like a knife. Walking to the
starboard side, I peered over and saw the sea
many feet below, calm and black; forward,
the deserted deck stretching away to the first-
class quarters and the captain's bridge; and
behind, the steerage quarters and the stern
bridge; nothing more: no iceberg on either
side or astern as far as we could see in the
darkness. There were two or three men on
deck, and with one — the Scotch engineer
who played hymns in the saloon — I compared
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THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
notes of our experiences. He had just begun
to undress when the engines stopped and had
come up at once, so that he was fairly well-
clad; none of us could see anything, and all
being quiet and still, the Scotchman and I
went down to the next deck. Through the
windows of the smoking-room we saw a game
of cards going on, with several onlookers, and
went in to enquire if they knew more than
we did. They had apparently felt rather more
of the heaving motion, but so far as I remem
ber, none of them had gone out on deck to
make any enquiries, even when one of them
had seen through the windows an iceberg go
by towering above the decks. He had called
their attention to it, and they all watched
it disappear, but had then at once resumed
the game. We asked them the height of the
berg and some said one hundred feet, others,
sixty feet; one of the onlookers — a motor
engineer travelling to America with a model
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TAKING TO THE LIFEBOATS
carburetter (he had filled in his declaration
form near me in the afternoon and had ques
tioned the library steward how he should de
clare his patent) — said, "Well, I am accus
tomed to estimating distances and I put it at
between eighty and ninety feet." We ac
cepted his estimate and made guesses as to
what had happened to the Titanic: the gen
eral impression was that we had just scraped
the iceberg with a glancing blow on the star
board side, and they had stopped as a wise pre
caution, to examine her thoroughly all over.
"I expect the iceberg has scratched off some
of her new paint," said one, " and the captain
does n't like to go on until she is painted up
again." We laughed at his estimate of the
captain's care for the ship. Poor Captain
Smith! — he knew by this time only too well
what had happened.
One of the players, pointing to his glass of
whiskey standing at his elbow, and turning
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THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
to an onlooker, said, "Just run along the deck
and see if any ice has come aboard: I would
like some for this." Amid the general laughter
at what we thought was his imagination, —
only too realistic, alas! for when he spoke the
forward deck was covered with ice that had
tumbled over, — and seeing that no more infor
mation was forthcoming, I left the smoking-
room and went down to my cabin, where I sat
for some time reading again. I am filled with
sorrow to think I never saw any of the occu
pants of that smoking-room again : nearly all
young men full of hope for their prospects in
a new world; mostly immarried; keen, alert,
with the makings of good citizens. Presently,
hearing people walking about the corridors,
I looked out and saw several standing in the
hall talking to a steward — most of them
ladies in dressing-gowns; other people were
going upstairs, and I decided to go on deck
again, but as it was too cold to do so in a
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TAKING TO THE LIFEBOATS
dressing-gown, I dressed in a Norfolk jacket
and trousers and walked up. There were now
more people looking over the side and walking
about, questioning each other as to why we
had stopped, but without obtaining any
definite information. I stayed on deck some
minutes, walking about vigorously to keep
warm and occasionally looking downwards to
the sea as if something there would indicate
the reason for delay. The ship had now re
sumed her course, moving very slowly through
the water with a little white line of foam on
each side. I think we were all glad to see this :
it seemed better than standing still. I soon
decided to go down again, and as I crossed
from the starboard to the port side to go
down by the vestibule door, I saw an officer
climb on the last lifeboat on the port side —
number 16 — and begin to throw off the cover,
but I do not remember that any one paid any
particular attention to him. Certainly no one
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THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
thought they were preparing to man the life
boats and embark from the ship. All this time
there was no apprehension of any danger in
the minds of passengers, and no one was in
any condition of panic or hysteria; after all,
it would have been strange if they had been,
without any definite evidence of danger .
As I passed to the door to go down, I looked
forward again and saw to my surprise an un
doubted tilt downwards from the stern to the
bows : only a slight slope, which I don't think
any one had noticed, — at any rate, they
had not remarked on it. As I went down
stairs a confirmation of this tilting forward
came in something unusual about the stairs,
a curious sense of something out of balance
and of not being able to put one's feet down
in the right place: naturally, being tilted for
ward, the stairs would slope downwards at an
angle and tend to throw one forward. I could
not see any visible slope of the stairway: it
( 64 )

TAKING TO THE LIFEBOATS
was perceptible only by the sense of balance
at this time.
On D deck were three ladies — I think they
were all saved, and it is a good thing at least
to be able to chronicle meeting some one who
was saved after so much record of those who
were not — standing in the passage near the
cabin. "Oh! why have we stopped?" they
said. "We did stop," I replied, "but we are
now going on again." "Oh, no," one replied;
"I cannot feel the engines as I usually do, or
hear them. Listen!" We listened, and there
was no throb audible. Having noticed that the
vibration of the engines is most noticeable
lying in a bath, where the throb comes straight
from the floor through its metal sides —
too much so ordinarily for one to put one's
head back with comfort on the bath, — I
took them along the corridor to a bathroom
and made them put their hands on the side of
the bath : they were much reassured to feel the
(65 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
engines throbbing down below and to know we
were making some headway. I left them and
on the way to my cabin passed some stewards
standing unconcernedly against the walls of
the saloon: one of them, the library steward
again, was leaning over a table, writing. It is
no exaggeration to say that they had neither
any knowledge of the accident nor any feeling
of alarm that we had stopped and had not yet
gone on again full speed : their whole attitude
expressed perfect confidence in the ship and
officers. Turning into my gangway (my cabin being
the first in the gangway), I saw a man stand
ing at the other end of it fastening his tie.
"Anything fresh?" he said. "Not much," I
replied; "we are going ahead slowly and she is
down a little at the bows, but I don't think it
is anything serious." "Come in and look at
this man," he laughed; "he won't get up."
I looked in, and in the top bunk lay a man with
( 66 )

TAKING TO THE LIFEBOATS
his back to me, closely wrapped in his bed
clothes and only the back of his head visible.
"Why won't he get up? Is he asleep?" I
said. "No," laughed the man dressing, "he
says — " But before he could finish the sen
tence the man above grunted: "You don't
catch me leaving a warm bed to go up on that
cold deck at midnight. I know better than
that." We both told him laughingly why he
had better get up, but he was certain he was
just as safe there and all this dressing was
quite unnecessary; so I left them and went
again to my cabin. I put on some under
clothing, sat on the sofa, and read for some
ten minutes, when I heard through the open
door, above, the noise of people passing up
and down, and a loud shout from above: "All
passengers on deck with lifebelts on."
I placed the two books I was reading in the
side pockets of my Norfolk jacket, picked up
my lifebelt (curiously enough, I had taken
(67)

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
it down for the first time that night from the
wardrobe when I first retired to my cabia)
and my dressing-gown, and walked upstairs
tying on the lifebelt. As I came out of my
cabin, I remember seeing the purser's assist
ant, with his foot on the stairs about to climb
them, whisper to a steward and jerk his head
significantly behind him; not that I thought
anything of it at the time, but I have no
doubt he was telling him what had happened
up in the bows, and was giving him orders to
call all passengers.
Going upstairs with other passengers, — no
one ran a step or seemed alarmed, — we met
two ladies coming down: one seized me by
the arm and said, "Oh! I have no lifebelt;
will you come down to my cabin and help
me to find it?" I returned with them to F
deck, — the lady who had addressed me hold
ing my arm all the time in a vise-like grip,
much to my amusement, — and we found a
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TAKING TO THE LIFEBOATS
steward in her gangway who took them in and
found their lifebelts. Coming upstairs again,
I passed the purser's window on F deck, and
noticed a light inside; when halfway up to E
deck, I heard the heavy metallic clang of the
safe door, followed by a hasty step retreating
along the corridor towards the first-class
quarters. I have little doubt it was the purser,
who had taken all valuables from his safe and
was transferring them to the charge of the
first-class purser, in the hope they might all
be saved in one package. That is why I said
above that perhaps the envelope containing
my money was not in the safe at the bottom of
the sea: it is probably in a bundle, with many
others like it, waterlogged at the bottom.
Reaching the top deck, we found many
people assembled there, — some fully dressed,
with coats and wraps, well-prepared for any
thing that might happen; others who had
thrown wraps hastily round them when they
( 69 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
were called or heard the summons to equip
themselves with lifebelts — not in much con
dition to face the cold of that night. Fortu
nately there was no wind to beat the cold air
through our clothing: even the breeze caused
by the ship's motion had died entirely away,
for the engines had stopped again and the
Titanic lay peacefully on the surface of the
sea — motionless, quiet, not even rocking to
the roll of the sea; indeed, as we were to dis
cover presently, the sea was as calm as an
inland lake save for the gentle swell which
could impart no motion to a ship the size of
the Titanic. To stand on the deck many feet
above the water lapping idly against her sides,
and looking much farther off than it really
was because of the darkness, gave one a sense
of wonderful security: to feel her so steady
and still was like standing on a large rock in
the middle of the ocean. But there were now
more evidences of the coming catastrophe to
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TAKING TO THE LIFEBOATS
the observer than had been apparent when
on deck last: one was the roar and hiss of
escaping steam from the boilers, issuing out
of a large steam pipe reaching high up one of
the funnels: a harsh, deafening boom that
made conversation difficult and no doubt
increased the apprehension of some people
merely because of the volume of noise: if one
imagines twenty locomotives blowing off
steam in a low key it would give some idea of
the xmpleasant sound that met us as we
climbed out on the top deck.
But after all it was the kind of phenomenon
we ought to expect: engines blow off steam
when standing in a station, and why should
not a ship's boilers do the same when the
ship is not moving? I never heard any one
connect this noise with the danger of boiler
explosion, in the event of the ship sinking
with her boilers under a high pressure of
steam, which was no doubt the true explana-
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THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
tion of this precaution.J But this is perhaps
speculation; some people may have known it
quite well, for from the time we came on deck
until boat 13 got away, I heard very little
conversation of any kind among the passen
gers. It is not the slightest exaggeration to
say that no signs of alarm were exhibited by
any one: there was no indication of panic or
hysteria; no cries of fear, and no running to
and fro to discover what was the matter, why
we had been summoned on deck with life
belts, and what was to be done with us now
we were there. We stood there quietly look
ing on at the work of the crew as they manned
the lifeboats, and no one ventured to inter
fere with them or offered to help them. It
was plain we should be of no use; and the
crowd of men and women stood quietly on
the deck or paced slowly up and down wait
ing for orders from the officers.
Now, before we consider any further the
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TAKING TO THE LIFEBOATS
events that followed, the state of mind of
passengers at this juncture, and the motives
which led each one to act as he or she did in
the circumstances, it is important to keep in
thought the amount of information at our dis
posal. Men and women act according to
judgment based on knowledge of the condi
tions around them, and the best way to under
stand some apparently inconceivable things
that happened is for any one to imagine him
self or herself standing on deck that night.
It seems a mystery to some people that
women refused to leave the ship, that some
persons retired to their cabins, and so on; but
it is a matter of judgment, after all.
So that if the reader will come and stand
with the crowd on deck, he must first rid
himself entirely of the knowledge that the
Titanic has sunk — an important necessity,
for he cannot see conditions as they existed
there through the mental haze arising from
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THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
knowledge of the greatest maritime tragedy
the world has known : he must get rid of any
foreknowledge of disaster to appreciate why
people acted as they did. Secondly, he had
better get rid of any picture in thought painted
either by his own imagination or by some
artist, whether pictorial or verbal, "from in
formation supplied. " Some are most inaccu
rate (these, mostly word-pictures), and where
they err, they err on the highly dramatic side.
They need not have done so: the whole con
ditions were dramatic enough in all their bare
simplicity, without the addition of any high
colouring. Having made these mental erasures, he will
find himself as one of the crowd faced with the
following conditions: a perfectly stiU atmos
phere; a brilliantly beautiful starlight night,
but no moon, and so with little light that was
of any use; a ship that had come quietly to
rest without any indication of disaster — no
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TAKING TO THE LIFEBOATS
iceberg visible, no hole in the ship's side
through which water was pouring in, nothing
broken or out of place, no sound of alarm, no
panic, no movement of any one except at a
walking pace; the absence of any knowledge
of the nature of the accident, of the extent of
damage, of the danger of the ship sinking in a
few hours, of the numbers of boats, rafts, and
other lifesaving appliances available, their
capacity, what other ships were near or com
ing to help — in fact, an almost complete
absence of any positive knowledge on any
point. I think this was the result of deliberate
judgment on the part of the officers, and per
haps, it was the best thing that could be done.
In particular, he must remember that the
ship was a sixth of a mile long, with passen
gers on three decks open to the sea, and port
and starboard sides to each deck : he will then
get some idea of the difficulty presented to the
officers of keeping control over such a large
(75)

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
area, and the impossibility of any one know
ing what was happening except in his own im
mediate vicinity. Perhaps the whole thing
can be summed up best by saying that, after
we had embarked in the lifeboats and rowed
away from the Titanic, it would not have sur
prised us to hear that all passengers would be
saved: the cries of drowning people after the
Titanic gave the final plunge were a thunder
bolt to us. I am aware that the experiences of
many of those saved differed in some respects
from the above: some had knowledge of cer
tain things, some were experienced travellers
and sailors, and therefore deduced more rap
idly what was likely to happen ; but I think the
above gives a fairly accurate representation of
the state of mind of most of those on deck
that night.
All this time people were pouring up from
the stairs and adding to the crowd : I remem
ber at that moment thinking it would be well
(76 )

TAKING TO THE LIFEBOATS
to return to my cabin and rescue some money
and warmer clothing if we were to embark in
boats, but looking through the vestibule win
dows and seeing people still coming upstairs,
I decided it would only cause confusion pass
ing them on the stairs, and so remained on
deck. I was now on the starboard side of the top
boat deck; the time about 12.20. We watched
the crew at work on the lifeboats, numbers 9,
11, 13, 15, some inside arranging the oars,
some coiling ropes on the deck, — the ropes
which ran through the pulleys to lower to the
sea, — others with cranks fitted to the rock
ing arms of the davits. As we watched, the
cranks were turned, the davits swung out
wards until the boats hung clear of the edge
of the deck. Just then an officer came along
from the first-class deck and shouted above
the noise of escaping steam, "All women and
children get down to deck below and all
(77)

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
men stand back from the boats." He had
apparently been off duty when the ship
struck, and was lightly dressed, with a white
muffler twisted hastily round his neck. The
men fell back and the women retired below to
get into the boats from the next deck. Two
women refused at first to leave their husbands,
but partly by persuasion and partly by force
they were separated from them and sent down
to the next deck. I think that by this time
the work on the lifeboats and the separation
of men and women impressed on us slowly the
presence of imminent danger, but it made no
difference in the attitude of the crowd: they
were just as prepared to obey orders and to
do what came next as when they first came on
deck. I do not mean that they actually reas
oned it out : they were the average Teutonic
crowd, with an inborn respect for law and
order and for traditions bequeathed to them
by generations of ancestors : the reasons that
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TAKING TO THE LIFEBOATS
made them act as they did were impersonal,
instinctive, hereditary.
But if there were any one who had not by
now realized that the ship was in danger, all
doubt on this point was to be set at rest in a
dramatic manner. Suddenly a rush of light
from the forward deck, a hissing roar that
made us all turn from watching the boats,
and a rocket leapt upwards to where the stars
blinked and twinkled above us. Up it went,
higher and higher, with a sea of faces upturned
to watch it, and then an explosion that seemed
to split the silent night in two, and a shower
of stars sank slowly down and went out one
by one. And with a gasping sigh one word
escaped the lips of the crowd: "Rockets!"
Anybody knows what rockets at sea mean.
And presently another, and then a third. It is
no use denying the dramatic intensity of the
scene: separate it if you can from all the ter
rible events that followed, and picture the
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THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
calmness of the night, the sudden light on the
decks crowded with people in different stages
of dress and undress, the background of huge
funnels and tapering masts revealed by the
soaring rocket, whose flash illumined at the
same time the faces and minds of the obedient
crowd, the one, with mere physical light, the
other with a sudden revelation of what its
message was. Every one knew without being
told that we were calling for help from any
one who was near enough to see.
The crew were now in the boats, the sailors
standing by the pulley ropes let them slip
through the cleats in jerks, and down the
boats went till level with B deck; women and
children climbed over the rail into the boats
and filled them; when full, they were lowered
one by one, beginning with number 9, the first
on the second-class deck, and working back
wards towards 15. All this we could see by
peering over the edge of the boat-deck,
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TAKING TO THE LIFEBOATS
which was now quite open to the sea, the four
boats which formed a natural barrier being
lowered from the deck and leaving it exposed.
About this time, while walking the deck, I
saw two ladies come over from the port side
and walk towards the rail separating the
second-class from the first-class deck. There
stood an officer barring the way. "May we
pass to the boats? " they said. "No, madam,"
he replied politely, "your boats are down
on your own deck," pointing to where they
swung below. The ladies turned and went
towards the stairway, and no doubt were able
to enter one of the boats: they had ample
time. I mention this to show that there was,
at any rate, some arrangement — whether
official or not — for separating the classes in
embarking in boats; how far it was carried out,
I do not know, but if the second-class ladies
were not expected to enter a boat from the
first-class deck, while steerage passengers were
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THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
allowed access to the second-class deck, it
would seem to press rather hardly on the
second-class men, and this is rather supported
by^the low percentage saved.
Almost immediately after this incident, a
report went round among men on the top deck
— the starboard side — that men were to be
taken off on the port side; how it originated,
I am quite unable to say, but can only sup
pose that as the port boats, numbers 10 to 16,
were not lowered from the top deck quite so
soon as the starboard boats (they could still
be seen on deck), it might be assumed that
women were being taken off on one side and
men on the other; but in whatever way the
report started, it was acted on at once by
almost all the men, who crowded across to the
port side and watched the preparation for
lowering the boats, leaving the starboard side
almost deserted. Two or three men remained,
however: not for any reason that we were
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TAKING TO THE LIFEBOATS
consciously aware of; I can personally think
of no decision arising from reasoned thought
that induced me to remain rather than to
cross over. But while there was no process
of conscious reason at work, I am convinced
that what was my salvation was a recogni
tion of the necessity of being quiet and wait
ing in patience for some opportunity of safety
to present itself.
Soon after the men had left the starboard
side, I saw a bandsman — the 'cellist — come
round the vestibule corner from the staircase
entrance and run down the now deserted star
board deck, his 'cello trailing behind him, the
spike dragging along the floor. This must have
been about 12.40 a.m. I suppose the band
must have begun to play soon after this and
gone on until after 2 a.m. Many brave things
were done that night, but none more brave
than by those few men playing minute after
minute as the ship settled quietly lower and
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THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
lower in the sea and the sea rose higher and
higher to where they stood; the music they
played serving alike as their own immortal
requiem and their right to be recorded on
the rolls of undying fame.
Looking forward and downward, we could
see several of the boats now in the water,
moving slowly one by one from the side,
without confusion or noise, and stealing away
in the darkness which swallowed them in
turn as the crew bent to the oars. An officer —
I think First Officer Murdock — came strid
ing along the deck, clad in a long coat, from
his manner and face evidently in great agi
tation, but determined and resolute; he looked
over the side and shouted to the boats being
lowered: "Lower away, and when afloat, row
around to the gangway and wait for orders."
"Aye, aye, sir," was the reply; and the officer
passed by and went across the ship to the
port side. ( 84 )

TAKING TO THE LIFEBOATS
Almost immediately after this, I heard a cry
from below of, "Any more ladies?" and look
ing over the edge of the deck, saw boat 13
swinging level with the rail of B deck, with
the crew, some stokers, a few men passengers
and the rest ladies, — the latter being about
half the total number; the boat was almost
full and just about to be lowered. The call for
ladies was repeated twice again, but appar
ently there were none to be found. Just then
one of the crew looked up and saw me looking
over. "Any ladies on your deck?" he said.
"No," I replied. "Then you had better
jump." I sat on the edge of the deck with my
feet over, threw the dressing-gown (which I
had carried on my arm all of the time) into
the boat, dropped, and fell in the boat near
the stern.
As I picked myself up, I heard a shout:
"Wait a moment, here are two more ladies,"
and they were pushed hurriedly over the side
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THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
and tumbled into the boat, one into the middle
and one next to me in the stem. They told
me afterwards that they had been assembled
on a lower deck with other ladies, and had
come up to B deck not by the usual stairway
inside, but by one of the vertically upright
iron ladders that connect each deck with the
one below it, meant for the use of sailors
passing about the ship. Other ladies had been
in front of them and got up quickly, but these
two were delayed a long time by the fact that
one of them — the one that was helped first
over the side into boat 13 near the middle
— was not at all active : it seemed almost im
possible for her to climb up a vertical ladder.
We saw her trying to climb the swinging rope
ladder up the Carpathia's side a few hours
later, and she had the same difficulty.
As they tumbled in, the crew shouted,
"Lower away"; but before the order was
obeyed, a man with his wife and a baby came
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TAKING TO THE LIFEBOATS
quickly to the side: the baby was handed to
the lady in the stem, the mother got in near
the middle and the father at the last moment
dropped in as the boat began its journey down
to the sea many feet below.

