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diff --git a/31992.txt b/31992.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0106ac5 --- /dev/null +++ b/31992.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4719 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Titanic, by Filson Young + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Titanic + +Author: Filson Young + +Release Date: April 15, 2010 [EBook #31992] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TITANIC *** + + + + +Produced by Irma Spehar and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + +TITANIC + + +_BY FILSON YOUNG_ + + CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AND THE NEW WORLD OF HIS DISCOVERY + _Illustrated. Large Post 8vo. 7s. 6d. net._ + + * * * * * + + MEMORY HARBOUR + ESSAYS CHIEFLY IN DESCRIPTION + _Crown 8vo. 5s. net._ + + * * * * * + + VENUS AND CUPID + AN IMPRESSION IN PROSE AFTER VELASQUEZ IN COLOUR + Edition limited to 339 copies + _With Frontispiece. Crown 4to. 12s. 6d. net._ + + * * * * * + + THE SANDS OF PLEASURE + _With Frontispiece by_ R. J. PANNETT + _Seventy-fourth Thousand_ + _Crown 8vo, cloth, 6s.; sewed, 1s. net._ + + * * * * * + + WHEN THE TIDE TURNS + _With Frontispiece by_ W. DACRES ADAMS + _Twenty-second Thousand_ + _Crown 8vo, cloth, 6s.; sewed, 1s. net._ + + * * * * * + + IRELAND AT THE CROSS ROADS + _Second Edition. Crown 8vo._ + _Cloth, 3s. 6d. net._ + + * * * * * + + MASTERSINGERS + _Fifth Edition. Large Post 8vo._ + _Persian yapp, 5s. net._ + + * * * * * + + MORE MASTERSINGERS + STUDIES IN THE ART OF MUSIC + _Large Post 8vo. Persian yapp, 5s. net._ + + * * * * * + + THE WAGNER STORIES + _Seventh Impression. Large Post 8vo._ + _Persian yapp, 5s. net._ + + * * * * * + + OPERA STORIES + _Large Post 8vo. Persian yapp, 5s. net._ + + * * * * * + + THE LOVER'S HOURS + A CYCLE OF POEMS + _Fcp. 4to. 2s. 6d. net._ + + + + +[Illustration: 41 deg. 16' N; 50 deg. 14' W.] + + + + + TITANIC + + BY + + FILSON YOUNG + + [Illustration] + + LONDON + GRANT RICHARDS LTD. + 1912 + + CHISWICK PRESS: CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO. + TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON. + + + _I will not conceal his parts, nor his power, nor his comely + proportion. + His scales are his pride, shut up together as with a close seal. + One is so near to another, that no air can come between them. + They are joined one to another, they stick together, that they + cannot be sundered. + Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out. + Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or caldron. + His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth. + The flakes of his flesh are joined together; they are firm in + themselves; they cannot be moved. + He maketh the deep to boil like a pot; he maketh the sea like a pot + of ointment. + He maketh a path to shine after him; one would think the deep to be + hoary. + Upon earth there is not his like, who is made without fear. + He beholdeth all high things; he is a king over all the children of + pride._ + + Job, xli. + + + + +I + + +If you enter Belfast Harbour early in the morning on the mail steamer +from Fleetwood you will see far ahead of you a smudge of smoke. At first +it is nothing but the apex of a great triangle formed by the heights on +one side, the green wooded shores on the other, and the horizon astern. +As you go on the triangle becomes narrower, the blue waters smoother, +and the ship glides on in a triangle of her own--a triangle of white foam +that is parallel to the green triangle of the shore. Behind you the +Copeland Lighthouse keeps guard over the sunrise and the tumbling surges +of the Channel, before you is the cloud of smoke that joins the +narrowing shores like a gray canopy; and there is no sound but the rush +of foam past the ship's side. + +You seem to be making straight for a gray mud flat; but as you approach +you see a narrow lane of water opening in the mud and shingle. Two low +banks, like the banks of a canal, thrust out their ends into the waters +of the lough; and presently, her speed reduced to dead slow, the ship +enters between these low mud banks, which are called the Twin Islands. +So narrow is the lane that as she enters the water rises on the shingle +banks and flows in waves on either side of her like two gray horses with +white manes that canter slowly along, a solemn escort, until the channel +between the islands is passed. Day and night, winter and summer, these +two gray horses are always waiting; no ship ever surprises them asleep; +no ship enters but they rise up and shake their manes and accompany her +with their flowing, cantering motion along the confines of their +territory. And when you have passed the gates that they guard you are in +Belfast Harbour, in still and muddy water that smells of the land and +not of the sea; for you seem already to be far from the things of the +sea. + +As you have entered the narrow channel a new sound, also far different +from the liquid sounds of the sea, falls on your ear; at first a low +sonorous murmuring like the sound of bees in a giant hive, that rises to +a ringing continuous music--the multitudinous clamour of thousands of +blows of metal on metal. And turning to look whence the sound arises you +seem indeed to have left the last of the things of the sea behind you; +for on your left, on the flattest of the mud flats, arises a veritable +forest of iron; a leafless forest, of thousands upon thousands of bare +rusty trunks and branches that tower higher than any forest trees in our +land, and look like the ruins of some giant grove submerged by the sea +in the brown autumn of its life, stripped of its leaves and laid bare +again, the dead and rusty remnants of a forest. There is nothing with +any broad or continuous surface--only thousands and thousands of iron +branches with the gray sky and the smoke showing through them +everywhere, giant cobwebs hanging between earth and the sky, intricate, +meaningless networks of trunks and branches and sticks and twigs of +iron. + +But as you glide nearer still you see that the forest is not lifeless, +nor its branches deserted. From the bottom to the topmost boughs it is +crowded with a life that at first seems like that of mites in the +interstices of some rotting fabric, and then like birds crowding the +branches of the leafless forest, and finally appears as a multitude of +pigmy men swarming and toiling amid the skeleton iron structures that +are as vast as cathedrals and seem as frail as gossamer. It is from them +that the clamour arises, the clamour that seemed so gentle and musical a +mile away, and that now, as you come closer, grows strident and +deafening. Of all the sounds produced by man's labour in the world this +sound of a great shipbuilding yard is the most painful. Only the +harshest materials and the harshest actions are engaged in producing it: +iron struck upon iron, or steel smitten upon steel, or steel upon iron, +or iron upon steel--that and nothing else, day in, day out, year in and +year out, a million times a minute. It is an endless, continuous +birth-agony, that should herald the appearance of some giant soul. And +great indeed should be the overture to such an agony; for it is here +that of fire and steel, and the sweat and pain of millions of hours of +strong men's labour, were born those two giant children that were +destined by man finally to conquer the sea. + +In this awful womb the _Titanic_ took shape. For months and months in +that monstrous iron enclosure there was nothing that had the faintest +likeness to a ship; only something that might have been the iron +scaffolding for the naves of half-a-dozen cathedrals laid end to end. +Far away, furnaces were smelting thousands and thousands of tons of raw +material that finally came to this place in the form of great girders +and vast lumps of metal, huge framings, hundreds of miles of stays and +rods and straps of steel, thousands of plates, not one of which twenty +men could lift unaided; millions of rivets and bolts--all the heaviest +and most sinkable things in the world. And still nothing in the shape +of a ship that could float upon the sea. The seasons followed each +other, the sun rose now behind the heights of Carrickfergus and now +behind the Copeland Islands; daily the ships came in from fighting with +the boisterous seas, and the two gray horses cantered beside them as +they slid between the islands; daily the endless uproar went on, and the +tangle of metal beneath the cathedral scaffolding grew denser. A great +road of steel, nearly a quarter of a mile long, was laid at last--a road +so heavy and so enduring that it might have been built for the triumphal +progress of some giant railway train. Men said that this roadway was the +keel of a ship; but you could not look at it and believe them. + +The scaffolding grew higher; and as it grew the iron branches multiplied +and grew with it, higher and higher towards the sky, until it seemed as +though man were rearing a temple which would express all he knew of +grandeur and sublimity, and all he knew of solidity and +permanence--something that should endure there, rooted to the soil of +Queen's Island for ever. The uproar and the agony increased. In quiet +studios and offices clear brains were busy with drawings and +calculations and subtle elaborate mathematical processes, sifting and +applying the tabulated results of years of experience. The drawings came +in time to the place of uproar; were magnified and subdivided and taken +into grimy workshops; and steam-hammers and steam-saws smote and ripped +at the brute metal, to shape it in accordance with the shapes on the +paper. And still the ships, big and little, came nosing in from the high +seas--little dusty colliers from the Tyne, and battered schooners from +the coast, and timber ships from the Baltic, and trim mail steamers, +and giants of the ocean creeping in wounded for succour--all solemnly +received by the twin gray horses and escorted to their stations in the +harbour. But the greatest giant of all that came in, which dwarfed +everything else visible to the eye, was itself dwarfed to insignificance +by the great cathedral building on the island. + +The seasons passed; the creatures who wrought and clambered among the +iron branches, and sang their endless song of labour there, felt the +steel chill beneath the frosts of winter, and burning hot beneath the +sun's rays in summer, until at last the skeleton within the scaffolding +began to take a shape, at the sight of which men held their breaths. It +was the shape of a ship, a ship so monstrous and unthinkable that it +towered high over the buildings and dwarfed the very mountains beside +the water. It seemed like some impious blasphemy that man should fashion +this most monstrous and ponderable of all his creations into the +likeness of a thing that could float upon the yielding waters. And still +the arms swung and the hammers rang, the thunder and din continued, and +the gray horses shook their manes and cantered along beneath the shadow, +and led the little ships in from the sea and out again as though no +miracle were about to happen. + +A little more than its own length of water lay between the iron forest +and the opposite shore, in which to loose this tremendous structure from +its foundations and slide it into the sea. The thought that it should +ever be moved from its place, except by an earthquake, was a thought +that the mind could not conceive, nor could anyone looking at it accept +the possibility that by any method this vast tonnage of metal could be +borne upon the surface of the waters. Yet, like an evil dream, as it +took the shape of a giant ship, all the properties of a ship began to +appear and increase in hideous exaggeration. A rudder as big as a giant +elm tree, bosses and bearings of propellers the size of a +windmill--everything was on a nightmare scale; and underneath the iron +foundations of the cathedral floor men were laying on concrete beds +pavements of oak and great cradles of timber and iron, and sliding ways +of pitch pine to support the bulk of the monster when she was moved, +every square inch of the pavement surface bearing a weight of more than +two tons. Twenty tons of tallow were spread upon the ways, and hydraulic +rams and triggers built and fixed against the bulk of the ship so that, +when the moment came, the waters she was to conquer should thrust her +finally from earth. + +And the time did come. The branching forest became clothed and thick +with leaves of steel. Within the scaffoldings now towered the walls of +the cathedral, and what had been a network of girders and cantilevers +and gantries and bridges became a building with floors, a ship with +decks. The skeleton ribs became covered with skins of wood, the metal +decks clothed with planks smooth as a ball-room floor. What had been a +building of iron became a town, with miles of streets and hundreds of +separate houses and buildings in it. The streets were laid out; the +houses were decorated and furnished with luxuries such as no palace ever +knew. + +And then, while men held their breath, the whole thing moved, moved +bodily, obedient to the tap of the imprisoned waters in the ram. There +was no christening ceremony such as celebrates the launching of lesser +ships. Only the waters themselves dared to give the impulse that should +set this monster afloat. The waters touched the cradle, and the cradle +moved on the ways, carrying the ship down towards the waters. And when +the cradle stopped the ship moved on; slowly at first, then with a +movement that grew quicker until it increased to the speed of a +fast-trotting horse, touching the waters, dipping into them, cleaving +them, forcing them asunder in waves and ripples that fled astonished to +the surrounding shores; finally resting and floating upon them, while +thousands of the pigmy men who had roosted in the bare iron branches, +who had raised the hideous clamour amid which the giant was born, +greeted their handiwork, dropped their tools, and raised their hoarse +voices in a cheer. + +The miracle had happened. And the day came when the two gray horses +were summoned to their greatest task; when, with necks proudly arched +and their white manes flung higher than ever, they escorted the +_Titanic_ between the islands out to sea. + + + + +II + + +At noon on Wednesday, 10th April 1912, the _Titanic_ started from +Southampton on her maiden voyage. Small enough was her experience of the +sea before that day. Many hands had handled her; many tugs had fussed +about her, pulling and pushing her this way and that as she was +manoeuvred in the waters of Belfast Lough and taken out to the entrance +to smell the sea. There she had been swung and her compasses adjusted. +Three or four hours had sufficed for her trial trip, and she had first +felt her own power in the Irish Sea, when all her new machinery working +together, at first with a certain reserve and diffidence, had tested and +tried its various functions, and she had come down through St. George's +Channel and round by the Lizard, and past the Eddystone and up the +Solent to Southampton Water, feeling a little hustled and strange, no +doubt, but finding this business of ploughing the seas surprisingly easy +after all. And now, on the day of sailing, amid the cheers of a crowd +unusually vast even for Southampton Docks, the largest ship in the world +slid away from the deep-water jetty to begin her sea life in earnest. + +In the first few minutes her giant powers made themselves felt. As she +was slowly gathering way she passed the liner _New York_, another ocean +monarch, which was lying like a rock moored by seven great hawsers of +iron and steel. As the _Titanic_ passed, some mysterious compelling +influence of the water displaced by her vast bulk drew the _New York_ +towards her; snapped one by one the great steel hawsers and pulled the +liner from the quayside as though she had been a cork. Not until she was +within fifteen feet of the _Titanic_, when a collision seemed imminent, +did the ever-present tugs lay hold of her and haul her back to +captivity. + +Even to the most experienced traveller the first few hours on a new ship +are very confusing; in the case of a ship like this, containing the +population of a village, they are bewildering. So the eight hours spent +by the _Titanic_ in crossing from Southampton to Cherbourg would be +spent by most of her passengers in taking their bearings, trying to find +their way about and looking into all the wonders of which the voyage +made them free. There were luxuries enough in the second class, and +comforts enough in the third to make the ship a wonder on that account +alone; but it was the first-class passengers, used as they were to all +the extravagant luxuries of modern civilized life, on whom the +discoveries of that first day of sun and wind in the Channel must have +come with the greatest surprise. They had heard the ship described as a +floating hotel; but as they began to explore her they must have found +that she contained resources of a perfection unattained by any hotel, +and luxuries of a kind unknown in palaces. The beauties of French +chateaux and of English country-houses of the great period had been +dexterously combined with that supreme form of comfort which the modern +English and Americans have raised to the dignity of a fine art. Such a +palace as a great artist, a great epicure, a great poet and the most +spoilt and pampered woman in the world might have conjured up from their +imagination in an idle hour was here materialized and set, not in a +fixed landscape of park and woodland, but on the dustless road of the +sea, with the sunshine of an English April pouring in on every side, and +the fresh salt airs of the Channel filling every corner with tonic +oxygen. + +Catalogues of marvels and mere descriptions of wonders are tiresome +reading, and produce little effect on the mind; yet if we are to realize +the full significance of this story of the _Titanic_, we must begin as +her passengers began, with an impression of the lavish luxury and beauty +which was the setting of life on board. And we can do no better than +follow in imagination the footsteps of one ideal voyager as he must have +discovered, piece by piece, the wonders of this floating pleasure house. + +If he was a wise traveller he would have climbed to the highest point +available as the ship passed down the Solent, and that would be the +boat-deck, which was afterwards to be the stage of so tragic a drama. +At the forward end of it was the bridge--that sacred area paved with +snow-white gratings and furnished with many brightly-polished +instruments. Here were telephones to all the vital parts of the ship, +telegraphs to the engine room and to the fo'c'stle head and +after-bridge; revolving switches for closing the water-tight doors in +case of emergency; speaking-tubes, electric switches for operating the +foghorns and sirens--all the nerves, in fact, necessary to convey +impulses from this brain of the ship to her various members. Behind the +bridge on either side were the doors leading to the officers' quarters; +behind them again, the Marconi room--a mysterious temple full of +glittering machines of brass, vulcanite, glass, and platinum, with +straggling wires and rows of switches and fuse boxes, and a high priest, +young, clean-shaven, alert and intelligent, sitting with a telephone +cap over his head, sending out or receiving the whispers of the ether. +Behind this opened the grand staircase, an imposing sweep of decoration +in the Early English style, with plain and solid panelling relieved here +and there with lovely specimens of deep and elaborate carving in the +manner of Grinling Gibbons; the work of the two greatest wood-carvers in +England. Aft of this again the white pathway of the deck led by the +doors and windows of the gymnasium, where the athletes might keep in +fine condition; and beyond that the white roof above ended and the rest +was deck-space open to the sun and the air, and perhaps also to the +smoke and smuts of the four vast funnels that towered in buff and black +into the sky--each so vast that it would have served as a tunnel for a +railway train. + +But the ship has gathered way, and is sliding along past the Needles, +where the little white lighthouse looks so paltry beside the towering +cliff. The Channel air is keen, and the bugles are sounding for lunch; +and our traveller goes down the staircase, noticing perhaps, as he +passes, the great clock with its figures which symbolize Honour and +Glory crowning Time. Honour and Glory must have felt just a little +restive as, having crowned one o'clock, they looked down from Time upon +the throng of people descending the staircase to lunch. There were a few +there who had earned, and many who had received, the honour and glory +represented by extreme wealth; but the two figures stooping over the +clock may have felt that Success crowning Opportunity would have been a +symbol more befitting the first-class passengers of the _Titanic_. +Perhaps they looked more kindly as one white-haired old man passed +beneath--W. T. Stead, that untiring old warrior and fierce campaigner in +peaceful causes, who in fields where honour and glory were to be found +sought always for the true and not the false. There were many kinds of +men there--not every kind, for it is not every man who can pay from fifty +to eight hundred guineas for a four days' journey; but most kinds of men +and women who can afford to do that were represented there. + +Our solitary traveller, going down the winding