Sinking of the Titanic and Great Sea Disasters

by Logan Marshall

  {illust. caption = DIAGRAM SHOWING THE PROXIMITY OF OTHER STEAMSHIPS TO THE TITANIC ON NIGHT OF DISASTER.}

  The captain told in detail of the arrangements made to prepare the life-boats and the ship for the receipt of the survivors.

  WEEPS AS HE TELLS STORY

  Then with tears filling his eyes, Captain Rostron said he called the purser. “I told him,” said Captain Rostron, “I wanted to hold a service of prayer—thanksgiving for the living and a funeral service for the dead. I went to Mr. Ismay. He told me to take full charge. An Episcopal clergyman was found among the passengers and he conducted the services.”

  TITANIC WAS A “LIFE-BOAT.”

  Captain Rostron said that the Carpathia had twenty lifeboats of her own, in accordance with the British regulations.

  “Wouldn’t that indicate that the regulations are out of date, your ship being much smaller than the Titanic, which also carried twenty life-boats?” Senator Smith asked.

  “No. The Titanic was supposed to be a life-boat herself.”

  WIRELESS FAILED

  Why so few messages came from the Carpathia was gone into. Captain Rostron declared the first messages, all substantially the same, were sent to the White Star Line, the Cunard Line and the Associated Press. Then the first and second cabin passenger lists were sent, when the wireless failed.

  Senator Smith said some complaint had been heard that the Carpathia had not answered President Taft’s inquiry for Major Butt. Captain Rostron declared a reply was sent, “Not on board.”

  Captain Rostron declared he issued orders for no messages to be sent except upon orders from him, and for official business to go first, then private messages from the Titanic survivors in order of filing.

  Absolutely no censorship was exercised, he said. The wire-less continued working all the way in, the Marconi operator being constantly at the key.

  Guglielmo Marconi, the wireless inventor, was the next witness.

  Marconi said he was chairman of the British Marconi Company. Under instructions of the company, he said, operators must take their orders from the captain of the ship on which they are employed.

  “Do the regulations prescribe whether one or two operators should be aboard the ocean vessels?”

  “Yes, on ships like the late Titanic and Olympic two are carried,” said Marconi. “The Carpathia, a smaller boat, carries one. The Carpathia’s wireless apparatus is a short-distance equipment.”

  TITANIC WELL EQUIPPED

  “Do you consider that the Titanic was equipped with the latest improved wireless apparatus?”

  “Yes; I should say that it had the very best.”

  “Did you hear the captain of the Carpathia say, in his testimony, that they caught this distress message from the Titanic almost providentally?” asked Senator Smith.

  “Yes, I did. It was absolutely providential.”

  “Is there any signal for the operator if he is not at his post?’{’}

  “I think there is none,” said Marconi.

  “Ought it not be incumbent upon ships to have an operator always at the key?”

  “Yes; but ship-owners don’t like to carry two operators when they can get along with one. The smaller boat owners do not like the expense of two operators.”

  SECOND OFFICER TESTIFIES

  Charles Herbert Lightoller, second officer of the Titanic, followed Marconi on the stand. Mr. Lightoller said he understood the maximum speed of the Titanic, as shown by its trial tests, to have been twenty-two and a half to twenty-three knots. Senator Smith asked if the rule requiring life-saving apparatus to be in each room for each passenger was complied with.

  “Everything was complete,” said Lightoller. “Sixteen life-boats, of which four were collapsible, were on the Titanic,” he added. During the tests, he said, Captain Clark, of the British Board of Trade, was aboard the Titanic to inspect its life-saving equipment.

  “How thorough are these captains of the Board of Trade in inspecting ships?” asked Senator Smith.

  “Captain Clark is so thorough that we called him a nuisance.”

  TITANIC KILLED RAPIDLY

  After testifying to the circumstances under which the life-boats were filled and lowered, Lightoller continued. “The boat’s deck was only ten feet from the water when I lowered the sixth boat. When we lowered the first, the distance to the water was seventy feet.”