CHAPTER IV
THE SINKING OF THE TITANIC SEEN FROM
A LIFEBOAT
Looking back now on the descent of our
boat down the ship's side, it is a matter of
surprise, I think, to all the occupants to re
member how little they thought of it at the
time. It was a great adventure, certainly: it
was exciting to feel the boat sink by jerks,
foot by foot, as the ropes were paid out from
above and shrieked as they passed through the
pulley blocks, the new ropes and gear creak
ing under the strain of a boat laden with
people, and the crew calling to the sailors
above as the boat tilted slightly, now at one
end, now at the other, "Lower aft! " "Lower
stern!" and "Lower together!" as she came
level again — but I do not think we felt much
apprehension about reaching the water safely.
(88)

THE SINKING — FROM A LIFEBOAT
It certainly was thrilling to see the black
hull of the ship on one side and the sea,
seventy feet below, on the other, or to pass
down by cabins and saloons brilliantly lighted;
but we knew nothing of the apprehension
felt in the minds of some of the officers whether
the boats and lowering-gear would stand the
strain of the weight of our sixty people. The
ropes, however, were new and strong, and
the boat did not buckle in the middle as an
older boat might have done. Whether it was
right or not to lower boats full of people to the
water, — and it seems likely it was not, — I
think there can be nothing but the highest
praise given to the officers and crew above for
the way in which they lowered the boats one
after the other safely to the water; it may seem
a simple matter, to read about such a thing,
but any sailor knows, apparently, that it is not
so. An experienced officer has told me that
he has seen a boat lowered in practice from a
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THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
ship's deck, with a trained crew and no pas
sengers in the boat, with practised sailors
paying out the ropes, in daylight, in calm
weather, with the ship lying in dock — and
has seen the boat tilt over and pitch the crew
headlong into the sea. Contrast these con
ditions with those obtaining that Monday
morning at 12.45 a.m., and it is impossible not
to feel that, whether the lowering crew were
trained or not, whether they had or had not
drilled since coming on board, they did their
duty in a way that argues the greatest effi
ciency. I cannot help feeling the deepest
gratitude to the two sailors who stood at the
ropes above and lowered us to the sea: I do
not suppose they were saved.
Perhaps one explanation of our feeling little
sense of the unusual in leaving the Titanic
in this way was that it seemed the climax
to a series of extraordinary occurrences: the
magnitude of the whole thing dwarfed events
(90 )

THE SINKING — FROM A LIFEBOAT
that in the ordinary way would seem to be full
of imminent peril. It is easy to imagine it, —
a voyage of four days on a calm sea, without
a single untoward incident ; the presumption,
perhaps already mentally half realized, that
we should be ashore in forty-eight hours and
so complete a splendid voyage, — and then
to feel the engine stop, to be summoned on
deck with little time to dress, to tie on a life
belt, to see rockets shooting aloft in call for
help, to be told to get into a lifeboat, — after
all these things, it did not seem much to feel
the boat sinking down to the sea: it was the
natural sequence of previous events, and we
had learned in the last hour to take things
just as they came. At the same time, if any
one should wonder what the sensation is like,
it is quite easy to measure seventy-five feet
from the windows of a tall house or a block
of flats, look down to the ground and fancy
himself with some sixty other people crowded
(91 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
into a boat so tightly that he could not sit down
or move about, and then picture the boat
sinking down in a continuous series of jerks,
as the sailors pay out the ropes through cleats
above. There are more pleasant sensations
than this ! How thankful we were that the sea
was calm and the Titanic lay so steadily and
quietly as we dropped down her side. We were
spared the bumping and griading against the
side which so often accompanies the launchiag
of boats: I do not remember that we even
had to fend off our boat while we were trying
to get free.
As we went down, one of the crew shouted,
"We are just over the condenser exhaust: we
don't want to stay in that long or we shall be
swamped; feel down on the floor and be ready
to pull up the pin which lets the ropes free as
soon as we are afloat." I had often looked
over the side and noticed this stream of water
coming out of the side of the Titanic just
( 92 )

THE SINKING — FROM A LIFEBOAT
above the water-line: in fact so large was the
volume of water that as we ploughed along
and met the waves coming towards us, this
stream would cause a splash that sent spray
flying. We felt, as well as we could in the
crowd of people, on the floor, along the sides,
with no idea where the pin could be found, —
and none of the crew knew where it was, only
of its existence somewhere, — but we never
found it. And all the time we got closer to the
sea and the exhaust roared nearer and nearer
— until finally we floated with the ropes still
holding us from above, the exhaust washing
us away and the force of the tide driving us
back against the side, — the latter not of
much account in influencing the direction,
however. Thinking over what followed, I
imagine we must have touched the water with
the condenser stream at our bows, and not in
the middle as I thought at one time: at any
rate, the resultant of these three forces was
(93)

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
that we were carried parallel to the ship, di
rectly under the place where boat 15 would
drop from her davits into the sea. Looking up
we saw her already coming down rapidly
from B deck : she must have filled almost im
mediately after ours. We shouted up, "Stop
lowering 14, " ^ and the crew and passengers in
the boat above, hearing us shout and seeing
our position immediately below them, shouted
the same to the sailors on the boat deck; but
apparently they did not hear, for she dropped
down foot by foot, — twenty feet, fifteen, ten,
— and a stoker and I in the bows reached up
and touched her bottom swinging above our
heads, trying to push away our boat from
under her. It seemed now as if nothing could
prevent her dropping on us, but at this mo
ment another stoker sprang with his knife to
' In an account which appeared in the newspapers of
April 19 I have described this boat as 14, not knowing they
were numbered alternately.
( 94 )

THE SINKING — FROM A LIFEBOAT
the ropes that still held us and I heard him
shout, "One! Two!" as he cut them through.
The next moment we had swung away from
underneath 15, and were clear of her as she
dropped into the water in the space we had
just before occupied. I do not know how the
bow ropes were freed, but imagine that they
were cut in the same way, for we were washed
clear of the Titanic at once by the force of the
stream and floated away as the oars were got
out. I think we all felt that that was quite the
most exciting thing we had yet been through,
and a great sigh of relief and gratitude went
up as we swung away from the boat above
our heads ; but I heard no one cry aloud
during the experience — not a woman's voice
was raised in fear or hysteria. I think we all
learnt many things that night about the
bogey called "fear," and how the facing of it
is much less than the dread of it.
( 95 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
The crew was made up of cooks and stew
ards, mostly the former, I think; their white
jackets showing up in the darkness as they
pulled away, two to an oar: I do not think
they can have had any practice in rowing,
for all night long their oars crossed and
clashed; if our safety had depended on speed
or accuracy in keeping time it would have
gone hard with us. Shouting began from one
end of the boat to the other as to what we
should do, where we should go, and no one
seemed to have any knowledge how to act.
At last we asked, "Who is in charge of this
boat?" but there was no reply. We then
agreed by general consent that the stoker who
stood in the stern with the tiller should act as
captain, and from that time he directed the
course, shouting to other boats and keeping in
touch with them. Not that there was any
where to go or anything we could do. Our
plan of action was simple: to keep all the boats
(96)

THE SINKING — FROM A LIFEBOAT
together as far as possible and wait until we
were picked up by other liners. The crew had
apparently heard of the wireless communica
tions before they left the Titanic, but I never
heard them say that we were in touch with
any boat but the Olympic : it was always the
Olympic that was coming to our rescue. They
thought they knew even her distance, and
making a calculation, we came to the conclu
sion that we ought to be picked up by her
about two o'clock in the afternoon. But this
was not our only hope of rescues we watched
all the time the darkness lasted for steamers'
lights, thinking there might be a chance of
other steamers coming near enough to see the
lights which some of our boats carried. I am
sure there was no feeling in the minds of any
one that we should not be picked up next day:
we knew that wireless messages would go out
from ship to ship, and as one of the stokers
said: "The sea will be covered with ships to-
( 97 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
morrow afternoon : they will race up from all
over the sea to find us." Some even thought
that fast torpedo boats might run up ahead
of the Olympic. And yet the Olympic was,
after all, the farthest away of them all; eight
other ships lay within three hundred miles
of us.
How thankful we should have been to know
how near help was, and how many ships had
heard our message and were rushing to the
Titanic's aid. I think nothing has surprised
us more than to learn so many ships were near
enough to rescue us in a few hours.
Almost immediately after leaving the
Titanic we saw what we all said was a ship's
lights down on the horizon on the Titanic's
port side : two lights, one above the other, and
plainly not one of our boats; we even rowed
in that direction for some time, but the lights
drew away and disappeared below the
horizon.
( 98)

THE SINKING — FROM A LIFEBOAT
But this is rather anticipating: we did none
of these things first. We had no eyes for any
thing but the ship we had just left. As the
oarsmen pulled slowly away we all turned and
took a long look at the mighty vessel towering
high above our midget boat, and I know it
must have been the most extraordinary sight
I shall ever be called upon to witness; I real
ize now how totally inadequate language is
to convey to some other person who was not
there any real impression of what we saw.
But the task must be attempted : the whole
picture is so intensely dramatic that, while it
is not possible to place on paper for eyes to see
the actual likeness of the ship as she lay there,
some sketch of the scene will be possible.
First of all, the climatic conditions were ex
traordinary. The night was one of the most
beautiful I have ever seen: the sky without a
single cloud to mar the perfect brilliance of
the stars, clustered so thickly together that
(99 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
in places there seemed almost more dazzling
points of light set in the black sky than back
ground of sky itself; and each star seemed, in
the keen atmosphere, free from any haze, to
have increased its brilliance tenfold and to
twinkle and glitter with a staccato flash that
made the sky seem nothing but a setting
made for them in which to display their won
der. They seemed so near, and their light so
much more intense than ever before, that
fancy suggested they saw this beautiful ship
in dire distress below and all their energies
had awakened to flash messages across the
black dome of the sky to each other; telling
and warning of the calamity happening ia the
world beneath. Later, when the Titanic had
gone down and we lay still on the sea waiting
for the day to dawn or a ship to come, I re
member looking up at the perfect sky and
realizing why Shakespeare wrote the beautiful
words he puts in the mouth of Lorenzo : —
( 100 )

THE SINKING — FROM A LIFEBOAT
"Jessica, look how the floor of heaven
Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold.
There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st
But in his motion like an angel sings,
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubims;
Such harmony is in immortal souls;
But whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it."
But it seemed almost as if we could — that
night : the stars seemed really to be alive and to
talk. The complete absence of haze produced
a phenomenon I had never seen before:
where the sky met the sea the line was as clear
and definite as the edge of a knife, so that the
water and the air never merged gradually into
each other and blended to a softened rounded
horizon, but each element was so exclusively
separate that where a star came low down in
the sky near the clear-cut edge of the water-
line, it still lost none of its brilliance. As the
earth revolved and the water edge came up
and covered partially the star, as it were, it
( 101 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
simply cut the star in two, the upper half con
tinuing to sparkle as long as it was not entirely
hidden, and throwing a long beam of light
along the sea to us.
In the evidence before the United States
Senate Committee the captain of one of the
ships near us that night said the stars
were so extraordinarily bright near the hori
zon that he was deceived into thinldng that
they were ships' lights : he did not remember
seeing such a night before. Those who were
afloat will all agree with that statement: we
were often deceived into thinking they were
lights of a ship.
. And next the cold air! Here again was
something quite new to us: there was not a
breath of wind to blow keenly round us as we
stood in the boat, and because of its con
tinued persistence to make us feel cold; it was
just a keen, bitter, icy, motionless cold that
came from nowhere and yet was there all the
( 102 )

THE SINKING — FROM A LIFEBOAT
time; the stillness of it — if one can imagine
"cold" being motionless and still — was what
seemed new and strange.
And these — the sky and the air — were
overhead; and below was the sea. Here again
something uncommon: the surface was like a
lake of oil, heaving gently up and down with a
quiet motion that rocked our boat dreamily to
and fro. We did not need to keep her head to
the swell: often I watched her lying broadside
on to the tide, and with a boat loaded as We
were, this would have been impossible with
anything like a swell. The sea slipped away
smoothly under the boat, and I think we
never heard it lapping on the sides, so oily in
appearance was the water. So when one of the
stokers said he had been to sea for twenty-six
years and never yet seen such a calm night,
we accepted it as true without comment. Just
as expressive was the remark of another —
" It reminds me of a bloomin' picnic ! " It was
( 103 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
quite true; it did: a picnic on a lake, or a quiet
inland river like the Cam, or a backwater on
the Thames.
And so in these conditions of sky and air
and sea, we gazed broadside on the Titanic
from a short distance. She was absolutely still
— indeed from the first it seemed as if the blow
from the iceberg had taken all the courage out
of her and she had just come quietly to rest
and was settling down without an effort to
save herself, without a murmur of protest
against such a foul blow. For the sea could
not rock her : the wind was not there to howl
noisily round the decks, and make the ropes
hum; from the first what must have impressed
all as they watched was the sense of stillness
about her and the slow, insensible way she
sank lower and lower in the sea, like a
stricken animal.
The mere bulk alone of the ship viewed
from the sea below was an awe-inspiring sight,
( 104 )

THE SINKING — FROM A LIFEBOAT
Imagine a ship nearly a sixth of a mile long,
75 feet high to the top decks, with four enor
mous funnels above the decks, and masts again
high above the funnels; with her hundreds of
portholes, all her saloons and other rooms
brilliant with light, and all round her, little
boats filled with those who until a few hours
before had trod her decks and read in her
libraries and listened to the music of her band
in happy content; and who were now looking
up in amazement at the enormous mass above
them and rowing away from her because she
was sinking.
I had often wanted to see her from some
distance away, and only a few hours before, in
conversation at lunch with a fellow-passenger,
had registered a vow to get a proper view of
her lines and dimensions when we landed at
New York: to stand some distance away to
take in a full view of her beautiful proportions,
which the narrow approach to the dock at
( 105 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
Southampton made impossible. Little did I
think that the opportunity was to be found
so quickly and so dramatically. The back
ground, too, was a different one from what I
had planned for her : the black outline of her
profile against the sky was bordered all round
by stars studded in the sky, and all her funnels
and masts were picked out in the same way:
her bulk was seen where the stars were blotted
out. And one other thing was different from
expectation : the thing that ripped away from
us instantly, as we saw it, all sense of the
beauty of the night, the beauty of the ship's
lines, and the beauty of her lights, — and all
these taken in themselves were intensely
beautiful, — that thing was the awful angle
made by the level of the sea with the rows
of porthole lights along her side in dotted
lines, row above row. The sea level and
the rows of lights should have been parallel
— should never have met — and now they
( 106)

THE SINKING — FROM A LIFEBOAT
met at an angle inside the black hull of
the ship. There was nothing else to indicate
she was injured; nothing but this apparent
violation of a simple geometrical law — that
parallel lines should "never meet even if pro
duced ever so far both ways"; but it meant
the Titanic had sunk by the head until the
lowest portholes in the bows were under the
sea, and the portholes in the stern were lifted
above the normal height. We rowed away
from her in the quietness of the night, hoping
and praying with all our hearts that she
would sink no more and the day would find
her still in the same position as she was then.
The crew, however, did not think so. It has
been said frequently that the officers and
crew felt assured that she would remain afloat
even after they knew the extent of the dam
age. Some of them may have done so — and
perhaps, from their scientific knowledge of her
construction, with more reason at the time
( 107 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
than those who said she would siak — but
at any rate the stokers in our boat had no such
illusion. One of them — I think he was the
same man that cut us free from the pulley
ropes — told us how he was at work in the
stoke-hole, and in anticipation of going off
duty in quarter of an hour, — thus confirming
the time of the collision as 11.45, — had near
him a pan of soup keeping hot on some part of
the machinery; suddenly the whole side of the
compartment came in, and the water rushed
him off his feet. Picking himself up, he sprang
for the compartment doorway and was just
through the aperture when the watertight door
came down behind him, "like a knife," as he
said; "they work them from the bridge." He
had gone up on deck but was ordered down
again at once and with others was told to draw
the fires from under the boiler, which they did,
and were then at liberty to come on deck
again. It seems that this particular knot of
( 108 )

THE SINKING — FROM A LIFEBOAT
stokers must have known almost as soon as
any one of the extent of injury. He added
mournfully, "I could do with that hot soup
now" — and indeed he could: he was clad at
the time of the collision, he said, in trousers
and singlet, both very thin on account of the
intense heat in the stoke-hole; and although
he had added a short jacket later, his teeth
were chattering with the cold. He found a
place to lie down underneath the tiller on the
little platform where our captain stood, and
there he lay all night with a coat belonging to
another stoker thrown over him and I think
he must have been almost unconscious. A
lady next to him, who was warmly clad with
several coats, tried to insist on his having one
of hers — a fur-lined one — thrown over him,
but he absolutely refused while some of the
women were insufficiently clad; and so the
coat was given to an Irish girl with pretty
auburn hair standing near, leaning against the
( 109 )

THE LOSS OP THE SS. TITANIC
gunwale — with an "outside berth" and so
more exposed to the cold air. This same lady
was able to distribute more of her wraps to the
passengers, a rug to one, a fur boa to another;
and she has related with amusement that at
the moment of chmbing up the Carpathia's
side, those to whom these articles had been
lent offered them all back to her; but as,
like the rest of us, she was encumbered with
a lifebelt,' she had to say she would receive
them back at the end of the climb. I had not
seen my dressing-gown since I dropped into
the boat, but some time in the night a steer
age passenger found it on the floor and put
it on.
• It is not easy at this time to call to mind
who were in the boat, because in the night it
was not possible to see more than a few feet
away, and when dawn came we had eyes only
for the rescue ship and the icebergs; but so far
as my memory serves the list was as follows:
( 110)

THE SINKING — FROM A LIFEBOAT
no first-class passengers; three women, one
baby, two men from the second cabin; and the
other passengers steerage — mostly women; a
total of about 35 passengers. The rest, about
25 (and possibly more) , were crew and stokers.
Near to me all night was a group of three
Swedish girls, warmly clad, standing close to
gether to keep warm, and very silent; indeed
there was very little talking at any time.
One conversation took place that is, I think,
worth repeating : one more proof that the world
after all is a small place. The ten months' old
baby which was handed down at the last mo
ment was received by a lady next to me — the
same who shared her wraps and coats. The
mother had found a place in the middle and
was too tightly packed to come through to the
child, and so it slept contentedly for about an
hour in a stranger's arms; it then began to cry
and the temporary nurse said: "Will you feel
down and see if the baby's feet are out of the
( 111 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
blanket! I don't know much about babies
but I think their feet must be kept warm."
Wriggling down as well as I could, I found its
toes exposed to the air and wrapped them well
up, when it ceased crying at once : it was evi
dently a successful diagnosis! Having recog
nized the lady by her voice, — it was much too
dark to see faces, — as one of my vis-a-vis at
the purser's table, I said, — "Surely you are
Miss  ?" "Yes," she rephed, "and you
must be Mr. Beesley; how curious we should
find ourselves in the same boat ! " Remember
ing that she had joined the boat at Queens
town, I said, "Do you know Clonmel? a letter
from a great friend of mine who is staying
there at  [giving the address] came
aboard at Queenstown." "Yes, it is my home:
and I was dining at  just before I came
away." It seemed that she knew my friend,
too; and we agreed that of all places in the
world to recognize mutual friends, a crowded
( 112)

THE SINKING — FROM A LIFEBOAT
lifeboat afloat in mid-ocean at 2 a.m. twelve
hundred miles from our destination was one
of the most unexpected.
And all the time, as we watched, the Ti
tanic sank lower and lower by the head and
the angle became wider and wider as the
stern porthole lights lifted and the bow lights
sank, and it was evident she was not to stay
afioat much longer. The captain-stoker now
told the oarsmen to row away as hard as they
could. Two reasons seemed to make this a
wise decision : one that as she sank she would
create such a wave of suction that boats, if
not sucked under by being too near, would be
in danger of being swamped by the wave her
sinking would create — and we all knew our
boat was in no condition to ride big waves,
crowded as it was and manned with untrained
oarsmen. The second was that an explosion
might result from the water getting to the
boilers, and debris might fall within a wide
( 113 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
radius. And yet, as it turned out, neither of
these things happened.
At about 2.15 a.m. I think we were any dis
tance from a mile to two miles away. It is
difficult for a landsman to calculate distance
at sea but we had been afloat an hour and a
half, the boat was heavily loaded, the oars
men unskilled, and our course erratic: follow
ing now one light and now another, some
times a star and sometimes a light from a
port lifeboat which had tumed away from the
Titanic in the opposite direction and lay al
most on our horizon ; and so we could not have
gone very far away.
About this time, the water had crept up
almost to her sidelight and the captain's
bridge, and it seemed a question only of min
utes before she sank. The oarsmen lay on
their oars, and all in the lifeboat were motion
less as we watched her in absolute silence —
save some who would not look and buried
( 114)

THE SINKING — FROM A LIFEBOAT
their heads on each others' shoulders. The
lights still shone with the same brilliance, but
not so many of them: many were now below
the surface. I have often wondered since
whether they continued to light up the cabins
when the portholes were under water; they
may have done so.
And then, as we gazed awe-struck, she tilted
slowly up, revolving apparently about a cen
tre of gravity just astern of amidships, until
she attained a vertically upright position;
and there she remained — motionless! As
she swung up, her lights, which had shone
without a flicker all night, went out suddenly,
came on again for a single flash, then went out
altogether. And as they did so, there came a
noise which many people, wrongly I think,
have described as an explosion; it has always
seemed to me that it was nothing but the en
gines and machinery coming loose from their
bolts and bearings, and falling through the
( 115 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
compartments, smashing everything in their
way. It was partly a roar, partly a groan,
partly a rattle, and partly a smash, and it was
not a sudden roar as an explosion would be:
it went on successively for some seconds, pos
sibly fifteen to twenty, as the heavy machin
ery dropped down to the bottom (now the ,
bows) of the ship: I suppose it fell through the
end and sank first, before the ship. But it was
a noise no one had heard before, and no one
wishes to hear again: it was stupefying, stu
pendous, as it came to us along the water.
It was as if all the heavy things one could
think of had been thrown downstairs from
the top of a house, smashing each other and
the stairs and everything in the way.
Several apparently authentic accounts have
been given, in which definite stories of ex
plosions have been related — in some cases
even with wreckage blown up and the ship
broken in two; but I think such accounts will
( 116)

\ ? t^i^iii.^ i ' ! "'O iS^ lA'-^ i— ^¦''-«-fHi__[ !__;
FIG. 1. LONGITUDINAL SECTION

BI BS
FIG. 2. TANK TOP

BI, B2, etc, Bulkheads

(  SfCO/VO CL/JSS

ir-¥c«ff *s ' ri KST

FIG. 3. BOAT DECK

in

THE SINKING — FROM A LIFEBOAT
not stand close analysis. In the first place
the fires had been withdrawn and the steam
allowed to escape some time before she sank,
and the possibility of explosion from this
cause seems very remote. Then, as just re
lated, the noise was not sudden and definite,
but prolonged — more like the roll and crash
of thunder. The probability of the noise
being caused by engines falling down will be
seen by referring to Figure 2, page 116, where
the engines are placed in compartments 3, 4,
and 5. As the Titanic tilted up they would
almost certainly fall loose from their bed and
plunge down through the other compartments.
No phenomenon like that pictured in some
American and English papers occurred — that
of the ship breaking in two, and the two ends
being raised above the surface. I saw these
drawings in preparation on board the Car
pathia, and said at the time that they bore
no resemblance to what actually happened.
( 117)

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
When the noise was over the Titanic was
still upright like a column: we could see her
now only as the stem and some 150 feet of her
stood outlined against the star-specked sky,
looming black in the darkness, and in this
position she continued for some minutes — I
think as much as five minutes, but it may
have been less. Then, first sinking back a
little at the stem, I thought, she slid slowly
forwards through the water and dived slant
ingly down; the sea closed over her and we
had seen the last of the beautiful ship on
which we had embarked four days before at
Southampton. And in place of the ship on which all our
interest had been concentrated for so long
and towards which we looked most of the
time because it was still the only object on the
sea which was a fixed point to us — in place
of the Titanic, we had the level sea now
stretching in an unbroken expanse to the
(118)

THE SINKING — FROM A LIFEBOAT
horizon : heaving gently just as before, with no
indication on the surface that the waves had
just closed over the most wonderful vessel
ever built by man's hand; the stars looked
down just the same and the air was just as
bitterly cold.
There seemed a great sense of loneliness
when we were left on the sea in a small boat
without the Titanic: not that we were un
comfortable (except for the cold) nor in dan
ger: we did not think we were either, but the
Titanic was no longer there.
We waited head on for the wave which we
thought might come — the wave we had heard
so much of from the crew and which they said
had been known to travel for miles — and it
never came. But although the Titanic left
us no such legacy of a wave as she went to
the bottom, she left us something we would
willingly forget forever, something which it is
well not to let the imagination dwell on — the
(119)

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
cries of many hundreds of our fellow-passen
gers struggling in the ice-cold water.
I would willingly omit any further mention
of this part of the disaster from this book, but
for two reasons it is not possible — first, that
as a matter of history it should be put on
record; and secondly, that these cries were not
only an appeal for help in the awful condi
tions of danger in which the drowning found
themselves, — an appeal that could never be
answered, — but an appeal to the whole world
to make such conditions of danger and hope
lessness impossible ever again; a cry that
called to the heavens for the very injustice of
its own existence; a cry that clamoured for its
own destruction.
We were utterly surprised to hear this cry
go up as the waves closed over the Titanic: we
had heard no sound of any kind from her
since we left her side; and, as mentioned be
fore, we did not know how many boats she
( 120 )

THE SINKING — FROM A LIFEBOAT
had or how many rafts. The crew may have
known, but they probably did not, and if they
did, they never told the passengers; we should
not have been surprised to know all were safe
on some life-saving device.
So that unprepared as we were for such a
thing, the cries of the drowning floating across
the quiet sea filled us with stupefaction: we
longed to return and rescue at least some of
the drowning, but we knew it was impossible.
The boat was filled to standing-room, and to
return would mean the swamping of us all,
and so the captain-stoker told his crew to
row away from the cries. We tried to sing to
keep all from thinking of them; but there
was no heart for singing in the boat at that
time. The cries, which were loud and numerous at
first, died away gradually one by one, but the
night was clear, frosty and still, the water
smooth, and the sounds must have carried on
( 121 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
its level surface free from any obstruction for
miles, certainly much farther from the ship
than we were situated. I think the last of
them must have been heard nearly forty
minutes after the Titanic sank. Lifebelts
would keep the survivors afloat for hours; but
the cold water was what stopped the cries.
There must have come to all those safe in
the lifeboats, scattered round the drowning
at various distances, a deep resolve that, if
anything could be done by them in the future
to prevent the repetition of such soimds,
they would do it — at whatever cost of time
or other things. And not only to them are
those cries an imperative call, but to every
man and woman who has known of them.
It is not possible that ever again can such
conditions exist; but it is a duty imperative
on one and all to see that they do not. Think
of it! a few more boats, a few more planks of
wood nailed together in a particular way at
( 122 )

THE SINKING — FROM A LIFEBOAT
a trifling cost, and all those men and women
whom the world can so ill afford to lose would
be with us to-day, there would be no mourning
in thousands of homes which now are desolate,
and these words need not have been written.