staircase, does not pause +on the first floor, for that leads forward to private apartments, and +aft to a writing-room and library; nor on the second or third, for the +entrance-halls there lead to state-rooms; but on the fourth floor down +he steps out into a reception room extending to the full width of the +ship and of almost as great a length. Nothing of the sea's restrictions +or discomforts here! Before him is an Aubusson tapestry, copied from +one of the "Chasses de Guise" series of the National Garde-Meuble; and +in this wide apartment there is a sense, not of the cramping necessities +of the sea, but of all the leisured and spacious life of the land. +Through this luxurious emptiness the imposing dignities of the +dining-saloon are reached; and here indeed all the insolent splendour of +the ship is centred. It was by far the largest room that had ever +floated upon the seas, and by far the largest room that had ever moved +from one place to another. The seventeenth-century style of Hatfield and +Haddon Hall had been translated from the sombreness of oak to the +lightness of enamelled white. Artist-plasterers had moulded the lovely +Jacobean ceiling, artist-stainers had designed and made the great +painted windows through which the bright sea-sunlight was filtered; and +when the whole company of three hundred was seated at the tables it +seemed not much more than half full, since more than half as many again +could find places there without the least crowding. There, amid the +strains of gay music and the hum of conversation and the subdued clatter +of silver and china and the low throb of the engines, the gay company +takes its first meal on the _Titanic_. And as our traveller sits there +solitary, he remembers that this is not all, that in another great +saloon farther off another three hundred passengers of the second-class +are also at lunch, and that on the floor below him another seven hundred +of the third-class, and in various other places near a thousand of the +crew, are also having their meal. All a little oppressive to read about, +perhaps, but wonderful to contrive and arrange. It is what everyone is +thinking and talking about who sits at those luxurious tables, loaded +not with sea-fare, but with dainty and perishable provisions for which +half the countries of the world have been laid under tribute. + +The music flows on and the smooth service accomplishes itself; Honour +and Glory, high up under the wrought-iron dome of the staircase, are +crowning another hour of Time; and our traveller comes up into the fresh +air again in order to assure himself that he is really at sea. The +electric lift whisks him up four storeys to the deck again; there all +around him are the blue-gray waters of the Channel surging in a white +commotion past the towering sides of the ship, spurned by the tremendous +rush and momentum of these fifty thousand tons through the sea. This +time our traveller stops short of the boat-deck, and begins to explore +the far vaster B deck which, sheltered throughout its great length by +the boat-deck above, and free from all impediments, extends like a vast +white roadway on either side of the central deck. Here the busy deck +stewards are arranging chairs in the places that will be occupied by +them throughout the voyage. Here, as on the parade of a fashionable +park, people are taking their walks in the afternoon sunshine. + +From the staircase forward the deck houses are devoted to apartments +which are still by force of habit called cabins, but which have nothing +in fact to distinguish them from the most luxurious habitations ashore, +except that no dust ever enters them and that the air is always fresh +from the open spaces of the sea. They are not for the solitary +traveller; but our friend perhaps is curious and peeps in through an +uncurtained window. There is a complete habitation with bed-rooms, +sitting-room, bath-room and service-room complete. They breathe an +atmosphere of more than mechanical luxury, more than material +pleasures. Twin bedsteads, perfect examples of Empire or Louis Seize, +symbolize the romance to which the most extravagant luxury in the world +is but a minister. Instead of ports there are windows--windows that look +straight out on to the blue sea, as might the windows of a castle on a +cliff. Instead of stoves or radiators there are open grates, where fires +of sea-coal are burning brightly. Every suite is in a different style, +and each and all are designed and furnished by artists; and the love and +repose of millionaires can be celebrated in surroundings of Adam or +Hepplewhite, or Louis Quatorze or the Empire, according to their tastes. +And for the hire of each of these theatres the millionaire must pay some +two hundred guineas a day, with the privilege of being quite alone, cut +off from the common herd who are only paying perhaps five-and-twenty +pounds a day, and with the privilege, if he chooses, of seeing nothing +at all that has to do with a ship, not even the sea. + +For there is one thing that the designers of this sea-palace seem to +have forgotten and seem to be a little ashamed of--and that is the sea +itself. There it lies, an eternal prospect beyond these curtained +windows, by far the most lovely and wonderful thing visible; but it +seems to be forgotten there. True, there is a smoke-room at the after +extremity of the deck below this, whose windows look out into a great +verandah sheeted in with glass from which you cannot help looking upon +the sea. But in order to counteract as much as possible that austere and +lovely reminder of where we are, trellis-work has been raised within the +glass, and great rose-trees spread and wander all over it, reminding you +by their crimson blossoms of the earth and the land, and the scented +shelter of gardens that are far from the boisterous stress of the sea. +No spray ever drifts in at these heights, no froth or spume can ever in +the wildest storms beat upon this verandah. Here, too, as almost +everywhere else on the ship, you can, if you will, forget the sea. + + + + +III + + +The first afternoon at sea seems long: every face is strange, and it +seems as though in so vast a crowd none will ever become familiar, +although one of the miracles of sea-life is the way in which the blurred +crowd resolves itself into individual units, each of which has its +character and significance. And if we are really to know and understand +and not merely to hear with our ears the tale of what happened to the +greatest ship in the world, we must first prepare and soak our minds in +her atmosphere, and take in imagination that very voyage which began so +happily on this April day. At the end of the afternoon came the coast of +France, and Cherbourg--a sunset memory of a long breakwater, a distant +cliff crowned with a white building, a fussing of tugs and hasty +transference of passengers and mails; and finally the lighthouse showing +a golden star against the sunset, when the great ship's head was turned +to the red west, and the muffled and murmuring song of the engines was +taken up again. Perhaps our traveller, bent upon more discoveries, dined +that night not in the saloon, but in the restaurant, and, following the +illuminated electric signs that pointed the way along the numerous +streets and roads of the ship, found his way aft to the Cafe-Restaurant; +where instead of stewards were French waiters and a _maitre d'hotel_ +from Paris, and all the perfection of that perfect and expensive service +which condescends to give you a meal for something under a five-pound +note; where, surrounded by Louis Seize panelling of fawn-coloured +walnut, you may on this April evening eat your plovers' eggs and +strawberries, and drink your 1900 Clicquot, and that in perfect oblivion +of the surrounding sea. Afterwards, perhaps, a stroll on the deck amid +groups of people, not swathed in pea-jackets or oilskins, but attired as +though for the opera; and all the time, in an atmosphere golden with +light, and musical with low-talking voices and the yearning strains of a +waltz, driving five-and-twenty miles an hour westward, with the black +night and the sea all about us. And then to bed, not in a bunk in a +cabin but in a bedstead in a quiet room with a telephone through which +to speak to any one of two thousand people, and a message handed in +before you go to sleep that someone wrote in New York since you rose +from the dinner-table. + +The next morning the scene at Cherbourg was repeated, with the fair +green shores of Cork Harbour instead of the cliffs of France for its +setting; and then quietly, without fuss, in the early afternoon of +Thursday, out round the green point, beyond the headland, and the great +ship has steadied on her course and on the long sea-road at last. How +worn it is! How seamed and furrowed and printed with the track-lines of +journeys innumerable; how changing, and yet how unchanged--the road that +leads to Archangel or Sicily, to Ceylon or to the frozen Pole; the old +road that leads to the ruined gateways of Phoenicia, of Venice, of Tyre; +the new road that leads to new lives and new lands; the dustless road, +the long road that all must travel who in body or in spirit would really +discover a new world. And travel on it as you may for tens of thousands +of miles, you come back to it always with the same sense of expectation, +never wholly disappointed; and always with the same certainty that you +will find at the turn or corner of the road, either some new thing or +the renewal of something old. + +There is no human experience in which the phenomena of small varieties +within one large monotony are so clearly exemplified as in a sea-voyage. +The dreary beginnings of docks, of baggage, and soiled harbour water; +the quite hopeless confusion of strange faces--faces entirely collective, +comprising a mere crowd; the busy highway of the Channel, sunlit or dim +with mist or rain, or lighted and bright at night like the main street +of a city; the last outpost, the Lizard, with its high gray cliffs, +green-roofed, with tiny homesteads perched on the ridge; or Ushant, that +tall monitory tower upstanding on the melancholy misty flats; or the +solitary Fastnet, lonely, ultimate and watching--these form the familiar +overture to the subsequent isolation and vacancy of the long road +itself. There are the same day and night of disturbance, the vacant +places at table, the prone figures, swathed and motionless in +deck-chairs, the morning of brilliant sunshine, when the light that +streams into the cabins has a vernal strangeness and wonder for +town-dimmed eyes; the gradual emergence of new faces and doubtful +staggering back of the demoralized to the blessed freshness of the upper +air; the tentative formation of groups and experimental alliances, the +rapid disintegration of these and re-formation on entirely new lines; +and then that miracle of unending interest and wonder, that the faces +that were only the blurred material of a crowd begin one by one to +emerge from the background and detach themselves from the mass, to take +on identity, individuality, character, till what was a crowd of +uninteresting, unidentified humanity becomes a collection of individual +persons with whom one's destinies for the time are strangely and +unaccountably bound up; among whom one may have acquaintances, friends, +or perhaps enemies; who for the inside of a week are all one's world of +men and women. + +There are few alterative agents so powerful and sure in their working as +latitude and longitude; and as we slide across new degrees, habit, +association, custom, and ideas slip one by one imperceptibly away from +us; we come really into a new world, and if we had no hearts and no +memories we should soon become different people. But the heart lives its +own life, spinning gossamer threads that float away astern across time +and space, joining us invisibly to that which made and fashioned us, and +to which we hope to return. + + + + +IV + + +Wonderful, even for experienced travellers, is that first waking to a +day on which there shall be no sight of the shore, and the first of +several days of isolation in the world of a ship. There is a quality in +the morning sunshine at sea as it streams into the ship and is reflected +in the white paint and sparkling water of the bath-rooms, and in the +breeze that blows cool and pure along the corridors, that is like +nothing else. The company on the _Titanic_ woke up on Friday morning to +begin in earnest their four days of isolated life. Our traveller, who +has found out so many things about the ship, has not found out +everything yet; and he continues his explorations, with the advantage, +perhaps, of a special permit from the Captain or Chief Engineer to +explore other quarters of the floating city besides that in which he +lives. Let us, with him, try to form some general conception of the +internal arrangements of the ship. + +The great superstructure of decks amidships which catches the eye so +prominently in a picture or photograph, was but, in reality, a small +part, although the most luxurious part, of the vessel. Speaking roughly, +one might describe it as consisting of three decks, five hundred feet +long, devoted almost exclusively to the accommodation of first-class +passengers, with the exception of the officers' quarters (situated +immediately aft of the bridge on the top deck of all), and the +second-class smoking-room and library, at the after end of the +superstructure on the third and fourth decks. With these exceptions, in +this great four-storied building were situated all the most magnificent +and palatial accommodations of the ship. Immediately beneath it, +amidships, in the steadiest part of the vessel where any movement would +be least felt, was the first-class dining saloon, with the pantries and +kitchens immediately aft of it. Two decks below it were the third-class +dining saloons and kitchens; below them again, separated by a heavy +steel deck, were the boiler-rooms and coal bunkers, resting on the +cellular double bottom of the ship. Immediately aft of the boiler-rooms +came the two engine-rooms; the forward and larger one of the two +contained the reciprocating engines which drove the twin screws, and the +after one the turbine engine for driving the large centre propeller. + +Forward and aft of this centre part of the ship, which in reality +occupied about two-thirds of her whole length, were two smaller +sections, divided (again one speaks roughly) between second-class +accommodation, stores and cargo in the stern section, and third-class +berths, crew's quarters and cargo in the bow section. But although the +first-class accommodation was all amidships, and the second-class all +aft, that of the third-class was scattered about in such blank spaces as +could be found for it. Thus most of the berths were forward, immediately +behind the fo'c'stle, some were right aft; the dining-room was +amidships, and the smoke-room in the extreme stern, over the rudder; and +to enjoy a smoke or game of cards a third-class passenger who was +berthed forward would have to walk the whole length of the ship and back +again, a walk not far short of half a mile. This gives one an idea of +how much more the ship resembled a town than a house. A third-class +passenger did not walk from his bedroom to his parlour; he walked from +the house where he lived in the forward part of the ship to the club a +quarter of a mile away where he was to meet his friends. + +If, thinking of the _Titanic_ storming along westward across the +Atlantic, you could imagine her to be split in half from bow to stern so +that you could look, as one looks at the section of a hive, upon all her +manifold life thus suddenly laid bare, you would find in her a microcosm +of civilized society. Up on the top are the rulers, surrounded by the +rich and the luxurious, enjoying the best of everything; a little way +below them their servants and parasites, ministering not so much to +their necessities as to their luxuries; lower down still, at the very +base and foundation of all, the fierce and terrible labour of the +stokeholds, where the black slaves are shovelling and shovelling as +though for dear life, endlessly pouring coal into furnaces that devoured +it and yet ever demanded a new supply--horrible labour, joyless life; and +yet the labour that gives life and movement to the whole ship. Up above +are all the beautiful things, the pleasant things; down below are the +terrible and necessary things. Up above are the people who rest and +enjoy; down below the people who sweat and suffer. + +Consider too the whirl of life and multitude of human employments that +you would have found had you peered into this section of the ship that +we are supposing to have been laid bare. Honour and Glory, let us say, +have just crowned ten o'clock in the morning beneath the great dome of +glass and iron that covers the central staircase. Someone has just come +down and posted a notice on the board--a piece of wireless news of +something that happened in London last night. In one of the sunny +bed-rooms (for our section lays everything bare) someone is turning over +in bed again and telling a maid to shut out the sun. Eighty feet below +her the black slaves are working in a fiery pit; ten feet below them is +the green sea. A business-like-looking group have just settled down to +bridge in the first-class smoking-room. The sea does not exist for them, +nor the ship; the roses that bloom upon the trellis-work by the verandah +interest them no more than the pageant of white clouds which they could +see if they looked out of the wide windows. Down below the chief +steward, attended by his satellites, is visiting the stores and getting +from the store-keeper the necessaries for his day's catering. He has +plenty to draw from. In those cold chambers behind the engine-room are +gathered provisions which seem almost inexhaustible for any population; +for the imagination does not properly take in the meaning of such items +as a hundred thousand pounds of beef, thirty thousand fresh eggs, fifty +tons of potatoes, a thousand pounds of tea, twelve hundred quarts of +cream. In charge of the chief steward also, to be checked by him at the +end of each voyage, are the china and glass, the cutlery and plate of +the ship, amounting in all to some ninety thousand pieces. But there he +is, quietly at work with the store-keeper; and not far from him, in +another room or series of rooms, another official dealing with the +thousands upon thousands of pieces of linen for bed and table with which +the town is supplied. + +Everything is on a monstrous scale. The centre anchor, which it took a +team of sixteen great horses to drag on a wooden trolley, weighs over +fifteen tons; its cable will hold a dead weight of three hundred tons. +The very rudder, that mere slender and almost invisible appendage under +the counter, is eighty feet high and weighs a hundred tons. The men on +the look-out do not climb up the shrouds and ratlines in the old sea +fashion; the mast is hollow and contains a stairway; there is a door in +it from which they come out to take their place in the crow's nest. + +Are you weary of such statistics? They were among the things on which +men thought with pride on those sunny April days in the Atlantic. Man +can seldom think of himself apart from his environment, and the house +and place in which he lives are ever a preoccupation with all men. From +the clerk in his little jerry-built villa to the king in his castle, +what the house is, what it is built of, how it is equipped and adorned, +are matters of vital interest. And if that is true of land, where all +the webs of life are connected and intercrossed, how much more must it +be true when a man sets his house afloat upon the sea; detaches it from +all other houses and from the world, and literally commits himself to +it. This was the greatest sea town that had ever been built; these were +the first inhabitants of it; theirs were the first lives that were lived +in these lovely rooms; this was one of the greatest companies that had +ever been afloat together within the walls of one ship. No wonder they +were proud; no wonder they were preoccupied with the source of their +pride. + +But things stranger still to the life of the sea are happening in some +of the hundreds of cells which our giant section-knife has laid bare. An +orchestra is practising in one of them; in another, some one is catching +live trout from a pond; Post Office sorters are busy in another with +letters for every quarter of the western world; in a garage, +mechanicians are cleaning half a dozen motor-cars; the rippling tones of +a piano sound from a drawing-room where people are quietly reading in +deep velvet armchairs surrounded by books and hothouse flowers; in +another division people are diving and swimming in a great bath in water +deep enough to drown a tall man; in another an energetic game of squash +racquets is in progress; and in great open spaces, on which it is only +surprising that turf is not laid, people by hundreds are sunning +themselves and breathing the fresh air, utterly unconscious of all these +other activities on which we have been looking. For even here, as +elsewhere, half of the world does not know and does not care how the +other half lives. + +All this magnitude had been designed and adapted for the realization of +two chief ends--comfort and stability. We have perhaps heard enough +about the arrangements for comfort; but the more vital matter had +received no less anxious attention. Practically all of the space below +the