The Sinking of the Titanic

by Bruce M. Caplan

  COOLEST MEN ON BOARD

  Captain Smith and Major Archibald Butt, military aide to the President of the United States, were among the coolest men on board. A number of steerage passengers were yelling and screaming and fighting to get to the boats. Officers drew guns and told them that if they moved towards the boats they would be shot dead. Major Butt had a gun in his hand and covered the men who tried to get to the boats.

  The following story of his bravery was told by Mrs. Henry B. Harris, wife of the theatrical manager:

  “The world should rise in praise of Major Butt. That man’s conduct will remain in my memory forever. The American army is honored by him and the way he taught some of the other men how to behave when women and children were suffering that awful mental fear of death. Major Butt was near me and I noticed everything that he did.

  “When the order to man the boats came, the captain whispered something to Major Butt. The two of them had become friends. The major immediately became as one in supreme command. You would have thought he was at a White House reception. A dozen or more women became hysterical all at once, as something connected with a life-boat went wrong. Major Butt stepped over to them and said:

  “ ‘Really, you must not act like that; we are all going to see you through this thing.’ He helped the sailors rearrange the rope or chain that had gone wrong and lifted some of the women in with a touch of gallantry. Not only was there a complete lack of any fear in his manner, but there was the action of an aristocrat.

  “When the time came he was a man to be feared. In one of the earlier boats fifty women, it seemed, were about to be lowered, when a man, suddenly panic-stricken, ran to the stern of it. Major Butt shot one arm out, caught him by the back of the neck and jerked him backward like a pillow. His head cracked against a rail and he was stunned.

  “‘Sorry,’ said Major Butt, ‘women will be attended to first or I’ll break every damned bone in your body.’

  FORCED MEN USURPING PLACES TO VACATE

  “The boats were lowered one by one, and as I stood by, my husband said to me, ‘Thank God, for Archie Butt.’ Perhaps Major Butt heard it, for he turned his face towards us for a second and smiled. Just at that moment, a young man was arguing to get into a life-boat, and Major Butt had a hold of the lad by the arm, like a big brother, and was telling him to keep his head and be a man.

  “Major Butt helped those poor frightened steerage people so wonderfully, so tenderly and yet with such cool and manly firmness that he prevented the loss of many lives from panic. He was a soldier to the last. He was one of God’s greatest noblemen, and I think I can say he was an example of bravery even to men on the ship.”

  LAST WORDS OF MAJOR BUTT

  Miss Marie Young, who was a music instructor to President Roosevelt’s children and had known Major Butt during the Roosevelt occupancy of the White House, told this story of his heroism.

  “Archie himself put me into the boat, wrapped blankets about me and tucked me in as carefully as if we were starting on a motor ride. He, himself, entered the boat with me, performing the little courtesies as calmly and with as smiling a face as if death were far away, instead of being but a few moments removed from him.

  “When he had carefully wrapped me up he stepped upon the gunwale of the boat, and lifting his hat, smiled down at me. ‘Good-bye, Miss Young,’ he said. ‘Good luck to you, and don’t forget to remember me to the folks back home.’ Then he stepped back and waved his hand to me as the boat was lowered. I think I was the last woman he had a chance to help, for the boat went down shortly after we cleared the suction zone.”

  COLONEL ASTOR ANOTHER HERO

  Colonel Astor was another of the heroes of the awful night. Effort was made to persuade him to take a place in one of the life-boats, but he emphatically refused to do so until every woman and child on board had been provided for, not excepting the women members of the ship’s company.

  One of the passengers describing the consummate courage of Colonel Astor said:

  “He led Mrs. Astor to the side of the ship and helped her to the life-boat to which she had been assigned. I saw that she was prostrated and said she would remain and take her chances with him, but Colonel Astor quietly insisted and tried to reassure her in a few words. As she took her place in the boat her eyes were fixed upon him. Colonel Astor smiled, touched his cap, and when the boat moved safely away from the ship’s side he turned back to his place among the men.”