CHAPTER V
THE RESCUE
All accounts agree that the Titanic sunk
about 2:20 a.m. : a watch in our boat gave the
time as 2 :30 a.m. shortly afterwards. We were
then in touch with three other boats: one was
15, on our starboard quarter, and the others
I have always supposed were 9 and 11,
but I do not know definitely. We never got
into close touch with each other, but called
occasionally across the darkness and saw them
looming near and then drawing away again;
we called to ask if any officer were aboard
the other three, but did not find one. So in
the absence of any plan of action, we rowed
slowly forward — or what we thought was
forward, for it was in the direction the Ti
tanic's bows were pointing before she sank.
I see now that we must have been pointing
( 124 )

THE RESCUE
northwest, for we presently saw the Northern
Lights on the starboard, and again, when the
Carpathia came up from the south, we saw
her from behind us on the southeast, and
turned our boat around to get to her. I
imagine the boats must have spread them
selves over the ocean fanwise as they es
caped from the Titanic: those on the star
board and port sides forward being almost
dead ahead of her and the stern boats being
broadside from her; this explains why the
port boats were so much longer in reaching
the Carpathia — as late as 8.30 a.m. — while
some of the starboard boats came up as early
as 4.10 A.M. Some of the port boats had to
row across the place where the Titanic sank to
get to the Carpathia, through the debris of
chairs and wreckage of all kinds.
None of the other three boats near us had a
light — and we missed lights badly : we could
not see each other in the darkness; we could
( 125 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
not signal to ships which might be rushing up
full speed from any quarter to the Titanic's
rescue; and now we had been through so much
it would seem hard to have to encounter the
additional danger of being in the line of a
rescuing ship. We felt again for the lantern
beneath our feet, along the sides, and I managed
this time to get down to the locker below the
tiller platform and open it in front by remov
ing a board, to find nothing but the zinc air-
tank which renders the boat imsinkable when
upset. I do not think there was a light in the
boat. We felt also for food and water, and
found none, and came to the conclusion that
none had been put in; but here we were mis
taken. I have a letter from Second Officer
Lightoller in which he assures me that he and
Fourth Officer Pitman examined every life
boat from the Titanic as they lay on the Car
pathia's deck afterwards and found biscuits
and water in each. Not that we wanted any
( 126 )

THE RESCUE
food or water then: we thought of the time
that might elapse before the Olympic picked
us up in the afternoon.
Towards 3 a.m. we saw a faint glow in the
sky ahead on the starboard quarter, the first
gleams, we thought, of the coming dawn. We
were not certain of the time and were eager
perhaps to accept too readily any relief from
darkness — only too glad to be able to look
each other in the face and see who were
our companions in good fortune; to be free
from the hazard of lying in a steamer's
track, invisible in the darkness. But we were
doomed to disappointment : the soft light
increased for a time, and died away a little;
glowed again, and then remained stationary
for some minutes! "The Northern Lights"!
It suddenly came to me, and so it was: pre
sently the light arched fanwise across the
northern sky, with faint streamers reaching
towards the Pole-star. I had seen them of
( 127 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
about the same intensity in England some
years ago and knew them again. A sigh of
disappointment went through the boat as we
realized that the day was not yet; but had we
known it, something more comforting even
than the day was in store for us. All night
long we had watched the horizon with eager
eyes for signs of a steamer's lights; we heard
from the captain-stoker that the first appear
ance would be a single light on the horizon,
the masthead light, followed shortly by a
second one, lower down, on the deck; if these
two remained in vertical alignment and the
distance between them increased as the hghts
drew nearer, we might be certain it was a
steamer. But what a night to see that first
light on the horizon ! We saw it many times
as the earth revolved, and some stars rose on
the clear horizon and others sank down to
it: there were "lights" on every quarter. Some
we watched and followed until we saw the
( 128 )

THE RESCUE
deception and grew wiser; some were lights
from those of our boats that were fortunate
enough to have lanterns, but these were gen
erally easily detected, as they rose and fell in
the near distance. Once they raised our
hopes, only to sink them to zero again. Near
what seemed to be the horizon on the port
quarter we saw two lights close together, and
thought this must be our double light; but as
we gazed across the miles that separated us,
the lights slowly drew apart and we realized
that they were two boats' lanterns at different
distances from us, in line, one behind the
other. They were probably the forward port
boats that had to return so many miles next
morning across the Titanic's graveyard.
But notwithstanding these hopes and dis
appointments, the absence of lights, food and
water (as we thought), and the bitter cold, it
would not be correct to say we were unhappy
in those early morning hours: the cold that
( 129 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
settled down on us like a garment that wraps
close around was the only real discomfort,
and that we could keep at bay by not thinking
too much about it as well as by vigorous fric
tion and gentle stamping on the floor (it made
too much noise to stamp hard !) . I never heard
that any one in boat B had any after effects
from the cold — even the stoker who was so
thinly clad came through without harm.
After all, there were many things to be thank
ful for: so many that they made insignificant
the temporary inconvenience of the cold, the
crowded boat, the darkness and the hundred
and one things that in the ordiaary way we
might regard as unpleasant. The quiet sea,
the beautiful night (how different from two
nights later when flashes of lightning and
peals of thunder broke the sleep of many on
board the Carpathia!), and above all the fact
of being in a boat at all when so many of our
fellow - passengers and crew — whose cries
( 130)

THE RESCUE
no longer moaned across the water to us —
were silent in the water. Gratitude was the
dominant note in our feelings then. But grate
ful as we were, our gratitude was soon to be
increased a hundred fold. About 3.30 a.m.,
as nearly as I can judge, some one in the bow
called our attention to a faint far-away gleam
in the southeast. We all turned quickly to
look and there it was certainly : streaming up
from behind the horizon like a distant flash
of a warship's searchlight; then a faint boom
like guns afar off, and the light died away
again. The stoker who had lain all night under
the tiller sat up suddenly as if from a dream,
the overcoat hanging from his shoulders. I
can see him now, staring out across the sea, to
where the sound had come from, and hear him
shout, "That was a cannon!" But it was
not: it was the Carpathia's rocket, though
we did not know it until later. But we did
know now that something was not far away,
( 131 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
racing up to our help and signalling to us a
preliminary message to cheer our hearts until
she arrived.
With every sense alert, eyes gazing in
tently at the horizon and ears open for the
least sound, we waited in absolute silence
in the quiet night. And then, creeping over
the edge of the sea where the flash had been,
we saw a single light, and presently a second
below it, and in a few minutes they were well
above the horizon and they remained in hne!
But we had been deceived before, and we
waited a little longer [before we allowed our
selves to say we were safe. The hghts came
up rapidly: so rapidly it seemed only a few
minutes (though it must have been longer)
between first seeing them and finding them
well above the horizon and bearing down
rapidly on us. We did not know what sort
of a vessel was coming, but we knew she was
coming quickly, and we searched for paper,
( 132 )

THE RESCUE
rags, ^ anything that would bum (we were
quite prepared to burn our coats if necessary).
A hasty paper torch was twisted out of letters
found in some one's pocket, lighted, and held
aloft by the stoker standing on the tiller
platform. The little light shone in flickers on
the faces of the occupants of the boat, ran in
broken lines for a few yards along the black
oily sea (where for the first time I saw the
presence of that awful thing which had caused
the whole terrible disaster — ice — in little
chunks the size of one's fist, bobbing harm
lessly up and down), and spluttered away to
blackness again as the stoker threw the burn
ing remnants of paper overboard. But had we
known it, the danger of being run down was
already over, one reason being that the Car
pathia had already seen the lifeboat which
all night long had shown a green light, the
first indication the Carpathia had of our
position. But the real reason is to be found
( 133 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
in the Carpathia's log: — "Went full speed
ahead during the night; stopped at 4 a.m.
with an iceberg dead ahead." It was a good
reason. With our torch burnt and La darkness
again we saw the headlights stop, and realized
that the rescuer had hove to. A sigh of rehef
went up when we thought no hurried scramble
had to be made to get out of her way, with
a chance of just being missed by her, and
having to meet the wash of her screws as she
tore by us. We waited and she slowly swung
round and revealed herself to us as a large
steamer with all her portholes ahght. I think
the way those lights came slowly into view
was one of the most wonderful things we shall
ever see. It meant deliverance at once: that
was the amazing thing to us all. We had
thought of the afternoon as our time of rescue,
and here only a few hours after the Titanic
sank, before it was yet light, we were to be
( 134 )

THE RESCUE
taken aboard. It seemed almost too good to
be true, and I think everyone's eyes filled with
tears, men's as well as women's, as they saw
again the rows of lights one above the other
shining kindly to them across the water, and
"Thank God!" was murmured in heartfelt
tones round the boat. The boat swung round
and the crew began their long row to the
steamer; the captain called for a song and led
off with "Pull for the shore, boys." The crew
took it up quaveringly and the passengers
joined in, but I think one verse was all they
sang. It was too early yet, gratitude was too
deep and sudden in its overwhelming inten
sity, for us to sing very steadily. Presently,
finding the song had not gone very well, we
tried a cheer, and that went better. It was
more easy to relieve our feelings with a noise,
and time and tune were not necessary in
gredients in a cheer.
In the midst of our thankfulness for de-
( 135)

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
liverance, one name was mentioned with the
deepest feeling of gratitude: that of Marconi.
I wish that he had been there to hear the
chorus of gratitude that went out to him for
the wonderful invention that spared us many
hours, and perhaps many days, of wandering
about the sea in himger and storm and cold.
Perhaps our gratitude was sufficiently in
tense and vivid to "Marconi" some of it to
him that night.
All around we saw boats making for the
Carpathia and heard their shouts and cheers.
Our crew rowed hard in friendly rivalry with
other boats to be among the first home, but
we must have been eighth or ninth at the
side. We had a heavy load aboard, and had
to row round a huge iceberg on the way.
And then, as if to make everything com
plete for our happiness, came the dawn. First
a beautiful, quiet shimmer away in the east,
then a soft golden glow that crept up stealth-
( 136 )

THE RESCUE
ily from behind the sky-line as if it were try
ing not to be noticed as it stole over the sea
and spread itself quietly in every direction —
so quietly, as if to make us believe it had been
there all the time and we had not observed it.
Then the sky turned faintly pink and in the
distance the thinnest, fleeciest clouds stretched
in thin bands across the horizon and close
down to it, becoming every moment more and
more pink. And next the stars died, slowly,
— save one which remained long after the
others just above the horizon; and near by,
with the crescent turned to the north, and the
lower horn just touching the horizon, the thin
nest, palest of moons.
And with the dawn came a faint breeze from
the west, the first breath of wind we had felt
since the Titanic stopped her engines. Anti
cipating a few hours, — as the day drew on to 8
A.M., the time the last boats came up, — this
breeze increased to a fresh wind which whipped
( 137 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
up the sea, so that the last boat laden with
people had an anxious time in the choppy
waves before they reached the Carpathia. An
officer remarked that one of the boats could
not have stayed afloat another hour: the
wind had held off just long enough.
The captain shouted along our boat to the
crew, as they strained at the oars, — two
pulling and an extra one facing them and
pushing to try to keep pace with the other
boats, — "A new moon! Turn your money
over, boys! That is, if you have any!" We
laughed at him for the quaint superstition at
such a time, and it was good to laugh again,
but he showed his disbelief in another super
stition when he added, "Well, I shall never
say again that 13 is an imlucky number. Boat
13 is the best friend we ever had."
If there had been among us — and it is
almost certain that there were, so fast does
superstition cling — those who feared events
( 138 )

THE RESCUE
connected with the number thirteen, I am
certain they agreed with him, and never
again will they attach any importance to such
a foolish belief. Perhaps the belief itself will
receive a shock when it is remembered that
boat 13 of the Titanic brought away a full
load from the sinking vessel, carried them in
such comfort all night that they had not even
a drop of water on them, and landed them
safely at the Carpathia's side, where they
climbed aboard without a single mishap. It
almost tempts one to be the thirteenth at
table, or to choose a house numbered 13 fear
less of any croaking about flying in the face
of what is humorously called "Providence."
Looking towards the Carpathia in the faint
light, we saw what seemed to be two large
fully rigged sailing ships near the horizon,
with all sails set, standing up near her, and we
decided that they must be fishing vessels off
the Banks of Newfoundland which had seen
( 139 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
the Carpathia stop and were waiting to see if
she wanted help of any kind. But in a few
minutes more the light shone on them and
they stood revealed as huge icebergs, peaked
in a way that readily suggest-ed a ship. When
the sun rose higher, it tumed them pink, and
sinister as they looked towering hke rugged
white peaks of rock out of the sea, and terrible
as was the disaster one of them had caused,
there was an awful beauty about them which
could not be overlooked. Later, when the sun
came above the horizon, they sparkled and
glittered ia its rays; deadly white, hke frozen
snow rather than translucent ice.
As the dawn crept towards us there lay an
other almost directly in the line between our
boat and the Carpathia, and a few minutes
later, another on her port quarter, and more
again on the southern and western horizons,
as far as the eye could reach: all differing in
shape and size and tones of colour according
( 140 )

THE RESCUE
as the sun shone through them or was reflected
directly or obliquely from them.
We drew near our rescuer and presently
could discern the bands on her funnel, by
which the crew could tell she was a Cunarder;
and already some boats were at her side and
passengers climbing up her ladders. We had
to give the iceberg a wide berth and make a
detour to the south: we knew it was sunk a
long way below the surface with such things
as projecting ledges — not that it was very
likely there was one so near the surface as to
endanger our small boat, but we were not
inclined to take any risks for the sake of a few
more minutes when safety lay so near.
Once clear of the berg, we could read the
Cunarder's name — C ARPATHIA — a
name we are not likely ever to forget. We
shall see her sometimes, perhaps, in the ship
ping lists, — as I have done already once when
she left Genoa on her return voyage, — and
( 141 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
the way her lights climbed up over the hori
zon in the darkness, the way she swung and
showed her lighted portholes, and the moment
when we read her name on her side will all
come back ia a flash; we shall hve again the
scene of rescue, and feel the same thrill of
gratitude for all she brought us that night.
We rowed up to her about 4.30, and shelter
ing on the port side from the swell, held on by
two ropes at the stem and bow. Women went
up the side first, climbing rope ladders with
a noose round their shoulders to help their
ascent; men passengers scrambled next, and
the crew last of all. The baby went up in a
bag with the opening tied up: it had been
quite well all the time, and never suffered any
ill effects from its cold journey in the night.
We set foot on deck with very thankful
hearts, grateful beyond the possibihty of ade
quate expression to feel a sohd ship beneath
us once more.

CHAPTER VI
THE SINKING OP THE TITANIC SEEN PROM
HER DECK
The two preceding chapters have been to a
large extent the narrative of a single eye
witness and an account of the escape of one
boat only from the Titanic's side. It will be
well now to return to the Titanic and recon
struct a more general and complete account
from the experiences of many people in dif
ferent parts of the ship. A considerable part
of these experiences was related to the writer
first hand by survivors, both on board the
Carpathia and at other times, but some are
derived from other sources which are prob
ably as accurate as first-hand information.
Other reports, which seemed at first sight to
have been founded on the testimony of eye
witnesses, have been found on examination to
( 143 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
have passed through several hands, and have
therefore been rejected. The testimony even
of eye-witnesses has in some cases been ex
cluded when it seemed not to agree with direct
evidence of a number of other witnesses or
with what reasoned judgment considered
probable in the circumstances. In this cate
gory are the reports of explosions before the
Titanic sank, the breaking of the ship in two
parts, the suicide of officers. It would be well
to notice here that the Titanic was in her cor
rect course, the southerly one, and in the
position which prudence dictates as a safe
one under the ordinary conditions at that time
of the year: to be strictly accurate she was
sixteen miles south of the regular summer
route which all companies follow from Jan
uary to August.
Perhaps the real history of the disaster
should commence with the afternoon of Sun
day, when Marconigrams were received by
( 144 )

THE SINKING — FROM THE DECK
the Titanic from the ships ahead of her, warn
ing her of the existence of icebergs. In con
nection with this must be taken the marked
fall of temperature observed by everyone in
the afternoon and evening of this day as well
as the very low temperature of the water.
These have generally been taken to indicate
that without any possibility of doubt we were
near an iceberg region, and the severest con
demnation has been poured on the heads of
the officers and captain for not having regard
to these climatic conditions; but here caution
is necessary. There can be little doubt now
that the low temperature observed can be
traced to the icebergs and ice-field subse
quently encountered, but experienced sailors
are aware that it might have been observed
without any icebergs being near. The cold
Labrador current sweeps down by Newfound
land across the track of Atlantic liners, but
does not necessarily carry icebergs with it;
( 145 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
cold winds blow from Greenland and Labra
dor and not always from icebergs and ice
fields. So that falls in temperature of sea and
air are not prima facie evidence of the close
proximity of icebergs. On the other hand, a
single iceberg separated by many miles from
its fellows might sink a ship, but certainly
would not cause a drop in temperature either
of the air or water. Then, as the Labrador
current meets the warm Gulf Stream flowing
from the Gulf of Mexico across to Europe,
they do not necessarily intermingle, nor do
they always run side by side or one on top of
the other, but often interlaced, like the fingers
of two hands. As a ship sails across this region
the thermometer will record within a few
miles temperatures of 34°, 58°, 35°, 59°, and
so on.
It is little wonder then that sailors become
accustomed to place little reliance on temper
ature conditions as a means of estimating
( 146 )

THE SINKING — FROM THE DECK
the probabilities of encountering ice in their
track. An experienced sailor has told me that
nothing is more difficult to diagnose than the
presence of icebergs, and a strong confirma
tion of this is found in the official sailing direc
tions issued by the Hydrographic Department
of the British Admiralty. "No rehance can
be placed on any warning being conveyed to
the mariner, by a fall in temperature, either of
sea or air, of approaching ice. Some decrease
in temperature has occasionally been re
corded, but more often none has been ob
served." But notification by Marconigram of the
exact location of icebergs is a vastly different
matter. I remember with deep feeling the
effect this information had on us when it first
becaiiie generally known on board the Car
pathia. Rumours of it went round on Wednes
day morning, grew to definite statements in
the afternoon, and were confirmed when one
( 147)

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
of the Titanic officers admitted the truth of it
in reply to a direct question. I shall never
forget the overwhelming sense of hopeless
ness that came over some of us as we obtained
definite knowledge of the warning messages.
It was not then the unavoidable accident we
had hitherto supposed: the sudden plungiag
into a region crowded with icebergs which no
seaman, however skilled a navigator he might
be, could have avoided! The beautiful Ti
tanic wounded too deeply to recover, the cries
of the drowning still ringing in our ears and
the thousands of homes that mourned all
these calamities — none of all these things
need ever have been!
It is no exaggeration to say that men who
went through all the experiences of the col
lision and the rescue and the subsequent
scenes on the quay at New York with hardly
a tremor, were quite overcome by this know
ledge and turned away, unable to speak;
( 148 )

THE SINKING — FROM THE DECK
I for one, did so, and I know others who
told me they were similarly affected.
I think we all came to modify our opinions
on this matter, however, when we learnt more
of the general conditions attending trans-At
lantic steamship services. The discussion as
to who was responsible for these warnings be
ing disregarded had perhaps better be post
poned to a later chapter. One of these warn
ings was handed to Mr. Ismay by Captain
Smith at 5 p.m. and returned at the latter's
request at 7 p.m., that it might be posted forthe
information of officers; as a result of the mes
sages they were instructed to keep a special
lookout for ice. This, Second Officer Light
oller did until he was relieved at 10 p.m. by
First Officer Murdock, to whom he handed
on the instructions. During Mr. LightoUer's
watch, about 9 p.m., the captain had joined
him on the bridge and discussed "the time
we should be getting up towards the vicinity
( 149 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
of the ice, and how we should recognize it if
we should see it, and refreshing our minds on
the indications that ice gives when it is ia the
vicinity." Apparently, too, the officers had
discussed among themselves the proximity of
ice and Mr. Lightoller had remarked that they
would be approaching the position where ice
had been reported during his watch. The
lookouts were cautioned similarly, but no
ice was sighted until a few minutes before the
collision, when the lookout man saw the ice
berg and rang the bell three times, the usual
signal from the crow's nest when anything is
seen dead-ahead.
By telephone he reported to the bridge the
presence of an iceberg, but Mr. Murdock had
already ordered Quartermaster Hichens at
the wheel to starboard the helm, and the ves
sel began to swing away from the berg. But
it was far too late at the speed she was going
to hope to steer the huge Titanic, over a sixth
( 150 )