water-line was occupied by the heaviest things in the ship--the +boilers, the engines, the coal bunkers and the cargo. And the +arrangement of her bulkheads, those tough steel walls that divide a +ship's hull into separate compartments, was such that her designers +believed that no possible accident short of an explosion in her boilers +could sink her. If she rammed any obstruction head on, her bows might +crumple up, but the steel walls stretching across her hull--and there +were fifteen of them--would prevent the damage spreading far enough aft +to sink her. If her broadside was rammed by another ship, and one or +even two of these compartments pierced, even then the rest would be +sufficient to hold her up at least for a day or two. These bulkheads +were constructed of heavy sheet steel, and extended from the very bottom +of the ship to a point well above the water-line. Necessarily there were +openings in them in order to make possible communication between the +different parts of the ship. These openings were the size of an ordinary +doorway and fitted with heavy steel doors--not hinged doors, but panels, +sliding closely in water-tight grooves on either side of the opening. +There were several ways of closing them; but once closed they offered a +resistance as solid as that of the bulkheads. + +The method of opening and closing them was one of the many marvels of +modern engineering. The heavy steel doors were held up above the +openings by a series of friction clutches. Up on the bridge were +switches connected with powerful electro-magnets at the side of the +bulkhead openings. The operation of the switches caused each magnet to +draw down a heavy weight which instantly released the friction clutches, +so that the doors would slide down in a second or two into their places, +a gong ringing at the same time to warn anyone who might be passing +through to get out of the way. The clutches could also be released by +hand. But if for any reason the electric machinery should fail, there +was a provision made for closing them automatically in case the ship +should be flooded with water. Down in the double bottom of the ship were +arranged a series of floats connected with each set of bulkhead doors. +In the event of water reaching the compartment below the doors, it would +raise the floats, which, in their turn, would release the clutches and +drop the doors. These great bulkheads were no new experiment; they had +been tried and proved. When the White Star liner _Suevic_ was wrecked a +few years ago off the Lizard, it was decided to divide the part of her +which was floating from the part which was embedded in the rocks; and +she was cut in two just forward of the main collision bulkhead, and the +larger half of her towed into port with no other protection from the sea +than this vast steel wall which, nevertheless, easily kept her afloat. +And numberless other ships have owed their lives to the resisting power +of these steel bulkheads and the quick operation of the sliding doors. + +As for the enormous weight that made for the _Titanic's_ stability, it +was, as I have said, contained chiefly in the boilers, machinery and +coal. The coal bunkers were like a lining running round the boilers, not +only at the sides of the ship, but also across her whole breadth, thus +increasing the solidity of the steel bulkheads; and when it is +remembered that her steam was supplied by twenty-nine boilers, each of +them the size of a large room, and fired by a hundred and fifty-nine +furnaces, the enormous weight of this part of the ship may be dimly +realized. + +There are two lives lived side by side on such a voyage, the life of the +passengers and the life of the ship. From a place high up on the +boat-deck our traveller can watch the progress of these two lives. The +passengers play games or walk about, or sit idling drowsily in deck +chairs, with their eyes straying constantly from the unheeded book to +the long horizon, or noting the trivial doings of other idlers. The +chatter of their voices, the sound of their games, the faint tinkle of +music floating up from the music-room are eloquent of one of these +double lives; there on the bridge is an expression of the other--the +bridge in all its spick-and-span sanctities, with the officers of the +watch in their trim uniform, the stolid quartermaster at the wheel, and +his equally stolid companion of the watch who dreams his four hours away +on the starboard side of the bridge almost as motionless as the bright +brass binnacles and standards, and the telegraphs that point +unchangeably down to Full Ahead.... + +The Officer of the watch has a sextant at his eye. One by one the +Captain, the Chief, the Second and the Fourth, all come silently up and +direct their sextants to the horizon. The quartermaster comes and +touches his cap: "Twelve o'clock, Sir." There is silence--a deep sunny +silence, broken only by the low tones of the Captain to the Chief: "What +have you got?" says the Captain. "Thirty," says the Chief, +"Twenty-nine," says the Third. There is another space of sunny silent +seconds; the Captain takes down his sextant. "Make it eight bells," he +says. Four double strokes resound from the bridge and are echoed from +the fo'c'stle head; and the great moment of the day, the moment that +means so much, is over. The officers retire with pencils and papers and +tables of logarithms; the clock on the staircase is put back, and the +day's run posted; from the deck float up the sounds of a waltz and +laughing voices; Time and the world flow on with us again. + + + + +V + + +For anything that the eye could see the _Titanic_, in all her strength +and splendour, was solitary on the ocean. From the highest of her decks +nothing could be seen but sea and sky, a vast circle of floor and dome +of which, for all her speed of five-and-twenty miles an hour, she +remained always the centre. But it was only to the sense of sight that +she seemed thus solitary. The North Atlantic, waste of waters though it +appears, is really a country crossed and divided by countless tracks as +familiar to the seaman as though they were roads marked by trees and +milestones. Latitude and longitude, which to a landsman seem mere +mathematical abstractions, represent to seamen thousands and thousands +of definite points which, in their relation to sun and stars and the +measured lapse of time, are each as familiar and as accessible as any +spot on a main road is to a landsman. The officer on the bridge may see +nothing through his glasses but clouds and waves, yet in his mind's eye +he sees not only his own position on the map, which he could fix +accurately within a quarter of a mile, but the movements of dozens of +other ships coming or going along the great highways. Each ship takes +its own road, but it is a road that passes through a certain known +territory; the great liners all know each other's movements and where or +when they are likely to meet. Many of such meetings are invisible; it is +called a meeting at sea if ships pass twenty or thirty miles away from +each other and far out of sight. + +For there are other senses besides that of sight which now pierce the +darkness and span the waste distances of the ocean. It is no voiceless +solitude through which the _Titanic_ goes on her way. It is full of +whispers, summonses, questions, narratives; full of information to the +listening ear. High up on the boat deck the little white house to which +the wires straggle down from the looped threads between the mastheads is +full of the voices of invisible ships that are coming and going beyond +the horizon. The wireless impulse is too delicate to be used to actuate +a needle like that of the ordinary telegraph; a little voice is given to +it, and with this it speaks to the operator who sits with the telephone +cap strapped over his ears; a whining, buzzing voice, speaking not in +words but in rhythms, corresponding to the dots and dashes made on +paper, out of which a whole alphabet has been evolved. And the wireless +is the greatest gossip in the world. It repeats everything it hears; it +tells the listener everyone else's business; it speaks to him of the +affairs of other people as well as his own. It is an ever-present +eavesdropper, and tells you what other people are saying to one another +in exactly the same voice in which they speak to you. When it is sending +your messages it shouts, splitting the air with crackling flashes of +forked blue fire; but when it has anything to say to you it whispers in +your ear in whining, insinuating confidence. And you must listen +attentively and with a mind concentrated on your own business if you are +to receive from it what concerns you, and reject what does not; for it +is not always the loudest whisper that is the most important. The +messages come from near and far, now like the rasp of a file in your +ear, and now in a thread of sound as fine as the whine of a mosquito; +and if the mosquito voice is the one that is speaking to you from far +away, you may often be interrupted by the loud and empty buzzing of one +nearer neighbour speaking to another and loudly interrupting the message +which concerns you. + +Listening to these voices in the Marconi room of the _Titanic_, and +controlling her articulation and hearing, were two young men, little +more than boys, but boys of a rare quality, children of the golden age +of electricity. Educated in an abstruse and delicate science, and loving +the sea for its largeness and adventure, they had come--Phillips at the +age of twenty-six, and Bride in the ripe maturity of twenty-one--to wield +for the _Titanic_ the electric forces of the ether, and to direct her +utterance and hearing on the ocean. And as they sat there that Friday +and Saturday they must have heard, as was their usual routine, all the +whispers of the ships for two hundred miles round them, their trained +faculties almost automatically rejecting the unessential, receiving and +attending to the essential. They heard talk of many things, talk in +fragments and in the strange rhythmic language that they had come to +know like a mother tongue; talk of cargoes, talk of money and business, +of transactions involving thousands of pounds; trivial talk of the +emotions, greetings and good wishes exchanged on the high seas; endless +figures of latitude and longitude--for a ship is an eternal egoist and +begins all her communications by an announcement of Who she is and Where +she is. Ships are chiefly interested in weather and cargo, and their +wireless talk on their own account is constantly of these things; but +most often of the weather. One ship may be pursuing her way under a calm +sky and in smooth waters, while two hundred miles away a neighbour may +be in the middle of a storm; and so the ships talk to one another of +the weather, and combine their forces against it, and, by altering +course a little, or rushing ahead, or hanging back, cheat and dodge +those malignant forces which are ever pursuing them. + +But in these April days there was nothing much to be said about the +weather. The winds and the storms were quiet here; they were busy +perhaps up in Labrador or furiously raging about Cape Horn, but they had +deserted for the time the North Atlantic, and all the ships ploughed +steadily on in sunshine and smooth seas. Here and there, however, a +whisper came to Phillips or Bride about something which, though not +exactly weather, was as deeply interesting to the journeying ships--ice. +Just a whisper, nothing more, listened to up there in the sunny Marconi +room, recorded, dealt with, and forgotten. "I have just come through +bad field-ice," whispers one ship; "April ice very far south," says +another; and Phillips taps out his "O.K., O.M.," which is a kind of +cockney Marconi for "All right, old man." And many other messages come +and go, of money and cargoes, and crops and the making of laws; but just +now and then a pin-prick of reminder between all these other topics +comes the word--ICE. + +April ice and April weed are two of the most lovely products of the +North Atlantic, but they are strangely opposite in their bearings on +human destiny. The lovely golden April weed that is gathered all round +the west coast of Ireland, and is burnt for indigo, keeps a whole +peasant population in food and clothing for the rest of the year; the +April ice, which comes drifting down on the Arctic current from the +glacier slopes of Labrador or the plateau of North Greenland, keeps the +seafaring population of the North Atlantic in doubt and anxiety +throughout the spring and summer. Lovely indeed are some of these +icebergs that glitter in the sun like fairy islands or the pinnacles of +Valhalla; and dreamy and gentle is their drifting movement as they come +down on the current by Newfoundland and round Cape Race, where, meeting +the east-going Gulf Stream, they are gradually melted and lost in the +waters of the Atlantic. Northward in the drift are often field-ice and +vast floes; the great detached bergs sail farther south into the +steamship tracks, and are what are most carefully looked for. This April +there was abundance of evidence that the field-ice had come farther +south than usual. The _Empress of Britain_, which passed the _Titanic_ +on Friday, reported an immense quantity of floating ice in the +neighbourhood of Cape Race. When she arrived in Liverpool it transpired +that, when three days out from Halifax, Nova Scotia, she encountered an +ice-field, a hundred miles in extent, with enormous bergs which appeared +to be joined to the ice-field, forming an immense white line, broken +with peaks and pinnacles on the horizon. The _Carmania_ and the +_Nicaragua_, which were going westward ahead of the _Titanic_, had both +become entangled in ice, and the _Nicaragua_ had sustained considerable +damage. And day by day, almost hour by hour, news was coming in from +other ships commenting on the unusual extent southward of the ice-field, +and on the unusual number of icebergs which they had encountered. No +doubt many of the passengers on the _Titanic_ were hoping that they +would meet with some; it is one of the chief interests of the North +Atlantic voyage in the spring and summer; and nothing is more lovely in +the bright sunshine of day than the sight of one of these giant islands, +with its mountain-peaks sparkling in the sun, and blue waves breaking on +its crystal shores; nothing more impressive than the thought, as one +looks at it, that high as its glittering towers and pinnacles may soar +towards heaven there is eight times as great a depth of ice extending +downwards into the dark sea. It is only at night, or when the waters are +covered with a thick fog produced by the contact of the ice with the +warmer water, that navigating officers, peering forward into the mist, +know how dreadful may be the presence of one of these sheeted monsters, +the ghostly highwaymen of the sea. + + + + +VI + + +Information like this, however, only concerned the little group of +executive officers who took their turns in tramping up and down the +white gratings of the bridge. It was all part of their routine; it was +what they expected to hear at this time of the year and in this part of +the ocean; there was nothing specially interesting to them in the gossip +of the wireless voices. Whatever they heard, we may be sure they did not +talk about it to the passengers. For there is one paramount rule +observed by the officers of passenger liners--and that is to make +everything as pleasant as possible for the passengers. If there is any +danger, they are the last to hear of it; if anything unpleasant happens +on board, such as an accident or a death, knowledge of it is kept from +as many of them as possible. Whatever may be happening, short of an +apparent and obvious extremity, it is the duty of the ship's company to +help the passenger to believe that he lives and moves and has his being +in a kind of Paradise, at the doors of which there are no lurking +dangers and in which happiness and pleasure are the first duties of +every inhabitant. + +And who were the people who composed the population of this journeying +town? Subsequent events made their names known to us--vast lists of names +filling columns of the newspapers; but to the majority they are names +and nothing else. Hardly anyone living knew more than a dozen of them +personally; and try as we may it is very hard to see them, as their +fellow voyagers must have seen them, as individual human beings with +recognizable faces and characters of their own. Of the three hundred odd +first-class passengers the majority were Americans--rich and prosperous +people, engaged for the most part in the simple occupation of buying +things as cheaply as possible, selling them as dearly as possible, and +trying to find some agreeable way of spending the difference on +themselves. Of the three hundred odd second-class passengers probably +the majority were English, many of them of the minor professional +classes and many going either to visit friends or to take up situations +in the western world. But the thousand odd steerage passengers +represented a kind of Babel of nationalities, all the world in little, +united by nothing except poverty and the fact that they were in a +transition stage of their existence, leaving behind them for the most +part a life of failure and hopelessness, and looking forward to a new +life of success and hope: Jews, Christians, and Mohammedans, +missionaries and heathen, Russians, Poles, Greeks, Roumanians, Germans, +Italians, Chinese, Finns, Spaniards, English, and French--with a strong +contingent of Irish, the inevitable link in that melancholy chain of +emigration that has united Ireland and America since the Famine. But +there were other differences, besides those of their condition and +geographical distribution on the ship, that divided its inhabitants. For +the first-class passengers the world was a very small place, about which +many of them were accustomed to hurry in an important way in the process +of spending and getting their money, taking an Atlantic liner as humbler +people take a tramcar, without giving much thought to it or laying +elaborate plans, running backwards and forwards across the Atlantic and +its dangers as children run across the road in front of a motor car. +They were going to America this week; they would probably come back next +week or the week after. They were the people for whom the _Titanic_ had +specially been designed; it was for them that all the luxuries had been +contrived, so that in their runnings backwards and forwards they should +not find the long days tedious or themselves divorced from the kind of +accompaniments to life which they had come to regard as necessities. + +But for the people in the steerage this was no hurrying trip between one +business office and another; no hasty holiday arranged to sandwich ten +thousand miles of ozone as a refresher between two business engagements. +This westward progress was for them part of the drift of their lives, +loosening them from their native soil to scatter and distribute them +over the New World, in the hope that in fresher soil and less crowded +conditions they would strike new roots and begin a new life. The road +they travelled was for most of them a road to be travelled once only, a +road they knew they would never retrace. For them almost exclusively was +reserved that strange sense of looking down over the stern of the ship +into the boiling commotion of the churned-up waters, the maelstrom of +snow under the counter merging into the pale green highway that lay +straight behind them to the horizon, and of knowing that it was a road +that divided them from home, a road that grew a mile longer with every +three minutes of their storming progress. Other ships would follow on +the road; other ships would turn and come again, and drive their way +straight back over the white foam to where, with a sudden plunging and +turning of screws in the green harbour water of home, the road had +begun. But they who looked back from the steerage quarters of the +_Titanic_ would not return; and they, alone of all the passengers on the +ship, knew it. + +And that is all we can know or imagine about them; but it is probably +more than most of the fortunate ones on the snowy upper decks cared to +know or imagine. Up there also there were distinctions; some of the +travellers there, for example, were so rich that they were conspicuous +for riches, even in a population like this--and I imagine that the +standard of wealth is higher in the first-class population of an +Atlantic liner than in any other group of people in the world. There +were four men there who represented between them the possession of some +seventy millions of money--John Jacob Astor, Isidore Straus, George D. +Widener, and Benjamin Guggenheim their names; and it was said that +there were twenty who represented a fortune of a hundred millions +between them--an interesting, though not an important, fact. But there +were people there conspicuous for other things than their wealth. There +was William T. Stead who, without any wealth at all, had in some +respects changed the thought and social destinies of England; there was +Francis Millet, a painter who had attained to eminence in America and +who had recently been head of the American Academy in Rome; there was an +eminent motorist, an eminent master of hounds, an eminent baseball +player, an eminent poloist; and there was Major Archibald Butt, the +satellite and right-hand man of Presidents, who had had a typical +American career as newspaper correspondent, secretary, soldier, +diplomatist, aide-de-camp, and novelist. There was Mr. Ismay, the most +important man on the ship, for as head of the White Star Line he was +practically her owner. He was accompanying her on her maiden voyage with +no other object than to find out wherein she was defective, so that her +younger sister might excel her. He may be said to have accomplished his +purpose; and of all the people who took this voyage he is probably the +only one who succeeded in what he set out to do. There was Mr. Andrews, +one of the designers of the _Titanic_, who had come to enjoy the triumph +of his giant child; and there were several others also, denizens of that +great forest of iron in Belfast Lough, who had seen her and known her +when she was a cathedral building within a scaffolding, the most solid +and immovable thing in their world. These, the friends and companions of +her infancy, had come too, we may suppose, to admire her in her moment +of success, as the nurses and humble attendants of some beautiful girl +will watch in a body her departure for the triumphs of her first ball. + +Of all this throng I had personal knowledge of only two; and yet the two +happened to be extremely typical. I knew John Jacob Astor a few years +ago in New York, when he sometimes seemed like a polite skeleton in his +own gay house; an able but superficially unprepossessing man, so rich +that it was almost impossible to know accurately anything about him--a +man, I should say, to whom money had been nothing but a handicap from +his earliest days. He was typical of this company because he was so +conspicuous and so unknown; for when a man has thirty millions of money +the world hears about his doings and possessions endlessly, but knows +little of the man himself. It is enough to say that there were good +things and bad things credited to his account, of which the good were +much more unlikely and surprising than the bad. + +The other man--and how different!