[CONTENTS]
[TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE]
MEMORIAL EDITION
SINKING OF THE “TITANIC”
MOST APPALLING
Ocean Horror
WITH GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS OF HUNDREDS SWEPT TO ETERNITY BENEATH THE WAVES; PANIC STRICKEN MULTITUDE FACING SURE DEATH, AND THRILLING
STORIES OF THIS MOST OVERWHELMING CATASTROPHE
TO WHICH IS ADDED VIVID ACCOUNTS OF HEART-RENDING SCENES, WHEN HUNDREDS WERE DOOMED TO WATERY GRAVES, COMPILED FROM SOUL STIRRING STORIES TOLD BY EYE WITNESSES OF THIS TERRIBLE HORROR OF THE BRINY DEEP
BY JAY HENRY MOWBRAY, PH.D., LL.D.
The Well Known Author
Profusely Illustrated with a Great Many Photographs of Thrilling Scenes in this Fearful Catastrophe
To Which is Added Accounts of Other Great Disasters
THE MINTER COMPANY
HARRISBURG, PA.
ENTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS IN THE YEAR 1912, BY
GEO. W. BERTRON
THE OFFICE OF THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS, AT WASHINGTON, D. C., U. S. A.
PREFACE.
“WE are as near Heaven by sea as by land,” cried Sir Humphrey Gilbert, ere his ship sank with him; and the hundreds who perished in the ocean within reach of the exultant welcome and the festal preparation of the shore have found Paradise as surely, and in giving “the last full measure of devotion” have gone as brave men would wish to go.
Sorrow that is too deep and strong for words clutches the heart-strings of humanity and the Nation mourns for the heroic dead, who were carried down into the sea with the crushed “Titanic.” They faced death with high hearts, making the Supreme Sacrifice so that the women and the helpless little ones might live.
It is a heart-rending story, redeemed and ennobled by the heroism of the victims. Its details are appalling. The world is full of mournings for the dead. Nature has conquered again, destroying with ruthless hand the most marvelous ship that ever floated on the bosom of the deep.
It is the worst disaster that ever befell any vessel. It is the wrecking of a whole armada within one hull of steel, vaunted as unsinkable.
The sinking of the “Titanic” is an appalling catastrophe, in the contemplation of which any words that can be uttered are as futile as in the presence of the awful majesty of the Angel of Death.
The maiden trip of the newest, staunchest and greatest of the modern ocean greyhounds has thus apparently ended in the most appalling marine disaster ever recorded.
The first advices brought word of the safe removal of all the passengers and the possible success of the crew in their endeavor to bring the noblest ship afloat to shallow water. Another triumph of the wireless telegraph was hailed, and from both shores went up a paean of thanksgiving that the overwhelming loss was not of life but of things material, that, however valuable, are far less dear and can one day be replaced.
But now as a bolt from the blue, and as a forecast of the final mortal terrors of the Day of Judgment, comes the message that of 2300 souls aboard, but 700—chiefly women and children—have been saved.
All earthly concerns beside this calamity seem to fade into littleness and nothingness. The sole redeeming circumstance is that heroes met their death like men, and that human love was victorious over human terror, and mightier than Death and the open grave of the remorseless deep.
The one alleviating circumstance in this terrible tragedy is the fact that the men stood aside and insisted that the women and children should first have places in the boats.
There were men who were accustomed merely to pronounce a wish to have it gratified. For one of the humblest fishing smacks or a dory they could have given the price that was paid to build the immense ship that has become the most imposing mausoleum that ever housed the bones of men since the Pyramids rose from the desert sands.
But these men stood aside—one can see them—and gave place not merely to the delicate and the refined, but to the scared woman from the steerage with her toddler by her side, coming through the very gate of Death and out of the mouth of Hell to the imagined Eden of America.
To many of those who went it was harder to go than to stay there on the vessel gaping with its mortal wounds and ready to go down. It meant that tossing on the waters they must wait in suspense, hour after hour, even after the lights of the ship were engulfed in appalling darkness, hoping against hope for the miracle of a rescue dearer to them than their own lives.