THE SINKING — FROM THE DECK
of a mile long, out of reach of danger. Even
if the iceberg had been visible half a mile away
it is doubtful whether some portion of her tre
mendous length would not have been touched,
and it is in the highest degree unlikely that
the lookout could have seen the berg half a
mile away in the conditions that existed that
night, even with glasses. The very smooth
ness of the water made the presence of ice
a more difficult matter to detect. In ordinary
conditions the dash of the waves against the
foot of an iceberg surrounds it with a circle of
white foam visible for some distance, long
before the iceberg itself; but here was an
oily sea sweeping smoothly round the deadly
monster and causing no indication of its
presence. There is little doubt, moreover, that the
crow's nest is not a good place from which to
detect icebergs. It is proverbial that they
adopt to a large extent the colour of their
( 151 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
surroundings; and seen from above at a high
angle, with the black, foam-free sea behind,
the iceberg must have been almost invisible
until the Titanic was close upon it. I was
much struck by a remark of Sir Ernest Shack-
leton on his method of detecting icebergs —
to place a lookout man as low down near the
water-line as he could get him. Remembering
how we had watched the Titanic with all her
lights out, standing upright like "an enormous
black finger," as one observer stated, and had
only seen her thus because she loomed black
against the sky behind her, I saw at once how
much better the sky was than the black sea to
show up an iceberg's bulk.
And so in a few moments the Titanic had
run obliquely on the berg, and with a shock
that was astonishingly slight — so slight that
many passengers never noticed it — the sub
merged portion of the berg had cut her open
on the starboard side in the most vulnerable
( 152 )

THE SINKING — FROM THE DECK
portion of her anatomy — the bilge.'^ The
most authentic accounts say that the wound
began at about the location of the foremast
and extended far back to the stern, the brunt
of the blow beiog taken by the forward plates,
which were either punctured through both
bottoms directly by the blow, or through one
skin only, and as this was torn away it ripped
out some of the inner plates. The fact that she
went down by the head shows that probably
only the forward plates were doubly punc
tured, the stern ones being cut open through
the outer skin only. After the collision, Mur
dock had at once reversed the engines and
brought the ship to a standstill, but the ice
berg had floated away astern. The shock,
though little felt by the enormous mass of the
ship, was sufficient to dislodge a large quantity
of ice from the berg: the forecastle deck was
found to be covered with pieces of ice.
' See Figure 4, page 50.
( 153 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
Feeling the shock. Captain Smith rushed
out of his cabin to the bridge, and in reply to
his anxious enquiry was told by Murdock that
ice had been struck and the emergency doors
instantly closed. The officers roused by the
collision went on deck: some to the bridge;
others, while hearing nothing of the extent of
the damage, saw no necessity for doing so.
Captain Smith at once sent the carpenter be
low to sound the ship, and Fourth Officer Box-
hall to the steerage to report damage. The
latter found there a very dangerous condition
of things and reported to Captain Smith, who
then sent him to the mail-room ; and here again,
it was easy to see, matters looked very serious.
Mail-bags were floating about and the water
rising rapidly. All this was reported to the
captain, who ordered the lifeboats to be got
ready at once. Mr. Boxhall went to the chart-
room to work out the ship's position, which
he then handed to the Marconi operators for
( 154 )

THE SINKING — FROM THE DECK
transmission to any ship near enough to help
in the work of rescue.
Reports of the damage done were by this
time coming to the captain from many quar
ters, from the chief engineer, from the de
signer, — Mr. Andrews, — and in a dramatic
way from the sudden appearance on deck of a
swarm of stokers who had rushed up from be
low as the water poured into the boiler-rooms
and coal-bunkers: they were immediately or
dered do wn below to duty again . Realizing the
urgent heed of help, he went personally to the
Marconi room and gave orders to the opera
tors to get into touch with all the ships they
could and to tell them to come quickly. The
assistant operator Bride had been asleep, and
knew of the damage only when Phillips, in
charge of the Marconi room, told him ice had
been encountered. They started to send out
the well-known "C.Q.D." message, — which
interpreted means: C.Q. "all stations at-
( 155 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
tend," and D, "distress," the position of the
vessel in latitude and longitude following.
Later, they sent out " S.O.S.," an arbitrary
message agreed upon as an international code-
signal. Soon after the vessel struck, Mr. Ismay had
learnt of the nature of the accident from the
captain and chief engineer, and after dressing
and going on deck had spoken to some of the
officers not yet thoroughly acquainted with
the grave injury done to the vessel. By this
time all those in any way connected with the
management and navigation must have known
the importance of making use of all the ways
of safety known to them — and that without
any delay. That they thought at first that the
Titanic would sink as soon as she did is doubt
ful; but probably as the reports came in they
knew that her ultimate loss in a few hours was
a likely contingency. On the other hand, there
is evidence that some of the officers in charge
( 156)

THE SINKING — FROM THE DECK
of boats quite expected the embarkation was
a precautionary measure and they would all
return after daylight. Certainly the first in
formation that ice had been struck conveyed
to those in charge no sense of the gravity of
the circumstances : one officer even retired to
his cabin and another advised a steward to go
back to his berth as there was no danger.
And so the order was sent round, "All pas
sengers on deck with lifebelts on "; and in obe
dience to this a crowd of hastily dressed or
partially dressed people began to assemble
on the decks belonging to their respective
classes (except the steerage passengers who
were allowed access to other decks), tying
on lifebelts over their clothing. In some parts
of the ship women were separated from the
men and assembled together near the boats,
in others men and women mingled freely to
gether, husbands helping their own wives and
families and then other women and children
( 157)

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
into the boats. The officers spread themselves
about the decks, superintendiag the work of
lowering and loading the boats, and in three
cases were ordered by their superior officers to
take charge of them. At this stage great diffi
culty was experienced in getting women to
leave the ship, especially where the order was
so rigorously enforced, "Women and child
ren only." Women in many cases refused to
leave their husbands, and were actually for
cibly lifted up and dropped in the boats. They
argued with the officers, demanding reasons,
and in some cases even when induced to get
in were disposed to think the whole thing a
joke, or a precaution which it seemed to them
rather foolish to take. In this they were en
couraged by the men left behind, who, ia the
same condition of ignorance, said good-bye to
their friends as they went down, adding that
they would see them again at breakfast-time.
To illustrate further how little danger was ap-
( 158 )

THE SINKING — FROM THE DECK
prehended — when it was discovered on the
first-class deck that the forward lower deck was
covered with small ice, snowballing matches
were arranged for the following morning, and
some passengers even went down to the deck
and brought back small pieces of ice which
were handed round.
Below decks too was additional evidence
that no one thought of immediate danger.
Two ladies walking along one of the corridors
came across a group of people gathered round
a door which they were trying vainly to open,
and on the other side of which a man was de
manding in loud terms to be let out. Either his
door was locked and the key not to be found,
or the collision had jammed the lock and
prevented the key from turning. The ladies
thought he must be afflicted in some way to
make such a noise, but one of the men was
assuring him that in no circumstances should
he be left, and that his (the bystander's) son
( 159 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
would be along soon and would smash down
his door if it was not opened in the mean time.
"He has a stronger arm than I have," he
added. The son arrived presently and pro
ceeded to make short work of the door: it was
smashed in and the inmate released, to his
great satisfaction and with many expressions
of gratitude to his rescuer. But one of the
head stewards who came up at this juncture
was so incensed at the damage done to the
property of his company, and so httle aware
of the infinitely greater damage done the ship,
that he warned the man who had released the
prisoner that he would be arrested on arrival
in New York.
It must be borne in mind that no general
warning had been issued to passengers: here
and there were experienced travellers to whom
collision with an iceberg was sufficient to
cause them to make every preparation for
leaving the ship, but the great majority were
( 160)

THE SINKING — FROM THE DECK
never enlightened as to the amount of damage
done, or even as to what had happened. We
knew in a vague way that we had collided with
an iceberg, but there our knowledge ended, and
most of us drew no deductions from that fact
alone. Another factor that prevented some
from taking to the boats was the drop to the
water below and the journey into the unknown
sea: certainly it looked a tremendous way
down in the darkness, the sea and the night
both seemed very cold and lonely; and here
was the ship, so firm and well lighted and
warm. But perhaps what made so many people
declare their decision to remain was their
strong belief in the theory of the Titanic's
unsinkable construction. Again and again
was it repeated, "This ship cannot sink; it is
only a question of waiting until another ship
comes up and takes us off." Husbands ex
pected to follow their wives and join them
(161 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
either in New York or by transfer in mid-
ocean from steamer to steamer. Many pas
sengers relate that they were told by officers
that the ship was a lifeboat and could not go
down; one lady affirms that the captain told
her the Titanic could not sink for two or
three days; no doubt this was immediately
after the collision.
It is not any wonder, then, that many
elected to remain, deliberately choosing the
deck of the Titanic to a place in a hfeboat.
And yet the boats had to go down, and so
at first they went half -full: this is the real
explanation of why they were not as fully
loaded as the later ones. It is important then
to consider the question how far the captain
was justified in withholding all the know
ledge he had from every passenger. From one
point of view he should have said to them,
"This ship will sink in a few hours: there are
the boats, and only women and children can
( 162 )

THE SINKING — FROM THE DECK
go to them." But had he the authority to
enforce such an order? There are such things
as panics and rushes which get beyond the
control of a handful of officers, even if armed,
and where even the bravest of men get swept
off their feet — mentally as well as physically.
On the other hand, if he decided to with
hold all definite knowledge of danger from all
passengers and at the same time persuade —
and if it was not sufficient, compel — women
and children to take to the boats, it might
result in their all being saved. He could not
foresee the tenacity of their faith in the boat:
there is ample evidence that he left the bridge
when the ship had come to rest and went
among passengers urging them to get into the
boat and rigorously excluding all but women
and children. Some would not go. Officer
Lowe testified that he shouted, "Who's next
for the boat? " and could get no replies. The
boats even were sent away half-loaded, —
( 163 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
although the fear of their buckling in the
middle was responsible as well for this, — but
the captain with the few boats at his disposal
could hardly do more than persuade and
advise in the terrible circumstances in which
he was placed.
How appalling to think that with a few
more boats — and the ship was provided
with that particular kind of davit that would
launch more boats — there would have been
no decision of that kind to make! It could
have been stated plainly: "This ship will sink
in a few hours : there is room in the boats for
all passengers, beginning with women and
children." Poor Captain Smith! I care not whether
the responsibility for such speed in iceberg
regions will rest on his shoulders or not: no
man ever had to make such a choice as he had
that night, and it seems difficult to see how he
can be blamed for withholding from passen-
( 164 )

THE SINKING — FROM THE DECK
gers such information as he had of the danger
that was imminent.
When one reads in the Press that lifeboats
arrived at the Carpathia half full, it seems at
first sight a dreadful thing that this should
have been allowed to happen; but it is so easy
to make these criticisms afterwards, so easy
to say that Captain Smith should have told
everyone of the condition of the vessel. He
was faced with many conditions that night
which such criticism overlooks. Let any fair-
minded person consider some few of the pre
blems presented to him — the ship was bound
to sink in a few hours; there was lifeboat ac
commodation for all women and children and
some men; there was no way of getting some
women to go except by telling them the ship
was doomed, a course he deemed it best not
to take; and he knew the danger of boats
buckliag when loaded full. His solution of
these problems was apparently the following :
( 165 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
— to send the boats down half full, with such
women as would go, and to tell the boats to
stand by to pick up more passengers passed
down from the cargo ports. There is good
evidence that this was part of the plan : I heard
an officer give the order to four boats and a
lady in number 4 boat on the port side tells me
the sailors were so long looking for the port
where the captain personally had told them
to wait, that they were in danger of being
sucked under by the vessel. How far any
systematic attempt was made to stand by the
ports, I do not know: I never saw one open
or any boat standing near on the starboard
side; but then, boats 9 to 15 went down full,
and on reaching the sea rowed away at once.
There is good evidence, then, that Captain
Smith fully intended to load the boats full
in this way. The failure to carry out the
intention is one of the things the whole
world regrets, but consider again the great
( 166 )

THE SINKING — FROM THE DECK
size of the ship and the short time to make
decisions, and the omission is more easily
understood. The fact is that such a contin
gency as lowering away boats was not even
considered beforehand, and there is much
cause for gratitude that as many as seven
hundred and five people were rescued. The
whole question of a captain's duties seems
to require revision. It was totally impossible
for any one man to attempt to control the
ship that night, and the weather conditions
could not well have been more favourable for
doing so. One of the reforms that seem in
evitable is that one man shall be responsible
for the boats, their manning, loading and
lowering, leaving the captain free to be on
the bridge to the last moment.
But to return for a time to the means taken
to attract the notice of other ships. The wire
less operators were now in touch with several
ships, and calling to them to come quickly for
( 167 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
the water was pouring in and the Titanic be
ginning to go down by the head. Bride testi
fied that the first reply received was from
a German boat, the Frankfurt, which was:
"All right: stand by," but not giving her
position. From comparison of the strength
of signals received from the Frankfurt and
from other boats, the operators estimated the
Frankfurt was the nearest; but subsequent
events proved that this was not so. She was,
in fact, one hundred and forty miles away
and arrived at 10.50 a.m. next moming, when
the Carpathia had left with the rescued. The
next reply was from the Carpathia, fifty-
eight miles away on the outbound route to
the Mediterranean, and it was a prompt and
welcome one — "Coming hard," followed by
the position. Then followed the Olympic, and
with her they talked for some time, but she
was five hundred and sixty miles away on the
southern route, too far to be of any immediate
( 168 )

THE SINKING — FROM THE DECK
help. At the speed of 23 knots she would ex
pect to be up about 1 p.m. next day, and this
was about the time that those in boat 13 had
calculated. We had always assumed in the
boat that the stokers who gave this inform
ation had it from one of the officers before
they left; but in the absence of any knowledge
of the much nearer ship, the Carpathia, it is
more probable that they knew in a general
way where the sister ship, the Olympic, should
be, and had made a rough calculation-
Other ships in touch by wireless were the
Mount Temple, fifty miles; the Birma, one
hundred miles; the Parisian, one hundred and
fifty miles; the Virginian, one hundred and
fifty miles ; and the Baltic, three hundred miles.
But closer than any of these — closer even
than the Carpathia — were two ships: the
Califomian, less than twenty miles away, with
the wireless operator off duty and unable to
catch the "C.Q.D." signal which was now
( 169 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
making the air for many miles around quiver
in its appeal for help — immediate, urgent
help — for the hundreds of people who stood
on the Titanic's deck.
The second vessel was a small steamer some
few miles ahead on the port side, without any
wireless apparatus, her name and destination
still unknown; and yet the evidence for her
presence that night seems too strong to be
disregarded. Mr. Boxhall states that he and
Captain Smith saw her quite plainly some five
miles away, and could distinguish the mast
head lights and a red port light. They at once
hailed her with rockets and Morse electric
signals, to which Boxhall saw no reply, but
Captain Smith and stewards affirmed they
did. The second and third officers saw the
signals sent and her lights, the latter from the
lifeboat of which he was in charge. Seaman
Hopkins testified that he was told by the
captain to row for the light; and we in boat
( 170)

THE SINKING — FROM THE DECK
13 certainly saw it in the same position and
rowed towards it for some time. But notwith
standing all the efforts made to attract its
attention, it drew slowly away and the lights
sank below the horizon.
The pity of it ! So near, and so many people
waiting for the shelter its decks could have
given so easily. It seems impossible to think
that this ship ever replied to the signals : those
who said so must have been mistaken. The
United State Senate Committee in its re
port does not hesitate to say that this un
known steamer and the Californian are iden
tical, and that the failure on the part of the
latter to come to the help of the Titanic is
culpable negligence. There is undoubted
evidence that some of the crew on the Cali
fornian saw our rockets; but it seems impos
sible to believe that the captain and officers
knew of our distress and deliberately ignored
it. Judgment on the matter had better be
( 171 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
suspended until further information is forth
coming. An engineer who has served ia the
trans-Atlantic service tells me that it is a
common practice for small boats to leave the
fishing smacks to which they belong and row
away for miles; sometimes even being lost
and wandering about among icebergs, and
even not being found again. In these circum
stances, rockets are part of a fishing smack's
equipment, and are sent up to indicate to the
small boats how to return. Is it conceivable
that the Californian thought our rockets were
such signals, and therefore paid no attention
to them?
Incidentally, this engineer did not hesitate to
add that it is doubtful if a big liner would stop
to help a small fishing-boat sending off distress
signals, or even would turn about to help one
which she herself had cut down as it lay in her
path without a light. He was strong in his
affirmation that such things were commonly
( 172 )

THE SINKING — FROM THE DECK
known to all officers in the trans -Atlantic
service. With regard to the other vessels in wireless
communication, the Mount Temple was the
only one near enough from the point of dis
tance to have arrived in time to be of help,
but between her and the Titanic lay the
enormous ice-floe, and icebergs were near her
in addition.
The seven ships which caught the message
started at once to her help but were all stopped
on the way (except the Birma) by the Car
pathia's wireless announcing the fate of the
Titanic and the people aboard her. The mes
sage must have affected the captains of these
ships very deeply : they would understand far
better than the travelling public what it
meant to lose such a beautiful ship on her first
voyage. The only thing now left to be done was to
get the lifeboats away as quickly as possible,
( 173 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
and to this task the other officers were in
the meantime devoting all their endeavours.
Mr. Lightoller sent away boat after boat:
in one he had put twenty-four women and
children, in another thirty, in another thirty-
five; and then, running short of seamen to man
the boats he sent Major Peuchen, an expert
yachtsman, in the next, to help with its navi
gation. By the time these had been filled,
he had difficulty in finding women for the
fifth and sixth boats for the reasons already
stated. All this time the passengers re
mained — to use his own expression — "as quiet
as if in church." To man and supervise the
loading of six boats must have taken him
nearly up to the time of the Titanic's sinking,
taking an average of some twenty minutes to
a boat. Still at work to the end, he remained on
the ship till she sank and went down with her.
His evidence before the United States Com
mittee was as follows: "Did you leave the
( 174 )

THE SINKING — FROM THE DECK
ship?" "No,su:." "Did the ship leave you?"
"Yes, sir."
It was a piece of work welland cleanly done,
and his escape from the ship, one of the most
wonderful of all, seems almost a reward for his
devotion to duty.
Captain Smith, Officers Wilde and Murdock
were similarly engaged in other parts of the
ship, urging women to get in the boats, in
some cases directing junior officers to go down
in some of them, — Officers Pitman, Boxhall,
and Lowe were sent in this way, — in others
placing members of the crew in charge. As the
boats were lowered, orders were shouted to
them where to make for: some were told to
stand by and wait for further instructions,
others to row for the light of the disappearing
steamer. It is a pitiful thing to recall the effects of
sending down the first boats half full. In some
cases men in the company of their wives had
( 175 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
actually taken seats in the boats — young
men, married only a few weeks and on their
wedding trip — and had done so only because
no more women could then be found; but the
strict interpretation by the particular officer
in charge there of the rule of "Women and
children only," compelled them to get out
again. Some of these boats were lowered and
reached the Carpathia with many vacant
seats. The anguish of the young wives in such
circumstances can only be imagined. In other
parts of the ship, however, a different inter
pretation was placed on the rule, and men were
allowed and even invited by officers to get in
— not only to form part of the crew, but even
as passengers. This, of course, in the first boats
and when no more women could be found.
The varied understanding of this rule was
a frequent subject of discussion on the Car
pathia — in fact, the rule itself was debated
with much heart-searching. There were not
( 176)

THE SINKING — FROM THE DECK
wanting many who doubted the justice of its
rigid enforcement, who could not think it well
that a husband should be separated from his
wife and family, leaving them penniless, or a
young bridegroom from his wife of a few short
weeks, while ladies with few relatives, with
no one dependent upon them, and few re
sponsibilities of any kind, were saved. It was
mostly these ladies who pressed this view,
and even men seemed to think there was a
good deal to be said for it. Perhaps there is,
theoretically, but it would be impossible, I
think, in practice. To quote Mr. Lightoller
again in his evidence before the United States
Senate Committee, — when asked if it was a
rule of the sea that women and children be
saved first, he replied, " No, it is a rule of human
nature." That is no doubt the real reason for
its existence.
But the selective process of circumstances
brought about results that were very bitter to
( 177)

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
some. It was heartrending for ladies who had
lost all they held dearest in the world to hear
that in one boat was a stoker picked up out of
the sea so drunk that he stood up and bran
dished his arms about, and had to be thrown
down by ladies and sat upon to keep him quiet.
If comparisons can be drawn, it did seem
better that an educated, refined man should
be saved than one who had flown to drink as
his refuge in time of danger.
These discussions turned sometimes to the
old enquiry — "What is the purpose of all
this? Why the disaster? Why this man saved
and that man lost? Who has arranged that
my husband should live a few short happy
years in the world, and the happiest days in
those years with me these last few weeks, and
then be taken from me?" I heard no one
attribute all this to a Divine Power who or
dains and arranges the lives of men, and as
part of a definite scheme sends such calamity
( 178 )

THE SINKING — FROM THE DECK
and misery in order to purify, to teach, to
spiritualize. I do not say there were not people
who thought and said they saw Divine Wisdom
in it all, — so inscrutable that we in our ig
norance saw it not; but I did not hear it ex
pressed, and this book is intended to be no
more than a partial chronicle of the many
different experiences and convictions.
There were those, on the other hand, who
did not fail to say emphatically that indif
ference to the rights and feelings of others,
blindness to duty towards our fellow men and
women, was in the last analysis the cause of
most of the human misery in the world. And
it should undoubtedly appeal more to our
sense of justice to attribute these things to
our own lack of consideration for others than to
shift the responsibility on to a Power whom
we first postulate as being All-wise and All-
loving. All the boats were lowered and sent away by
( 179 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
about 2 A.M., and by this time the ship was very
low in the water, the forecastle deck com
pletely submerged, and the sea creeping stead
ily up to the bridge and probably only a few
yards away.
No one on the ship can have had any doubt
now as to her ultimate fate, and yet the fifteen
hundred passengers and crew on board made
no demonstration, and not a sound came from
them as they stood quietly on the decks or
went about their duties below. It seems in
credible, and yet if it was a continuation of the
same feeling that existed on deck before the
boats left, — and I have no doubt it was, —
the explanation is straightforward and rea
sonable in its simplicity. An attempt is made
in the last chapter to show why the attitude
of the crowd was so quietly courageous. There
are accounts which picture excited crowds
running about the deck in terror, fighting
and struggling, but two of the most accurate
( 180 )