--was Christopher Head. He was typical +too, typical of that almost anonymous world that keeps the name of +England liked and respected everywhere. I said that he was typical +because these few conspicuous names that I have mentioned represent only +one narrow class of mankind; among the unnamed and the unknown you may +be sure, if you have any wide experience of collective humanity, that +virtues and qualities far more striking and far more admirable were +included. Christopher Head was mild and unassuming, and one of the most +attractive of men, for wherever he went he left a sense of serenity and +security; and he walked through life with a keen, observant +intelligence. Outside Lloyd's, of which great corporation he was a +member, his interests were chiefly artistic, and he used his interest +and knowledge in the best possible way for the public good when he was +Mayor of Chelsea, and made his influence felt by imparting some quite +new and much-needed ideals into that civic office.... But two known +faces do not make a crowd familiar; and nothing will bring most of us +any nearer to the knowledge of these voyagers than will the knowledge of +what happened to them. + +One thing we do know--a small thing and yet illuminating to our picture. +There were many young people on board, many newly married, and some, we +may be sure, for whom the voyage represented the gateway to romance; for +no Atlantic liner ever sailed with a full complement and set down all +its passengers in the emotional state in which it took them up. The sea +is a great match-maker; and in those long monotonous hours of solitude +many flowers of the heart blossom and many minds and characters strike +out towards each other in new and undreamed-of sympathy. + +Of this we may be as sure as of the existence of the ship: that there +were on board the _Titanic_ people watching the slip of moon setting +early on those April nights for whom time and the world were quite +arrested in their course, and for whom the whole ship and her teeming +activities were but frame and setting for the perfect moment of their +lives; for whom the thronging multitudes of their fellow passengers were +but a blurred background against which the colour of their joy stood +sharp and clear. The fields of foam-flecked blue, sunlit or +cloud-shadowed by day; the starlight on the waters; the slow and +scarcely perceptible swinging of the ship's rail against the violet and +spangled sky; the low murmur of voices, the liquid notes of violins, the +trampling tune of the engines--to how many others have not these been +the properties of a magic world; for how many others, as long as men +continue to go in ships upon the sea, will they not be the symbols of a +joy that is as old as time, and that is found to be new by every +generation! For this also is one of the gifts of the sea, and one of the +territories through which the long road passes. + + + + +VII + + +Sunday came, with nothing to mark it except the morning service in the +saloon--a function that by reason of its novelty, attracts some people at +sea who do not associate it with the shore. One thing, however, fire or +boat muster, which usually marks Sunday at sea, and gives it a little +variety, did not for some reason take place. It is one of the few +variants of the monotony of shipboard life, where anything in the nature +of a spectacle is welcomed; and most travellers are familiar with the +stir caused by the sudden hoarse blast of the foghorn and the subsequent +patter of feet and appearance from below of all kinds of people whose +existence the passenger had hardly suspected. Stewards, sailors, +firemen, engineers, nurses, bakers, butchers, cooks, florists, barbers, +carpenters, and stewardesses, ranged in two immense lines along the boat +deck, answer to their names and are told off, according to their +numbers, to take charge of certain boats. This muster did not take place +on the _Titanic_; if it had it would have revealed to any observant +passenger the fact that the whole crew of nine hundred would have +occupied all the available accommodation in the boats hanging on the +davits and left no room for any passengers. For the men who designed and +built the _Titanic_, who knew the tremendous strength of the girders and +cantilevers and bulkheads which took the thrust and pull of every strain +that she might undergo, had thought of boats rather as a superfluity, +dating from the days when ships were vulnerable, when they sprang leaks +and might sink in the high seas. In their pride they had said "the +_Titanic_ cannot spring a leak." So there was no boat muster, and the +routine occupations of Sunday went on unvaried and undisturbed. Only in +the Marconi room was the monotony varied, for something had gone wrong +with the delicate electrical apparatus, and the wireless voice was +silent; and throughout the morning and afternoon, for seven hours, +Phillips and Bride were hard at work testing and searching for the +little fault that had cut them off from the world of voices. And at last +they found it, and the whining and buzzing began again. But it told them +nothing new; only the same story, whispered this time from the +_Californian_--the story of ice. + +The day wore on, the dusk fell, lights one by one sprang up and shone +within the ship; the young moon rose in a cloudless sky spangled with +stars. People remarked on the loveliness of the night as they went to +dress for dinner, but they remarked also on its coldness. There was an +unusual chill in the air, and lightly clad people were glad to draw in +to the big fireplaces in smoke-room or drawing-room or library, and to +keep within the comfort of the warm and lamplit rooms. The cold was +easily accounted for; it was the ice season, and the airs that were +blowing down from the north-west carried with them a breath from the +ice-fields. It was so cold that the decks were pretty well deserted, and +the usual evening concert, instead of being held on the open deck, was +held in the warmth, under cover. And gradually people drifted away to +bed, leaving only a few late birds sitting up reading in the library, or +playing cards in the smoking-rooms, or following a restaurant +dinner-party by quiet conversation in the flower-decked lounge. + +The ship had settled down for the night; half of her company were +peacefully asleep in bed, and many lying down waiting for sleep to come, +when something happened. What that something was depended upon what part +of the ship you were in. The first thing to attract the attention of +most of the first-class passengers was a negative thing--the cessation of +that trembling, continuous rhythm which had been the undercurrent of all +their waking sensations since the ship left Queenstown. The engines +stopped. Some wondered, and put their heads out of their state-room +doors, or even threw a wrap about them and went out into the corridors +to see what had happened, while others turned over in bed and composed +themselves to sleep, deciding to wait until the morning to hear what +was the cause of the delay. + +Lower down in the ship they heard a little more. The sudden harsh clash +of the engine-room telegraph bells would startle those who were near +enough to hear it, especially as it was followed almost immediately +afterwards by the simultaneous ringing all through the lower part of the +ship of the gongs that gave warning of the closing of the water-tight +doors. After the engines stopped there was a moment of stillness; and +then the vibration began again, more insistently this time, with a +certain jumping movement which to the experienced ear meant that the +engines were being sent full speed astern; and then they stopped again, +and again there was stillness. + +Here and there in the long corridors amidships a door opened and some +one thrust a head out, asking what was the matter; here and there a man +in pyjamas and a dressing-gown came out of his cabin and climbed up the +deserted staircase to have a look at what was going on; people sitting +in the lighted saloons and smoke-rooms looked at one another and said: +"What was that?" gave or received some explanation, and resumed their +occupations. A man in his dressing-gown came into one of the +smoking-rooms where a party was seated at cards, with a few yawning +bystanders looking on before they turned in. The newcomer wanted to know +what was the matter, whether they had noticed anything? They had felt a +slight jar, they said, and had seen an iceberg going by past the +windows; probably the ship had grazed it, but no damage had been done. +And they resumed their game of bridge. The man in the dressing-gown left +the smoke-room, and never saw any of the players again. So little +excitement was there in this part of the ship that the man in the +dressing-gown (his name was Mr. Beezley, an English schoolmaster, one of +the few who emerges from the crowd with an intact individuality) went +back to his cabin and lay down on his bed with a book, waiting for the +ship to start again. But the unnatural stillness, the uncanny peace even +of this great peaceful ship, must have got a little upon his nerves; and +when he heard people moving about in the corridors, he got up again, and +found that several people whom the stillness had wakened from their +sleep were wandering about inquiring what had happened. + +But that was all. The half-hour which followed the stoppage of the ship +was a comparatively quiet half-hour, in which a few people came out of +their cabins indeed, and collected together in the corridors and +staircases gossiping, speculating and asking questions as to what could +have happened; but it was not a time of anxiety, or anything like it. +Nothing could be safer on this quiet Sunday night than the great ship, +warmed and lighted everywhere, with her thick carpets and padded +armchairs and cushioned recesses; and if anything could have added to +the sense of peace and stability, it was that her driving motion had +ceased, and that she lay solid and motionless-like a rock in the sea, +the still water scarcely lapping against her sides. And those of her +people who had thought it worth while to get out of bed stood about in +little knots, and asked foolish questions, and gave foolish answers in +the familiar manner of passengers on shipboard when the slightest +incident occurs to vary the regular and monotonous routine. + + + + +VIII + + +This was one phase of that first half-hour. Up on the high bridge, +isolated from all the indoor life of the passengers, there was another +phase. The watches had been relieved at ten o'clock, when the ship had +settled down for the quietest and least eventful period of the whole +twenty-four hours. The First Officer, Mr. Murdoch, was in command of the +bridge, and with him was Mr. Boxhall, the Fourth Officer, and the usual +look-out staff. The moon had set, and the night was very cold, clear and +starry, except where here and there a slight haze hung on the surface of +the water. Captain Smith, to whom the night of the sea was like day, and +to whom all the invisible tracks and roads of the Atlantic were as +familiar as Fleet Street is to a _Daily Telegraph_ reporter, had been in +the chart room behind the bridge to plot out the course for the night, +and afterwards had gone to his room to lie down. Two pairs of sharp eyes +were peering forward from the crow's nest, another pair from the nose of +the ship on the fo'c'stle head, and at least three pairs from the bridge +itself, all staring into the dim night, quartering with busy glances the +area of the black sea in front of them where the foremast and its wire +shrouds and stays were swinging almost imperceptibly across the starry +sky. + +At twenty minutes to twelve the silence of the night was broken by three +sharp strokes on the gong sounding from the crow's nest--a signal for +something right ahead; while almost simultaneously came a voice through +the telephone from the look-out announcing the presence of ice. There +was a kind of haze in front of the ship the colour of the sea, but +nothing could be distinguished from the bridge. Mr. Murdoch's hand was +on the telegraph immediately, and his voice rapped out the order to the +quartermaster to starboard the helm. The wheel spun round, the answering +click came up from the startled engine-room; but before anything else +could happen there was a slight shock, and a splintering sound from the +bows of the ship as she crashed into yielding ice. That was followed by +a rubbing, jarring, grinding sensation along her starboard bilge, and a +peak of dark-coloured ice glided past close alongside. + +As the engines stopped in obedience to the telegraph Mr. Murdoch turned +the switches that closed the water-tight doors. Captain Smith came +running out of the chart room. "What is it?" he asked. "We have struck +ice, Sir." "Close the water-tight doors." "It is already done, Sir." +Then the Captain took command. He at once sent a message to the +carpenter to sound the ship and come and report; the quartermaster went +away with the message, and set the carpenter to work. Captain Smith now +gave a glance at the commutator, a dial which shows to what extent the +ship is off the perpendicular, and noticed that she carried a 5 deg. list +to starboard. Coolly following a routine as exact as that which he would +have observed had he been conning the ship into dock, he gave a number +of orders in rapid succession, after first consulting with the Chief +Engineer. Then, having given instructions that the whole of the +available engine-power was to be turned to pumping the ship, he hurried +aft along the boat-deck to the Marconi room. Phillips was sitting at his +key, toiling through routine business; Bride, who had just got up to +relieve him, was sleepily making preparations to take his place. The +Captain put his head in at the door. + +"We have struck an iceberg," he said, "and I am having an inspection +made to tell what it has done for us. Better get ready to send out a +call for assistance, but don't send it until I tell you." + +He hurried away again; in a few minutes he put his head in at the door +again; "Send that call for assistance," he said. + +"What call shall I send?" asked Phillips. + +"The regulation international call for help, just that," said the +Captain, and was gone again. + +But in five minutes he came back into the wireless room, this time +apparently not in such a hurry. "What call are you sending?" he asked; +and when Phillips told him "C.Q.D.," the highly technical and efficient +Bride suggested, laughingly, that he should send "S.O.S.," the new +international call for assistance which has superseded the C.Q.D. "It is +the new call," said Bride, "and it may be your last chance to send it!" +And they all three laughed, and then for a moment chatted about what had +happened, while Phillips tapped out the three longs, three shorts, and +three longs which instantaneously sent a message of appeal flashing out +far and wide into the dark night. The Captain, who did not seem +seriously worried or concerned, told them that the ship had been struck +amidships or a little aft of that. + +Whatever may have been happening down below, everything up here was +quiet and matter-of-fact. It was a disaster, of course, but everything +was working well, everything had been done; the electric switches for +operating the bulkhead doors had been used promptly, and had worked +beautifully; the powerful wireless plant was talking to the ocean, and +in a few hours there would be some other ship alongside of them. It was +rough luck, to be sure; they had not thought they would so soon have a +chance of proving that the _Titanic_ was unsinkable. + + + + +IX + + +We must now visit in imagination some other parts of the ship, parts +isolated from the bridge and the spacious temple of luxury amidships, +and try to understand how the events of this half hour appeared to the +denizens of the lower quarters of the ship. The impact that had been +scarcely noticed in the first-class quarters had had much more effect +down below, and especially forward, where some of the third-class +passengers and some of the crew were berthed. A ripping, grinding crash +startled all but the heaviest sleepers here into wakefulness; but it was +over so soon and was succeeded by so peaceful a silence that no doubt +any momentary panic it might have caused was soon allayed. One of the +firemen describing it said: "I was awakened by a noise, and between +sleeping and waking I thought I was dreaming that I was on a train that +had run off the lines, and that I was being jolted about." He jumped out +and went on deck, where he saw the scattered ice lying about. "Oh, we +have struck an iceberg," he said, "that's nothing; I shall go back and +turn in," and he actually went back to bed and slept for half an hour, +until he was turned out to take his station at the boats. + +The steerage passengers, who were berthed right aft, heard nothing and +knew nothing until the news that an accident had happened began slowly +to filter down to them. But there was no one in authority to give them +any official news, and for a time they were left to wonder and speculate +as they chose. Forward, however, it became almost immediately apparent +to certain people that there was something grievously wrong; firemen on +their way through the passage along the ship's bottom leading between +their quarters and No. 1 stokehold found water coming in, and rapidly +turned back. They were met on their way up the staircase by an officer +who asked them what they were doing. They told him. "There's water +coming into our place, Sir," they said; and as he thought they were off +duty he did not turn them back. + +Mr. Andrews, a partner in Harland and Wolff's, and one of the +_Titanic's_ designers, had gone quietly down by himself to investigate +the damage, and, great as was his belief in the giant he had helped to +create, it must have been shaken when he found the water pouring into +her at the rate of hundreds of tons a minute. Even his confidence in +those mighty steel walls that stretched one behind the other in +succession along the whole length of the ship could not have been proof +against the knowledge that three or four of them had been pierced by the +long rip of the ice-tooth. There was just a chance that she would hold +up long enough to allow of relief to arrive in time; but it is certain +that from that moment Mr. Andrews devoted himself to warning people, and +helping to get them away, so far as he could do so without creating a +panic. + +Most of the passengers, remember, were still asleep during this half +hour. One of the most terrible things possible at sea is a panic, and +Captain Smith was particularly anxious that no alarm should be given +before or unless it was absolutely necessary. He heard what Mr. Andrews +had to say, and consulted with the engineer, and soon found that the +whole of the ship's bottom was being flooded. There were other +circumstances calculated to make the most sanguine ship-master uneasy. +Already, within half an hour, the _Titanic_ was perceptibly down by the +head. She would remain stationary for five minutes and then drop six +inches or a foot; remain stationary again, and drop another foot--a +circumstance ominous to experienced minds, suggesting that some of the +smaller compartments forward were one by one being flooded, and letting +the water farther and farther into her hull. + +Therefore at about twenty-five minutes past midnight the Captain gave +orders for the passengers to be called and mustered on the boat deck. +All the ship's crew had by this time been summoned to their various +stations; and now through all the carpeted corridors, through the +companion-ways and up and down staircases, leading to the steerage +cabins, an army of three hundred stewards was hurrying, knocking loudly +on doors, and shouting up and down the passages, "All passengers on +deck with life-belts on!" The summons came to many in their sleep; and +to some in the curtained firelight luxury of their deck state-rooms it +seemed an order so absurd that they scorned it, and actually went back +to bed again. These, however, were rare exceptions; for most people +there was no mistaking the urgency of the command, even though they were +slow to understand the necessity for it. And hurry is a thing easily +communicated; seeing some passengers hastening out with nothing over +their night clothes but a blanket or a wrapper, others caught the +infection, and hurried too; and struggling with life-belts, clumsily +attempting to adjust them over and under a curious assortment of +garments, the passengers of the _Titanic_ came crowding up on deck, for +the first time fully alarmed. + + + + +X + + +When the people came on deck it was half-past twelve. The first-class +passengers came pouring up the two main staircases and out on to the +boat deck--some of them indignant, many of them curious, some few of them +alarmed. They found there everything as usual except that the long deck +was not quite level; it tilted downwards a little towards the bow, and +there was a slight list towards the starboard side. The stars were +shining in the sky and the sea was perfectly smooth, although dotted +about it here and there were lumps of dark-coloured ice, almost +invisible against the background of smooth water. A long line of +stewards was forming up beside the boats on either side--those solid +white boats, stretching far aft in two long lines, that became suddenly +invested with practical interest. Officers were shouting orders, seamen +were busy clearing up the coils of rope attached to the davit tackles, +fitting the iron handles to the winches by which the davits themselves +were canted over from the inward position over the deck to the outward +position over the ship's side. Almost at the same time a rush of people +began from the steerage quarters, swarming up stairways and ladders to +reach this high deck hitherto sacred to the first-class passengers. At +first they were held back by a cordon of stewards, but some broke +through and others were allowed through, so that presently a large +proportion of the ship's company was crowding about the boat deck and +the one immediately below it. + +Then the business of clearing, filling, and lowering the boats was +begun--a business quickly described, but occupying a good deal of time in +the transaction. Mr. Murdoch, the Chief Officer, ordered the crews to +the boats; and with some confusion different parties of stewards and +sailors disentangled themselves from the throng and stood in their +positions by each of the sixteen boats. Every member of the crew, when +he signs on for a voyage in a big passenger ship, is given a number +denoting which boat's crew he belongs to. If there has been boat drill, +every man knows and remembers his number; if, as in the case of the +_Titanic_, there has been no boat drill, some of the men remember their +numbers and some do not, the result being a certain amount of confusion. +But at last a certain number of men were allotted to each boat, and +began the business of hoisting them out. + +First of all the covers had to be taken off and the heavy masts and +sails lifted out of them. Ship's boats appear very small things when one +sees a line of them swinging high up on deck; but, as a matter of fact, +they are extremely heavy, each of them the size of a small sailing +yacht. Everything on the _Titanic_ having been newly painted, everything +was stiff and difficult to move. The lashings of the heavy canvas covers +were like wire, and the covers themselves like great boards; the new +ropes ran stiffly in the new gear. At last a boat was cleared and the +order given, "Women and children first." The officers had revolvers in +their hands ready to prevent a rush; but there was no rush. There was a +certain amount of laughter. No one wanted to be the first to get into +the boat and leave the ship. "Come on," cried the officers. There was a +pause, followed by the brief command, "Put them in." + +The crew seized the nearest women and pushed or lifted them over the +rail into the first boat, which was now hanging over the side level with +the deck. But they were very unwilling to go. The boat, which looked big +and solid on the deck, now hung dizzily seventy-five feet over the dark +water; it seemed a far from attractive prospect to get into it and go +out on to the cold sea, especially as everyone was convinced that it was +a merely formal precaution which was being taken, and that the people in +the boats would merely be rowed off a little way and kept shivering on +the cold sea for a time and then brought back to the ship when it was +found that the danger was past. For, walking about the deck, people +remembered all the things that they had been thinking and saying since +first they had seen the _Titanic_; and what was the use of travelling by +an unsinkable ship if, at the first alarm of danger, one had to leave +her and row out on the icy water? Obviously it was only the old habit of +the sea asserting itself, and Captain Smith, who had hitherto been such +a favourite, was beginning to be regarded as something of a nuisance +with his ridiculous precautions. + +The boats swung and swayed in the davits; even the calm sea, now that +they looked at it more closely, was seen to be not absolutely like a +millpond, but to have a certain movement on its surface which, although +utterly helpless to move the huge bulk of the _Titanic_, against whose +sides it lapped, as ineffectually as against the walls of a dock, was +enough to impart a swinging movement to the small boats. But at last, +what with coercion and persuasion, a boat was half filled with women. +One of the things they liked least was leaving their husbands; they felt +that they were being sacrificed needlessly to over-elaborate +precautions, and it was hard to leave the men standing comfortably on +the firm deck, sheltered and in a flood of warm yellow light, and in the +safety of the great solid ship that lay as still as a rock, while they +had to go out, half-clad and shivering, on the icy waters. + +But the inexorable movements of the crew continued. The pulleys squealed +in the sheaves, the new ropes were paid out; and jerking downwards, a +foot or two at a time, the first boat dropped down towards the water, +past storey after storey of the great structure, past rows and rows of +lighted portholes, until at last, by strange unknown regions of the +ship's side, where cataracts and waterfalls were rushing into the sea, +it rested on the waves. The blocks were unhooked, the heavy ash oars +were shipped, and the boat headed away into the darkness. And then, and +not till then, those in the boat realized that something was seriously +wrong with the _Titanic_. Instead of the trim level appearance which she +presented on the picture postcards or photographs, she had an ungraceful +slant downwards to the bows--a heavy helpless appearance like some +wounded monster that is being overcome by the waters. And even while +they looked, they could see that the bow was sinking lower. + +After the first boat had got away, there was less difficulty about the +others. The order, "Women and children first," was rigidly enforced by +the officers; but it was necessary to have men in the boats to handle +them, and a number of stewards, and many grimy figures of stokers who +had mysteriously appeared from below were put into them to man them. +Once the tide of people began to set into the boats and away from the +ship, there came a certain anxiety to join them and not to be left +behind. Here and there indeed there was over-anxiety, which had to be +roughly checked. One band of Italians from the steerage, who had good +reason to know that something was wrong, tried to rush one of the boats, +and had to be kept back by force, an officer firing a couple of shots +with his pistol; they desisted, and were hauled back ignominiously by +the legs. In their place some of the crew and the passengers who were +helping lifted in a number of Italian women limp with fright. + +And still everyone was walking about and saying that the ship was +unsinkable. There was a certain subdued excitement, natural to those who +feel that they are taking part in a rather thrilling adventure which +will give them importance in the eyes of people at home when they relate +it. There was as yet no call for heroism, because, among the +first-class passengers certainly, the majority believed that the safest +as well as the most comfortable place was the ship. But it was painful +for husbands and wives to be separated, and the wives sent out to brave +the discomforts of the open boats while the husbands remained on the dry +and comfortable ship. + +The steerage people knew better and feared more. Life had not taught +them, as it had taught some of those first-class passengers, that the +world was an organization specially designed for their comfort and +security; they had not come to believe that the crude and ugly and +elementary catastrophes of fate would not attack them. On the contrary, +most of them knew destiny as a thing to fear, and made haste to flee +from it. Many of them, moreover, had been sleeping low down in the +forward part of the ship; they had heard strange noises, had seen water +washing about where no water should be, and they were frightened. There +was, however, no discrimination between classes in putting the women +into the boats. The woman with a tattered shawl over her head, the woman +with a sable coat over her nightdress, the woman clasping a baby, and +the woman clutching a packet of trinkets had all an equal chance; side +by side they were handed on to the harsh and uncomfortable thwarts of +the lifeboats; the wife of the millionaire sat cheek by jowl with a +dusty stoker and a Russian emigrant, and the spoiled woman of the world +found some poor foreigner's baby thrown into her lap as the boat was +lowered. + +By this time the women and children had all been mustered on the second +or A deck; the men were supposed to remain up on the boat deck while the +boats were being lowered to the level of the women, where sections of +the rail had been cleared away for them to embark more easily; but this +rule, like all the other rules, was not rigidly observed. The crew was +not trained enough to discipline and coerce the passengers. How could +they be? They were trained to serve them, to be obsequious and obliging; +it would have been too much to expect that they should suddenly take +command and order them about. + +There were many minor adventures and even accidents. One woman had both +her legs broken in getting into the boat. The mere business of being +lowered in a boat through seventy feet of darkness was in itself +productive of more than one exciting incident. The falls of the first +boat jammed when she was four feet from the water, and she had to be +dropped into it with a splash. And there was one very curious incident +which happened to the boat in which Mr. Beezley, the English +schoolmaster already referred to, had been allotted a place as a helper. +"As the boat began to descend," he said, "two ladies were pushed +hurriedly through the crowd on B deck, and a baby ten months old was +passed down after them. Then down we went, the crew shouting out +directions to those lowering us. 'Level,' 'Aft,' 'Stern,' 'Both +together!' until we were some ten feet from the water. Here occurred the +only anxious moment we had during the whole of our experience from the +time of our leaving the deck to our reaching the _Carpathia_. + +"Immediately below our boat was the exhaust of the condensers, and a +huge stream of water was pouring all the time from the ship's side just +above the water-line. It was plain that we ought to be smart away from +it if we were to escape swamping when we touched the water. We had no +officers on board, and no petty officer or member of the crew to take +charge, so one of the stokers shouted, 'Some one find the pin which +releases the boat from the ropes and pull it up!' No one knew where it +was. We felt as well as we could on the floor, and along the sides, but +found nothing. It was difficult to move among so many people. We had +sixty or seventy on board. Down we went, and presently we floated with +our ropes still holding us, and the stream of water from the exhaust +washing us away from the side of the vessel, while the swell of the sea +urged us back against the side again. + +"The result of all these forces was that we were carried parallel to the +ship's side, and directly under boat No. 14, which had filled rapidly +with men, and was coming down on us in a way that threatened to submerge +our boat. + +"'Stop lowering 14,' our crew shouted, and the crew of No. 14, now only +20 feet above, cried out the same. The distance to the top, however, was +some 70 feet, and the creaking of the pulleys must have deadened all +sound to those above, for down she came, 15 feet, 10 feet, 5 feet, and a +stoker and I reached up and touched the bottom of the swinging boat +above our heads. The next drop would have brought her on our heads. Just +before she dropped another stoker sprang to the ropes with his knife +open in his hand. 'One,' I heard him say, and then 'Two,' as the knife +cut through the pulley rope. + +"'The next moment the exhaust stream carried us clear, while boat No. 14 +dropped into the water, taking the space we had occupied a moment +before. Our gunwales were almost touching. We drifted away easily, and +when our oars were got out, we headed directly away from the ship.'" + +But although there was no sense of danger, there were some painful +partings on the deck where the women were embarked; for you must think +of this scene as going on for at least an hour amid a confusion of +people pressing about, trying to find their friends, asking for +information, listening to some new rumour, trying to decide whether they +should or should not go in the boats, to a constant accompaniment of +shouted orders, the roar of escaping steam, the squeal and whine of the +ropes and pulleys, and the gay music of the band, which Captain Smith +had ordered to play during the embarkation. Every now and then a woman +would be forced away from her husband; every now and then a husband, +having got into a boat with his wife, would be made to get out of it +again. If it was hard for the wives to go, it was harder for the +husbands to see them go to such certain discomfort and in such strange +company. Colonel Astor, whose young wife was in a delicate state of +health, had got into the boat with her to look after her; and no wonder. +But he was ordered out again and came at once, no doubt feeling +bitterly, poor soul, that he would have given many of his millions to be +able to go honourably with her. But he stepped back without a word of +remonstrance and gave her good-bye with a cheery message, promising to +meet her in New York. And if that happened to him, we may be sure it was +happening over and over again in other boats. There were women who +flatly refused to leave their husbands and chose to stay with them and +risk whatever fate might be in store for them, although at that time +most of the people did not really believe that there was much danger. +Yet here and there there were incidents both touching and heroic. When +it came to the turn of Mrs. Isidore Straus, the wife of a Jewish +millionaire, she took her seat but got back out of the boat when she +found her husband was not coming. They were both old people, and on two +separate occasions an Englishman who knew her tried to persuade her to +get into a boat, but she would not leave her husband. The second time +the boat was not full and he went to Mr. Straus and said: "Do go with +your wife. Nobody can object to an old gentleman like you going. There +is plenty of room in the boat." The old gentleman thanked him calmly and +said: "I won't go before the other men." And Mrs. Straus got out and, +going up to him, said: "We have been together for forty years and we +will not separate now." And she remained by his side until that happened +to them which happened to the rest. + + + + +XI + + +We must now go back to the Marconi room on the upper deck where, ten +minutes after the collision, Captain Smith had left the operators with +orders to send out a call for assistance. From this Marconi room we get +a strange but vivid aspect of the situation; for Bride, the surviving +operator, who afterwards told the story so graphically to the _New York +Times_, practically never left the room until he left it to jump into +the sea, and his knowledge of what was going on was the vivid, partial +knowledge of a man who was closely occupied with his own duties and only +knew of other happenings in so far as they affected his own doings. +They had been working, you will remember, almost all of that Sunday at +locating and replacing a burnt-out terminal, and were both very tired. +Phillips was taking the night shift of duty, but he told Bride to go to +bed early and get up and relieve him as soon as he had had a little +sleep, as Phillips himself was quite worn out with his day's work. Bride +went to sleep in the cabin which opened into the operating-room. + +He slept some time, and when he woke he heard Phillips still at work. He +could read the rhythmic buzzing sounds as easily as you or I can read +print. He could hear that Phillips was talking to Cape Race, sending +dull uninteresting traffic matter; and he was about to sink off to sleep +again when he remembered how tired Phillips must be, and decided that he +would get up and relieve him for a spell. He never felt the shock, or +saw anything, or had any other notification of anything unusual except +no doubt the ringing of the telegraph bells and cessation of the beat of +the engines. It was a few minutes afterwards that, as we have seen, the +Captain put his head in at the door and told them to get ready to send a +call, returning ten minutes later to tell them to send it. + +The two operators were rather amused than otherwise at having to send +out the S.O.S.; it was a pleasant change from relaying traffic matter. +"We said lots of funny things to each other in the next few minutes," +said Bride. Phillips went stolidly on, firmly hammering out his "S.O.S., +S.O.S.," sometimes varying it with "C.Q.D." for the benefit of such +operators as might not be on the alert for the new call. For several +minutes there was no reply; then the whining voice at Phillips' ear +began to answer. Some one had heard. They had picked up the steamer +_Frankfurt_, and they gave her the position and told her that the +_Titanic_ had struck an iceberg and needed assistance. There was another +pause and, in their minds' eye, the wireless men could see the +_Frankfurt's_ operator miles and miles away across the dark night going +along from his cabin and rousing the _Frankfurt's_ Captain and giving +his message and coming back to the instrument, when again the whining +voice began asking for more news. + +They were learning facts up here in the Marconi room. They knew that the +_Titanic_ was taking in water, and they knew that she was sinking by the +head; and what they knew they flashed out into the night for the benefit +of all who had ears to hear. They knew that there were many ships in +their vicinity; but they knew also that hardly any of them carried more +than one operator, and that even Marconi operators earning L4 a month +must go to bed and sleep sometimes, and that it was a mere chance if +their call was heard. But presently the Cunard liner _Carpathia_ +answered and told them her position, from which it appeared that she was +about seventy miles away. The _Carpathia_, which was heading towards the +Mediterranean, told them she had altered her course and was heading full +steam to their assistance. The _Carpathia's_ voice was much fainter than +the _Frankfurt's_, from which Phillips assumed that the _Frankfurt_ was +the nearer ship; but there was a certain lack of promptitude on board +the _Frankfurt_ which made Phillips impatient. While he was still +sending out the call for help, after the _Frankfurt_ had answered it, +she interrupted him again, asking what was the matter. They told Captain +Smith, who said, "That fellow is a fool," an opinion which Phillips and +Bride not only shared, but which they even found time to communicate to +the operator on the _Frankfurt_. By this time the _Olympic_ had also +answered her twin sister's cry for help, but she was far away, more than +three hundred miles; and although she too turned and began to race +towards the spot where the _Titanic_ was lying so quietly, it was felt +that the honours of salving her passengers would go to the _Carpathia_. +The foolish _Frankfurt_ operator still occasionally interrupted with a +question, and he was finally told, with such brusqueness as the wireless +is capable of, to keep away from his instrument and not interfere with +the serious conversations of the _Titanic_ and _Carpathia_. + +Then Bride took Phillips's place at the instrument and succeeded in +getting a whisper from the _Baltic_, and gradually, over hundreds of +miles of ocean, the invisible ether told the ships that their giant +sister was in distress. The time passed quickly