  Mrs. Ida S. Hippach and her daughter Jean, survivors of the Titanic, said they were saved by Colonel John Jacob Astor, who forced the crew of the last life-boat to wait for them.

  “We saw Colonel Astor place Mrs. Astor in a boat and assure her that he would follow later,” said Mrs Hippach.

  “He turned to us with a smile and said, ‘Ladies, you are next.’ The officer in charge of the boat protested that the craft was full, and the seamen started to lower it.

  “Colonel Astor exclaimed, ‘Hold that boat,’ in the voice of a man accustomed to be obeyed, and they did as he ordered. The boat had been lowered past the upper deck and the colonel took us to the deck below and put us in the boat, one after the other, through a port-hole.”

  THE NATURE OF THE INJURY SUSTAINED BY THE TITANIC

  HEART-BREAKING SCENES

  There were some terrible scenes. Fathers were parting from their children and giving them an encouraging pat on the shoulders; men were kissing their wives and telling them that they would be with them shortly. One man said there was absolutely no danger, that the boat was the finest ever built, with water-tight compartments, and that it could not sink. That seemed to be the general impression.

  A few of the men, however, were panic-stricken even when the first of the fifty-six foot life-boats was being filled. Fully ten men threw themselves into the boats already crowded with women and children. These men were dragged back and hurled sprawling across the deck. Six of them, screaming with fear, struggled to their feet and made a second attempt to rush to the boats.

  About ten shots sounded in quick succession. The six cowardly men were stopped in their tracks, staggered and collapsed one after another. At least two of them vainly attempted to creep toward the boats again. The others lay quite still. This scene of bloodshed served its purpose. In that particular section of the deck there was no further attempt to violate the rule of “women and children first.”

  “I helped fill the boats with women,” said Thomas Whiteley, who was a waiter on the Titanic. “Collapsible boat No. 2 on the starboard jammed. The second officer was hacking at the ropes with a knife and I was being dragged around the deck by the rope when I looked up and saw the boat, with all aboard turn turtle. In some way I got overboard myself and clung to an oak dresser. I wasn’t more than sixty feet from the Titanic when she went down. Her big stern rose up in the air and she went down bow first. I saw all the machinery drop out of her.”

  HENRY B. HARRIS

  Henry B. Harris, of New York, a theatrical manager, was one of the men who showed superb courage in the crisis. When the life-boats were first being filled, and before there was any panic, Mr. Harris went to the side of his wife before the boat was lowered away.

  “Women first,” shouted one of the ship’s officers. Mr. Harris glanced up and saw that the remark was addressed to him.

  “All right,” he replied coolly. “Good-bye, my dear,” he said, as he kissed his wife, pressed her a moment to his breast, and then climbed back to the Titanic’s deck.

  THREE EXPLOSIONS

  Up to this time there had been no panic; but about one hour before the ship plunged to the bottom there were three separate explosions of bulkheads as the vessel filled. These were at intervals of about fifteen minutes. From that time there was a different scene. The rush for the remaining boats became a stampede.

  The stokers rushed up from below and tried to beat a path through the steerage men and women and through the sailors and officers, to get into the boats. They had their iron bars and shovels, and they
struck down all who stood in their way.

  The first to come up from the depths of the ship was an engineer. From what he reported to have said it is probable that the steam fittings were broken and many were scalded to death when the Titanic lifted. He said he had to dash through a narrow place beside a broken pipe and his back was frightfully scalded.

  Right at his heels came the stokers. The officers had pistols, but they could not use them at first for fear of killing the women and children. The sailors fought with their fists and many of them took the stoke bars and shovels from the stokers and used them to beat back the others.

  Many of the coal-passers and stokers who had been driven back from the boats went to the rail, and whenever a boat was filled and lowered several of them jumped overboard and swam toward it trying to climb aboard. Several of the survivors said that men who swam to the sides of their boats were pulled in or climbed in.