THE SINKING — FROM THE DECK
observers. Colonel Gracie and Mr. Lightoller,
affirm that this was not so, that absolute
order and quietness prevailed. The band still
played to cheer the hearts of all near; the
engineers and their crew — I have never
heard any one speak of a single engineer being
seen on deck — still worked at the electric
light engines, far away below, keeping them
going until no human being could do so a
second longer, right until the ship tilted on
end and the engines broke loose and fell down.
The light failed then only because the engines
were no longer there to produce light, not
because the men who worked them were not
standing by them to do their duty. To be
down in the bowels of the ship, far away
from the deck, where at any rate there was
a chance of a dive and a swim and a possible
rescue; to know that when the ship went — as
they knew it must soon — there could be no
possible hope of climbing up in time to reach
( 181 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
the sea ; to know all these things and yet to
keep the engines going that the decks might
be lighted to the last moment, required sub
lime courage.
But this courage is required of every engi
neer and it is not called by that name: it is
called "duty." To stand by his engines to the
last possible moment is his duty. There could
be no better example of the supremest courage
being but duty well done than to remember the
engineers of the Titanic still at work as she
heeled over and flung them with their engines
down the length of the ship. The simple
statement that the hghts kept on to the last
is really their epitaph, but Lowell's words
would seem to apply to them with pecuhar
force —
"The longer on this earth we live
And weigh the various qualities of men —
The more we feel the high, stern-featured beauty
Of plain devotedness to duty.
( 182 )

THE SINKING — FROM THE DECK
" Steadfast and still, nor paid with mortal praise,
But finding amplest recompense
For life's ungarlanded es^pense
In work done squarely and unwasted days."
For some time before she sank, the Titanic
had a considerable list to port, so much so that
one boat at any rate swung so far away from
the side that difficulty was experienced in
getting passengers in. This list was increased
towards the end, and Colonel Gracie relates
that Mr. Lightoller, who has a deep, power
ful voice, ordered all passengers to the star
board side. This was close before the end.
They crossed over, and as they did so a crowd
of steerage passengers rushed up and filled
the decks so full that there was barely room
to move. Soon afterwards the great vessel
swung slowly, stern in the air, the lights went
out, and while some were flung into the water
and others dived off, the great majority still
clung to the rails, to the sides and roofs of
( 183 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
deck-structures, lying prone on the deck. And
in this position they were when, a few minutes
later, the enormous vessel dived obhquely
downwards. As she went, no doubt many still
clung to the rails, but most would do their best
to get away from her and jump as she sUd
forwards and downwards. Whatever they did,
there can be little question that most of them
would be taken down by suction, to come up
again a few moments later and to fill the air
with those heartrending cries which fell on
the ears of those in the lifeboats with such
amazement. Another survivor, on the other
hand, relates that he had dived from the stern
before she heeled over, and swam round under
her enormous triple screws lifted by now high
out of the water as she stood on end. Fas
cinated by the extraordinary sight, he watched
them up above his head, but presently realiz
ing the necessity of getting away as quickly
as possible, he started to swim from the ship,
( 184 )

THE SINKING — FROM THE DECK
but as he did she dived forward, the screws
passing near his head. His experience is that
not only was no suction present, but even a
wave was created which washed him away
from the place where she had gone down.
Of all those fifteen hundred people, flung
into the sea as the Titanic went down, inno
cent victims of thoughtlessness and apathy
of those responsible for their safety, only a
very few found their way to the Carpathia.
It will serve no good purpose to dwell any
longer on the scene of helpless men and women
strugghng in the water. The heart of every
one who has read of their helplessness has gone
out to them in deepest love and sympathy;
and the knowledge that their struggle in the
water was in most cases short and not physic
ally painful because of the low temperature
— the evidence seems to show that few lost
their lives by drowning — is some consolation.
If everyone sees to it that his sympathy with
( 185 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
them is so practical as to force him to follow
up the question of reforms personally, not
leaving it to experts alone, then he will have
at any rate done something to atone for the
loss of so many valuable lives.
We had now better follow the adventures
of those who were rescued from the final event
in the disaster. Two accounts — those of
Colonel Gracie and Mr. Lightoller — agree
very closely. The former went down clinging
to a rail, the latter dived before the ship went
right under, but was sucked down and held
against one of the blowers. They were both
carried down for what seemed a long distance,
but Mr. Lightoller was finally blown up again
by a "terrific gust" that came up the blower
and forced him clear. Colonel Gracie came
to the surface after holding his breath for
what seemed an eternity, and they both
swam about holding on to any wreckage they
could find. Fiaally they saw an upturned
( 186)

THE SINKING — FROM THE DECK
collapsible boat and climbed on it in company
with twenty other men, among them Bride
the Marconi operator. After remaining thus
for some hours, with the sea washing them
to the waist, they stood up as day broke, in two
rows, back to back, balancing themselves as
well as they could, and afraid to turn lest the
boat should roll over. Fijially a lifeboat
saw them and took them off, an operation
attended with the greatest difficulty, and
they reached the Carpathia in the early
dawn. Not many people have gone through
such an experience as those men did, lying all
night on an overturned, ill-balanced boat,
and praying together, as they did all the time,
for the day and a ship to take them off.
Some account must now be attempted of
the journey of the fleet of boats to the Car
pathia, but it must necessarily be very brief.
Experiences differed considerably: some had
no encounters at all with icebergs, no lack of
( 187)

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
men to row, discovered lights and food and
water, were picked up after only a few hours'
exposure, and suffered very little discomfort;
others seemed to see icebergs round them all
night long and to be always rowing round
them ; others had so few men aboard — in some
cases only two or three — that ladies had to
row and in one case to steer, found no lights,
food or water, and were adrift many hours,
in some cases nearly eight.
The first boat to be picked up by the Car
pathia was one in charge of Mr. Boxhall.
There was only one other man rowing and la
dies worked at the oars. A green light burning
in this boat all night was the greatest comfort
to the rest of us who had nothing to steer by:
although it meant little in the way of safety
in itself, it was a point to which we could look.
The green light was the first intimation Cap
tain Rostron had of our position, and he
steered for it and picked up its passengers first.
( 188 )

THE SINKING — FROM THE DECK
Mr. Pitman was sent by First Officer Mur
dock in charge of boat 5, with forty pas
sengers and five of the crew. It would have
held more, but no women could be found at the
time it was lowered. Mr. Pitman says that
after leaving the ship he felt confident she
would float and they would all return. A pas
senger in this boat relates that men could not
be induced to embark when she went down,
and made appointments for the next morning
with him. Tied to boat 5 was boat 7, one of
those that contained few people: a few were
transferred from number 5, but it would have
held many more.
Fifth Officer Lowe was in charge of boat 14,
with flfty-five women and children, and some
of the crew. So full was the boat that as she
went down Mr. Lowe had to flre his revolver
along the ship's side to prevent any more
climbing in and causing her to buckle. This
boat, like boat 13, was difficult to release
( 189)

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
from the lowering tackle, and had to be cut
away after reaching the sea. Mr. Lowe took
in charge four other boats, tied them together
with lines, found some of them not full,
and transferred all his passengers to these,
distributing them in the darkness as well as
he could. Then returning to the place where
the Titanic had sunk, he picked up some
of those swimming in the water and went back
to the four boats. On the way to the Car
pathia he encountered one of the collapsible
boats, and took aboard all those in her, as
she seemed to be sinking.
Boat 12 was one of the four tied together,
and the seaman in charge testified that he
tried to row to the drowning, but with forty
women and children and only one other man
to row, it was not possible to pull such a heavy
boat to the scene of the wreck.
Boat 2 was a small ship's boat and had four
or five passengers and seven of the crew.
( 190 )

THE SINKING — FROM THE DECK
Boat 4 was one of the last to leave on the
port side, and by this time there was such a
list that deck chairs had to bridge the gap
between the boat and the deck. When low
ered, it remained for some time still attached
to the ropes, and as the Titanic was rapidly
sinking it seemed she would be pulled under.
The boat was full of women, who besought
the sailors to leave the ship, but in obedience
to orders from the captain to stand by the
cargo port, they remained near; so near, in
fact, that they heard china falling and smash
ing as the ship went down by the head, and
were nearly hit by wreckage thrown over
board by some of the officers and crew and in
tended to serve as rafts. They got clear finally,
and were only a short distance away when
the ship sank, so that they were able to
pull some men aboard as they came to the
surface. This boat had an unpleasant experience in
( 191 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
the night with icebergs; many were seen and
avoided with difficulty.
Quartermaster Hickens was in charge of boat
6, and in the absence of sailors Major Peuchen
was sent to help to man her. They were told
to make for the hght of the steamer seen on the
port side, and followed it until it disappeared.
There were forty women and children here.
Boat 8 had only one seaman, and as Captain
Smith had enforced the rule of "Women and
children only," ladies had to row. Later in the
night, when httle progress had been made,
the seaman took an oar and put a lady in
charge of the tiller. This boat again was in
the midst of icebergs.
Of the four collapsible boats — although
collapsible is not really the correct term, for
only a small portion collapses, the canvas
edge; "surf boats" is really their name —
one was launched at the last moment by being
pushed over as the sea rose to the edge of the
( 192 )

THE SINKING — FROM THE DECK
deck, and was never righted. This is the one
twenty men chmbed on. Another was caught
up by Mr. Lowe and the passengers trans
ferred, with the exception of three men who
had perished from the effects of immersion.
The boat was allowed to drift away and
was found more than a month later by the
Celtic in just the same condition. It is inter
esting to note how long this boat had remained
afloat after she was supposed to be no longer
seaworthy. A curious coincidence arose from
the fact that one of my brothers happened
to be travelling on the Celtic, and looking
over the side, saw adrift on the sea a boat
belonging to the Titanic in which I had been
wrecked. The two other collapsible boats came to the
Carpathia carrying full loads of passengers:
in one, the forward starboard boat and one
of the last to leave, was Mr. Ismay. Here four
Chinamen were concealed under the feet of
( 193 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
the passengers. How they got there no one
knew — or indeed how they happened to be on
the Titanic, for by the immigration laws of the
United States they are not allowed to enter
her ports.
It must be said, in conclusion, that there is
the greatest cause for gratitude that all the
boats launched carried their passengers safely
to the rescue ship. It would not be right to
accept this fact without calling attention to it:
it would be easy to enumerate many things
which might have been present as elements
of danger.

CHAPTER VII
THE carpathia's RETURN TO NEW YORK
The journey of the Carpathia from the
time she caught the "C.Q.D." from the Ti
tanic at about 12.30 a.m. on Monday morning
and turned swiftly about to her rescue, until
she arrived at New York on the following
Thursday at 8.30 p.m. was one that demanded
of the captain, officers and crew of the vessel
the most exact knowledge of navigation, the
utmost vigilance in every department both
before and after the rescue, and a capacity
for organization that must sometimes have
been taxed to the breaking point.
The extent to which all these qualities were
found present and the manner in which they
were exercised stands to the everlasting credit
of the Cunard Line and those of its servants
who were in charge of the Carpathia. Captain
( 195 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
Rostron's part in all this is a great one, and
wrapped up though his action is in a modesty
that is conspicuous in its nobility, it stands
out even in his own account as a piece of work
well and courageously done.
As soon as the Titanic called for help and
gave her position, the Carpathia was turned
and headed north: all hands were called on
duty, a new watch of stokers was put on, and
the highest speed of which she was capable
was demanded of the engineers, with the re
sult that the distance of fifty-eight miles be
tween the two ships was covered in three and a
half hours, a speed well beyond her normal
capacity. The three doctors on board each
took charge of a saloon, in readiness to render
help to any who needed their services, the
stewards and catering staff were hard at work
preparing hot drinks and meals, and the
purser's staff ready with blankets and berths
for the shipwrecked passengers as soon as they
( 196)

THE CARPATHIA'S RETURN
got on board. On deck the sailors got ready
lifeboats, swung them out on the davits, and
stood by, prepared to lower away their crews
if necessary; fixed rope-ladders, cradle-chairs,
nooses, and bags for the children at the hatches,
to haul the rescued up the side. On the bridge
was the captain with his officers, peering into
the darkness eagerly to catch the first signs
of the crippled Titanic, hoping, in spite of her
last despairing message of "Sinking by the
head," to find her still afloat when her posi
tion was reached. A double watch of look
out men was set, for there were other things
as well as the Titanic to look for that night,
and soon they found them. As Captain Ros
tron said in his evidence, they saw icebergs
on either side of them between 2.45 and 4 a.m.,
passing twenty large ones, one hundred to
two hundred feet high, and many smaller
ones, and "frequently had to manoeuvre the
ship to avoid them." It was a time when
( 197 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
every faculty was called upon for the highest
use of which it was capable. With the know
ledge before them that the enormous Titanic,
the supposedly unsinkable ship, had stmck
ice and was sinking rapidly; with the lookout
constantly calling to the bridge, as he must
have done, "Icebergs on the starboard," "Ice
bergs on the port," it required courage and
judgment beyond the ordinary to drive the
ship ahead through that lane of icebergs and
"manoeuvre round them." As he himself
said, he "took the risk of full speed in his
desire to save hfe, and probably some people
might blame him for taking such a risk."
But the Senate Committee assured him that
they, at any rate, would not, and we of the
lifeboats have certainly no desire to do so.
The ship was finally stopped at 4 a.m., with
an iceberg reported dead ahead (the same no
doubt we had to row around in boat 13 as we
approached the Carpathia), and about the
( 198)

THE CARPATHIA'S RETURN
same time the first lifeboat was sighted. Again
she had to be manoeuvred round the ice
berg to pick up the boat, which was^the one in
charge of Mr. Boxhall. From him the captain
learned that the Titanic had gone down, and
that he was too late to save any one but those
in lifeboats, which he could now see drawing
up from every part of the horizon. Mean
while, the passengers of the Carpathia, some of
them aroused by the unusual vibration of the
screw, some by sailors tramping overhead as
they swung away the lifeboats and got ropes
and lowering tackle ready, were beginning to
come on deck just as day broke; and here an
extraordinary sight met their eyes. As far as
the eye could reach to the north and west lay
an unbroken stretch of field ice, with icebergs
still attached to the floe and rearing aloft their
mass as a hill might suddenly rise from a level
plain. Ahead and to the south and east huge
floating monsters were showing up through
( 199 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
the waning darkness, their number added to
moment by moment as the dawn broke and
flushed the horizon pink. It is remarkable
how "busy" all those icebergs made the sea
look: to have gone to bed with nothing but
sea and sky and to come on deck to find so
many objects in sight made quite a change
in the character of the sea: it looked quite
crowded; and a lifeboat alongside and peo
ple clambering aboard, mostly women, in
nightdresses and dressing-gowns, ia cloaks
and shawls, in anything but ordinary clothes!
Out ahead and on all sides little torches ght-
tered faintly for a few moments and then
guttered out — and shouts and cheers floated
across the quiet sea. It would be difficult to
imagine a more unexpected sight than this
that lay before the Carpathia's passengers as
they lined the sides that morning in the early
dawn. No novelist would dare to picture such an
( 200 )

THE CARPATHIA'S RETURN,
array of beautiful climatic conditions, —
the rosy dawn, the morning star, the moon
on the horizon, the sea stretching in level
beauty to the sky-line, — and on this sea to
place an ice-field like the Arctic regions and
icebergs in numbers everywhere, — white and
tummg pink and deadly cold, — and near
them, rowing round the icebergs to avoid
them, little boats coming suddenly out of mid-
ocean, with passemgers rescued from the most
wonderful ship the world has known. No
artist would have conceived such a picture:
it would have seemed so highly dramatic as
to border on the impossible, and would not
have been attempted. Such a combination of
events would pass the limit permitted the
imagination of both author and artist.
The passengers crowded the rails and
looked down at us as we rowed up in the early
morning; stood quietly aside while the crew
at the gangways below took us aboard, and
( 201 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
watched us as if the ship had been in dock and
we had rowed up to join her in a somewhat
unusual way. Some of them have related that
we were very quiet as we came aboard: it is
quite true, we were; but so were they. There
was very little excitement on either side: just
the quiet demeanour of people who are in the
presence of something too big as yet to he
within their mental grasp, and which they
cannot yet discuss. And so they asked us po
litely to have hot coffee, which we did; and
food, which we generaUy declined, — we were
not hungry, — and they said very little at
first about the lost Titanic and our adven
tures in the night.
Much that is exaggerated and false has been
written about the mental condition of passen
gers as they came aboard: we have been de
scribed as being too dazed to understand what
was happening, as being too overwhelmed to
speak, and as looking before us with "set,
( 202 )

THE CARPATHIA'S RETURN
staring gaze," "dazed with the shadow of the
dread event." That is, no doubt, what most
people would expect in the circumstances, but
I know it does not give a faithful record of
how we did arrive: in fact it is simply not
true. As remarked before, the one thing
that matters in describing an event of this
kind is the exact truth, as near as the fallible
human mind can state it; and my own im
pression of our mental condition is that of
supreme gratitude and relief at treading the
firm decks of a ship again. I am aware that
experiences differed considerably according to
the boats occupied; that those who were un
certain of the fate of their relatives and
friends had much to make them anxious and
troubled; and that it is not possible to look
into another person's consciousness and say
what is written there; but dealing with mental
conditions as far as they are delineated by
facial and bodily expressions, I think joy,
( 203 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
relief, gratitude were the dominant emotions
written on the faces of those who climbed the
rope-ladders and were hauled up in cradles.
1 It must not be forgotten that no one in any
one boat knew who were saved in other boats:
few knew even how many boats there were
and how many passengers could be saved. It
was at the time probable that friends would
follow them to the Carpathia, or be found on
other steamers, or even on the pier at which
we landed. The hysterical scenes that have
been described are imaginative; true, one
woman did fill the saloon with hysterical cries
immediately after coming aboard, but she
could not have known for a certainty that any
of her friends were lost : probably the sense of
relief after some hours of journeying about
the sea was too much for her for a time.
One of the first things we did was to crowd
round a steward with a bundle of telegraph
forms. He was the bearer of the welcome news
( 204 )

THE CARPATHLi'S RETURN
that passengers might send Marconigrams to
their relatives free of charge, and soon he bore
away the first sheaf of hastily scribbled mes
sages to the operator; by the time the last
boatload was aboard, the pile must have risen
high in the Marconi cabin. We learned after
wards that many of these never reached their
destination; and this is not a matter for sur
prise. There was only one operator — Cot-
tarn — on board, and although he was assisted
to some extent later, when Bride from the
Titanic had recovered from his injuries suffi
ciently to work the apparatus, he had so much
to do that he fell asleep over this work on
Tuesday night after three days' continuous
duty without rest. But we did not know the
messages were held back, and imagined our
friends were aware of our safety; then, too, a
roll-call of the rescued was held in the Car
pathia's saloon on the Monday, and this was
Marconied to land in advance of all messages.
( 205 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
It seemed certain, then, that friends at home
would have all anxiety removed, but there
were mistakes in the official list first tele
graphed. The experience of my own friends
illustrates this: the Marconigram I wrote
never got through to England; nor was my
name ever mentioned in any list of the saved
(even a week after landing in New York, I saw
it in a black-edged "final" hst of the missing),
and it seemed certain that I had never reached
the Carpathia; so much so that, as I write,
there are before me obituary notices from the
English papers giving a short sketch of my
life in England. After landing in New York
and realizing from the lists of the saved which
a reporter showed me that my friends had no
news since the Titanic sank on Monday morn
ing until that night (Thursday 9 p.m.), I ca
bled to England at once (as I had but two
shillings rescued from the Titanic, the White
Star Line paid for the cables) , but the messages
( 206 )

THE CARPATHIA'S RETURN
were not delivered until 8.20 a.m. next morn
ing. At 9 A.M. my friends read in the papers a
short account of the disaster which I had sup
plied to the press, so that they knew of my
safety and experiences in the wreck almost at
the same time. I am grateful to remember
that many of my friends in London refused to
count me among the missing during the three
days when I was so reported.
There is another side to this record of how
the news came through, and a sad one, indeed.
Again I wish it were not necessary to tell
such things, but since they all bear on the
equipment of the trans-Atlantic lines — pow
erful Marconi apparatus, relays of operators,
etc., — it is best they should be told. The
name of an American gentleman — the same
who sat near me in the library on Sunday
afternoon and whom I identified later from a
photograph — was consistently reported in
the lists as saved and aboard the Carpathia:
( 207 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
his son journeyed to New York to meet him,
rejoicing at his deliverance, and never found
him there. When I met his family some
days later and was able to give them some
details of his life aboard ship, it seemed
almost cruel to tell them of the opposite ex
perience that had befallen my friends at home.
Returning to the journey of the Carpathia
— the last boatload of passengers was taken
aboard at 8.30 a.m., the lifeboats were hauled
on deck while the coUapsibles were aban
doned, and the Carpathia proceeded to steam
round the scene of the wreck in the hope
of picking up anyone floating on wreckage.
Before doing so the captain arranged ia the
saloon a service over the spot where the Ti
tanic sank, as nearly as could be calculated, —
a service, as he said, of respect to those who
were lost and of gratitude for those who were
saved. She cruised round and round the scene, but
( 208 )

THE CARPATHIA'S RETURN
found nothing to indicate there was any hope
of picking up more passengers; and as the
Californian had now arrived, followed shortly
afterwards by the Birma, a Russian tramp
steamer. Captain Rostron decided to leave
any further search to them and to make all
speed with the rescued to land. As we moved
round, there was surprisingly little wreckage
to be seen: wooden deck-chairs and small
pieces of other wood, but nothing of any size.
But covering the sea in huge patches was a
mass of reddish-yellow "seaweed," as we
called it for want of a name. It was said to be
cork, but I never heard definitely its correct
description. The problem of where to land us had next
to be decided. The Carpathia was bound
for Gibraltar, and the captain might continue
his journey there, landing us at the Azores on
the way; but he would require more linen and
provisions, the passengers were mostly women
( 209 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
and children, ill-clad, dishevelled, and in need
of many attentions he could not give them.
Then, too, he would soon be out of the range
of wireless communication, with the weak
apparatus his ship had, and he soon decided
against that course. Halifax was the nearest
in point of distance, but this meant steaming
north through the ice, and he thought his
passengers did not want to see more ice. He
headed back therefore to New York, which he
had left the previous Thursday, working all
afternoon along the edge of the ice-field which
stretched away north as far as the unaided eye
could reach. I have wondered since if we
could possibly have landed our passengers on
this ice-floe from the lifeboats and gone back
to pick up those swimming, had we known it
was there; I should think it quite feasible to
have done so. It was certainly an extraordi
nary sight to stand on deck and see the sea
covered with solid ice, white and dazzling in
( 210 )

THE CARPATHIA'S RETURN
the sun and dotted here and there with ice
bergs. We ran close up, only two or three
hundred yards away, and steamed parallel to
the floe, until it ended towards night and we
saw to our infinite satisfaction the last of the
icebergs and the field fading away astern.
Many of the rescued have no wish ever to see
an iceberg again. We learnt afterwards the
field was nearly seventy miles long and twelve
miles wide, and had lain between us and the
Birma on her way to the rescue. Mr. Boxhall
testified that he had crossed the Grand Banks
many times, but had never seen field-ice be
fore. The testimony of the captains and offi
cers of other steamers in the neighbourhood
is of the same kind: they had "never seen so
many icebergs this time of the year," or
"never seen such dangerous ice floes and
threatening bergs." Undoubtedly the Titanic
was faced that night with unusual and unex
pected conditions of ice: the captain knew
(211)