with these urgent +conversations on which so much might depend, and hour by hour and minute +by minute the water was creeping up the steep sides of the ship. Once +the Captain looked in and told them that the engine-rooms were taking in +water and that the dynamos might not last much longer. That information +was also sent to the _Carpathia_, who by this time could tell them that +she had turned towards them with every furnace going at full blast, and +was hurrying forward at the rate of eighteen knots instead of her usual +fifteen. It now became a question how long the storage plant would +continue to supply current. Phillips went out on deck and looked round. +"The water was pretty close up to the boat deck. There was a great +scramble aft, and how poor Phillips worked through it I don't know. He +was a brave man. I learnt to love him that night, and I suddenly felt +for him a great reverence, to see him standing there sticking to his +work while everybody else was raging about. While I live I shall never +forget the work Phillips did for that last awful fifteen minutes." + +Bride felt that it was time to look about and see if there was no chance +of saving himself. He knew that by this time all the boats had gone. He +could see, by looking over the side, that the water was far nearer than +it had yet been, and that the fo'c's'le decks, which of course were much +lower than the superstructure on which the Marconi cabin was situated, +were already awash. He remembered that there was a lifebelt for every +member of the crew and that his own was under his bunk; and he went and +put it on. And then, thinking how cold the water would be, he went back +and put his boots on, and an extra coat. Phillips was still standing at +the key, talking to the _Olympic_ now and telling her the tragic and +shameful news that her twin sister, the unsinkable, was sinking by the +head and was pretty near her end. While Phillips was sending this +message Bride strapped a lifebelt about him and put on his overcoat. +Then, at Phillips's suggestion, Bride went out to see if there was +anything left in the shape of a boat by which they could get away. He +saw some men struggling helplessly with a collapsible boat which they +were trying to lower down on to the deck. Bride gave them a hand and +then, although it was the last boat left, he resolutely turned his back +on it and went back to Phillips. At that moment for the last time, the +Captain looked in to give them their release. + +"Men, you have done your full duty, you can do no more. Abandon your +cabin now; it is every man for himself; you look out for yourselves. I +release you. That's the way of it at this kind of time; every man for +himself." + +Then happened one of the strangest incidents of that strange hour. I can +only give it in Bride's own words: + +"Phillips clung on, sending, sending. He clung on for about ten minutes, +or maybe fifteen minutes, after the Captain released him. The water was +then coming into our cabin. + +"While he worked something happened I hate to tell about. I was back in +my room getting Phillips's money for him, and as I looked out of the +door I saw a stoker, or somebody from below decks, leaning over Phillips +from behind. Phillips was too busy to notice what the man was doing, but +he was slipping the lifebelt off Phillips's back. He was a big man, +too. + +"As you can see, I'm very small. I don't know what it was I got hold of, +but I remembered in a flash the way Phillips had clung on; how I had to +fix that lifebelt in place, because he was too busy to do it. + +"I knew that man from below decks had his own lifebelt, and should have +known where to get it. I suddenly felt a passion not to let that man die +a decent sailor's death. I wished he might have stretched a rope or +walked a plank. I did my duty. I hope I finished him, but I don't know. + +"We left him on the cabin floor of the wireless room, and he wasn't +moving." + +Phillips left the cabin, running aft, and Bride never saw him alive +again. He himself came out and found the water covering the bridge and +coming aft over the boat deck. + + + + +XII + + +There is one other separate point of view from which we may look at the +ship during this fateful hour before all points of view become merged in +one common experience. Mr. Boxhall, the Fourth Officer, who had been on +the bridge at the moment of the impact, had been busy sending up rockets +and signals in the effort to attract the attention of a ship whose +lights could be seen some ten miles away; a mysterious ship which cannot +be traced, but whose lights appear to have been seen by many independent +witnesses on the _Titanic_. So sure was he of her position that Mr. +Boxhall spent almost all his time on the bridge signalling to her with +rockets and flashes; but no answer was received. He had, however, also +been on a rapid tour of inspection of the ship immediately after she had +struck. He went down to the steerage quarters forward and aft, and he +was also down in the deep forward compartment where the Post Office men +were working with the mails, and he had at that time found nothing +wrong, and his information contributed much to the sense of security +that was spread amongst the passengers. + +Mr. Pitman, the Third Officer, was in his bunk at the time of the +collision, having been on duty on the bridge from six to eight, when the +Captain had also been on the bridge. There had been talk of ice among +the officers on Sunday, and they had expected to meet with it just +before midnight, at the very time, in fact, when they had met with it. +But very little ice had been seen, and the speed of the ship had not +been reduced. Mr. Pitman says that when he awoke he heard a sound which +seemed to him to be the sound of the ship coming to anchor. He was not +actually awake then, but he had the sensation of the ship halting, and +heard a sound like that of chains whirling round the windlass and +running through the hawseholes into the water. He lay in bed for three +or four minutes wondering in a sleepy sort of way where they could have +anchored. Then, becoming more awake, he got up, and without dressing +went out on deck; he saw nothing remarkable, but he went back and +dressed, suspecting that something was the matter. While he was dressing +Mr. Boxhall looked in and said: "We have struck an iceberg, old man; +hurry up!" + +He also went down below to make an inspection and find out what damage +had been done. He went to the forward well deck, where ice was lying, +and into the fo'c's'le, but found nothing wrong there. The actual +damage was farther aft, and at that time the water had not come into the +bows of the ship. As he was going back he met a number of firemen coming +up the gangway with their bags of clothing; they told him that water was +coming into their place. They were firemen off duty, who afterwards were +up on the boat deck helping to man the boats. Then Mr. Pitman went down +lower into the ship and looked into No. 1 hatch, where he could plainly +see water. All this took time; and when he came back he found that the +men were beginning to get the boats ready, a task at which he helped +under Mr. Murdoch's orders. Presently Mr. Murdoch ordered him to take +command of a boat and hang about aft of the gangway. Pitman had very +little relish for leaving the ship at that time, and in spite of the +fact that she was taking in water, every one was convinced that the +_Titanic_ was a much safer place than the open sea. He had about forty +passengers and six of the crew in his boat, and as it was about to be +lowered, Mr. Murdoch leant over to him and shook him heartily by the +hand: "Good-bye, old man, and good luck," he said, in tones which rather +surprised Pitman, for they seemed to imply that the good-bye might be +for a long time. His boat was lowered down into the water, unhooked, and +shoved off, and joined the gradually increasing fleet of other boats +that were cruising about in the starlight. + +There was one man walking about that upper deck whose point of view was +quite different from that of anyone else. Mr. Bruce Ismay, like so many +others, was awakened from sleep by the stopping of the engines; like so +many others, also, he lay still for a few moments, and then got up and +went into the passage-way, where he met a steward and asked him what was +the matter. The steward knew nothing, and Mr. Ismay went back to his +state-room, put on a dressing-gown and slippers, and went up to the +bridge, where he saw the Captain. "What has happened?" he asked. "We +have struck ice," was the answer. "Is the injury serious?" "I think so," +said the Captain. Then Mr. Ismay came down in search of the Chief +Engineer, whom he met coming up to the bridge; he asked him the same +question, and he also said he thought the injury serious. He understood +from them that the ship was certainly in danger, but that there was hope +that if the pumps could be kept going there would be no difficulty in +keeping her afloat quite long enough for help to come and for the +passengers to be taken off. Whatever was to be the result, it was a +terrible moment for Mr. Ismay, a terrible blow to the pride and record +of the Company, that this, their greatest and most invulnerable ship, +should be at least disabled, and possibly lost, on her maiden voyage. +But like a sensible man, he did not stand wringing his hands at the +inevitable; he did what he could to reassure the passengers, repeating, +perhaps with a slight quaver of doubt in his voice, the old +word--unsinkable. When the boats began to be launched he went and tried +to help, apparently in his anxiety getting rather in the way. In this +endeavour he encountered the wrath of Mr. Lowe, the Fifth Officer, who +was superintending the launching of boat No. 5. Mr. Lowe did not know +the identity of the nervous, excited figure standing by the davits, nor +recognize the voice which kept saying nervously, "Lower away! lower +away!" and it was therefore with no misgivings that he ordered him away +from the boat, saying brusquely, "If you will kindly get to hell out of +this perhaps I'll be able to do something!"--a trifling incident, but +evidence that Mr. Ismay made no use of his position for his own personal +ends. He said nothing, and went away to another boat, where he succeeded +in being more useful, and it was not till afterwards that an +awe-stricken steward told the Fifth Officer who it was that he had +chased away with such language. But after that Mr. Ismay was among the +foremost in helping to sort out the women and children and get them +expeditiously packed into the boats, with a burden of misery and +responsibility on his heart that we cannot measure. + +One can imagine a great bustle and excitement while the boats were being +sent away; but when they had all gone, and there was nothing more to be +done, those who were left began to look about them and realize their +position. There was no doubt about it, the _Titanic_ was sinking, not +with any plunging or violent movement, but steadily settling down, as a +rock seems to settle into the water when the tide rises about it. + +Down in the engine-room and stokeholds, in conditions which can hardly +be imagined by the ordinary landsman, men were still working with a grim +and stoic heroism. The forward stokeholds had been flooded probably an +hour after the collision; but it is practically certain that the +bulkheads forward of No. 5 held until the last. The doors in those aft +of No. 4 had been opened by hand after they had been closed from the +bridge, in order to facilitate the passage of the engineering staff +about their business; and they remained open, and the principal bulkhead +protecting the main engine-room, held until the last. Water thus found +its way into some compartments, and gradually rose; but long after +those in charge had given up all hope of saving the ship, the stokehold +watch were kept hard at work drawing the fires from under the boilers, +so that when the water reached them there should be no steam. The duty +of the engine-room staff was to keep the pumps going as long as possible +and to run the dynamos that supplied the current for the light and the +Marconi installation. This they did, as the black water rose stage by +stage upon them. At least twenty minutes before the ship sank the +machinery must have been flooded, and the current for the lights and the +wireless supplied from the storage plant. No member of the engine-room +staff was ever seen alive again, but, when the water finally flooded the +stokeholds, the watch were released and told to get up and save +themselves if they could. + +And up on deck a chilly conviction of doom was slowly but certainly +taking the place of that bland confidence in the unsinkable ship in +which the previous hour had been lightly passed. That confidence had +been dreadfully overdone, so much so that the stewards had found the +greatest difficulty in persuading the passengers to dress themselves and +come up on deck, and some who had done so had returned to their +state-rooms and locked themselves in. The last twenty minutes, however, +must have shown everyone on deck that there was not a chance left. On a +ship as vast and solid as the _Titanic_ there is no sensation of actual +sinking or settling. She still seemed as immovable as ever, but the +water was climbing higher and higher up her black sides. The sensation +was not that of the ship sinking, but of the water rising about her. And +the last picture we have of her, while still visible, still a firm +refuge amid the waters, is of the band still playing and a throng of +people looking out from the lamplit upper decks after the disappearing +boats, bracing themselves as best they might for the terrible plunge and +shock which they knew was coming. Here and there men who were determined +still to make a fight for life climbed over the rail and jumped over; it +was not a seventy foot drop now--perhaps under twenty, but it was a +formidable jump. Some were stunned, and some were drowned at once before +the eyes of those who waited; and the dull splashes they made were +probably the first visible demonstration of the death that was coming. +Duties were still being performed; an old deck steward, who had charge +of the chairs, was busily continuing to work, adapting his duties to the +emergency that had arisen and lashing chairs together. In this he was +helped by Mr. Andrews, who was last seen engaged on this strangely +ironic task of throwing chairs overboard--frail rafts thrown upon the +waters that might or might not avail some struggling soul when the +moment should arrive, and the great ship of his designing float no +longer. Throughout he had been untiring in his efforts to help and +hearten people; but in this the last vision of him, there is something +not far short of the sublime. + +The last collapsible boat was being struggled with on the upper deck, +but there were no seamen about who understood its stiff mechanism; +unaccustomed hands fumbled desperately with it, and finally pushed it +over the side in its collapsed condition for use as a raft. Many of the +seamen and stewards had gathered in the bar-room, where the attendant +was serving out glasses of whiskey to any and all who came for it; but +most men had an instinct against being under cover, and preferred to +stand out in the open. + +And now those in the boats that had drawn off from the ship could see +that the end was at hand. Her bows had gone under, although the stern +was still fairly high out of the water. She had sunk down at the forward +end of the great superstructure amidships; her decks were just awash, +and the black throng was moving aft. The ship was blazing with light, +and the strains of the band were faintly heard still playing as they had +been commanded to do. But they had ceased to play the jolly rag-time +tunes with which the bustle and labour of getting off the boats had been +accompanied; solemn strains, the strains of a hymn, could be heard +coming over the waters. Many women in the boats, looking back towards +that lighted and subsiding mass, knew that somewhere, invisible among +the throng, was all that they held dearest in the world waiting for +death; and they could do nothing. Some tried to get the crews to turn +back, wringing their hands, beseeching, imploring; but no crew dared +face the neighbourhood of the giant in her death agony. They could only +wait, and shiver, and look. + + + + +XIII + + +The end, when it came, was as gradual as everything else had been since +the first impact. Just as there was no one moment at which everyone in +the ship realized that she had suffered damage; just as there was no one +moment when the whole of her company realized that they must leave her; +just as there was no one moment when all in the ship understood that +their lives were in peril, and no moment when they all knew she must +sink; so there was no one moment at which all those left on board could +have said, "She is gone." At one moment the floor of the bridge, where +the Captain stood, was awash; the next a wave came along and covered it +with four feet of water, in which the Captain was for a moment washed +away, although he struggled back and stood there again, up to his knees +in water. "Boys, you can do no more," he shouted, "look out for +yourselves!" Standing near him was a fireman and--strange +juxtaposition--two unclaimed solitary little children, scarce more than +babies. The fireman seized one in his arms, the Captain another; another +wave came and they were afloat in deep water, striking out over the rail +of the bridge away from the ship. + +The slope of the deck increased, and the sea came washing up against it +as waves wash against a steep shore. And then that helpless mass of +humanity was stricken at last with the fear of death, and began to +scramble madly aft, away from the chasm of water that kept creeping up +and up the decks. Then a strange thing happened. They who had been +waiting to sink into the sea found themselves rising into the air as the +slope of the decks grew steeper. Up and up, dizzily high out of reach +of the dark waters into which they had dreaded to be plunged, higher and +higher into the air, towards the stars, the stern of the ship rose +slowly right out of the water, and hung there for a time that is +estimated variously between two and five minutes; a terrible eternity to +those who were still clinging. Many, thinking the end had come, jumped; +the water resounded with splash after splash as the bodies, like mice +shaken out of a trap into a bucket, dropped into the water. All who +could do so laid hold of something; ropes, stanchions, deck-houses, +mahogany doors, window frames, anything, and so clung on while the stern +of the giant ship reared itself towards the sky. Many had no hold, or +lost the hold they had, and these slid down the steep smooth decks, as +people slide down a water chute into the sea. + +We dare not linger here, even in imagination; dare not speculate; dare +not look closely, even with the mind's eye, at this poor human agony, +this last pitiful scramble for dear life that the serene stars shone +down upon. We must either turn our faces away, or withdraw to that +surrounding circle where the boats were hovering with their +terror-stricken burdens, and see what they saw. They saw the after part +of the ship, blazing with light, stand up, a suspended prodigy, between +the stars and the waters; they saw the black atoms, each one of which +they knew to be a living man or woman on fire with agony, sliding down +like shot rubbish into the sea; they saw the giant decks bend and crack; +they heard a hollow and tremendous rumbling as the great engines tore +themselves from their steel beds and crashed through the ship; they saw +sparks streaming in a golden rain from one of the funnels; heard the +dull boom of an explosion while the spouting funnel fell over into the +sea with a slap that killed every one beneath it and set the nearest +boat rocking; heard two more dull bursting reports as the steel +bulkheads gave way or decks blew up; saw the lights flicker out, flicker +back again, and then go out for ever, and the ship, like some giant sea +creature forsaking the strife of the upper elements for the peace of the +submarine depths, launched herself with one slow plunge and dive beneath +the waves. + +There was no great maelstrom as they had feared, but the sea was +swelling and sinking all about them; and they could see waves and eddies +where rose the imprisoned air, the smoke and steam of vomited-up ashes, +and a bobbing commotion of small dark things where the _Titanic_, in her +pride and her shame, with the clocks ticking and the fires burning in +her luxurious rooms, had plunged down to the icy depths of death. + + + + +XIV + + +As the ship sank and the commotion and swirl of the waves subsided, the +most terrible experience of all began. The seas were not voiceless; the +horrified people in the surrounding boats heard an awful sound from the +dark central area, a collective voice, compound of moans, shrieks, cries +and despairing calls, from those who were struggling in the water. It +was an area of death and of agony towards which those in the boats dared +not venture, even although they knew their own friends were perishing +and crying for help there. They could only wait and listen, hoping that +it might soon be over. But it was not soon over. There was a great deal +of floating wreckage to which hundreds of people clung, some for a +short time, some for a long time; and while they clung on they cried out +to their friends