  “If the same course was pursued on the starboard side as you pursued on the port, in filling boats, how do you account for so many members of the crew being saved?” asked Chairman Smith.

  “I have inquired especially and have found that for every six persons picked up, five were either firemen or stewards.”

  COTTAM TELLS HIS STORY

  Thomas Cottam, of Liverpool, the Marconi operator on the Carpathia, was the next witness.

  Cottam said that he was about ready to retire Sunday night, having partially removed his clothes, and was waiting for a reply to a message to the Parisian when he heard Cape Cod trying to call the Titanic. Cottam called the Titanic operator to inform him of the fact, and received the reply. ‘Come at once; this is a distress message. C. Q. D.’ “

  “What did you do then?”

  “I confirmed the distress message by asking the Titanic if I should report the distress message to the captain of the Carpathia.”

  “How much time elapsed after you received the Titanic’s distress message before you reported it to Captain Rostron?”

  “About a couple of minutes,” Cottam answered.

  COTTAM RECALLED

  When the committee resumed the investigation on April 20th, Cottam was recalled to the stand.

  Senator Smith asked the witness if he had received any messages from the time the Carpathia left the scene of the disaster until it reached New York. The purpose of this question was to discover whether any official had sought to keep back the news of the disaster.

  “No, sir,” answered Cottam. “I reported the entire matter myself to the steamship Baltic at 10.30 o’clock Monday morning. I told her we had been to the wreck and had picked up as many of the passengers as we could.”

  Cottam denied that he had sent any message that all passengers had been saved, or anything on which such a report could be based.

  Cottam said he was at work Monday and until Wednesday. He repeated his testimony of the previous day and said he had been without sleep throughout Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and until late Wednesday afternoon when he had been relieved by Bride.

  “Did you or Bride send any message declaring that the Titanic was being towed into Halifax?”

  “No, sir,” said the witness, with emphasis.

  MARCONI EXPLAINS

  In an effort to determine whether the signal “C. Q. D.” might not have been misunderstood by passing ships, Senator Smith called upon Mr. Marconi.

  “The ‘C. Q.,’” said Marconi, “is an international signal which meant that all stations should cease sending except the one using the call. The ‘D.’ was added to indicate danger. The call, however, now has been superseded by the universal call, ‘S. O. S.’”

  BRIDE ON THE STAND

  Harold S. Bride, the sole surviving operator of the Titanic, was then called.

  Bride said he knew the Frankfurt was nearer than the Carpathia when he called for assistance, but that he ceased his efforts to communicate with the former because her operator persisted in asking, “What is the matter?” despite Bride’s message that the ship was in distress.

  Time after time Senator Smith asked in varying forms why the Titanic did not explain its condition to the Frankfurt.

  “Any operator receiving ‘C. Q. D.’ and the position of the ship, if he is on the job,” said Bride, “would tell the captain at once.”

  Marconi again testified to the distress signals, and said that the Frankfurt was equipped with Marconi wireless. He said that the receipt of the signal “C. Q. D.” by the Frankfurt’s operator should have been all-sufficient to send the Frankfurt to the immed
iate rescue.

  ALL APPEALS RECEIVED

  Under questioning by Senator Smith, Bride said that undoubtedly the Frankfurt received all of the urgent appeals for help sent subsequently to the Carpathia.

  INVESTIGATION CARRIED TO WASHINGTON

  The first witness when the investigation was resumed in Washington on April 22d was P. A. S. Franklin, vice-president of the International Mercantile Marine Company.

  Franklin testified that he had had no communication with Captain Smith during the Titanic’s voyage, nor with Ismay, except one cable from Southampton.

  Senator Smith then showed Mr. Franklin the telegram received by Congressman Hughes, of West Virginia, from the White Star Line, dated New York, April 15th, and addressed to J. A. Hughes, Huntington, W. Va., as follows:

  “Titanic proceeding to Halifax. Passengers probably land on Wednesday. All safe.