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
not the extent of these conditions, but he
knew somewhat of their existence. Alas, that
he heeded not their warning!
During the day, the bodies of eight of the
crew were committed to the deep: four of
them had been taken out of the boats dead
and four died during the day. The engines
were stopped and all passengers on deck bared
their heads while a short service was read;
when it was over the ship steamed on again to
carry the living back to land.
The passengers on the Carpathia were by
now hard at work finding clothing for the sur
vivors : the barber's shop was raided for ties,
collars, hair-pins, combs, etc., of which it hap
pened there was a large stock in hand; one
good Samaritan went round the ship with a
box of tooth-brushes offering them indiscrim
inately to all. In some cases, clothing could
not be found for the ladies and they spent
the rest of the time on board in their dressing-
( 212 )

THE CARPATHIA'S RETURN
gowns and cloaks in which they came away
from the Titanic. They even slept in them,
for, in the absence of berths, women had to
sleep on the floor of the saloons and in the lib
rary each night on straw paillasses, and here
it was not possible to undress properly. The
men were given the smoking-room floor and a
supply of blankets, but the room was small,
and some elected to sleep out on deck. I found
a pile of towels on the bathroom floor ready
for next morning's baths, and made up a
very comfortable bed on these. Later I was
waked in the middle of the night by a man
offering me a berth in his four-berth cabin:
another occupant was unable to leave his
berth for physical reasons, and so the cabin
could not be given up to ladies.
On Tuesday the survivors met in the saloon
and formed a committee among themselves
to collect subscriptions for a general fund, out
of which it was resolved by vote to provide
( 213 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
as far as possible for the destitute among the
steerage passengers, to present a loving cup
to Captain Rostron and medals to the officers
and crew of the Carpathia, and to divide any
surplus among the crew of the Titanic. The
work of this committee is not yet (June 1st)
at an end, but all the resolutions except the
last one have been acted upon, and that is
now receiving the attention of the committee.
The presentations to the captain and crew
were made the day the Carpathia retumed to
New York from her Mediterranean trip, and it
is a pleasure to all the survivors to know that
the United States Senate has recognized the
service rendered to humanity by the Carpa
thia and has voted Captain Rostron a gold
medal commemorative of the rescue. On the
afternoon of Tuesday, I visited the steerage
in company with a fellow-passenger, to take
down the names of all who were saved. We
grouped them into nationalities, — Enghsh,
( 214 )

THE CARPATHIA'S RETURN
Irish, and Swedish mostly, — and learnt from
them their names and homes, the amount of
money they possessed, and whether they had
friends in America. The Irish girls almost uni
versally had no money rescued from the wreck,
and were going to friends in New York or
places near, while the Swedish passengers,
among whom were a considerable number of
men, had saved the greater part of their money
and in addition had railway tickets through
to their destinations inland. The saving of
their money marked a curious racial differ
ence, for which I can offer no explanation : no
doubt the Irish girls never had very much but
they must have had the necessary amount
fixed by the immigration laws. There were
some pitiful cases of women with children and
the husband lost; some with one or two child
ren saved and the others lost; in one case, a
whole family was missing, and only a friend
left to tell of them. Among the Irish group
(215)

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
was one girl of really remarkable beauty,
black hair and deep violet eyes with long
lashes, and perfectly shaped features, and quite
young, not more than eighteen or twenty; I
think she lost no relatives on the Titanic.
The following letter to the London " Times "
is reproduced here to show something of
what our feehng was on board the Carpathia
towards the loss of the Titanic. It was written
soon after we had the definite information
on the Wednesday that ice warnings had been
sent to the Titanic, and when we aU felt that
something must be done to awaken pubhc
opinion to safeguard ocean travel in the
future. We were not aware, of course, how
much the outside world knew, and it seemed
well to do something to inform the English
public of what had happened at as early an
opportunity as possible. I have not had oc
casion to change any of the opinions expressed
in this letter. ( 216 )

THE CARPATHIA'S RETURN
Sie:— As one of few surviving Enghshmen from the
steamship Titanic, which sank in mid-Atlantic on
Monday morning last, I am asking you to lay be
fore your readers a few facts concerning the disas
ter, in the hope that something may be done in the
near future to ensure the safety of that portion of
the travelhng public who use the Atlantic highway
for business or pleasure.
I wish to dissociate myself entirely from any re
port that would seek to fix the responsibihty on
any person or persons or body of people, and by
simply calling attention to matters of fact the
authenticity of which is, I think, beyond question
and can be established in any Court of Inquiry, to
allow your readers to draw their own conclusions
as to the responsibility for the collision.
First, that it was known to those in charge of the
Titanic that we were in the iceberg region; that the
atmospheric and temperature conditions suggested
the near presence of icebergs; that a wireless mes
sage was received from a ship ahead of us warning
us that they had been seen in the locality of which
latitude and longitude were given.
( 217 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
Second, that at the time of the coUision the Ti
tanic was running at a high rate of speed.
Third, that the accommodation for saving pas
sengers and crew was totally inadequate, being
sufficient only for a total of about 950. This gave,
with the highest possible complement of 3400, a
less than one in three chance of being saved in the
case of accident.
Fourth, that the number landed in the Car
pathia, approximately 700, is a high percentage of
the possible 950, and bears excellent testimony to
the courage, resource, and devotion to duty of the
officers and crew of the vessel; many instances of
their nobility and personal self-sacrifice are within
our possession, and we know that they did all they
could do with the means at their disposal.
Fifth, that the practice of running mail and pas
senger vessels through fog and iceberg regions at a
high speed is a common one; they are timed to run
almost as an express train is run, and they cannot,
therefore, slow down more than a few knots im
time of possible danger.
I have neither knowledge nor experience to say
what remedies I consider should be applied; but,
( 218 )

THE CARPATHIA'S RETURN
perhaps, the foUovrfng suggestions may serve as a
help : —
First, that no vessel should be allowed to leave a
British port without sufficient boat and other ac
commodation to allow each passenger and member
of the crew a seat; and that at the time of booking
this fact should be pointed out to a passenger, and
the number of the seat in the particular boat
allotted to him then.
Second, that as soon as is practicable after sail
ing each passenger should go through boat drill in
company with the crew assigned to his boat.
Third, that each passenger boat engaged in the
Transatlantic service should be instructed to slow
down to a few knots when in the iceberg region,
and should be fitted with an efficient searchlight.
Yours faithfully,
Lawrence Beesley.
It seemed well, too, while on the Carpathia
to prepare as accurate an account as possible
of the disaster and to have this ready for the
press, in order to calm public opinion and to
forestall the incorrect and hysterical accounts
( 219 )

THE LOSS OP THE SS. TITANIC
which some American reporters are in the habit
of preparing on occasions of this kind. The first
impression is often the most permanent, and in
a disaster of this magnitude, where exact and
accurate information is so necessary, prepara
tion of a report was essential. It was written
in odd corners of the deck and saloon of the
Carpathia, and fell, it seemed very happily,
into the hands of the one reporter who could
best deal with it, the Associated Press . I under
stand it was the first report that came through
and had a good deal of the effect intended.
The Carpathia returned to New York in
almost every kind of climatic conditions : ice
bergs, ice-fields and bitter cold to commence
with; brilliant warm sun, thunder and light
ning in the middle of one night (and so closely
did the peal follow the flash that women in
the saloon leaped up in alarm saying rockets
were being sent up again) ; cold winds most of
the time; fogs every morning and during a
( 220 )

THE CARPATHIA'S RETURN
good part of one day, with the foghorn blow
ing constantly ; rain ; choppy sea with the spray
blowing overboard and coming in through the
saloon windows; we said we had almost every
thing but hot weather and stormy seas. So
that when we were told that Nantucket Light
ship had been sighted on Thursday morning
from the bridge, a great sigh of relief went
round to think New York and land would be
reached before next morning.
There is no doubt that a good many felt the
waiting period of those four days very trying:
the ship crowded far beyond its limits of com
fort, the want of necessities of clothing and
toilet, and above all the anticipation of meet
ing with relatives on the pier, with, in many
cases, the knowledge that other friends were
left behind and would not return home again.
A few looked forward to meeting on the pier
their friends to whom they had said au revoir
on the Titanic's deck, brought there by a
( 221 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
faster boat, they said, or at any rate to hear
that they were following behind us in another
boat: a very few, indeed, for the thought of
the icy water and the many hours' immersion
seemed to weigh against such a possibility;
but we encouraged them to hope the Califor
nian and the Birma had picked some up;
stranger things have happened, and we had
all been through strange experiences. But in
the midst of this rather tense feeling, one fact
stands out as remarkable — no one was ill.
Captain Rostron testified that on Tuesday
the doctor reported a clean bill of health, ex
cept for frost-bites and shaken nerves. There
were none of the illnesses supposed to foUow
from exposure for hours in the cold night —
and, it must be remembered, a considerable
number swam about for some time when the
Titanic sank, and then either sat for hours in
their wet things or lay flat on an upturned
boat with the sea water washing partly over
( 222 )

THE CARPATHIA'S RETURN
them until they were taken off in a hfeboat;
no scenes of women weeping and brooding
over their losses hour by hour until they were
driven mad with grief — yet all this has been
reported to the press by people on board the
Carpathia. These women met their sorrow
with the sublimest courage, came on deck and
talked with their fellow-men and women face
to face, and in the midst of their loss did not
forget to rejoice with those who had joined.
their friends on the Carpathia's deck or come
with them in a boat. There was no need for
those ashore to call the Carpathia a "death-
ship," or to send coroners and coffins to the
pier to meet her: her passengers were gener
ally in good health and they did not pretend
they were not.
Presently land came in sight, and very
good it was to see it again : it was eight days
since we left Southampton, but the time
seemed to have "stretched out to the crack
( 223 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
of doom," and to have become eight weeks
instead. So many dramatic incidents had
been crowded into the last few days that the
first four peaceful, uneventful days, marked
by nothing that seared the memory, had faded
almost out of recollection. It needed an effort
to retum to Southampton, Cherbourg and
Queenstown, as though returning to some
event of last year. I think we all realized that
time may be measured more by events than
by seconds and minutes : what the astronomer
would call "2.20 a.m. April 15th, 1912," the
survivors called "the sinking of the Titanic";
the "hours" that followed were designated
"being adrift in an open sea," and "4.30 a.m."
was "being rescued by the Carpathia." The
clock was a mental one, and the hours, min
utes and seconds marked deeply on its face
were emotions, strong and silent.
Surrounded by tugs of every kind, from
which (as well as from every available build-
( 224 )

THE CARPATHIA'S RETURN
ing near the river) magnesium bombs were
shot off by photographers, while reporters
shouted for news of the disaster and photo
graphs of passengers, the Carpathia drew
slowly to her station at the Cunard pier, the
gangways were pushed across, and we set foot
at last on American soil, very thankful, grate
ful people.
The mental and physical condition of the
rescued as they came ashore has, here again,
been greatly exaggerated — one description
says we were "half -fainting, half -hysterical,
bordering on hallucination, only now begin
ning to realize the horror." It is unfortunate
such pictures should be presented to the world.
There were some painful scenes of meeting
between relatives of those who were lost, but
once again women showed their self-control
and went through the ordeal in most cases
with extraordinary calm. It is well to record
that the same account added: "A few,
( 225 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
strangely enough, are calm and lucid"; if for
"few" we read "a large majority," it will be
much nearer the true description of the land
ing on the Cunard pier in New York. There
seems to be no adequate reason why a report
of such a scene should depict mainly the sor
row and grief, should seek for every detail to
satisfy the horrible and the morbid in the
human mind. The first questions the excited
crowds of reporters asked as they crowded
round were whether it was true that officers
shot passengers, and then themselves; whether
passengers shot each other; whether any
scenes of horror had been noticed, and what
they were.
It would have been well to have noticed the
wonderful state of health of most of the res
cued, their gratitude for their deliverance,
the thousand and one things that gave cause
for rejoicing. In the midst of so much de
scription of the hysterical side of the scene,
( 226 )

THE CARPATHIA'S RETURN
place should be found for the normal — and I
venture to think the normal was the dominant
feature in the landing that night. In the last
chapter I shall try to record the persistence
of the normal all through the disaster. Nothing
has been a greater surprise than to find people
that do not act in conditions of danger and
grief as they would be generally supposed to
act — and, I must add, as they are generally
described as acting.
And so, with her work of rescue well done,
the good ship Carpathia returned to New
York. Everyone who came in her, everyone
on the dock, and everyone who heard of her
joumey will agree with Captain Rostron
when he says: "I thank God that I was within
wireless hailing distance, and that I got there
in time to pick up the survivors of the wreck."

CHAPTER VIII
THE LESSONS TAUGHT BY THE LOSS OP THE
TITANIC
One of the most pitiful things in the rela
tions of human beings to each other — the
action and reaction of events that is called
concretely "human life" — is that every now
and then some of them should be called upon
to lay down their lives from no sense of im
perative, calculated duty such as inspires the
soldier or the sailor, but suddenly, without
any previous knowledge or warning of danger,
without any opportunity of escape, and with
out any desire to risk such conditions of dan
ger of their own free will. It is a blot on our
civilization that these things are necessary
from time to time, to arouse those responsible
for the safety of human life from the lethargic
selfishness which has governed them. The
( 228 )

LESSONS OF THE DISASTER
Titanic's two thousand odd passengers went
aboard thinking they were on an absolutely
safe ship, and all the time there were many
people — designers, builders, experts, govern
ment officials — who knew there were insuffi
cient boats on board, that the Titanic had no
right to go fast in iceberg regions, — who
knew these things and took no steps and
enacted no laws to prevent their happening.!
Not that they omitted to do these things
deliberately, but were lulled into a state of
selfish inaction from which it needed such a
tragedy as this to arouse them. It was a cruel
necessity which demanded that a few should
die to arouse many millions to a sense of their
own insecurity, to the fact that for years the
possibility of such a disaster has been immi
nent. Passengers have known none of these
things, and while no good end would have been
served by relating to them needless tales of
danger on the high seas, one thing is certain —
( 229 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
that, had they known them, many would not
have travelled in such conditions and thereby
safeguards would soon have been forced on
the builders, the companies, and the Govem
ment. But there were people who knew and
did not fail to call attention to the dangers:
in the House of Commons the matter has been
frequently brought up privately, and an
[American naval officer. Captain E. K. Roden,
in an article that has since been widely repro
duced, called attention to the defects of this
very ship, the Titanic — taking her as an ex
ample of all other liners — and pointed out
that she was not unsinkable and had not
proper boat accommodation^
The question, then, of responsibility for
the loss of the Titanic must be considered:
not from any idea that blame should be laid
here or there and a scapegoat provided —
that is a waste of time. But if a fixing of re
sponsibility leads to quick and efficient remedy,
( 230 )

LESSONS OF THE DISASTER
then it should be done relentlessly: our simple
duty to those whom the Titanic carried down
with her demands no less. Dealing first with
the precautions for the safety of the ship as
apart from safety appliances, there can be no
question, I suppose, that the direct responsi
bility for the loss of the Titanic and so many
lives must be laid on her captain. He was re- o-f**"
sponsible for setting the_coiirse, day by day
and hour by hour, for the speed she was trav
elling; and he alone would have the power to
decide whether or not speed must be slack
ened with icebergs ahead. No officer would
have any right to interfere in the navigation,
although they would no doubt be consulted.
Nor would any official connected with the
management of the line — Mr. Ismay, for
example — be allowed to direct the captain
in these matters, and there is no evidence that
he ever tried to do so. The very fact that the
captain of a ship has such absolute authority
( 231 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
increases his responsibility enormously. Even
supposing the White Star Line and Mr. Ismay
had urged him before sailing to make a record,
— again an assumption, — they cannot be
held directly responsible for the collision: he
was in charge of the livesof everyone on board
and no one but he was supposed to estimate
the risk of travelling at the speed he did, when
ice was reported ahead of him. His action can
not be justified on the ground of prudent sea
manship. i»ut the question of indirect responsibUity
raises at once many issues and, I think, re
moves from Captain Smith a good deal of
personal responsibility for the loss of his ship.
Some of these issues it will be well to consider.
In the first place, disabusing our minds
again of the knowledge that the Titanic
struck an iceberg and sank, let us estimate the
probabilities of such a thing happening. An
iceberg is small and occupies little room by
( 232 )

LESSONS OF THE DISASTER
comparison with the broad ocean on which it
floats; and the chances of another small object
like a ship colliding with it and being sunk are
very small: the chances are, as a matter of
fact, one in a million. This is not a figure of
speech : that is the actual risk for total loss
by collision with an iceberg as accepted by
insurance companies. The one-in-a-milUon
accident was what sunk the Titanic.
Even so, had Captain Smith been alone in
taking that risk, he would have had to bear
all the blame for the resulting disaster. But it
seems he is not alone : the same risk has been
taken over and over again by fast mail-pas
senger liners, in fog and in iceberg regions.
Their captains have taken the long — very
long — chance many times and won every
time; he took it as he had done many times
before, and lost. Of course, the chances that
night of striking an iceberg were much greater
than one in a million: they had been enor-
( 233 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
mously increased by the extreme southerly
position of icebergs and field ice and by the
unusual number of the former. Thinking over
the scene that met our eyes from the deck of
the Carpathia after we boarded her, — the
great number of icebergs wherever the eye
could reach, — the chances of not hitting one
in the darkness of the night seemed small.
Indeed, the more one thinks about the Car
pathia coming at full speed through all those
icebergs in the darkness, the more inexplic
able does it seem. True, the captain had an
extra lookout watch and every sense of every
man on the bridge alert to detect the least
sign of danger, and «,gain he was not going
so fast as the Titanic and would have his
ship under more control ; but granted all that,
he appears to have taken a great risk as he
dogged and twisted round the awful two-hun
dred-foot monsters in the dark night. Does
it mean that the risk is not so great as we who
( 234 )

LESSONS OP THE DISASTER
have seen the abnormal and not the normal
side of taking risks with icebergs might sup
pose? He had his own ship and passengers to
consider, and he had no right to take too great
a risk. But Captain Smith could not know icebergs
were there in such numbers: what warnings
he had of them is not yet thoroughly estab
lished, — there were probably three, — but it
is in the highest degree unlikely that he knew
that any vessel had seen them in such quan
tities as we saw them Monday morning; in
fact, it is unthinkable. He thought, no doubt,
he was taking an ordinary risk, and it turned
out to be an extraordinary one. To read some
criticisms it would seem as if he deliberately
ran his ship in defiance of all custom through
a region infested with icebergs, and did a
thing which no one has ever done before; that
he outraged all precedent by not slowing down.
But it is plain that he did not. '^very captain
( 235 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
who has run full speed through fog and ice
berg regions is to blame for the disaster as
much as he is: they got through and he did
not. JOther liners can go faster than the Ti
tanic could possibly do; had they struck ice
they would have been injured even more
deeply than she was, for it must not be for
gotten that the force of impact varies as the
square of the velocity — i.e., it is four times
as much at sixteen knots as at eight knots,
nine times as much at twenty-four, and so on.
' And with not much margin of time left for
these fast boats, they must go full speed
ahead nearly all the time. Remember how
they advertise to "Leave New York Wednes
day, dine in London the following Monday,"
— and it is done regularly, much as an express
train is run to timeJ Their officers, too, would
have been less able to avoid a collision than
Murdock of the Titanic was, for at the greater
speed, they would be on the iceberg in shorter
( 236 )

LESSONS OF THE DISASTER
time. Many passengers can tell of crossing
with fog a good deal of the way, sometimes
almost all the way, and they have been only a
few hours late at the end of the journey.
So that it is the custom that is at fault, not
one particular captain. Custom is established
largely by demand, and supply too is the an
swer to demand. What the public demanded
the White Star Line supplied, and so both the
public and the Line are concerned with the
question of indirect responsibility.
The public has demanded, more and more
every year, greater speed as well as greater
comfort, and by ceasing to patronize the low-
speed boats has gradually forced the pace
to what it is at present. Not that speed in
itself is a dangerous thing, — it is sometimes
much safer to go quickly than slowly, — but
that, given the facilities for speed and the
stimulus exerted by the constant public de
mand for it, occasions arise when the judg-
( 237 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
ment of those in command of a ship becomes
swayed — largely unconsciously, no doubt
— in favour of taking risks which the smaller
liners would never take. The demand on the
skipper of a boat like the Californian, for
example, which lay hove-to nineteen mfles
away with her engines stopped, is infinitesi
mal compared with that on Captain Smith.
An old traveller told me on the Carpathia
that he has often grumbled to the officers for
what he called absurd precautions in lying to
and wasting his time, which he regarded as
very valuable; but after hearing of the Ti
tanic's loss he recognized that he was to some
extent responsible for the speed at which she
had travelled, and would never be so again.
He had been one of the travelling public who
had constantly demanded to be taken to his
journey's end in the shortest possible time,
and had "made a row" about it if he was
likely to be latej There are some business
( 238 )

LESSONS OP THE DISASTER
men to whom the five or six days on board are
exceedingly irksome and represent a waste
of time; even an hour saved at the journey's
end is a consideration to them. And if the
demand is not always a conscious one, it is
there as an unconscious factor always urging
the highest speed of which the ship is capable.
[The man who demands fast travel unreason
ably must undoubtedly take his share in the
responsibility J He asks to be taken over at a
speed which will land him in something over
four days; he forgets perhaps that Columbus
took ninety days in a forty-ton boat, and that
only fifty years ago paddle steamers took six
weeks, and all the time the demand is greater
and the strain is more: the public demand
speed and luxury; the lines supply it, until pre
sently the safety limit is reached, the undue risk
is taken — and the Titanic goes down. All of
us who have cried for greater speed must take
our share in the responsibility. The expres-
( 239 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
sion of such a desire and the discontent with
so-called slow travel are the seed sown in the
minds of men, to bear fruit presently in an
insistence on greater speed. We may not have
done so directly, but we may perhaps have
talked about it and thought about it, and we
know no action begins without thought.
The White Star Line has received very
rough handling from some of the press, but
the greater part of this criticism seems to be
unwarranted and to arise from the desire to
find a scapegoat. After all they had made bet
ter provision for the passengers the Titanic
carried than any other line has done, for they
had built what they beheved to be a huge
lifeboat, unsinkable in all ordinary conditions.
Those who embarked in her were almost cer
tainly in the safest ship (along with the Olym
pic) afloat: she was probably quite immune
from the ordinary effects of wind, waves and
collisions at sea, and needed to fear nothing
( 240 )