  Dozens of the cabin passengers were witnesses of some of the frightful scenes on the steerage deck. The steerage survivors said that ten women from the upper decks were the only cool passengers in the life-boat, and they tried to quiet the steerage women, who were nearly all crazed with fear and grief.

  OTHER HEROES

  Among the chivalrous young heroes of the Titanic disaster were Washington A. Roebling, 2d, and Howard Case, London representative of the Vacuum Oil Company. Both were urged repeatedly to take places in life-boats, but scorned the opportunity, while working against time to save the women aboard the ill-fated ship. They went to their death, it is said by survivors, with smiles on their faces.

  Both of these young men aided in the saving of Mrs. William T. Graham, wife of the president of the American Can Company, and Mrs. Graham’s nineteen-year-old daughter, Margaret.

  Afterwards relating some of her experiences Mrs. Graham said:

  “There was a rap at the door. It was a passenger whom we had met shortly after the ship left Liverpool, and his name was Roebling—Washington A. Roebling, 2d. He was a gentleman and a brave man. He warned us of the danger and told us that it would be best to be prepared for an emergency. We heeded his warning, and I looked out of my window and saw a great big iceberg facing us. Immediately I knew what had happened and we lost no time after that to get out into the saloon.

  “In one of the gangways I met an officer of the ship.

  “‘What is the matter?’ I asked him.

  “‘We’ve only burst two pipes,’ he said. ‘Everything is all right, don’t worry.’

  “‘But what makes the ship list so?’ I asked.

  “Oh, that’s nothing,’ he replied, and walked away.

  “Mr. Case advised us to get into a boat.

  “‘And what are you going to do?’ we asked him.

  “‘Oh,’ he replied, ‘I’ll take a chance and stay here.’

  “Just at that time they were filling up the third life-boat on the port side of the ship. I thought at the time that it was the third boat which had been lowered, but I found out later that they had lowered other boats on the other side, where people were more excited because they were sinking on that side.

  “Just then Mr. Roebling came up, too, and told us to hurry and get into the third boat. Mr. Roebling and Mr. Case bustled our party of three into that boat in less time than it takes to tell it. They were both working hard to help the women and children. The boat was fairly crowded when we three were pushed into it, and a few men jumped in at the last moment, but Mr. Roebling and Mr. Case stood at the rail and made no attempt to get into the boat.

  “They shouted good-bye to us. What do you think Mr. Case did then? He just calmly lighted a cigarette and waved us good-bye with his hand. Mr. Roebling stood there, too— I can see him now. I am sure that he knew that the ship would go to the bottom. But both just stood there.”

  IN THE FACE OF DEATH

  Scenes on the sinking vessel grew more tragic as the remaining passengers faced the awful certainty that death must be the portion of the majority, death in the darkness of a wintry sea, studded with its ice monuments like the marble shafts in some vast cemetery.

  MAJOR ARCHIBALD BUTT

  Military Aide to President Taft. Of Major Butt, who was one of the victims of the Titanic, one of the survivors said: “Major Butt was the real leader in all of that rescue work. He made the men stand back and helped the women and children into the boats. He was surely one of God’s noblemen.”

  J. BRUCE ISMAY

  Managing director of the International Mercantile Marine, and managing director of the White Star Line. Mr. Ismay had made it a custom to be a passenger on the maiden voyage of every new ship built by the company.

  JOHN B. THAYER

  Second Vice-President of the Pennsylvania Railroad, who went down with the fated ship.

  MRS. JOHN B. THAYER

  Mrs. Thayer and her son were saved. Asked of the disaster, she replied, “It was the most awful thing that anyone could ever conceive.”

  ISADOR STRAUS

  The New York millionaire merchant and philanthropist who lost his life when the giant Titanic foundered at sea after hitting an iceberg.

  JACK THAYER

  This seventeen-year boy’s story of the disaster is, in spite of his terrible experiences, one of the clearest and best of any of the survivors. He was one of the last to leave the sinking ship, jumping overboard and swimming about until picked up.