It was the tradition of Anglo-Saxon heroism that was fulfilled in the frozen seas during the black hours of the night. The heroism was that of the women who went, as well as of the men who remained.
The sympathy of all the world will go out to the stricken survivors of the victims of a world-wide calamity.
INTRODUCTION.
HE human imagination is unequal to the reconstruction of the appalling scene of the disaster in the North Atlantic. No picture of the pen or of the painter’s brush can adequately represent the magnitude of the calamity that has made the whole world kin.
How trivial in such an hour seem the ordinary affairs of civilized mankind—the minor ramifications of politics, the frenetic rivalry of candidates, the haggle of stock speculators. We are suddenly, by an awful visitation, made to see our human transactions in their true perspective, as small as they really are.
Man’s pride is profoundly humbled: he must confess that the victory this time has gone to the blind, inexorable forces of nature, except in so far as the manifestation of the heroic virtues is concerned.
The ship that went to her final resting place two miles below the placid, unconfessing level of the sea represented all that science and art knew how to contribute to the expedition of traffic, to the comfort and enjoyment of voyagers.
She had 15 watertight steel compartments supposed to render her unsinkable. She was possessed of submarine signals with microphones, to tell the bridge by means of wires when shore or ship or any other object was at hand.
There was a collision bulkhead to safeguard the ship against the invasion of water amidships should the bow be torn away. In a word, the boat was as safe and sound as the shipbuilder could make it.
It was the pride of the owners and the commander that what has happened could not possibly occur. And yet the Titanic went down, and carried to their doom hundreds of passengers and men who intimately knew the sea and had faced every peril that the navigator meets.
In the hours between half-past 10 on Sunday night and half-past 2 Monday morning, while the ship still floated, what did the luxuries of their $10,000,000 castle on the ocean avail those who trod the eight steel decks, not knowing at what moment the whole glittering fabric might plunge with them—as it did plunge—to the unplumbed abyss below?
What was it, in those agonizing hours, to the men who remained aboard, or to the women and children placed in the boats, that there were three electric elevators, squash courts and Turkish baths, a hospital with an operating room, private promenade decks and Renaissance cabins? What is it to a man about to die to know that there is at hand a palm garden or a darkroom for photography, or the tapestry of an English castle or a dinner service of 10,000 pieces of silver and gold?
In that midnight crisis the one thing needful was not provided, where everything was supplied. The one inadequacy was—the lack of lifeboats.
In the supreme confidence of the tacit assumption that they never would be needed, the means of rescue—except in a pitiably meagre insufficiency—was not at hand. There were apparently but 20 boats and rafts available, each capable of sustaining at most 60 persons.
Yet the ship was built to carry 2435 passengers and 860 in the crew—a total of 3295 persons.
Whatever the luxuriousness of the appointments, the magnificence of the carvings and the paintings that surfeited the eye, the amplitude of the space allotted for the promenade, it seems incredible no calculation was made for the rescue of at least 2000 of the possible floating population of the Titanic.
The result of the tragedy must be that aroused public opinion will compel the formulation of new and drastic regulations, alike by the British Board of Trade and by the Federal authorities, providing not merely for the adequate equipment of every ship with salvatory apparatus but for rigorous periodical inspection of the appliances and a constant drill of the crew.
Let there be an end of boasting about the supremacy of man to the immitigable laws and forces of nature. Let the grief of mankind be assuaged not in idle lamentation but in amelioration of the conditions that brought about the saddest episode in the history of ships at sea.
The particular line that owned and sent forth the vessel that has perished has been no more to blame than others that similarly ignored elemental precautions in favor of superfluous comforts, in a false sense of security.
When the last boatload of priceless human life swung away from the davits of the Titanic, it left behind on the decks of the doomed ship hundreds of men who knew that the vessel’s mortal wound spelt Death for them also. But no cravens these men who went to their nameless graves, nor scourged as the galley slave to his dungeon.
Called suddenly from the ordinary pleasure of ship life and fancied security, they were in a moment confronted with the direct peril of the sea, and the absolute certainty that, while some could go to safety, many must remain.
