The Sinking of the Titanic, and Great Sea Disasters | Page 6

WORLD GOES TO SLEEP
PEACEFULLY--THE SAD AWAKENING.
LIKE a bolt out of a clear sky came the wireless message on Monday,
April 15, 1912, that on Sunday night the great Titanic, on her maiden
voyage across the Atlantic, had struck a gigantic iceberg, but that all
the passengers were saved. The ship had signaled her distress and
another victory was set down to wireless. Twenty-one hundred lives
saved!
Additional news was soon received that the ship had collided with a
mountain of ice in the North Atlantic, off Cape Race, Newfoundland, at
10.25 Sunday evening, April 14th. At 4.15 Monday morning the

Canadian Government Marine Agency received a wireless message that
the Titanic was sinking and that the steamers towing her were trying to
get her into shoal water near Cape Race, for the purpose of beaching
her.
Wireless despatches up to noon Monday showed that the passengers of
the Titanic were being transferred aboard the steamer Carpathia, a
Cunarder, which left New York, April 13th, for Naples. Twenty
boat-loads of the Titanic's passengers were said to have been
transferred to the Carpathia then, and allowing forty to sixty persons as
the capacity of each life-boat, some 800 or 1200 persons had already
been transferred from the damaged liner to the Carpathia. They were
reported as being taken to Halifax, whence they would be sent by train
to New York.
Another liner, the Parisian, of the Allan Company, which sailed from
Glasgow for Halifax on April 6th, was said to be close at hand and
assisting in the work of rescue. The Baltic, Virginian and Olympic
were also near the scene, according to the information received by
wireless.
While badly damaged, the giant vessel was reported as still afloat, but
whether she could reach port or shoal water was uncertain. The White
Star officials declared that the Titanic was in no immediate danger of
sinking, because of her numerous water-tight compartments.
"While we are still lacking definite information," Mr. Franklin,
vice-president of the White Star Line, said later in the afternoon, "we
believe the Titanic's passengers will reach Halifax, Wednesday evening.
We have received no further word from Captain Haddock, of the
Olympic, or from any of the ships in the vicinity, but are confident that
there will be no loss of life."
With the understanding that the survivors would be taken to Halifax the
line arranged to have thirty Pullman cars, two diners and many
passenger coaches leave Boston Monday night for Halifax to get the
passengers after they were landed. Mr. Franklin made a guess that the
Titanic's passengers would get into Halifax on Wednesday. The

Department of Commerce and Labor notified the White Star Line that
customs and immigration inspectors would be sent from Montreal to
Halifax in order that there would be as little delay as possible in getting
the passengers on trains.
Monday night the world slept in peace and assurance. A wireless
message had finally been received, reading:
"All Titanic's passengers safe."
It was not until nearly a week later that the fact was discovered that this
message had been wrongly received in the confusion of messages
flashing through the air, and that in reality the message should have
read:
"Are all Titanic's passengers safe?"
With the dawning of Tuesday morning came the awful news of the true
fate of the Titanic.
CHAPTER II
THE MOST SUMPTUOUS PALACE AFLOAT
DIMENSIONS OF THE TITANIC--CAPACITY--PROVISIONS FOR
THE COMFORT AND ENTERTAINMENT OF PASSENGERS--
MECHANICAL EQUIPMENT THE ARMY OF ATTENDANTS
REQUIRED.
THE statistical record of the great ship has news value at this time.
Early in 1908 officials of the White Star Company announced that they
would eclipse all previous records in shipbuilding with a vessel of
staggering dimensions. The Titanic resulted.
The keel of the ill-fated ship was laid in the summer of 1909 at the
Harland & Wolff yards, Belfast. Lord Pirrie, considered one of the best
authorities on shipbuilding in the world, was the designer. The

leviathan was launched on May 31, 1911, and was completed in
February, 1912, at a cost of $10,000,000.
SISTER SHIP OF OLYMPIC
The Titanic, largest liner in commission, was a sister ship of the
Olympic. The registered tonnage of each vessel is estimated as 45,000,
but officers of the White Star Line say that the Titanic measured 45,328
tons. The Titanic was commanded by Captain E. J. Smith, the White
Star admiral, who had previously been on the Olympic.
She was 882 1/2 long, or about four city blocks, and was 5000 tons
bigger than a battleship twice as large as the dreadnought Delaware.
Like her sister ship, the Olympic, the Titanic was a four- funneled
vessel, and had eleven decks. The distance from the keel to the top of
the funnels was 175 feet. She had an average speed of twenty-one