  (Signed) “THE WHITE STAR LINE.”

  TELEGRAM A MYSTERY

  “I ask you,” continued the senator, “whether you know about the sending of that telegram, by whom it was authorized and from whom it was sent?”

  “I do not, sir,” said Franklin. “Since it was mentioned at the Waldorf Saturday we have had the entire passenger staff examined and we cannot find out.”

  Asked when he first knew that the Titanic had sunk, Franklin said he first knew it about 6.27 P.M., Monday.

  Mr. Franklin then produced a thick package of telegrams which he had received in relation to the disaster.

  “About twenty minutes of two on Monday morning,” said he, “I was awakened by a telephone bell, and was called by a reporter for some paper who informed me that the Titanic had met with an accident and was sinking. I asked him where he got the information. He told me that it had come by wireless from the steamship Virginian, which had been appealed to by the Titanic for aid.”

  Mr. Franklin said he called up the White Star docks, but they had no information, and he then appealed to the Associated Press, and there was read to him a dispatch from Cape Race advising him of the accident.

  “I asked the Associated Press,” said Mr. Franklin, “not to send out the dispatch until we had more detailed information, in order to avoid causing unnecessary alarm. I was told, however, that the story already had been sent.”

  The reassuring statements sent out by the line in the early hours of the disaster next were made the subject of inquiry.

  “Tell the committee on what you based those statements,” directed Senator Smith.

  “We based them on reports and rumors received at Cape Race by individuals and by the newspapers. They were rumors, and we could not place our finger on anything authentic.”

  FIRST DEFINITE NEWS

  “At 6.20 or 6.30 Monday evening,” Mr. Franklin continued, “a message was received telling the fateful news that the Carpathia reached the Titanic and found nothing but boats and wreckage; that the Titanic had foundered at 2.20 A.M. in 41.16 north, 50.14 west; that the Carpathia picked up all the boats and had on board about 675 Titanic survivors—passengers and crew.

  “It was such a terrible shock that it took me several moments to think what to do. Then I went downstairs to the reporters, I began to read the message, holding it high in my hand. I had read only to the second line, which said that the Titanic had sunk, when there was not a reporter left—they were so anxious to get to the telephones.

  SAFETY EQUIPMENT

  “The Titanic’s equipment was in excess of the law,” said the witness. “It carried its clearance in the shape of a certificate from the British Board of Trade. I might say that no vessel can leave a British port without a certificate that it is equipped to care for human lives aboard in case of accident. It is the law.”

  “Do you know of anyone, any officer or man or any official, whom you deem could be held responsible for the accident and its attendant loss of life?”

  “Positively not. No one thought such an accident could happen. It was undreamed of. I think it would be absurd to try to hold some individual responsible. Every precaution was taken; that the precautions were of no avail is a source of the deepest sorrow. But the accident was unavoidable.”

  FOURTH OFFICER TESTIFIES

  J. B. Boxhall, the fourth officer, was then questioned.

  “Were there any drills or any inspection before the Titanic sailed?” he was asked.

  “Both,” said the witness. “The men were mustered and the life-boats lowered in the presence of the inspectors from the Board of Trade.”

  “How many boats were lowered?”

  “Just two, sir.”

  “One on each side of the ship?”

  “No, sir. They were both on the same side. We were lying in dock.”

  The witness said he did not know whether the lowering tackle ran free or not on that occasion.

  “In lowering the life-boats at the test, did the gear work satisfactorily?”

  “So far as I know.”

  In lowering a life-boat, he said, first the boat has to be cleared, chocks knocked down and the boat hangs free. Then the davits are screwed out to the ship’s side and the boat lowered.

  At the time of the tests all officers of the Titanic were present.