  COLONEL AND MRS. JOHN JACOB ASTOR

  Mrs. Astor, neé Miss Madeline Force, was rescued. Colonel Astor who bravely refused to take a place in the life-boats, went down with the Titanic.

  MRS. LUCIEN P. SMITH

  Formerly Miss Eloise Hughes, daughter of Representative and Mrs. James A. Hughes, of West Virginia. Mrs. Smith and her husband were passengers on the Titanic. Mrs. Smith was saved, but her husband went to a watery grave. Mr. and Mrs. Smith were married only a few months before the fateful trip.

  PASSENGERS LEAVING THE TITANIC IN THE LIFEBOATS

  The agony and despair which possessed the occupants of these boats as they were carried away from the doomed giant, leaving husbands and brothers behind, is almost beyond description. It is little wonder that the strain of these moments, with the physical and mental suffering which followed during the early morning hours, left many of the women still hysterical when they reached New York.

  LOWERING OF THE LIFEBOATS FROM THE TITANIC

  It is easy to understand why the accounts of different eye-witnesses as to what occurred during these tragic moments differ so radically when it is remembered that the Titanic was equal to several city blocks in length and that boats were leaving from widely seperated points. It is not difficult to understand the excitement and panic which reigned, according to some of the survivors, as the lifeboats were being filled.

  LIFEBOATS, AS SEEN FROM THE CARPATHIA

  Photographs taken from the rescue ship as she reached the first boats carrying the Titanic sufferers.

  LOWERING THE LIFEBOATS FROM THE TITANIC

  Fortunately the sea was calm on the night of the disaster, for otherwise the loss of life might have been much greater in the terrible descent of more than 60 feet from the boat deck to the water. As it was, four of the lifeboats were wrecked in launching.

  WAITING FOR THE NEWS

  A bird’s-eye view of the great crowds outside of the White Star Line Office in New York, seeking news of the Titanic. The insert shows Mrs. Benjamin Guggenheim, the wife of the smelter millionaire, leaving the steamship office after inquiry for news of her husband who was aboard the ill-fated steamship. On the left are Mr. and Mrs. De Witt Seligman, who accompanied Mrs. Guggenheim.

  THE HERO WIRELESS OPERATOR OF THE TITANIC

  Photograph of Harold Bride, one of the two wireless operators on board the Titanic, being carried ashore from the Steamship Carpathia by two ship’s officers. Bride, one of the last men to leave the ship, jumped into the sea and floated around in the water until rescued. When taken into a lifeboat his feet were badly frost-bitten and became we
dged into the slats at the bottom of the lifeboat and were wrenched severely. Although suffering great pain, he helped the wireless operator of the Carpathia, Harold Thomas Catton, to send hundreds of wireless messages ashore.

  SURVIVORS OF THE GREAT TITANIC MARINE DISASTER

  The first authentic photograph, taken by Miss Bernice Palmer, who was on board the Carpathia, showing rescued passengers standing in groups discussing their terrible experiences. The women of the party were supplied with wraps by the women members on board the rescue ship. This picture was taken one hour after the rescued passengers were taken aboard ship.

  In that hour, when cherished illusions of possible safety had all but vanished, manhood and womanhood aboard the Titanic rose to their sublimest heights. It was in that crisis of the direst extremity that many brave women deliberately rejected life and chose rather to remain and die with the men whom they loved.

  DEATH FAILS TO PART MR. AND MRS. STRAUS

  “I will not leave my husband,” said Mrs. Isidor Straus. “We are old; we can best die together,” and she turned from those who would have forced her into one of the boats and clung to the man who had been the partner of her joys and sorrows. Thus they stood hand in hand and heart to heart, comforting each other until the sea claimed them, united in death as they had been through a long life.

  “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

  Miss Elizabeth Evans fulfilled this final test of affection laid down by the Divine Master. The girl was the niece of the wife of Magistrate Cornell, of New York. She was placed in the same boat with many other women. As it was about to be lowered away it was found that the craft contained one more than its full quota of passengers.