LESSONS OF THE DISASTER
but running on a rock or, what was worse, a
floating iceberg; for the effects of collision
were, so far as damage was concerned, the
same as if it had been a rock, and the danger
greater, for one is charted and the other is
not. Then, too, while the theory of the un
sinkable boat has been destroyed at the same
time as the boat itself, we should not forget
that it served a useful purpose on deck that
night — it eliminated largely the possibility
of panic, and those rushes for the boats which
might have swamped some of them. I do not
wish for a moment to suggest that such things
would have happened, because the more in
formation that comes to hand of the conduct
of the people on board, the more wonderful
seems the complete self-control of all, even
when the last boats had gone and nothing but
the rising waters met their eyes — only that
the generally entertained theory rendered such
things less probable. The theory, indeed, was
( 241 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
really a safeguard, though built on a false
premise. There is no evidence that the White Star
Line instructed the captain to push the boat
or to make any records: the probabilities are
that no such attempt would be made on the
first trip. The general instructions to their
commanders bear quite the other interpre
tation: it will be well to quote them in full
as issued to the press during the sittings of
the United States Senate Committee.
Instructions to commanders
Commanders must distinctly understand that
the issue of regulations does not in any way reheve
them from responsibihty for the safe and efficient
navigation of their respective vessels, and they are
also enjoined to remember that they must run no
risks which might by any possibility result in acci
dent to their ships. It is to be hoped that they
will ever bear in mind that the safety of the lives
and property entrusted to their care is the ruling
( 242 )

LESSONS OF THE DISASTER
principle that should govern them in the naviga
tion of their vessels, and that no supposed gain in
expedition or saving of time on the voyage is to be
purchased at the risk of accident.
Commanders are reminded that the steamers
are to a great extent uninsured, and that their own
livelihood, as weU as the company's success, de
pends upon immunity from accident; no precau
tion which ensures safe navigation is to be con
sidered excessive.
Nothing could be plainer than these in
structions, and had they been obeyed, the
disaster would never have happened: they
warn commanders against the only thing
left as a menace to their unsinkable boat —
the lack of "precaution which ensures safe
navigation." In addition, the White Star Line had com
plied to the full extent with the requirements
of the British Government: their ship had been
subjected to an inspection so rigid that, as one
officer remarked in evidence, it became a
( 243 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
nuisance. The Board of Trade employs the
best experts, and knows the dangers that at
tend ocean travel and the precautions that
should be taken by every commander. If
these precautions are not taken, it will be
necessary to legislate untU they are. No motor
ist is allowed to career at full speed along a
pubhc highway in dangerous conditions, and
it should be an offence for a captaia to do the
same on the high seas with a ship full of un
suspecting passengers, r They have entmsted
their fives to the government of their country
— through its regulations — and they are
entitled to the same protection in mid-At
lantic as they are in Oxford Street or Broad
way. The open sea should no longer be re
garded as a neutral zone where no country's
police laws are operative.)
Of course there are difficulties in the way of
drafting international regulations : many gov
ernments would have to be consulted and
C 244 )

LESSONS OF THE DISASTER
many difficulties that seem insuperable over
come; but that is the purpose for which gov
ernments are employed, that is why experts
and ministers of governments are appointed
and paid — to overcome difficulties for the
people who appoint them and who expect
them, among other thiags,to protect their lives.
The American Government must share the
same responsibility: it is useless to attempt to
fix it on the British Board of Trade for the rea
son that the boats were built in England and
inspected there by British officials. They car
ried American citizens largely, and entered
American ports. It would have been the
simplest matter for the United States Gov
ernment to veto the entry of any ship which
did not conform to its laws of regulating speed
in conditions of fog and icebergs — had they
provided such laws. The fact is that the Amer
ican nation has practically no mercantile ma
rine, and in time of a disaster such as this it
( 245 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
forgets, perhaps, that it has exactly the same
right — and therefore the same responsibility
— as the British Government to inspect, and
to legislate: the right that is easily enforced
by refusal to aUow entry. The regulation of
speed in dangerous regions could well be un
dertaken by some fleet of international police
patrol vessels, with power to stop if necessary
any boat found guilty of reckless racing. The
additional duty of warning ships of the exact
locality of icebergs could be performed by
these boats. It would not of course be pos
sible or advisable to fix a "speed hmit," be
cause the region of icebergs varies in position
as the icebergs float south, varies in point of
danger as they melt and disappear, and the
whole question has to be left largely to the
judgment of the captain on the spot; but
it would be possible to make it an offence
against the law to go beyond a certain speed
in known conditions of danger.
( 246 )

LESSONS OF THE DISASTER
So much for the question of regulating
speed on the high seas. The secondary ques
tion of safety apphances is governed by the
same principle — that, in the last analysis, it
is not the captain, not the passenger, not
the builders and owners, but the govgm-
msnts through their experts, who, are to be
held responsible for the provision of life-
saving devices. Morally, of course, the own
ers and builders are responsible, but at pre
sent moral responsibility is too weak an
incentive in human affairs — that is the mis
erable part of the whole wretched business
— (to induce owners generally to make every
possible provision for the lives of those in
their charge; to place human safety so far
above every other consideration that no
plan shall be left unconsidered, no device
left untested, by which passengers can escape
from a sinking ship. ! But it is not correct to
say, as has been said frequently, that it is
( 247 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
greed and dividend-hunting that have charac
terized the policy of the steamship companies
in their failure to provide safety appliances:
these things in themselves are not expensive.
They have vied with each other in making
their lines attractive in point of speed, size and
comfort, and they have been quite justffied
in doiag so: such things are the product of
ordinary competition between commercial
houses. Where they have all failed morally is to
extend to their passengers the consideration
that places their lives as of more interest to
them than any other conceivable thing. They
are not alone in this : thousands of other people
have done the same tlung and would do it to
day — in factories, in workshops, in mines,
did not the government intervene and insist
on safety precautions. The thing is a defect
in human life of to-day — thoughtlessness for
the well-being of our fellow-men; and we are
( 248 )

LESSONS OF THE DISASTER
all guilty of it in some degree. It is foUy for
the pubhc to rise up now and condemn the
steamship companies: their failing is the
common faUing of the immorality of indif
ference. The_remedy is the law, and it is the only
remedy at present that wUl really accomplish
anything. The British law on the subject
dates from 1894, and requires only twenty
boats for a ship the size of the Titanic: the
owners and buUders have obeyed this law
and fulfilled their legal responsibility. In
crease this responsibility and they will fulfil
it again — and the matter is ended so far as
appliances are concerned. It should perhaps
be mentioned that in a period of ten years
only nine passengers were lost on British
ships : the law seemed to be sufficient in fact.
The position of the American Government,
however, is worse than that of the British
Government. Its regulations require more
( 249 )

,y''

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
than double the boat accommodation which
the British regulations do, and yet it has al
lowed hundreds of thousands of its subjects
to enter its ports on boats that defied its own
laws. Had their government not been guUty
of the same indifference, passengers would
not have been aUowed aboard any British
ship lacking in boat-accommodation — the
simple expedient again of refusing entry. The
reply of the British Government to the Sen
ate Committee, accusing the Board of Trade
of "insufficient requirements and lax inspec
tion," might weU be — "Ye have a law: see
to it yourselves ! "
It wiU be well now to consider briefly the
various appliances that have been suggested
to ensure the safety of passengers and crew,
and in doing so it may be remembered that
the average man and woman has the same
right as the expert to consider and discuss
these thiags: they are not so technical as to
( 250 )

LESSONS OF THE DISASTER
prevent anyone of ordinary iatelligence from
understanding their construction. Using the
term in its widest sense, we come first to : —
Bulkheads and water-tight compartments
It is impossible to attempt a discussion here
of the exact constructional details of these
parts of a ship ; but in order to illustrate briefly
what is the purpose of having bulkheads,
we may take the Titanic as an example. She
was divided into sixteen compartments by fif
teen transverse steel walls called bulkheads.^
If a hole is made in the side of the ship in any
one compartment, steel water-tight doors seal
off the only openings in that compartment
and separate it as a damaged unit from the
rest of the ship and the vessel is brought to
land in safety. Ships have even put into the
nearest port for inspection after collision, and
finding only one compartment full of water
^ See Figures 1 and 2, page 116.
(251 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
and no other damage, have left again for
their home port without troubling to disem
bark passengers and effect repairs.
The design of the Titanic's bulkheads calls
for some attention. The "Scientific Ameri
can," in an excellent article on the compara
tive safety of the Titanic's and other types
of water-tight compartments, draws attention
to the following weaknesses in the former —
from the point of view of possible collision
with an icebergsShe had no longitudinal bulk-
heads, which would subdivide h^ into smaller
"compartments and prevent the water filhng
the whole of a large compartment. JProb-
ably, too, the length of a large compartment
was in any case too great — fifty-three feet.
The Mauretania, on the other hand, in
addition to transverse bulkheads, is fitted
with longitudinal torpedo bulkheads, and the
space between them and the side of the ship is
utilised as a coal bunker. Then, too, in the
( 252 )

\lESSONS of the DISASTER
Mauret3,nia all bulkheads are carried up to
the top djeck, whereas in the case of the Titanic
they reached in some parts only to the saloon
deck and in others to a lower deck still, — the
weakness of this being that, when the water
reached to the top of a bulkhead as the ship
sank by the head, it flowed over and filled the
next compartment. The British Admiralty,
which subsidizes the Mauretania and Lusit-
ania as fast cruisers in time of war, insisted on
this type of construction, and it is considered
vastly better than that used in the Titanic.
The writer of the article thinks it possible
that these ships might not have sunk as the
result of a similar collision. But the ideal ship
from the point of bulkhead construction, he
considers to have been the Great Eastern,
constructed many years ago by the famous
engineer Brunei. So thorough was her sys
tem of compartments divided and subdivided
by many transverse and longitudinal bulk-
( 253 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
heads that when she tore a hole eighty feet
long in her side by striking a rock, she reached
port in safety. Unfortunately the weight and
cost of this method was so great that his plan
was subsequently abandoned.
But it would not be just to say that the con
struction of the Titanic was a serious mistake
on the part of the White Star Line or her
builders, on the ground that her bulkheads
were not so well constructed as those of the
Lusitania and Mauretania, which were buUt
to fulfil British Admiralty regulations for
time of war — an extraordinary risk which no
builder of a passenger steamer — as such —
would be expected to take into consideration
when designing the vessel. It should be con
stantly borne in mind that the Titanic met
extraordinary conditions on the night of the
collision: she was probably the safest ship
afloat in all ordinary conditions. Colhsion
with an iceberg is not an ordinary risk; but
( 254 )

LESSONS OF THE DISASTER
this disaster wiU probably result in altering
the whole construction of bulkheads and com
partments to the Great Eastern type, in order
to include the one-in-a-million risk of iceberg
collision and loss.
Here comes in the question of increased
cost of construction, and in addition the great
loss of cargo-carrying space with decreased
earning capacity, both of which will mean an
increase in the passenger rates. This the
travelling public will have to face and un
doubtedly will be willing to face for the satis
faction of knowing that what was so confi
dently affirmed by passengers on the Titanic's
deck that night of the collision will then be
really true, — that "we are on an unsinkable
boat," — so far as human forethought can
devise. After all, this must be the solution to
the problem how best to ensure safety at sea.
Other safety appliances are useful and neces
sary, but not useable in certain conditions of
( 255 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
weather. The ship itself must always be the
"safety appliance" that is really trustworthy,
and nothing must be left undone to ensure this.
Wireless apparatus and operators
The range of the apparatus might well be
extended, but the principal defect is the lack_
of an operatorjor night, djity.jQiL some ships.
The awful fact that the Californian lay a few
miles away, able to save every soul on board,
and could not catch the message because the
operator was asleep, seems too cruel to dweU
upon. Even on the Carpathia, the operator
was on the point of retiring when the message
arrived, and we should have been much longer
afloat — and some boats possibly swamped —
had he not caught the message when he did.
It has been suggested that officers should have
a working knowledge'^of wireless telegraphy,
and this is no doubt a wise provision. It
would enable them to supervise the work of
( 256 )

LESSONS OF THE DISASTER
the operators more closely and from all the
evidence, this seems a necessity. The ex
change of vitally important messages be
tween a sinking ship and those rushing to her
rescue should be under the control of an ex
perienced officer. To take but one example —
Bride testified that after giving the Birma
the "C.Q.D." message and the position (inci
dentally Signor Marconi has stated that this
has been abandoned in favour of "S.O.S.")
and getting a reply, they got into touch with
the Carpathia, and while talking with her
were interrupted by the Birma asking what
was the matter. No doubt it was the duty
of the Birma to come at once without asking
any questions, but the reply from the Titanic,
telhng the Birma's operator not to be a "fool"
by interrupting, seems to have been a need
less waste of precious moments: to reply,
"We are sinking " would have taken no longer,
especially when in their own estimation of
( 257 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
the strength of the signals they thought the
Birma was the nearer ship. It is weU to notice
that some large liners have already a staff of
three operators. Submarine signalling apparatus
There are occasions when wireless appara
tus is useless as a means of saving life at sea
promptly. One^fitswfiakaessesis-Aat-whenttie ships'
endues are stopjged, messages can no longer
be sent out, that is, with the system at pre
sent adopted. It wiU be remembered that the
Titanic's messages got gradually fainter and
then ceased altogether as she came to rest
with her engines shut down.
Again, in fogs, — and most accidents oc
cur in fogs, — whUe wireless informs of the
accident, it does not enable one ship to locate
another closely enough to take off her pas
sengers at once. There is as yet no method
( 258 )

LESSONS OF THE DISASTER
known by which wireless telegraphy will fix
the direction of a message; and after a ship
has been in fog for any considerable length
of time it is more difficult to give the exact
position to another vessel bringing help.
Nothing could illustrate these two points
better than the story of how the Baltic found
the Repubhc in the year 1909, in a dense
fog off Nantucket Lightship, when the latter
was drifting helplessly after collision with
the Florida. The Baltic received a wireless
message stating the Republic's condition and
the information that she was in touch with
Nantucket through a submarine bell which she
could hear ringing. The Baltic turned and
went towards the position in the fog, picked
up the submarine bell-signal from Nantucket,
and then began searching near this position
for the Republic. It took her twelve hours
to find the damaged ship, zigzagging across
a circle within which she thought the Republic
( 259 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
might lie. In a rough sea it is doubtful whether
the Republic would have remained afloat long
enough for the Baltic to find her and take off
all her passengers.
' Now on these two occasions when wireless
telegraphy was found to be unrehable, the
usefulness of the submarine bell at once be
comes apparent. The Baltic could have gone
unerringly to the Repubhc in the dense fog
had the latter been fitted with a submarine
emergency beU. It wiU perhaps be weU to
spend a little time describing the submarine
signalling apparatus to see how this result
could have been obtained: twelve anxious
hours in a dense fog on a ship which was in
jured so badly that she subsequently foun
dered, is an experience which every apphance
known to human invention should be enlisted
to prevent.
Submarine signalling has never received
that public notice which wireless telegraphy
( 260 )

LESSONS OF THE DISASTER
has, for the reason that it does not appeal so
readily to the popular mind. That it is an
absolute^ necessity to everyship^ carrying
passengers — or carrying anything, for that
matter — is beyond question. It is an addi
tional safeguard that no ship can afford to be
without. There are many occasions when the atmo
sphere fails lamentably as a medium for carry
ing messages. When fog falls down, as it does
sometimes in a moment, on the hundreds
of ships coasting down the traffic ways round
our shores — ways which are defined so easily
in clear weather and with such difficulty in
fogs — the hundreds of lighthouses and light
ships which serve as warning beacons, and
on which many millions of money have been
spent, are for all practical purposes as use
less to the navigator as if they had never been
built: he is just as helpless as if he were back
in the years before 1514, when Trinity House
( 261 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
was granted a charter by Henry VIII "for
the relief ... of the shipping of this realm
of England," and began a system of lights on
the shores, of which the present chain of hght-
houses and hghtships is the outcome.
Nor is the foghorn much better: the pre
sence of different layers of fog and air, and
their varying densities, wliich cause both reflec
tion and refraction of sound, prevent the air
from being a rehable medium for carrying it.
Now, submarine signalling has none of these
defects, for the medium is water, subject to
no such variable conditions as the air. Its
density is practicaUy non variable, and sound
travels through it at the rate of 4400 feet
per second, without deviation or reflection.
The apparatus consists of a beU designed to
ring either pneumatically from a hghtship,
electrically from the shore (the bell itself being
a tripod at the bottom of the sea), automatic
ally from a floating bell-buoy, or by hand from
( 262 )

LESSONS OF THE DISASTER
a ship or boat. The sound travels from the
beU in every direction, like waves in a pond,
and falls, it may be, on the side of a ship.
The receiving apparatus is fixed inside the
skin of the ship and consists of a smaU iron
tank, 16 inches square and 18 inches deep.
The front of the tank facing the ship's iron
skin is missing and the tank, being ffiled with
water, is bolted to the framework and sealed
firmly to the ship's side by rubber facing. In
this way a portion of the ship's iron hull is
washed by the sea on one side and water in
the tank on the other. Vibrations from a bell
ringing at a distance fall on the iron side,
travel through, and strike on two microphones
hanging in the tank. These microphones
transmit the sound along wires to the chart
room, where telephones convey the message
to the officer on duty.
There are two of these tanks or "receivers "
fitted against the ship's side, one on the port
( 263 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
and one on the starboard side, near the bows,
and as far down below the water level as is
possible. The direction of sounds coining to
the microphones hanging in these tanks can be
estimated by switching alternately to the
port and starboard tanks. If the sound is of
greater intensity on the port side, then the
bell signaUing is off the port bows; and simU-
arly on the starboard side.
The ship is turned towards the sound untU
the same volume of sound is heard from both
receivers, when the beU is known to be dead
ahead. So accurate is this in practice that a
trained operator can steer his ship in the dens
est fog directly to a hghtship or any other
point where a submarine beU is sending its
warning beneath the sea. It must be repeated
that the medium in which these signals are
transmitted is a constant one, not subject to
any of the limitations and variations imposed
on the atmosphere and the ether as media
( 264 )

LESSONS OF THE DISASTER
for the transmission of light, blasts of a fog
horn, and wireless vibrations. At present the
chief use of submarine signaUing is from the
shore or a lightship to ships at sea, and not
from ship to ship or from ship to the shore: in
other words ships carry only receiving appara
tus, and lighthouses and lightships use only
signaUing apparatus. Some of the lighthouses
and lightships on our coasts already have these
submarine bells in addition to their lights,
and in bad weather the bells send out their
messages to warn ships of their proximity to a
danger point. This invention enables ships to
pick up the sound of bell after bell on a coast
and run along it in the densest fog almost as well
as in daylight; passenger steamers coming into
port do not have to wander about in the fog,
groping their way blindly into harbour. By
having a code of rings, and judging by the
intensity of the sound, it is possible to teU
almost exactly where a ship is in relation to
( 265 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
the coast or to some lightship. The British
Admiralty report in 1906 said: "If the light
ships round the coast were fitted with sub
marine beUs, it would be possible for ships
fitted with receiving apparatus to navigate
in fog with almost as great certainty as in
clear weather." And the following remark of
a captain engaged in coast service is instruct
ive. He had been asked to cut down expenses
by omitting the submarine signaUing appara
tus, but rephed: "I woidd rather take out
the wireless. That only enables me to teU
other people where I am. The submarine
signal enables me to find out where I am
myself." The range of the apparatus is not so wide
as that of wireless telegraphy, varying from
10 to 15 miles for a large ship (although in
stances of 20 to 30 are on record), and from 3
to 8 miles for a small ship.
At present the receiving apparatus is fixed
( 266 )

LESSONS OF THE DISASTER
on only some 650 steamers of the merchant
marine, these being mostly the first-class
passenger liners. There is no question that
it should be installed, along with wireless ap
paratus, on every ship of over 1000 tons gross
tonnage. EquaUy important is the provi
sion of signalling apparatus on board ships:
it is obviously just as necessary to transmit
a signal as to receive one; but at present the
sending of signals from ships has not been
perfected. The invention of signal-transmit
ting apparatus to be used while the ship is
under way is as yet in the experimental stage;
but while she is at rest a bell similar to those
used by lighthouses can be sunk over her
side and rung by hand with exactly the same
effect. But liners are not provided with them
(they cost only £60!). As mentioned before,
with another £60 spent on the Repubhc's
equipment, the Baltic could have picked up
her bell and steered direct to her — just as they
( 267 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
both heard the bell of Nantucket Lightship.
Again, if the Titanic had been provided with
a bell and the Californian with receiving ap
paratus, — neither of them was, — the officer
on the bridge could have heard the signals
from the telephones near.
A smaller size for use in lifeboats is pro
vided, and would be heard by receiving appa
ratus for approximately five mUes. If we had
hung one of these beUs over the side of the
lifeboats afloat that night we should have
been free from the anxiety of being run down
as we lay across the Carpathia's path, without
a light. Or if we had gone adrift in a dense
fog and wandered mUes apart from each other
on the sea (as we inevitably should have done),
the Carpathia could still have picked up each
boat individually by means of the bell signal.
In those ships fitted with receiving appa
ratus, at least one officer is obliged to under
stand the working of the apparatus: a very
( 268 )

LESSONS OF THE DISASTER
wise precaution, and, as suggested above, one
that should be taken with respect to wire
less apparatus also.
It was a very great pleasure to me to see
all this apparatus in manufacture and in use
at one of the principal submarine signalling
works in America and to hear some of the re
markable stories of its value in actual practice.
I was struck by the aptness of the motto
adopted by them — "De profundis clamavi"
— in relation to the Titanic's end and the
calls of our passengers from the sea when she
sank. "Out of the deep have I called unto
Thee" is indeed a suitable motto for those
who are doing all they can to prevent such
caUs arising from their fellow men and women
"out of the deep."
Fixing of steamship routes
The "lanes" along which the liners travel
are fixed by agreement among the steamship
( 269 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
companies in consultation with the Hydro-
graphic departments of the different coun
tries. These routes are arranged so that
east-bound steamers are always a number of
miles away from those going west, and thus
the danger of collision between east- and
west-bound vessels is entirely eliminated. The
"lanes" can be moved farther south if ice
bergs threaten, and north again when the
danger is removed. Of course the farther
south they are placed, the longer the joumey
to be made, and the longer the time spent on
board, with consequent grumbling by some
passengers. For example, the lanes since the
disaster to the Titanic have been moved one
j hundred miles farther south, which means one
j hundred and eighty miles longer journey, tak
ing eight hours.
The only real precaution against colhding
with icebergs is to go south of the place where
Ithey are likely to be: there is no other way.
( 270 )

LESSONS OF THE DISASTER
Lifeboats
The provision was of course woefully inad
equate. The only humane plan is to have a
numbered seat in a boat assigned to each
passenger and member of the crew. It would
seem well to have this number pointed out at
the time of booking a berth, and to have a
plan in each cabin showing where the boat is
and how to get to it the most direct way — a
most important consideration with a ship like
the Titanic with over two miles of deck space.
Boat-drills of the passengers and crew of each
boat should be held, under compulsion, as
soon as possible after leaving port. I asked
an officer as to the possibility of having such
a drill immediately after the gangways are
withdrawn and before the tugs are allowed
to haul the ship out of dock, but he says the
difficulties are almost insuperable at such a
time. If so, the drill should be conducted in
( 271 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
sections as soon as possible after sailing, and
should be conducted in a thorough manner.
Children in school are called upon suddenly
to go through fire-drill, and there is no reason
why passengers on board ship should not
be similarly trained. So much depends on
order and readiness in time of danger. Un
doubtedly, the whole subject of maiming,
provisioning, loading and lowering of life
boats should be in the hands of an expert
officer, who should have no other duties.
The modern liner has become far too big to
permit the captain to exercise control over
the whole ship, and all vitaUy important sub
divisions should be controlled by a separate
authority.' It seems a piece of bitter irony to
remember that on the Titanic a special chef
was engaged at a large salary, — larger per
haps than that of any officer, — and no boat-
master (or some such officer) was considered
necessary, j The general system again — not
( 272 )

