The Sinking of the Titanic

by Bruce M. Caplan

  “The big wave carried the boat off. I had hold of a rowlock and I went off with it. The next I knew I was in the boat.

  “But that was not all. I was in the boat and the boat was upside down and I was under it. And I remember realizing I was wet through, and that whatever happened I must not breathe, for I was under water.

  “I knew I had to fight for it and I did. How I got out from under the boat I do not know, but I felt a breath of air at last.

  “There were men all around me—hundreds of them. The sea was dotted with them, all depending on their life-belts. I felt I simply had to get away from the ship. She was a beautiful sight then.

  “Smoke and sparks were rushing out of her funnel, and there must have been an explosion, but we had heard none. We only saw the big stream of sparks. The ship was gradually turning on her nose—just like a duck does that goes down for a dive. I had one thing on my mind—to get away from the suction. The band was still playing and I guess they all went down.

  “They were playing ‘Autumn’ then. I swam with all my might. I suppose I was 150 feet away when the Titanic, on her nose, with her after-quarter sticking straight up in the air, began to settle—slowly.

  “When at last the waves washed over her rudder there wasn’t the least bit of suction I could feel. She must have kept going just as slowly as she had been.

  “I forgot to mention that, besides the Olympic and Carpathia, we spoke to some German boat, I don’t know which, and told them how we were. We also spoke to the Baltic. I remembered those things as I began to figure what ships would be coming toward us.

  “I felt, after a little while, like sinking. I was very cold. I saw a boat of some kind near me and put all my strength into an effort to swim to it. It was hard work. I was all done when a hand reached out from the boat and pulled me aboard. It was our same collapsible.

  “There was just room for me to roll on the edge. I lay there, not caring what happened. Somebody sat on my legs; they were wedged in between slats and were being wrenched. I had not the heart left to ask the man to move. It was a terrible sight all around—men swimming and sinking.

  “I lay where I was, letting the man wrench my feet out of shape. Others came near. Nobody gave them a hand. The bottom-up boat already had more men than it would hold and it was sinking.

  “At first the larger waves splashed over my head and I had to breathe when I could.

  “Some splendid people saved us. They had a right-side-up boat, and it was full to its capacity. Yet they came to us and loaded us all into it. I saw some lights off in the distance and knew a steamship was coming to our aid.

  “I didn’t care what happened. I just lay, and gasped when I could and felt the pain in my feet. At last the Carpathia was alongside and the people were being taken up a rope ladder. Our boat drew near, and one by one the men were taken off of it.

  “The way the band kept playing was a noble thing. I heard it first while we were working wireless, when there was a rag-time tune for us, and the last I saw of the band, when I was floating out in the sea, with my life-belt on, it was still on deck playing ‘Autumn.’ How they ever did it I cannot imagine.

  “That and the way Phillips kept sending after the captain told him his life was his own, and to look out for himself, are two things that stand out in my mind over all the rest.”

  CHAPTER XVII

  TIME FOR REFLECTION AND REFORMS

  SURVIVORS URGE REFORM—INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE RECOMMENDED—PROMPT REFORMS—1912 U.S. SENATE RECOMMENDATIONS

  IT is a long time since any modern vessel of importance has gone down under Nature’s attack, and in general the floating city of steel laughs at the wind and waves. She is not, however, proof against disaster. The danger lies in her own power—in the tens of thousands of horse power with which she may be driven into another ship or into an iceberg standing cold and unyielding as a wall of granite.

  In view of this fact it is of the utmost importance that present day vessels should be thoroughly provided with the most efficient life-saving devices. These would seem more important than fireplaces, squash-courts and many other luxuries with which the Titanic was provided. The comparatively few survivors of the ill-fated Titanic were saved by the life-boats. The hundreds of others who went down with the vessel perished because there were no life- boats to carry them until rescue came.

  SURVIVORS URGE REFORM

  The survivors urge the need of reform. In a resolution drawn up after the disaster they said:

  “We feel it our duty to call the attention of the public to what we consider the inadequate supply of life-saving appliances provided for the modern passenger steamships and recommend that immediate steps be taken to compel passenger steamers to carry sufficient boats to accommodate the maximum number of people carried on board. The following facts were observed and should be considered in this connection: The insufficiency of life-boats, rafts, etc.; lack of trained seamen to man same (stokers, stewards, etc., are not efficient boat handlers); not enough officers to carry out emergency orders on the bridge and superintend the launching and control of life-boats; the absence of search lights.

  “The Board of Trade allows for entirely too many people in each boat to permit the same to be properly handled. On the Titanic the boat deck was about seventy-five feet from the water and consequently the passengers were required to embark before lowering the boats, thus endangering the operation and preventing the taking on of the maximum number the boats would hold. Boats at all times should be properly equipped with provisions, water, lamps, compasses, lights, etc. Life-saving boat drills should be more frequent and thoroughly carried out and officers should be armed at both drills. There should be greater reduction of speed in fog and ice, as damage if collision actually occurs is liable to be less.

  INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE RECOMMENDED

  “In conclusion we suggest that an international conference be called to recommend the passage of identical laws providing for the safety of all at sea, and we urge the United States Government to take the initiative as soon as possible.”

  That ocean liners take chances with their passengers, comes with a shock of surprise and dismay to most people. If boats are unsinkable as well as fireproof there is no need of any life-boats at all. But no such steamship has ever been constructed.

  That it is realized that life-boats may be necessary on the best and newest steamships is proved by the fact that they carry them even beyond the law’s requirements. But if life-boats for one-third of those on the ship are necessary, life-boats for all on board are equally necessary. The law of the United States requires this, but the law and trade regulations of England do not, and these controlled the Titanic and caused the death of over sixteen hundred people.

  Thus, a steamship is rarely crowded to her capacity, and ordinarily accommodations in life-boats for a full list would not be needed. But that is no argument against maximum safety facilities, for when disaster comes it comes unexpectedly, and it might come when every berth was occupied. So there must be life-boats for use in every possible emergency. Places must be found for them and methods for handling them promptly.

  Suppose a vessel to be thus equipped, would safety be insured? In calm weather such as the Titanic had, yes, for all that would be needed would be to keep the small boats afloat until help came. The Titanic could have saved everyone aboard. In heavy weather, no. As at present arranged, if a vessel has a list, or, in non-nautical language, has tipped over on one side, only the boats upon the lower side can be dropped, for they must be swung clear of the vessel to be lowered from the davits.

  So there is a problem which it is the duty of marine designers to solve. They have heretofore turned their attention to the invention of some new contrivance for comfort and luxury. Now let them grasp the far more important question of taking every soul from a sinking ship. They can do it, and while they are about it, it would be well to supplement lifeboats with other methods.

  We like to think and to say that not
hing is impossible in these days of ceaseless and energetic progress. Certainly it is possible for the brains of marine designers to find a better way for rescue work. Lewis Nixon, ship-builder and designer for years is sure that we can revolutionize safety appliances. He has had a plan for a long time for the construction of a considerable section of deck that could be detached and floated off like an immense raft. He figures that such a deck-raft could be made to carry the bulk of the passengers.

  That may seem a bit chimerical to laymen, but Nixon is no layman. His ideas are worthy of every consideration. Certain it is that something radical must be done, and that the maritime nations must get together, not only in the way of providing more life-saving facilities, but in agreeing upon navigation routes and methods.

  Captain William S. Sims, of the United States Navy, who is in a position to know what he is talking about, has made some very pointed comments on the subject. He says:

  “The truth of the matter is that in case any large passenger steamship sinks, by reason of collision or other fatal damage to her flotability, more than half of her passengers are doomed to death, even in fair weather, and in case there is a bit of a sea running, none of the loaded boats can long remain afloat, even if they succeed in getting safely away from the side, and one more will be added to the long list of ‘the ships that never return.’

  “Most people accept this condition as one of the inevitable perils of the sea, but I believe it can be shown that the terrible loss of life occasioned by such disasters as overtook the Bourgogne and the Titanic and many other ships can be avoided or at least greatly minimized. Moreover, it can be shown that the steamship owners are fully aware of the danger to their passengers; that the laws on the subject of life-saving appliances are wholly inadequate; that the steamship companies comply with the law, though they oppose any changes therein, and that they decline to adopt improved appliances because there is no public demand for them, the demand being for high schedule speed and luxurious conditions of travel.

  “In addition to installing efficient life-saving appliances, if the great steamship lines should come to an agreement to fix a maximum speed for their vessels of various classes and fix their dates and hours of steaming so that they would cross the ocean in pairs within supporting distances of each other, on routes clear of ice, all danger of ocean travel would practically be eliminated.

  “The shortest course between New York and the English Channel lies across Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Consequently the shortest water route is over seas where navigation is dangerous by reason of fog and ice. It is a notorious fact that the transatlantic steamships are not navigated with due regard to safety; that they steam at practically full speed in the densest fogs. But the companies cannot properly be blamed for this practice, because if the ‘blue liners’ slow down in a fog or take a safe route, clear of ice, the public will take passage on the ‘green liners,’ which take the shortest route, and keep up their schedule time, regardless of the risks indicated.”

  PROMPT REFORMS

  The terrible sacrifice of the Titanic, however, is to have its fruit in safety for the future. The official announcement is made by International Mercantile Marine that all its ships will be equipped with sufficient life-boats and rafts for every passenger and every member of the crew, without regard to the regulations in this country and England or Belgium. One of the German liners already had this complement of life-boats, though the German marine as a whole is sufficiently deficient at this point to induce the Reichstag to order an investigation.

  Prompt, immediate and gratifying reform marks this action of the International Mercantile Marine. It is doubtless true that this precaution ought to have been taken without waiting for a loss of life such as makes all previous marine disasters seem trivial. But the public itself has been inert. For thirty years, since Plimsoll’s day, every intelligent passenger knew that every British vessel was deficient in lifeboats, but neither public opinion nor the public press took this matter up. There were no questions in Parliament and no measures introduced in Congress. Even the legislation by which the United States permitted English vessels reaching American ports to avoid the legal requirements of American statute law (which requires a seat in the life-boats for every passenger and every member of the crew) attracted no public attention, and occasional references to the subject by those better informed did nothing to awake action.