It was the supreme test, for if a man lose his life he loses all. But, had the grim alternative thought to mock the cowardice of the breed, it was doomed to disappointment.
Silently these men stood aside. “Women first,” the inexorable law of the sea, which one disobeys only to court everlasting ignominy, undoubtedly had no place in their minds. “Women first,” the common law of humanity, born of chivalry and the nobler spirit of self-sacrifice, prevailed.
They simply stood aside.
The first blush of poignant grief will pass from those who survive and were bereft. But always will they sense in its fullest meaning this greatest of all sacrifice. Ever must it remain as a reassuring knowledge of the love, and faithfulness, and courage, of the Man, and of his care for the weak.
“Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friend.”
Hymn for Survivors of the Titanic.
By HALL CAINE;
The Great English Novelist.
[To Tune of “God Our Help in Ages Past.”]
Lord of the everlasting hills,
God of the boundless sea,
Help us through all the shocks of fate
To keep our trust in Thee.
When nature’s unrelenting arm
Sweeps us like withes away,
Maker of man, be Thou our strength
And our eternal stay.
When blind, insensate, heartless force
Puts out our passing breath,
Make us to see Thy guiding light
In darkness and in death.
Beneath the roll of soundless waves
Our best and bravest lie;
Give us to feel their spirits live
Immortal in the sky.
We are Thy children, frail and small,
Formed of the lowly sod,
Comfort our bruised and bleeding souls,
Father and Lord and God.
CONTENTS.
| [PREFACE] | [iii] |
| [INTRODUCTION] | [v] |
| [CONTENTS] | [ix] |
| [GREAT MARINE DISASTERS FROM 1866 TO 1911] | [xiii] |
| [Hymn for the Survivors of the Titanic, by Hall Caine, theGreat English Novelist] | [xvi] |
| [CHAPTER I. FROM A DAY OF DELIGHT TO DEATH.] | |
| April 14, 1912, a Fateful Date—Lulled to False Security—PeacefulSabbath Ends in Dire Disaster—Hopes Sink Beneath the Cruel andTreacherous Waves of the Atlantic—Man’s Proudest Craft CrumblesLike an Eggshell | [17] |
| [CHAPTER II. HEART-RENDING SCENES ON CARPATHIA.] | |
| The Next Day—Caring for the Sick—Meeting of the Survivors—PersonalWireless Messages Gives Precedence—Marconi’s AppealFruitless—Quartermaster Tells Story | [35] |
| [CHAPTER III. BAND PLAYED TO THE LAST.] | |
| Suffering in the Lifeboats—Statement by Ismay—Would not DesertHusband—Thirty on Raft in Icy Water—Colonel Astor a Hero—JokedOver Collision—Officer Saves Many Lives | [45] |
| [CHAPTER IV. NEGLECT CAUSED DISASTER.] | |
| Tardy Answer to Telephone Call—Lookout’s Signals Not Answered—ShipCould Have Been Saved—Three Fatal Minutes—IsmayAccused—Women Help With Oars—Ship Broken in Two—BandPlayed Till Last | [57] |
| [CHAPTER V. BELIEVED SHIP UNSINKABLE.] | |
| Shots and Hymn Mingle—Titanic Settled Slowly—Best TraditionsUpheld by Passengers and Crew—Boiler Explosions Tore ShipApart—Anguish in the Boats—Survivors Carried to Carpathia—NotEnough Provision Against Accident | [68] |
| [CHAPTER VI. HOW SURVIVORS ESCAPED.] | |
| Managing Director Accused—Stoker Makes Direct Charge—Supportedby Many Survivors—Tells About It—“Please Don’t Knock”—DemandedFood—Brave Lot of Women—First Officer Shot Himself | [81] |
| [CHAPTER VII. WOMAN’S THRILLING NARRATIVE.] | |