to save them. One boat--that commanded by Mr. Lowe, the +Fifth Officer--did, after transshipping some of its passengers into other +boats, and embarking a crew of oarsmen, venture back into the dark +centre of things. The wreckage and dead bodies showed the sea so thickly +that they could hardly row without touching a dead body; and once, when +they were trying to reach a survivor who was clinging to a piece of +broken staircase, praying and calling for help, it took them nearly half +an hour to cover the fifty feet that separated them from him, so thick +were the bodies. This reads like an exaggeration, but it is well +attested. The water was icy cold, and benumbed many of them, who thus +died quickly; a few held on to life, moaning, wailing, calling--but in +vain. + +A few strong men were still making a desperate fight for life. The +collapsible boat, which Bride had seen a group of passengers attempting +to launch a few minutes before the ship sank, was washed off by a wave +in its collapsed condition. Such boats contain air compartments in their +bottom, and thus, even although they are not opened, they float like +rafts, and can carry a considerable weight. Some of those who were swept +off the ship by the same wave that took the boat found themselves near +it and climbed on to it. Mr. Lightoller, the Second Officer, had dived +as the ship dived, and been sucked down the steep submerged wall of the +hull against the grating over the blower for the exhaust steam. Far down +under the water he felt the force of an explosion which blew him up to +the surface, where he breathed for a moment, and was then sucked back +by the water washing into the ship as it sank. This time he landed +against the grating over the pipes that furnished the draught for the +funnels, and stuck there. There was another explosion, and again he came +to the surface not many feet from the ship, and found himself near the +collapsible boat, to which he clung. It was quite near him that the huge +funnel fell over into the water and killed many swimmers before his +eyes. He drifted for a time on the collapsible boat, until he was taken +off into one of the lifeboats. + +Bride also found himself strangely involved with this boat, which he had +last seen on the deck of the ship. When he was swept off, he found +himself in the horrible position of being trapped under water beneath +this boat. He struggled out and tried to climb on to it, but it took +him a long time; at last, however, he managed to get up on it, and found +five or six other people there. And now and then some other swimmer, +stronger than most, would come up and be helped on board. Some thus +helped died almost immediately; there were four found dead upon this +boat when at last the survivors were rescued. + +There was another boat also not far off, a lifeboat, capsized likewise. +Six men managed to scramble on to the keel of this craft; it was almost +all she could carry. Mr. Caldwell, a second-class passenger, who had +been swimming about in the icy water for nearly an hour, with dead +bodies floating all about him, was beginning to despair when he found +himself near a crate to which another man was clinging. "Will it hold +two?" he asked. And the other man, with a rare heroism, said: "Catch +hold and try; we will live or die together." And these two, clinging +precariously to the crate, reached the overturned lifeboat and were +hauled up to its keel. Presently another man came swimming along and +asked if they could take him on. But the boat was already dangerously +loaded; the weight of another man would have meant death for all, and +they told him so. "All right," he cried, "good-bye; God bless you all!" +And he sank before their eyes. + +Captain Smith, who had last been seen washed from the bridge as the ship +sank, with a child in his arms, was seen once more before he died. He +was swimming, apparently only in the hope of saving the child that he +held; for in his austere conception of his duty there was no place of +salvation for him while others were drowning and struggling. He swam up +to a boat with the child and gasped out: "Take the child!" A dozen +willing hands were stretched out to take it, and then to help him into +the boat; but he shook them off. Only for a moment he held on, asking: +"What became of Murdoch?" and when they said that he was dead, he let go +his hold, saying: "Let me go"; and the last that they saw of him was +swimming back towards the ship. He had no lifebelt; he had evidently no +wish that there should be any gruesome resurrection of his body from the +sea, and undoubtedly he found his grave where he wished to find it, +somewhere hard by the grave of his ship. + +The irony of chance, the merciless and illogical selection which death +makes in a great collective disaster, was exemplified over and over +again in the deaths of people who had escaped safely to a boat, and the +salvation of others who were involved in the very centre of destruction. +The strangest escape of all was probably that of Colonel Gracie of the +United States army, who jumped from the topmost deck of the ship when +she sank and was sucked down with her. He was drawn down for a long +while, and whirled round and round, and would have been drawn down to a +depth from which he could never have come up alive if it had not been +for the explosion which took place after the ship sank. "After sinking +with the ship," he says, "it appeared to me as if I was propelled by +some great force through the water. This may have been caused by +explosions under the waters, and I remembered fearful stories of people +being boiled to death. Innumerable thoughts of a personal nature, having +relation to mental telepathy, flashed through my brain. I thought of +those at home, as if my spirit might go to them to say good-bye. Again +and again I prayed for deliverance, although I felt sure that the end +had come. I had the greatest difficulty in holding my breath until I +came to the surface. I knew that once I inhaled, the water would +suffocate me. I struck out with all my strength for the surface. I got +to the air again after a time that seemed to me unending. There was +nothing in sight save the ocean strewn with great masses of wreckage, +dying men and women all about me, groaning and crying piteously. I saw +wreckage everywhere, and what came within reach I clung to. I moved from +one piece to another until I reached the collapsible boat. She soon +became so full that it seemed as if she would sink if more came on board +her. We had to refuse to let any others climb on board. This was the +most pathetic and horrible scene of all. The piteous cries of those +around us ring in my ears, and I will remember them to my dying day. +'Hold on to what you have, old boy,' we shouted to each man who tried +to get on board. 'One more of you would sink us all.' Many of those whom +we refused answered, as they went to their death, 'Good luck; God bless +you.' All the time we were buoyed up and sustained by the hope of +rescue. We saw lights in all directions--particularly some green lights +which, as we learned later, were rockets burned by one of the +_Titanic's_ boats. So we passed the night with the waves washing over +and burying our raft deep in the water." + +It was twenty minutes past two when the _Titanic_ sank, two hours and +forty minutes after she had struck the iceberg; and for two hours after +that the boats drifted all round and about, some of them in bunches of +three or four, others solitary. Almost every kind of suffering was +endured in them, although, after the mental horrors of the preceding +hour, physical sufferings were scarcely felt. Some of the boats had +hardly anyone but women in them; in many the stokers and stewards were +quite useless at the oars. But here and there, in that sorrowful, +horror-stricken company, heroism lifted its head and human nature took +heart again. Women took their turn at the oars in boats where the men +were either too few or incapable of rowing; and one woman notably, the +Countess of Rothes, practically took command of her boat and was at an +oar all the time. Where they were rowing to most of them did not know. +They had seen lights at the time the ship went down, and some of them +made for these; but they soon disappeared, and probably most of the +boats were following each other aimlessly, led by one boat in which some +green flares were found, which acted as a beacon for which the others +made. One man had a pocket electric lamp, which he flashed now and +then, a little ray of hope and guidance shining across those dark and +miserable waters. Not all of the boats had food and water on board. Many +women were only in their night-clothes, some of the men in evening +dress; everyone was bitterly cold, although, fortunately, there was no +wind and no sea. + +The stars paled in the sky; the darkness became a little lighter; the +gray daylight began to come. Out of the surrounding gloom a wider and +wider area of sea became visible, with here and there a boat discernible +on it, and here and there some fragments of wreckage. By this time the +boats had rowed away from the dreadful region, and but few floating +bodies were visible. The waves rose and fell, smooth as oil, first gray +in colour, and then, as the light increased, the pure dark blue of +mid-ocean. The eastern sky began to grow red under the cloud bank, and +from red to orange, and from orange to gold, the lovely pageantry of an +Atlantic dawn began to unfold itself before the aching eyes that had +been gazing on prodigies and horrors. From out that well of light in the +sky came rays that painted the wave-backs first with rose, and then with +saffron, and then with pure gold. And in the first flush of that blessed +and comforting light the draggled and weary sufferers saw, first a speck +far to the south, then a smudge of cloud, and then the red and black +smoke-stack of a steamer that meant succour and safety for them. + + + + +XV + + +From every quarter of the ocean, summoned by the miracle of the wireless +voice, many ships had been racing since midnight to the help of the +doomed liner. From midnight onwards captains were being called by +messages from the wireless operators of their ships, telling them that +the _Titanic_ was asking for help; courses were being altered and chief +engineers called upon to urge their stokehold crews to special efforts; +for coal means steam, and steam means speed, and speed may mean life. +Many ships that could receive the strong electric impulses sent out from +the _Titanic_ had not electric strength enough to answer; but they +turned and came to that invisible spot represented by a few figures +which the faithful wireless indicated. Even as far as five hundred miles +away, the _Parisian_ turned in her tracks in obedience to the call and +came racing towards the north-west. But there were tragedies even with +the wireless. The Leyland liner _Californian_, bound for Boston, was +only seventeen miles away from the _Titanic_ when she struck, and could +have saved every soul on board; but her wireless apparatus was not +working, and she was deaf to the agonized calls that were being sent out +from only a few miles away. The _Parisian_, five hundred miles away, +could hear and come, though it was useless; the _Californian_ could not +hear and so did not come though, if she had, she would probably have +saved every life on board. The _Cincinnati_, the _Amerika_, the _Prinz +Friedrich Wilhelm_, the _Menominee_, the _La Provence_, the _Prinz +Adalbert_, the _Virginian_, the _Olympic_, and the _Baltic_ all heard +the news and all turned towards Lat. 41 deg. 46' N., Long. 50 deg. 14' W. +The dread news was being whispered all over the sea, and even ashore, just +as the dwellers on the North Atlantic seaboard were retiring to rest, +the station at Cape Race intercepted the talk of the _Titanic_ 270 miles +away, and flashed the message out far and wide; so that Government tugs +and ships with steam up in harbours, and everything afloat in the +vicinity which heard the news might hurry to the rescue. Cape Race soon +heard that the _Virginian_ was on her way to the _Titanic's_ position, +then that the _Olympic_ and _Carpathia_ had altered their courses and +were making for the wounded ship, and so on. Throughout the night the +rumours in the air were busy, while still the steady calls came out in +firm electric waves from the _Titanic_--still calling, still flashing +"C.Q.D." At 1.20 she whispered to the _Olympic_, "Get your boats ready; +going down fast by the head." At 1.35 the _Frankfurt_ (after an hour and +a half's delay) said, "We are starting for you." Then at 1.41 came a +message to the _Olympic_, "C.Q.D., boilers flooded." + +"Are there any boats round you already?" asked the _Olympic_, but there +was no answer. + +Other ships began to call, giving encouraging messages: "We are coming," +said the _Birma_, "only fifty miles away"; but still there was no +answer. + +All over the North Atlantic men in lighted instrument rooms sat +listening with the telephones at their ears; they heard each other's +questions and waited in the silence, but it was never broken again by +the voice from the _Titanic_. "All quiet now," reported the _Birma_ to +the _Olympic_, and all quiet it was, except for the thrashing and +pounding of a score of propellers, and the hiss of a dozen steel stems +as they ripped the smooth waters on courses converging to the spot where +the wireless voice had suddenly flickered out into silence. + +But of all those who had been listening to the signals Captain Rostron +of the _Carpathia_ knew that his ship would most likely be among the +first to reach the spot. It was about midnight on Sunday that the +passengers of the _Carpathia_ first became aware that something unusual +was happening. The course had been changed and a certain hurrying about +on the decks took the place of the usual midnight quiet. The trembling +and vibration increased to a quick jumping movement as pressure of steam +was gradually increased and the engines urged to the extreme of their +driving capacity. The chief steward summoned his staff and set them to +work making sandwiches and preparing hot drinks. All the hot water was +cut off from the cabins and bath-rooms, so that every ounce of steam +could be utilized for driving the machinery. + +The _Carpathia_ was nearly seventy miles from the position of the +_Titanic_ when she changed her course and turned northward; she had been +steaming just over four hours when, in the light of that wonderful dawn, +those on the look-out descried a small boat. As they drew nearer they +saw other boats, and fragments of wreckage, and masses of ice drifting +about the sea. Captain Rostron stopped while he was still a good +distance from the boats, realizing that preparations must be made before +he could take passengers on board. The accommodation gangway was rigged +and also rope ladders lowered over the sides, and canvas slings were +arranged to hoist up those who were too feeble to climb. The passengers +crowded along the rail or looked out of their portholes to see the +reaping of this strange harvest of the sea. The first boat came up +almost filled with women and children--women in evening dress or in fur +coats thrown over nightgowns, in silk stockings and slippers, in rags +and shawls. The babies were crying; some of the women were injured and +some half-fainting; all had horror on their faces. Other boats began to +come up, and the work of embarking the seven hundred survivors went on. +It took a long time, for some of the boats were far away, and it was not +until they had been seven hours afloat that the last of them were taken +on board the _Carpathia_. Some climbed up the ladders, others were put +into the slings and swung on board, stewards standing by with rum and +brandy to revive the fainting; and many willing hands were occupied +with caring for the sufferers, taking them at once to improvised couches +and beds, or conducting those who were not so exhausted to the saloon +where hot drinks and food were ready. But it was a ghastly company. As +boat after boat came up, those who had already been saved eagerly +searched among its occupants to see if their own friends were among +them; and as gradually the tale of boats was completed and it was known +that no more had been saved, and the terrible magnitude of the loss was +realized--then, in the words of one of the _Carpathia's_ people, "Bedlam +broke loose." Women who had borne themselves bravely throughout the +hours of waiting and exposure broke into shrieking hysterics, calling +upon the names of their lost. Some went clean out of their minds; one or +two died there in the very moment of rescue. The _Carpathia's_ +passengers gave up their rooms and ransacked their trunks to find +clothing for the more than half-naked survivors; and at last exhaustion, +resignation, and the doctor's merciful drugs did the rest. The dead were +buried; those who had been snatched too late from the bitter waters were +committed to them again, and eternally, with solemn words; and the +_Carpathia_ was headed for New York. + + + + +XVI + + +The _Californian_ had come up while the _Carpathia_ was taking the +survivors on board, and it was arranged that she should remain and +search the vicinity while the _Carpathia_ made all haste to New York. +And the other ships that had answered the call for help either came up +later in the morning and stayed for a little cruising about in the +forlorn hope of finding more survivors, or else turned back and resumed +their voyages when they heard the _Carpathia's_ tidings. + +In the meantime the shore stations could get no news. Word reached New +York and London in the course of the morning that the _Titanic_ had +struck an iceberg and was badly damaged, but nothing more was known +until a message, the origin of which could not be discovered, came to +say that the _Titanic_ was being towed to Halifax by the _Virginian_, +and that all her passengers were saved. With this news the London +evening papers came out on that Monday, and even on Tuesday the early +editions of the morning papers had the same story, and commented upon +the narrow escape of the huge ship. Even the White Star officials had on +Monday no definite news; and when their offices in New York were +besieged by newspaper men and relatives of the passengers demanding +information, the pathetic belief in the _Titanic's_ strength was allowed +to overshadow anxieties concerning the greater disaster. Mr. Franklin, +the vice-president of the American Trust to which the White Star Company +belongs, issued the following statement from New York on Monday: + + "We have nothing direct from the _Titanic_, but are perfectly + satisfied that the vessel is unsinkable. The fact that the + Marconi messages have ceased means nothing; it may be due to + atmospheric conditions or the coming up of the ships, or + something of that sort. + + "We are not worried over the possible loss of the ship, as she + will not go down, but we are sorry for the inconvenience + caused to the travelling public. We are absolutely certain + that the _Titanic_ is able to withstand any damage. She may be + down by the head, but would float indefinitely in that + condition." + +Still that same word, "unsinkable," which had now indeed for the first +time become a true one: for it is only when she lies at the bottom of +the sea that any ship can be called unsinkable. On Tuesday morning when +the dreadful news was first certainly known, those proud words had to be +taken back. Again Mr. Franklin had to face the reporters, and this time +he could only say: + + "I must take upon myself the whole blame for that statement. I + made it, and I believed it when I made it. The accident to the + _Olympic_, when she collided with the cruiser _Hawke_, + convinced me that these ships, the _Olympic_ and _Titanic_, + were built like battleships, able to resist almost any kind of + accident, particularly a collision. I made the statement in + good faith, and upon me must rest the responsibility for + error, since the fact has proved that it was not a correct + description of the unfortunate _Titanic_." + +And for three days while the _Carpathia_ was ploughing her way, now +slowly through ice-strewn seas, and now at full speed through open +water, and while England lay under the cloud of an unprecedented +disaster, New York was in a ferment of grief, excitement, and +indignation. Crowds thronged the streets outside the offices of the +White Star Line, while gradually, in lists of thirty or forty at a time, +the names of the survivors began to come through from the _Carpathia_. +And at last, when all the names had been spelled out, and interrogated, +and corrected, the grim total of the figures stood out in appalling +significance--seven hundred and three saved, one thousand five hundred +and three lost. + +It is not possible, nor would it be very profitable, to describe the +scenes that took place on these days of waiting, the alternations of +hope and grief, of thankfulness and wild despair, of which the shipping +offices were the scene. They culminated on the Thursday evening when +the _Carpathia_ arrived in New York. The greatest precautions had been +taken to prevent the insatiable thirst for news from turning that solemn +disembarkation into a battlefield. The entrance to the dock was +carefully guarded, and only those were admitted who had business there +or who could prove that they had relations among the rescued passengers. +Similar precautions were taken on the ship; she was not even boarded by +the Custom