  But this is past. Those who died bravely without complaint and with sacrificing regard for other did not lose their lives in vain. The safety of all travelers for all times to come under every civilized flag is to be greater through their sacrifice. Under modern conditions life can be made as safe at sea as on the land. It is heartrending to stop and think that thirty-two more life-boats, costing only about $16,000, which could have been stowed away without being noticed on the broad decks of the Titanic, would have saved every man, woman and child on the steamer. There has never been so great a disaster in the history of civilization due to the neglect of so small an expenditure.

  It would be idle to think that this was due simply to parsimony. It was really due to the false and vicious notion that life at sea must be made showy, sumptuous and magnificent. The absence of life-boats was not due to their cost but to the demand for a great promenade deck, with ample space to look out on the sea with which a continuous row of life-boats would have interfered, and to the general tendency to lavish money on the luxuries of a voyage instead of first insuring its safety.

  1912 U.S. SENATE RECOMMENDATIONS

  1. It is recommended that all ships carrying more than 100 passengers shall have two searchlights.

  2. That a revision be made of steamship inspection laws of foreign countries to conform to the standard proposed in the United States.

  3. That every ship be required to carry sufficient life-boats for all passengers and crew.

  4. That the use of wireless be regulated to prevent interference by amateurs, and that all ships have a wireless operator on constant duty.

  5. Detailed recommendations are made as to water-tight bulkhead construction on ocean-going ships. Bulkheads should be so spaced that any two adjacent compartments of a ship might be flooded without sinking.

  6. Transverse bulkheads forward and abaft the machinery should be continued watertight to the uppermost continuous structural deck, and this deck should be fitted water-tight.

  Dr. Van Dyke’s Spiritual Consolation to the

  Survivors of the Titanic.

  PRINCETON, N.J., April 18, 1912.

  The Titanic, greatest of ships, has gone to her ocean grave. What has she left behind her? Think clearly.

  She has left debts. Vast sums of money have been lost. Some of them are covered by insurance which will be paid. The rest is gone. All wealth is insecure.

  She has left lessons. The risk of running the northern course when it is menaced by icebergs is revealed. The cruelty of sending a ship to sea without enough life-boats and life-rafts to hold her company is exhibited and underlined in black.

  She has left sorrows. Hundreds of human hearts and homes are in mourning for the loss of dear companions and friends. The universal sympathy which is written in every face and heard in every voice proves that man is more than the beasts that perish. It is an evidence of the divine in humanity. Why should we care? There is no reason in the world, unless there is something in us that is different from lime and carbon and phosphorus, something that makes us mortals able to suffer together……

  “For we have all of us a human heart.”

  But there is more than this harvest of debts, and lessons, and sorrows, in the tragedy of the sinking of the Titanic. There is a great ideal. It is clearly outlined and set before the mind and heart of the modern world, to approve and follow, or to despise and reject.

  It is, “Women and children first!”

  Whatever happened on that dreadful April night among the arctic ice, certainly that was the order given by the brave and steadfast captain; certainly that was
the law obeyed by the men on the doomed ship. But why? There is no statute or enactment of any nation to enforce such an order. There is no trace of such a rule to be found in the history of ancient civilizations. There is no authority for it among the heathen races to-day…..

  On the average, a man is stronger than a woman, he is worth more than a woman, he has a longer prospect of life than a woman. There is no reason in all the range of physical and economic science, no reason in all the philosophy of the Superman, why he should give his place in the life-boat to a woman.

  Where, then, does this rule which prevailed in the sinking Titanic come from? It comes from God, through the faith of Jesus of Nazareth.

  It is the ideal of self-sacrifice. It is the rule that “the strong ought to bear the infirmities of those that are weak.”

  It is the divine revelation which is summed up in the words: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

  It needs a tragic catastrophe like the wreck of the Titanic to bring out the absolute contradiction between this ideal and all the counsels of materialism and selfish expediency.

  I do not say that the germ of this ideal may not be found in other religions. I do not say that they are against it. I do not ask any man to accept my theology (which grows shorter and simpler as I grow older), unless his heart leads him to it. But this I say: The ideal that the strength of the strong is given them to protect and save the weak, the ideal which animates the rule of “Women and children first,” is in essential harmony with the spirit of Christ.

  If what He said about our Father in Heaven is true, this ideal is supremely reasonable. Otherwise it is hard to find arguments for it. The tragedy of facts sets the question clearly before us. Think about it. Is this ideal to survive and prevail in our civilization or not?

  Without it, no doubt, we may have riches and power and dominion. But what a world to live in!

  Only through the belief that the strong are bound to protect and save the weak because God wills it so, can we hope to keep self-sacrifice, and love, and heroism, and all the things that make us glad to live and not afraid to die.