| Barber Says Good Word for Accused Shipowner—Claims He was aWitness—Saw the Whole Scene—Woman Tells Different Tale—Mrs.Carter’s Thrilling Narrative—Barber’s Story Differs FromIsmay’s Own | [95] |
| [CHAPTER VIII. SURVIVORS’ STIRRING STORIES.] | |
| Survivors’ Stirring Stories—How Young Thayer Was Saved—HisFather, Second Vice President of the Pennsylvania Railroad,Drowned—Mrs. Straus’ Pathetic Death—Black Coward Shot—CountessAids in Rowing Boat | [103] |
| [CHAPTER IX. HOW ASTOR WENT TO DEATH.] | |
| How Astor Went to Death—“I Resign Myself to My Fate,” He Said—KissedWife Fond Farewell—Lifted Cap to Wife as Boat Left Ship—Crushedto Death By Ice—Famous Novelist’s Daughter Hears ofHis Death—Philadelphia Millionaires’ Heroism—Last to SeeWidener Alive—Major Butt Dies a Soldier’s Death | [113] |
| [CHAPTER X. NOTABLE WOMAN SAVED.] | |
| Praises Captain and Crew—Bids President of Grand Trunk RailwayGood-bye—In Water for Six Hours—Saved by Cake of Ice—Boatsnot Filled, she says—Millionaire Died to Save Wife’s Maid—HeroicSacrifice of Railroad Official | [126] |
| [CHAPTER XI. MAJOR BUTT, MARTYR TO DUTY.] | |
| Major Butt Martyr to Duty—Woman’s Soul-Stirring Tribute—Died Likea Soldier—Was the Man of the Hour—Assisted Captain and Officersin Saving Women—Cool as if on Dress Parade—Robert M. DanielTells of Disaster and Death of Heroes—Tiny Waifs of the Sea | [138] |
| [CHAPTER XII. MRS. ASTOR’S BRAVERY.] | |
| Showed Wonderful Fortitude in the Hour of Peril—Sailors in LifeboatTell of Her Heroism—Pleaded to Remain With Husband—ChangeClothes to Embark—Seamen Confirm Murdock’s Suicide—OneHeartless Fiend—Williams Killed as Funnel Fell | [148] |
| [CHAPTER XIII. LIFEBOATS BUNGLINGLY HANDLED.] | |
| Widow of College Founder Scores Management for Lack of Drill—FirstThought Damage was Slight—Aid May Have Been Near—No Oil inLife Lamps—Hudson, N. Y., Woman’s Pathetic Recital—A. A.Dick, of New York, Talks | [159] |
| [CHAPTER XIV. NOT LIKE BOURGOGNE DISASTER.] | |
| Lone Woman Survivor Makes Comparison—Does Not Like “Law of theSea”—Families First, It Should Be, She Says—Husband GreetedLike the Hero He was—Privations and Horror Hasten Death | [171] |
| [CHAPTER XV. BOY’S DESPERATE FIGHT FOR LIFE.] | |
| Plunged Into Icy Sea—Did Not See Berg—Parted From Parents—SawMany Jump Overboard—Leaped Into Ocean—Eight Year Old Boy’sNarrative—Was “Very Quiet After He Was In Boat”—AnotherLad Tells How He Saw His Uncle Die | [188] |
| [CHAPTER XVI. CARPATHIA TO THE RESCUE.] | |
| Cunarder’s Race to Titanic’s Aid—Captain Rostrom’s Unvarnished butDramatic Report—Knot in Operator’s Shoelace Saved Hundreds ofLives—Was About to Retire, But Slight Delay Enabled Him toHear Message—Icebergs Defied in Desperate Rush | [199] |
| [CHAPTER XVII. REFUSED TO LEAVE HUSBAND.] | |
| “Where You Are I Shall Be,” Says Mrs. Isidor Straus—He BeggedHer in Vain to Enter the Waiting Lifeboat—Women Row Lifeboats—Stokersno Oarsmen—Crazed Men Rescued—CollapsibleBoats Failed to Work | [205] |
| [CHAPTER XVIII. LADY DUFF-GORDON’S EXPERIENCES.] | |
| Says it was as if Giant Hand had Pushed Ship Down—Realistic Pictureof Titanic’s Death Plunge—The Long, Dreary Wait—Man at WheelTells of Crash—Told by Phone “Iceberg Ahead” Just as ShipStruck—Saw Captain on Bridge | [216] |
| [CHAPTER XIX. SENATORS HEAR STARTLING STORIES.] | |
| Senators Hear Startling Stories—Probing Committee Took PromptAction—Special Investigation to Forstall Spiriting Away of Witnesses—ProminentPersons on Stand—Carpathia’s Captain and Headof White Star Line Chief Witnesses—Inventor of Wireless TelegraphyAlso Testifies | [235] |
