Sinking of the Titanic and Great Sea Disasters

Pre-Frontispiece Caption: THE TITANIC The largest and finest steamship in the world; on her maiden voyage, loaded with a human freight of over 2,300 souls, she collided with a huge iceberg 600 miles southeast of Halifax, at 11.40 P.M. Sunday April 14, 1912, and sank two and a half hours later, carrying over 1,600 of her passengers and crew with her. Frontispiece Caption: CAPTAIN E. J. SMITH Of the ill-fated giant of the sea; a brave and seasoned commander who was carried to his death with his last and greatest ship. Sinking of the Titanic and Great Sea Disasters A Detailed and Accurate Account of the Most Awful Marine Disaster in History, Constructed from the Real Facts as Obtained from Those on Board Who Survived.......... ONLY AUTHORITATIVE BOOK INCLUDING Records of Previous Great Disasters of the Sea, Descriptions of the Developments of Safety and Life-saving Appliances, a Plain Statement of the Causes of Such Catastrophes and How to Avoid Them, the Marvelous Development of Shipbuilding, etc. With a Message of Spiritual Consolation by REV. HENRY VAN DYKE, D.D. EDITED BY LOGAN MARSHALL Author of Life of Theodore Roosevelt, etc. ILLUSTRATED With Numerous Authentic Photographs and Drawings
Dedication To the 1635 souls who were lost with the ill-fated Titanic, and especially to those heroic men, who, instead of trying to save themselves, stood aside that women and children might have their chance; of each of them let it be written, as it was written of a Greater One— He Died that Others might Live I stood in unimaginable trance And agony that cannot be remembered. —COLERIDGE
Dr. Van Dyke's Spiritual Consolation to the Survivors of the Titanic
The Titanic, greatest of ships, has gone to her ocean grave. What has she left behind her? Think clearly.
She has left debts. Vast sums of money have been lost. Some of them are covered by insurance which will be paid. The rest is gone. All wealth is insecure.
She has left lessons. The risk of running the northern course when it is menaced by icebergs is revealed. The cruelty of sending a ship to sea without enough life-boats and life-rafts to hold her company is exhibited and underlined in black.