officials, nor were any reporters allowed on board, although +a fleet of steam launches went out in the cold rainy evening to meet +her, bearing pressmen who were prepared to run any risks to get a +footing on the ship. They failed, however, and the small craft were left +behind in the mist, as the _Carpathia_ came gliding up the Hudson. + +Among the waiting crowd were nurses, doctors, and a staff of ambulance +men and women; for all kinds of wild rumours were afloat as to the +condition of those who had been rescued. The women of New York had +devoted the days of waiting to the organization of a powerful relief +committee, and had collected money and clothing on an ample scale to +meet the needs of those, chiefly among the steerage passengers, who +should find themselves destitute when they landed. And there, in the +rain of that gloomy evening, they waited. + +At last they saw the _Carpathia_ come creeping up the river and head +towards the White Star pier. The flashlights of photographers were +playing about her, and with this silent salute she came into dock. +Gateways had been erected, shutting off the edge of the pier from the +sheds in which the crowd was waiting, and the first sight they had of +the rescued was when after the gangway had been rigged, and the brief +formalities of the shore complied with, the passengers began slowly to +come down the gangway. A famous English dramatist who was looking on at +the scene has written of it eloquently, describing the strange varieties +of bearing and demeanour; how one face had a startled, frightened look +that seemed as if it would always be there, another a set and staring +gaze; how one showed an angry, rebellious desperation, and another +seemed merely dazed. Some carried on stretchers, some supported by +nurses, and some handed down by members of the crew, they came, either +to meetings that were agonizing in their joy, or to blank loneliness +that would last until they died. Five or six babies without mothers, +some of them utterly unidentified and unidentifiable, were handed down +with the rest, so strangely preserved, in all their tenderness and +helplessness, through that terrible time of confusion and exposure. + +And in the minds of those who looked on at this sad procession there was +one tragic, recurrent thought: that for every one who came down the +gangway, ill perhaps, maimed perhaps, destitute perhaps, but alive and +on solid earth again, there were two either drifting in the slow Arctic +current, or lying in the great submarine valley to which the ship had +gone down. They were a poor remnant indeed of all that composite world +of pride, and strength, and riches; for Death winnows with a strange +fan, and although one would suit his purpose as well as another, he +often chooses the best and the strongest. There were card-sharpers, and +orphaned infants, and destitute consumptives among the saved; and there +were hundreds of heroes and strong men among the drowned. There were +among the saved those to whom death would have been no great enemy, who +had no love for life or ties to bind them to it; and there were those +among the drowned for whom life was at its very best and dearest; lovers +and workers in the very morning of life before whom the years had +stretched forward rich with promise. + +And when nearly all had gone and the crowd in the docks was melting +away, one man, who had until then remained secluded in the ship came +quietly out, haggard and stricken with woe: Bruce Ismay, the +representative and figure-head of that pride and power which had given +being to the _Titanic_. In a sense he bore on his own shoulders the +burden of every sufferer's grief and loss; and he bore it, not with +shame, for he had no cause for shame, but with reticence of words and +activity in such alleviating deeds as were possible, and with a dignity +which was proof against even the bitter injustice of which he was the +victim in the days that followed. There was pity enough in New York, +hysterical pity, sentimental pity, real pity, practical pity, for all +the obvious and patent distress of the bereaved and destitute; but there +was no pity for this man who, of all that ragged remnant that walked +back to life down the _Carpathia's_ gangway, had perhaps the most need +of pity. + + + + +XVII + + +The symbols of Honour and Glory and Time that looked so handsome in the +flooding sunlight of the _Titanic's_ stairway lie crushed into +unrecognizable shapes and splinters beneath the tonnage of two thousand +fathoms of ocean water. Time is no more for the fifteen hundred souls +who perished with them; but Honour and Glory, by strange ways and +unlooked-for events, have come into their own. It was not Time, nor the +creatures and things of Time, that received their final crown there; but +things that have nothing to do with Time, qualities that, in their power +of rising beyond all human limitations, we must needs call divine. + +The _Titanic_ was in more senses than one a fool's paradise. There is +nothing that man can build that nature cannot destroy, and far as he may +advance in might and knowledge and cunning, her blind strength will +always be more than his match. But men easily forget this; they wish to +forget it; and the beautiful and comfortable and agreeable equipment of +this ship helped them to forget it. You may cover the walls of a ship +with rare woods and upholster them with tapestries and brocades, but it +is the bare steel walls behind them on which you depend to keep out the +water; it is the strength of those walls, relatively to the strength of +such natural forces as may be arrayed against them, on which the safety +of the ship depends. If they are weaker than something which assails +them, the water must come in and the ship must sink. It was assumed too +readily that, in the case of the _Titanic_, these things could not +happen; it was assumed too readily that if in the extreme event they did +happen, the manifold appliances for saving life would be amply +sufficient for the security of the passengers. Thus they lived in a +serene confidence such as no ship's company ever enjoyed before, or will +enjoy again for a long time to come. And there were gathered about them +almost all those accessories of material life which are necessary to the +paradise of fools, and are extremely agreeable to wiser men. + +It was this perfect serenity of their condition which made so poignant +the tragedy of their sudden meeting with death--that pale angel whom +every man knows that he must some day encounter, but whom most of us +hope to find at the end of some road a very long way off waiting for us +with comforting and soothing hands. We do not expect to meet him +suddenly turning the corner of the street, or in an environment of +refined and elegant conviviality, or in the midst of our noonday +activities, or at midnight on the high seas when we are dreaming on +feather pillows. But it was thus that those on the _Titanic_ encountered +him, waiting there in the ice and the starlight, arresting the ship's +progress with his out-stretched arm, and standing by, waiting, while the +sense of his cold presence gradually sank like a frost into their +hearts. + +To say that all the men who died on the _Titanic_ were heroes would be +as absurd as to say that all who were saved were cowards. There were +heroes among both groups and cowards among both groups, as there must be +among any large number of men. It is the collective behaviour and the +general attitude towards disaster that is important at such a time; and +in this respect there is ample evidence that death scored no advantage +in the encounter, and that, though he took a spoil of bodies that had +been destined for him since the moment of their birth, he left the +hearts unconquered. In that last half-hour before the end, when every +one on the ship was under sentence of death, modern civilization went +through a severe test. By their bearing in that moment those fated men +and women had to determine whether, through the long years of peace and +increase of material comfort and withdrawal from contact with the cruder +elements of life, their race had deteriorated in courage and morale. It +is only by such great tests that we can determine how we stand in these +matters, and, as they periodically recur, measure our advance or +decline. And the human material there made the test a very severe one; +for there were people on the _Titanic_ who had so entrenched themselves +behind ramparts of wealth and influence as to have wellnigh forgotten +that, equally with the waif and the pauper, they were exposed to the +caprice of destiny; and who might have been forgiven if, in that awful +moment of realization, they had shown the white feather and given +themselves over to panic. But there is ample evidence that these men +stood the test equally as well as those whose occupation and training +made them familiar with the risks of the sea, to which they were +continually exposed, and through which they might reasonably expect to +come to just such an end. There was no theatrical heroism, no striking +of attitudes, or attempt to escape from the dread reality in any form of +spiritual hypnosis; they simply stood about the decks, smoking +cigarettes, talking to one another, and waiting for their hour to +strike. There is nothing so hard, nothing so entirely dignified, as to +be silent and quiet in the face of an approaching horror. + +That was one form of heroism, which will make the influence of this +thing deathless long after the memory of it has faded as completely from +the minds of men as sight or sign of it has faded from that area of +ocean where, two miles above the sunken ship, the rolling blue furrows +have smoothed away all trace of the struggles and agonies that +embittered it. But there was another heroism which must be regarded as +the final crown and glory of this catastrophe--not because it is +exceptional, for happily it is not, but because it continued and +confirmed a tradition of English sea life that should be a tingling +inspiration to everyone who has knowledge of it. The men who did the +work of the ship were no composite, highly drilled body like the men in +the navy who, isolated for months at a time and austerely disciplined, +are educated into an _esprit de corps_ and sense of responsibility that +make them willing, in moments of emergency, to sacrifice individual +safety to the honour of the ship and of the Service to which they +belong. These stokers, stewards, and seamen were the ordinary scratch +crew, signed on at Southampton for one round trip to New York and back; +most of them had never seen each other or their officers before; they +had none of the training or the securities afforded by a great national +service; they were simply--especially in the case of the stokers--men so +low in the community that they were able to live no pleasanter life than +that afforded by the stokehold of a ship--an inferno of darkness and +noise and commotion and insufferable heat--men whose experience of the +good things of life was half an hour's breathing of the open sea air +between their spells of labour at the furnaces, or a drunken spree +ashore whence, after being poisoned by cheap drink and robbed by joyless +women of the fruits of their spell of labour, they are obliged to return +to it again to find the means for another debauch. Not the stuff out of +which one would expect an austere heroism to be evolved. Yet such are +the traditions of the sea, such is the power of those traditions and the +spirit of those who interpret them, that some of these men--not all, but +some--remained down in the _Titanic's_ stokeholds long after she had +struck, and long after the water, pouring like a cataract through the +rent in her bottom and rising like a tide round the black holes where +they worked, had warned them that her doom, and probably theirs, was +sealed. + +In the engine-room were another group of heroes, men of a far higher +type, with fine intelligences, trained in all the subtleties and craft +of modern ships, men with education and imagination who could see in +their mind's eye all the variations of horror that might await them. +These men also continued at their routine tasks in the engine room, +knowing perfectly well that no power on earth could save them, choosing +to stay there while there was work to be done for the common good, their +best hope being presently to be drowned instead of being boiled or +scalded to death. All through the ship, though in less awful +circumstances, the same spirit was being observed; men who had duties to +do went on doing them because they were the kind of men to whom in such +an hour it came more easily to perform than to shirk their duties. The +three ship's boys spent the whole of that hour carrying provisions from +the store-room to the deck; the post-office employes worked in the +flooded mail-room below to save the mail-bags and carry them up to where +they might be taken off if there should be a chance; the purser and his +men brought up the ship's books and money, against all possibility of +its being any use to do so, but because it was their duty at such a time +to do so; the stewards were busy to the end with their domestic, and the +officers with their executive, duties. In all this we have an example of +spontaneous discipline--for they had never been drilled in doing these +things, they only knew that they had to do them--such as no barrack-room +discipline in the world could match. In such moments all artificial +bonds are useless. It is what men are in themselves that determines +their conduct; and discipline and conduct like this are proofs, not of +the superiority of one race over another, but that in the core of human +nature itself there is an abiding sweetness and soundness that fear +cannot embitter nor death corrupt. + + * * * * * + +The twin gray horses are still at their work in Belfast Lough, and on +any summer morning you may see their white manes shining like gold as +they escort you in from the sunrise and the open sea to where the smoke +rises and the din resounds. + +For the iron forest has branched again, and its dreadful groves are +echoing anew to the clamour of the hammers and the drills. Another ship, +greater and stronger even than the lost one, is rising within the +cathedral scaffoldings; and the men who build her, companions of those +whom the _Titanic_ spilled into the sea, speak among themselves and say, +"this time we shall prevail." + +_May 1912._ + + + + +A TABLE + +SHOWING THE LOSS OF LIFE ON THE _TITANIC_ + + + FIRST CLASS + Per cent. + Carried. Saved. Lost. saved. + + Men 173 58 115 34 + Women 144 139 5 97 + Children 5 5 0 100 + --- --- --- --- + Total 322 202 120 63 + + + SECOND CLASS + Per cent. + Carried. Saved. Lost. saved. + + Men 160 13 147 8 + Women 93 78 15 84 + Children 24 24 0 100 + --- --- --- --- + Total 277 115 162 42 + + + THIRD CLASS + Per cent. + Carried. Saved. Lost. saved. + + Men 454 55 399 12 + Women 179 98 81 55 + Children 76 23 53 30 + --- --- --- --- + Total 709 176 533 25 + + TOTAL PASSENGERS + Per cent. + Carried. Saved. Lost. saved. + + Men 787 126 661 16 + Women 416 315 101 76 + Children 105 52 53 49 + ---- --- --- --- + Total 1308 493 815 38 + + + CREW + + Per cent. + Carried. Saved. Lost. saved. + + Men 875 189 686 22 + Women 23 21 2 91 + --- --- --- --- + Total 898 210 688 23 + + + TOTAL PASSENGERS AND CREW + Per cent. + Carried. Saved. Lost. saved. + + Men 1662 315 1347 19 + Women 439 336 103 77 + Children 105 52 53 49 + ---- --- ---- --- + Total 2206 703 1503 32 + + + + + CHISWICK PRESS: PRINTED BY CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO. + TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON. + + + + +BY THE SAME AUTHOR + +CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AND THE NEW WORLD OF HIS DISCOVERY. + +With Frontispiece in colour by Norman Wilkinson. Portrait, Maps, +Illustrations, Appendices and a Note on the Navigation of Columbus's +First Voyage by the Earl of Dunraven, K.P. Large Post 8vo, cloth, gilt. +7_s._ 6_d._ net. (Third Edition.) + +Mr. Henry Vignaud, late Secretary of the American Embassy and +distinguished historian of Columbus, says: + +"_In this book the hero who discovered the New World is shown for the +first time as a living man.... A more true and lively picture of the +great discoverer than is contained in any other work._" + +"Mr. Filson Young has done nothing better ... there is not a dull page +in the seven hundred. His descriptions of visible things, of streets and +hills, and seas and men, are vivid in his accustomed manner. His +narrative is rich and marching, yet sufficiently precise.... For the +modern taste there is really nothing about Columbus to compare with Mr. +Young's for matter and style."--_The Morning Post._ + +"If these volumes do not bring the figure of Columbus into closer +relation with the mind of the present generation, it must be because +people simply do not care to learn about anything that lies a few yards +beyond their own thresholds. Our hope, however, is better; and we +imagine that there will be a wide public for a narrative so fresh and +spirited. + +"Mr. Filson Young tells his story, without turning to the right hand or +to the left, in a free and fluent fashion.... Very vigorous too are the +passages dealing with his voyages, for Mr. Filson Young has drunk deep +of the spirit of the sea and nowhere writes so well as in his account of +the seafarer's business in great waters.... The book abounds in +interludes of suggestive thought and clear, vigorous expression. But, +the book must be commended for the keen, eager spirit of its narrative +and the abounding interest of its romances. If all gleaners in the field +of history were as skilful as Mr. Young, we should not hear so much +about the dry-as-dust dullness of what ought to be always one of the +most fascinating forms of literary art." + +Mr. W. L. Courtney in _The Daily Telegraph_. + +"Mr. Young has given us an estimate of the man which is attractive and +poetical. His account of the four voyages to the Indies is a romance of +the sea.... His book is a book of colour and the spirit of adventure. We +delight in that vision of his which shows to others the world and the +sea and the strange 'Indias' very much as Columbus saw them, with his +keen eyes, four centuries ago."--_The Manchester Guardian._ + +"History clothed with a gracious humanity ... history that has reality +and life ... not a mere record of his acts, but a reconstruction of the +man who died four centuries ago, so that at the end of the book we feel +that we have known and spoken with Columbus.... Breathes interest from +every page."--_The Daily Chronicle._ + +"He writes with charm, with colour, and with humour ... very readable +and eloquent.... We can give but a little quotation to show Mr. Young's +eloquence, but we can assure the reader that he has many passages that +set one longing for the sea."--Mr. John Masefield in _The Tribune._ + +"It is almost impossible to do justice to the splendour and romance of +these two finely produced volumes.... 'Charity, truth, and justice,' +that is the meed Columbus has from Mr. Filson Young, whose book--austere, +dignified, stately--forms by far the most striking and vivid portrait of +the hero in our language."--_The Morning Leader._ + +"To write a new book on Columbus seems a daring project; so many folios +have already been dedicated to his life. Mr. Young has justified +himself; so many books on the Genoese sailor have been either +unexpectedly dull or painfully inaccurate. Mr. Young is neither; in a +style pleasant and lucid he has set before us with vigour the period and +the setting of these famous voyages. 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Cloth gilt. 6s. net. [_Second Edition._ + +-- The Perfect Garden: How to Keep it Beautiful and Fruitful, with +Practical Hints on Economical Management and the Culture of all the +Principal Flowers, Fruits and Vegetables. With six illustrations in +Colour and many in black and white. Large post 8vo. 6s. net [_Third +Edition._ + +-- Popular Garden Flowers. With six illustrations in Colour and many in +black and white. Large post 8vo. Cloth gilt. 6s. net. + +=Wyndham, Horace.= + +-- Roses and Rue. 6s. + +-- The Flare of the Footlights. Cheap edition, 1s. net. + +-- Audrey the Actress. With frontispiece. 6s. [_Out of print._ + +=Xenophon.= _See under_ Richards, Herbert, M.A. + +=Young, Filson.= + +-- Christopher Columbus and the New World of his Discovery. Illustrated. +With a Chapter by the Earl of Dunraven. Two vols. Demy 8vo. Buckram +gilt. 25s. net. [_Out of print._ + +-- Venus and Cupid: An Impression in Prose after Velasquez in Colour. +Edition limited to 339 copies for sale in Great Britain; printed on +Arnold Hand-made paper, with a Photogravure Reproduction of the Rokeby +Venus. Crown 4to. 12s. 6d. net. Also 11 copies on Japanese vellum at L2 +2s. net (of which 3 remain). + +-- The Sands of Pleasure. With frontispiece in colour by R. J. Pannett. +6s. Cheap edition, crown 8vo. sewed, with cover design by R. J. Pannett, +1s. net. [_Seventy-fifth Thousand._ + +-- When the Tide Turns. 6s. [_Second Edition._ + +-- The Wagner Stories. Large post 8vo. Persian yapp or cloth gilt. 5s. +net. [_Fourth Edition._ + +-- Mastersingers. New Edition. Revised and Enlarged. With portrait. Large +post 8vo. Persian yapp or cloth gilt. 5s. net. + +-- More Mastersingers. With frontispiece. Large post 8vo. Persian yapp or +cloth gilt. 5s. net. + +-- Memory Harbour: Essays chiefly in Description. Imperial 16mo. 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