The Sinking of the Titanic, and Great Sea Disasters | Page 5

aboard Carpathia--One woman saved a dog--English colonel swam for hours when boat with mother aboard capsized.
CHAPTER XIX
HOW THE WORLD RECEIVED THE NEWS
Nations prostrate with grief--Messages from kings and cardinals-- Disaster stirs world to necessity of stricter regulations.
CHAPTER XX
BRAVERY OF THE OFFICERS AND CREW
Illustrious career of Captain E. J. Smith--Brave to the last-- Maintenance of order and discipline--Acts of heroism--Engineers died at posts --Noble-hearted band.
CHAPTER XXI
SEARCHING FOR THE DEAD
Sending out the Mackay-Bennett and Minia--Bremen passengers see bodies--Identifying bodies--Confusion in names--Recoveries.
CHAPTER XXII
CRITICISM OF ISMAY
Criminal and cowardly conduct charged--Proper caution not exercised when presence of icebergs was known--Should have stayed on board to help in work of rescue--Selfish and unsympathetic actions on board the Carpathia--Ismay's defense--William E. Carter's statement.
CHAPTER XXIII
THE FINANCIAL LOSS
Titanic not fully insured--Valuable cargo and mail--No chance for salvage--Life insurance loss--Loss to the Carpathia.
CHAPTER XXIV
OPINIONS OF EXPERTS
Captain E. K. Roden, Lewis Nixon, General Greely and Robert H. Kirk point out lessons taught by Titanic disaster and needed changes in construction.
CHAPTER XXV
OTHER GREAT MARINE DISASTERS.
Deadly danger of icebergs--Dozens of ships perish in collision-- Other disasters.
CHAPTER XXVI
DEVELOPMENT OF SHIPBUILDING
Evolution of water travel--Increases in size of vessels-- Is there any limit?--Achievements in speed--Titanic not the last word.
CHAPTER XXVII
SAFETY AND LIFE-SAVING DEVICES
Wireless telegraphy--Water-tight bulkheads--Submarine signals-- Life-boats and rafts--Nixon's pontoon--Life-preservers and buoys--Rockets.
CHAPTER XXVIII
TIME FOR REFLECTION AND REFORM
Speed and luxury overemphasized--Space needed for life-boats devoted to swimming pools and squash-courts--Mania for speed records compels use of dangerous routes and prevents proper caution in foggy weather--Life more valuable than luxury--Safety more important than speed--An aroused public opinion necessary--International conference recommended--Adequate life-saving equipment should be compulsory-- Speed regulations in bad weather--Co-operation in arranging schedules to keep vessels within reach of each other--Legal regulations.
CHAPTER XXIX
THE SENATORIAL INVESTIGATION
Prompt action of the Government--Senate committee probes disaster and brings out details--Testimony of Ismay, officers, crew passengers and other witnesses.

FACTS ABOUT THE WRECK OF THE TITANIC
NUMBER of persons aboard, 2340. Number of life-boats and rafts, 20. Capacity of each life-boat, 50 passengers and crew of 8. Utmost capacity of life-boats and rafts, about 1100. Number of life-boats wrecked in launching, 4. Capacity of life-boats safely launched, 928. Total number of persons taken in life-boats, 711. Number who died in life-boats, 6. Total number saved, 705. Total number of Titanic's company lost, 1635.
The cause of the disaster was a collision with an iceberg in latitude 41.46 north, longitude 50.14 west. The Titanic had had repeated warnings of the presence of ice in that part of the course. Two official warnings had been received defining the position of the ice fields. It had been calculated on the Titanic that she would reach the ice fields about 11 o'clock Sunday night. The collision occurred at 11.40. At that time the ship was driving at a speed of 21 to 23 knots, or about 26 miles, an hour.
There had been no details of seamen assigned to each boat.
Some of the boats left the ship without seamen enough to man the oars.
Some of the boats were not more than half full of passengers.
The boats had no provisions, some of them had no water stored, some were without sail equipment or compasses.
In some boats, which carried sails wrapped and bound, there was not a person with a knife to cut the ropes. In some boats the plugs in the bottom had been pulled out and the women passengers were compelled to thrust their hands into the holes to keep the boats from filling and sinking.
The captain, E. J. Smith, admiral of the White Star fleet, went down with his ship.
CHAPTER I
FIRST NEWS OF THE GREATEST MARINE DISASTER IN HISTORY
"THE TITANIC IN COLLISION, BUT EVERYBODY SAFE"-- ANOTHER TRIUMPH SET DOWN TO WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY-- THE 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