  Boxhall said that under the weather conditions experienced at the time of the collision the life-boats were supposed to carry sixty-five persons. Under the regulations of the British Board of Trade, in addition to the oars, there were in the boats water breakers, water dippers, bread, bailers, mast and sail and lights and a supply of oil. All of these supplies, said Boxhall, were in the boats when the Titanic left Belfast. He could not say whether they were in when the vessel left Southampton.

  “Now,” repeated Senator Smith, “suppose the weather was clear and the sky unruffled, as it was at the time of the disaster, how many would the boat hold?”

  “Really, I don’t know. It would depend largely upon the people who were to enter. If they did as they were told I believe each boat could accommodate sixty-five persons.”

  Boxhall testified to the sobriety and good habits of his superior and brother officers.

  NO TRACE OF DAMAGE INSIDE

  Boxhall said he went down to the steerage, inspected all the decks in the vicinity of where the ship had struck, found no traces of any damage and went directly to the bridge and so reported.

  CARPENTER FOUND LEAKS

  “The captain ordered me to send a carpenter to sound the ship, but I found a carpenter coming up with the announcement that the ship was taking water. In the mail room I found mail sacks floating about while the clerks were at work. I went to the bridge and reported, and the captain ordered the life-boats to be made ready.”

  Boxhall testified that at Captain Smith’s orders he took word of the ship’s position to the wireless operators.

  “What position was that?”

  “Forty-one forty-six north, fifty fourteen west.”

  “Was that the last position taken?”

  “Yes, the Titanic stood not far from there when she sank.”

  After that Boxhall went back to the life-boats, where there were many men and women. He said they had been provided with life-belts.

  {illust. caption = THE EFFECTS OF STRIKING AN ICEBERG

  (1) Shows normal….}

  DISTRESS ROCKETS FIRED

  “After that I was on the bridge most of the time sending out distress signals, trying to attract the attention of boats ahead,” he said. “I sent up distress rockets until I left the ship, to try to attract the attention of a ship directly ahead. I had seen her lights. She seemed to be meeting us and was not far away. She got close enough, so she seemed to me, to read our Morse electric signals.”

  “Suppose you had a powerful search light on the Titanic, could you not have thrown a beam on the vessel and have compelled her attention?”

  “We might.”

  H. J. Pitman, the third officer of the ship, was the first witness on April 23d. By a series of searching questions Senator Fletcher brought out the fact
that when the collision occurred the Titanic was going at the greatest speed attained during the trip, even though the ship was entering the Grand Banks and had been advised of the presence of ice.

  Frederick Fleet, a sailor and lookout man on the Titanic, followed Pitman on the stand. Fleet said he had had five or six years’ experience at sea and was lookout on the Oceanic prior to going on the Titanic. He was in the crow’s nest at the time of the collision.

  Fleet stated that he had kept a sharp lookout for ice, and testified to seeing the iceberg and signaling the bridge.

  Fleet acknowledged that if he had been aided in his observations by a good glass he probably could have spied the berg into which the ship crashed in time to have warned the bridge to avoid it. Major Arthur Peuchen, of Toronto, a passenger who followed Fleet on the stand, also testified to the much greater sweep of vision afforded by binoculars and, as a yachtsman, said he believed the presence of the iceberg might have been detected in time to escape the collision had the lookout men been so equipped.

  HAD ASKED FOR BINOCULARS

  It was made to appear that the blame for being without glasses did not rest with the lookout men. Fleet said they had asked for them at Southampton and were told there were none for them. One glass, in a pinch, would have served in the crow’s nest.

  The testimony before the committee on April 24th showed that the big steamship was on the verge of a field of ice twenty or thirty miles long, if she had not actually entered it, when the accident occurred.

  The committee tried to discover whether it would add to human safety if the ships were fitted with search lights so that at night objects could be seen at a greater distance. The testimony so far along this line had been conflicting. Some of the witnesses thought it would be no harm to try it, but they were all skeptical as to its value, as an iceberg would not be especially distinguishable because its bulk is mostly below the surface.