LESSONS OF THE DISASTER
criminal neglect, as some hasty criticisms
would say, but lack of consideration for our
fellow-man, the placing of luxurious attrac
tions above that kindly forethought that
aUows no precaution to be neglected for even
the humblest passenger. But it must not be
overlooked that the provision of sufficient
lifeboats on deck is not evidence they will all
be launched easily or all the passengers taken
off safely. It must be remembered that ideal
conditions prevailed that night for launching
boats from the decks of the Titanic : there was
no list that prevented the boats getting away,
they could be launched on both sides, and
when they were lowered the sea was so calm
that they pulled away without any of the
smashing against the side that is possible in
rough seas. Sometimes it would mean that
only those boats on the side sheltered from a
heavy sea could ever get away, and this
would at once halve the boat accommodation.
( 273 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
And when launched, there would be the danger
of swamping in such a heavy sea. All things
considered, lifeboats might be the poorest
sort of safeguard in certain conditions.
Life-rafts are said to be much inferior to
lifeboats in a rough sea, and collapsible boats
made of canvas and thin wood soon decay
under exposure to weather and are danger-
traps at a critical moment.
Some of the lifeboats should be provided
with motors, to keep the boats together and
to tow if necessary. The launching is an im
portant matter: the Titanic's davits worked
excellently and no doubt were largely respon
sible for all the boats getting away safely:
they were far superior to those on most Imers.
Pontoons
After the sinking of the Bourgogne, when
two Americans lost their lives, a prize of
£4000 was offered by their heirs for the best
( 274 )

LESSONS OF THE DISASTER
life-saving device applicable to ships at sea.
A board sat to consider the various appliances
sent in by competitors, and finally awarded
the prize to an Englishman, whose design
provided for a flat structure the width of the
ship, which could be floated off when required
and would accommodate several hundred
passengers. It has never been adopted by
any steamship line. Other similar designs are
known, by which the whole of the after deck
can be pushed over from the stern by a ratchet
arrangement, with air-tanks below to buoy it
up: it seems to be a practical suggestion.
One point where the Titanic management
failed lamentably was to provide a properly ^^^^^
trained crew to each lifeboat. The rowing
was in most cases execrable. There is no more
reason why a steward should be able to row
than a passenger — less so than some of the
passengers who were lost; men of leisure accus
tomed to aU kinds of sport (including rowing),
( 275 )

cnJ-^

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
and in addition probably more fit physically
than a steward to row for hours on the open
sea. And if a steward cannot row, he has no
right to be at an oar; so that, under the un
written rule that passengers take precedence
of the crew when there is not sufficient accom
modation for all (a situation that should never
be allowed to arise again, for a member of the
crew should have an equal opportunity with
a passenger to save his life) , the majority of
stewards and cooks should have stayed be
hind and passengers have come instead: they
could not have been of less use, and they might
have been of more. It wUl be remembered
that the proportion of crew saved to passen
gers was 210 to 495, a high proportion.
Another point arises out of these figures —
deduct 21 members of the crew who were
stewardesses, and 189 men of the crew are left
as against the 495 passengers. Of these some
got on the overturned coUapsible boat after
( 276 )

LESSONS OF THE DISASTER
the Titanic sank, and a few were picked up
by the lifeboats, but these were not many in
all. Now with the 17 boats brought to the
Carpathia and an average of six of the crew to
man each boat, — probably a higher average
than was realized, — we get a total of 102
who should have been saved as against 189
who actually were. There were, as is known,
stokers and stewards in the boats who were
not members of the lifeboats' crews. It may
seem heartless to analyze figures in this way,
and suggest that some of the crew who got to
the Carpathia never should have done so; but,
after all, passengers took their passage under
certain rules, — written and unwritten, — and
one is that in times of danger the servants of
the company in whose boats they sail shall
first of all see to the safety of the passengers ;
before thinking of their own. There were only
126 men passengers saved as against 189 of the
crew, and 661 men lost as against 686 of the
( 277 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
crew, so that actually the crew had a greater
percentage saved than the men passengers —
22 per cent against 16.
But steamship companies are faced with
real difficulties in this matter. The crews are
never the same for two voyages together:
they sign on for the one trip, then perhaps
take a berth on shore as waiters, stokers in
hotel furnace-rooms, etc., — to resume lite
on board any other ship that is handy when
the desire comes to go to sea again. They can
in no sense be regarded as part of a homo
geneous crew, subject to regular disciphne
and educated to appreciate the morale of a
particular liner, as a man of war's crew is.
Searchlights
These seem an absolute necessity, and the
wonder is that they have not been fitted before
to all ocean liners. Not only are they of use in
lighting up the sea a long distance ahead, but
( 278 )

LESSONS OF THE DISASTER
as flashlight signals they permit of communi
cation with other ships. As I write, through
the window can be seen the flashes from river
steamers plying up the Hudson in New York,
each with its searchlight, examining the river,
lighting up the bank for hundreds of yards
ahead, and bringing every object within its
reach into prominence. They are regularly
used too in the Suez Canal.
I suppose there is no question thatthe collis
ion would have been avoided had a search
light been fitted to the Titanic's masthead:
the climatic conditions for its use must have
been ideal that night. There are other things
besides icebergs: derelicts are reported from
time to time, and fishermen lie in the lanes
without lights. They would not always be of
practical use, however. They would be of no
service in heavy rain, in fog, in snow, or in
flying spray, and the effect is sometimes to
dazzle the eyes of the lookout.
( 279 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
WhUe writing of the lookout, much has
been made of the omission to provide the look
out on the Titanic with glasses. The general
opinion of officers seems to be that it is better
not to provide them, but to rely on good eye
sight and wide-awake men. After all, in a
question of actual practice, the opinion of
officers should be accepted as final, even if it
seems to the landsman the better thing to
provide glasses. Cruising lightships
One or two internationally owned and con
trolled lightships, fitted with every known
device for signalling and communication,
would rob those regions of most of their ter
rors. They could watch and chart the icebergs,
report their exact position, the amount and
direction of daUy drift in the changing cur
rents that are found there. To them, too,
might be entrusted the duty of police patrol.

CHAPTER IX
some impressions
No one can pass through an event like the
wreck of the Titanic without recording men
tally many impressions, deep and vivid, of
what has been seen and felt. In so far as such
impressions are of benefit to mankind they
should not be allowed to pass unnoticed, and
this chapter is an attempt to picture how peo
ple thought and felt from the time they first
heard of the disaster to the landing in New
York, when there was opportunity to judge of
events somewhat from a distance. While it
is to some extent a personal record, the men
tal impressions of other survivors have been
compared and found to be in many cases
closely in agreement. Naturally it is very
imperfect, and pretends to be no more than a
sketch of the way people act under the influ-
( 281 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
ence of strong emotions produced by immir
nent danger.
In the first place, the principal fact that
stands out is the almost entire absence of any
expressions of fear or alarm on the part of
passengers, and the conformity to the normal
on the part of almost everyone. I think it is
no exaggeration to say that those who read of
the disaster quietly at home, and pictured to
themselves the scene as the Titanic was sink
ing, had more of the sense of horror than those
who stood on the deck and watched her go
down inch by inch. The fact is that the sense.
of fear came to the passengers very slowly —
a result of the absence of any signs of danger
and the peaceful night — and as it became
evident gradually that there was serious dam
age to the ship, the fear that came with the
knowledge was largely destroyed as it came.
There was no sudden overwhelming sense of
danger that passed through thought so quickly
( 282 )

SOME IMPRESSIONS
that it was difficult to catch up and grapple
with it — no need for the warning to "be not
afraid of sudden fear," such as might have
been present had we collided head-on with a
crash and a shock that flung everyone out of
his bunk to the floor. Everyone had time to
give each condition of danger attention as it
came along, and the result of their judgment
was as if they had said: "Well, here is this
thing to be faced, and we must see it through
as quietly as we can." Quietness and self-;
control were undoubtedly the two qualities
most expressed. There were times when dan
ger loomed more nearly and there was tem
porarily some excitement, — for example
when the first rocket went up, — but after
the first realization of what it meant, the
crowd took hold of the situation and soon
gained the same quiet control that was evi
dent at first. As the sense of fear ebbed and
flowed, it was so obviously a thing within
( 283 )

THE LOSS OP THE SS. TITANIC
one's own power to control, that, quite un
consciously realizing the absolute necessity of
keeping cool, every one for his own safety put
away the thought of danger as far as was
possible. Then, too, the curious sense of the
whole thing teing a dream was very promi
nent: that all were looking on at the scene
from a near-by vantage point in a position of
perfect safety, and that those who walked the
decks or tied one another's lifebelts on were
the actors in a scene of which we were but
spectators : that the dream would end soon and
we should wake up to find the scene had van
ished. Many people have had a simUar expe
rience in times of danger, but it was very
noticeable standing on the Titanic's deck. I
remember observing it particularly whUe
tying on a lifebelt for a man on the deck. It
is fortunate that it should be so: to be able
to survey such a scene dispassionately is a
wonderful aid in the destruction of the fears
( 284 )

SOME IMPRESSIONS
that go with it. One thing that helped con
siderably to establish this orderly condition
of affairs was the quietness of the surround
ings. It may seem weariness to refer again to
this, but I am convinced it had much to do
with keeping everyone calm. The ship was
motionless; there was not a breath of wind;
the sky was clear; the sea like a mUl-pond —
the general "atmosphere" was peaceful, and
all on board responded unconsciously to it.
But what controlled the situation principally
was the quality of obedience and respect for
authority which is a dominant characteristic
of the Teutonic race. Passengers did as they
were told by the officers in charge: women
went to the decks below, men remained
where they were told and waited in silence
for the next order, knowing instinctively that
this was the only way to bring' about the
best result for all on board. The officers, in
their turn, carried out the work assigned to
( 285 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
them by their superior officers as quickly
and orderly as circumstances permitted, the
senior ones being in control of the manning,
filling and lowering of the lifeboats, whUe the
junior officers were lowered in individual
boats to take command of the fleet adrift on
the sea. Similarly, the engineers below, the
band, the gymnasium instructor, were all
performing their tasks as they came along:
orderly, quietly, without question or stopping
to consider what was their chance of safety.
This correlation on the part of passengers,
officers and crew was simply obedience to
duty, and it was innate rather than the pro
duct of reasoned judgment.
I hope it will not seem to detract in any
way from the heroism of those who faced the
last plunge of the Titanic so courageously
when all the boats had gone, — if it does, it
is the difficulty of expressing an idea in ade
quate words, — to say that their quiet hero-
( 286 )

SOME IMPRESSIONS
ism was largely unconscious, temperamental,
not a deflnite choice between two ways of
acting. All that was visible on deck before
the boats left tended to this conclusion and
the testimony of those who went down
with the ship and were afterwards rescued
is of the same kind.
Certainly it seems to express much more
general nobility of character in a race of
people — consisting of different nationalities
— to find heroism an unconscious quality of
the race than to have it arising as an effort
of will, to have to bring it out consciously.
It is unfortunate that some sections of the
press should seek to chronicle mainly the
individual acts of heroism: the collective be
haviour of a crowd is of so much more import
ance to the world and so much more a test
— if a test be wanted — of how a race of
people behaves. The attempt to record the
acts of individuals leads apparently to such
( 287 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
false reports as that of Major Butt holding at
bay with a revolver a crowd of passengers
and shooting them down as they tried to rush
the boats, or of Captain Smith shouting, "Be
British," through a megaphone, and subse
quently committing suicide along with First
Officer Murdock. It is only a morbid sense of
things that would describe such incidents as
heroic. Everyone knows that Major Butt
was a brave man, but his record of heroism
would not be enhanced if he, a trained army
officer, were compelled under orders from the
captain to shoot down unarmed passengers.
It might in other conditions have been nec
essary, but it would not be heroic. SimUarly
there could be nothing heroic in Captain
Smith or Murdock putting an end to their
lives. It is conceivable men might be so over
whelmed by the sense of disaster that they
knew not how they were acting; but to be
really heroic would have been to stop with
( 288 )

SOME IMPRESSIONS
the ship — as of course they did — with the
hope of being picked up along with passengers
and crew and returning to face an enquiry
and to give evidence that would be of supreme
value to the whole world for the prevention
of similar disasters. It was not possible;
but if heroism consists in doing the greatest
good to the greatest number, it would have
been heroic for both officers to expect to be
saved. We do not know what they thought,
but I, for one, like to imagine that they did so.
Second Officer Lightoller worked steadily at
the boats until the last possible moment,
went down with the ship, was saved in what
seemed a miraculous manner, and returned to
give valuable evidence before the commissions
of two countries.
The second thing that stands out promi
nently in the emotions produced by the dis
aster is that in moments of urgent need men
and women tum for help to something en-
( 289 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
tirely outside themselves. I remember read
ing some years ago a story of an atheist who
was the guest at dinner of a regimental mess
in India. The colonel listened to his remarks
on atheism in silence, and invited him for
a drive the foUowing morning. He took his
guest up a rough mountain road in a light
carriage drawn by two ponies, and when some
distance from the plain below, tumed the
carriage round and allowed the ponies to run
away — as it seemed — downhiU. In the
terror of approaching disaster, the atheist was
lifted out of his reasoned convictions and
prayed aloud for help, when the colonel reined
in his ponies, and with the remark that the
whole drive had been planned with the inten
tion of proving to his guest that there was a
power outside his own reason, descended
^q[uietly to level ground.
j The story may or may not be true, and in
any case is not introduced as an attack on
( 290 )

SOME IMPRESSIONS
atheism, but it illustrates in a striking way the
frailty of dependence on a man's own power and
resource in imminent danger. To those men
standing on the top deck with the boats aU
lowered, and still more so when the boats had
all left, there came the realization that human
resources were exhausted and human avenues
of escape closed. With it came the appeal to
whatever consciousness each had of a Power
that had created the universe. After all,
some Power had made the brilliant stars
above, countless millions of miles away,
moving in definite order, formed on a definite
plan and obeying a definite law : had made each
one of the passengers with ability to think and
act; with the best proof, after all, of being
created — the knowledge of their own exist
ence; and now, if at any time, was the time
to appeal to that Power. When the boats had
left and it was seen the ship was going down
rapidly, men stood in groups on the deck en-
( 291 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
gaged in prayer, and later, as some of them lay
on the overturned collapsible boat, they re
peated together over and over again the Lord's
Prayer — irrespective of religious beliefs,
some, perhaps, without reUgious beliefs, united
in a common appeal for deUverance from their
surroundings. And this was not because it
was a habit, because they had learned this
prayer "at their mother's knee": men do not
do such things through habit. It must have
been because each one saw removed the
thousand and one ways in which he had relied
on human, material things to help him — in
cluding even dependence on the overturned
boat with its bubble of air inside, which any
moment a rising swell might remove as it
tilted the boat too far sideways, and sink
the boat below the surface — saw laid bare
his utter dependence on something that had
made him and given him power to think —
whether he named it God or Divine Power or
( 292 )

SOME IMPRESSIONS
First Cause or Creator, or named it not at all
but recognized it unconsciously — saw these
things and expressed them in the form of
words he was best acquainted with in com
mon with his fellow-men. He did so, not
through a sense of duty to his particular re
ligion, not because he had learned the words,
but because he recognized that it was the most -
practical thing to do — the thing best fitted
to help him. Men do practical things in times
like that: they would not waste a moment on
mere words if those words were not an expres
sion of the most intensely real conviction of
which they were capable. Again, like the feel
ing of heroism, this appeal is innate and in
tuitive, and it certainly has its foundation
on a knowledge — largely concealed, no doubt
— of immortality. I think this must be ob
vious: there could be no other explanation
of such a general sinking of all the emotions
of the human mind expressed in a thousand
( 293 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
different ways by a thousand different people
in favour of this single appeal.
The behaviour of people during the hours
in the lifeboats, the landing on the Carpathia,
the life there and the landing in New York,
can all be summarized by saying that people
did not act at aU as they were expected to
act — or rather as most people expected they
would act, and in some cases have erroneously
said they did act. Events were there to be
faced, and not to crush people down. Situa
tions arose which demanded courage, resource,
and in the cases of those who had lost friends
most dear to them, enormous self-control;
but very wonderfully they responded. There
was the same quiet demeanour and poise, the
same inborn dominion over circumstances,
the same conformity to a normal standard
which characterized the crowd of passengers
on the deck of the Titanic — and for the same
reasons. ( 294 )

SOME IMPRESSIONS
The first two or three days ashore were un
doubtedly rather trying to some of the survi
vors. It seemed as if coming into the world
again — the four days shut off from any news
seemed a long time — and finding what a
shock the disaster had produced, the flags
half-mast, the staring head-lines, the sense of
gloom noticeable everywhere, made things
worse than they had been on the Carpathia.
The difference in "atmosphere" was very
marked, and people gave way to some extent
under it and felt the reaction. Gratitude for
their deliverance and a desire to "make the
best of things" must have helped soon, how
ever, to restore them to normal conditions.
It is not at all surprising that some survivors
felt quieter on the Carpathia with its lack of
news from the outside world, if the following
extract from a leading New York evening
paper was some of the material of which the
"atmosphere" on shore was composed: —
( 295 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
"Stunned by the terrific impact, the dazed
passengers rushed from their staterooms into
the main saloon amid the crash of splinter
ing steel, rending of plates and shattering of
girders, while the boom of falling pinnacles of
ice upon the broken deck of the great vessel
added to the horror. ... In a wild ungov
ernable mob they poured out of the saloons
to witness one of the most appalling scenes
possible to conceive. . . . For a hundred
feet the bow was a shapeless mass of bent,
broken and splintered steel and iron."
And so on, horror piled on horror, and not
a word of it true, or remotely approaching
the truth.
This paper was selling in the streets of New
York while the Carpathia was coming into
dock, while relatives of those on board were
at the docks to meet them and anxiously
buying any paper that might contain news.
No one on the Carpathia could have supphed
( 296 )

SOME IMPRESSIONS
such information; there was no one else in the
world at that moment who knew any detaUs
of the Titanic disaster, and the only possible
conclusion is that the whole thing was a delib
erate fabrication to sell the paper.
This is a repetition of the same defect in
human nature noticed in the provision ofj
safety appliances on board ship — the lack of | , ,
consideration for the other man. The remedy [ d'
is the same — the law : it should be a criminal nr^
offence for anyone to disseminate deliberate;
falsehoods that cause fear and grief. The
moral responsibUity of the press is very great,
and its duty of supplymg the public with only
clea'n, correct news is correspondingly heavy.
If the general public is not yet prepared to go
so far as to stop the publication of such news
by refusmg to buy those papers that publish
it, then the law should be enlarged to include
such cases. Libel is an offence, and this is
very much worse than any libel could ever be.
( 297 )

THE LOSS OP THE SS. TITANIC
It is only right to add that the majority of
the New York papers were careful only to
report such news as had been obtained legiti
mately from survivors or from Carpathia
passengers. It was sometimes exaggerated
and sometimes not true at aU, but from the
point of reporting what was heard, most of it
was quite correct.
One more thing must be referred to — the
prevalence of superstitious behef s concerning
the Titanic. I suppose no ship ever left port
with so much miserable nonsense showered
on her. In the first place, there is no doubt
many people refused to saU on her because it
was her maiden voyage, and this apparently
is a common superstition: even the clerk of
the White Star Office where I purchased my
ticket admitted it was a reason that prevented
people from saUing. A number of people have
written to the press to say they had thought of
sailing on her, or had decided to saU on her,
( 298 )

SOME IMPRESSIONS
but because of "omens" canceUed the pas
sage. Many referred to the sister ship, the
Olympic, pointed to the "Ul luck" that they
say has dogged her — her collision with the
Hawke, and a second mishap necessitating re
pairs and a wait in harbour, where passengers
deserted her; they prophesied even greater
disaster for the Titanic, saying they would not
dream of ti-avelling on the boat. Even some
aboard were very nervous, in an undefined
way. One lady said she had never wished to
take this boat, but her friends had insisted
and bought her ticket and she had not had a
happy moment since. A friend told me of the
voyage of the Olympic from Southampton
after the wait in harbour, and said there was a
sense of gloom pervading the whole ship : the
stewards and stewardesses even going so far
as to say it was a "death-ship." This crew,
by the way, was largely transferred to the
Titanic. ( 299 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
The incident with the New York at South
ampton, the appearance of the stoker at
Queenstown in the funnel, combine with aU
this to make a mass of nonsense in which ap
parently sensible people beheve, or which at
any rate they discuss. Correspondence is pub
lished with an official of the White Star Line
from some one imploring them not to name
the new ship " Gigantic," because it seems like
"tempting fate" when the Titanic has been
sunk. It would seem almost as if we were back
in the Middle Ages when witches were bumed
because they kept black cats. There seems
no more reason why a black stoker should be
an ill omen for the Titanic than a black cat
should be for an old woman.
The only reason for referring to these fool
ish details is that a surprisingly large number
of people think there may be "something in
it." The effect is this: that if a ship's com
pany and a number of passengers get imbued
( 300 )

SOME IMPRESSIONS
with that undefined dread of the unknown —
the relics no doubt of the savage's fear of what
he does not understand — it has an unpleasant
effect on the harmonious working of the ship:
the officers and crew feel the depressing in
fluence, and it may even spread so far as to
prevent them being as alert and keen as they
otherwise would ; may even result in some duty
not being as well done as usual. Just as the
unconscious demand for speed and haste to get
across the Atlantic may have tempted cap
tains to take a risk they might otherwise not
have done, so these gloomy forebodings may
have more effect sometimes than we imagine.
Only a little thing is required sometimes to
weigh down the balance for and against a
certain course of action.
At the end of this chapter of mental im
pressions it must be recorded that one im
pression remains constant with us all to-day
— that of the deepest gratitude that we came
( 301 )

THE LOSS OF THE SS. TITANIC
safely through the wreck of the Titanic; and
its corollary — that our legacy from the wreck,
our debt to those who were lost with her, is
to see, as far as in us lies, that such things are
impossible ever again. MeanwhUe we can say
of them, as SheUey, himself the victim of a
similar disaster, says of his friend Keats in
"Adonais": —
"Peace, peace! he is not dead, he doth not sleep —
He hath awakened from the dream of life —
He lives, he wakes — 'T is Death is dead, not he;
Mourn not for Adonais." THE END

CAMBRIDGB . MASSACHUSETTS
U . S . A

YALE UNIVERSITY

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