| [CHAPTER XX. SURVIVING OPERATOR’S EXPERIENCES.] | |
| Surviving Operator’s Experiences—Tells Senator How He Escaped—Taleof Suffering and Death—Managing Director’s Flight Balked—LongHours and Low Wages for Wireless Men—Refused Help fromFrankfurt—Called Its Operator a Fool—Laxity of Wireless—DeniesSending “Saved” Message—Gave Warning of Ice | [248] |
| [CHAPTER XXI. THE FUNERAL SHIP AND ITS DEAD.] | |
| 116 Buried at Sea—Nearly all Sailors—No Prominent Men Buried—NoBullet Wounds Found—Halifax’s Bells Toll for Dead—Astor’sBody Identified—Death Ship’s Voyage—The Captain’s Story—CanonHind’s Narrative | [258] |
| [CHAPTER XXII. INQUIRY BY UNITED STATES SENATE.] | |
| Loading at the Rail—Inadequate Life-saving Appliances—No ExtraLookout—Searchlights Blinding—Wireless Rivals Not All Aroused—Wentto Death in Sleep—Scratch Seamen—Cries of Agony—APitiful Story—Senators Ascertain Pertinent Facts—Much GoodAccomplished | [271] |
| [List of Titanic Passengers Missing and Rescued] | [281] |
GREAT MARINE DISASTERS FROM 1866 TO 1911.
Among the great marine disasters on record that have resulted in loss of lives and vessels are:
HUNDREDS WEEP AT MEMORIAL SERVICES HELD
FOR “ARCHIE” BUTT.
Fifteen hundred sincere mourners for Major Archibald W. Butt, lost on the Titanic, wept unashamed at his home in Augusta, Georgia, on May 2, when President Taft called his former aid affectionately by his first name and choked with tears as he paid a personal tribute to the army officer.
It was at a monster memorial service for the soldier, where all Augusta paid homage to his memory. President Taft was the main speaker. He was deeply affected by the solemn ritual.
“If Archie could have selected a time to die he would have chosen the one God gave him,” the President said, his voice broken with emotion.
“His life was spent in self-sacrifice, serving others. His forgetfulness of self had become a part of his nature.
“Everybody who knew him called him Archie.
“I couldn’t prepare anything in advance to say here,” the President continued. “I tried, but couldn’t. He was too near me. He was loyal to my predecessor, Mr. Roosevelt, who selected him to be military aid, and to me he had become as a son or a brother.”
Taft pictured a new side to Major Butt’s character—his love for his mother.
“I think he never married because of that love for her who was taken from him two years ago,” the President declared.
TRIPLE SCREW STEAMER “TITANIC” WAS THE LARGEST AND FINEST VESSEL IN THE WORLD: 882½ FEET LONG, 45,000 TONS REGISTER, 92½ FEET WIDE
Life boats of the “Titanic” which would only hold one third of the passengers. All could have been saved had there been a sufficient number of boats. These few boats rescued all that were saved from this appalling disaster.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
STEAMSHIP “TITANIC” SHOWING LENGTH AS COMPARED WITH THE HIGHEST BUILDINGS.
| 1 Bunker Hill Monument, Boston | 221 Feet High |
| 2 Public Buildings, Philadelphia | 534 Feet High |
| 3 Washington Monument, Washington | 555 Feet High |
| 4 Metropolitan Tower, New York | 700 Feet High |
| 5 New Woolworth Building, New York | 750 Feet High |
| 6 White Star Line’s Triple Screw Steamer “TITANIC” | 882½ Feet Long |
| 7 Cologne Cathedral, Cologne, Germany | 516 Feet High |
| 8 Grand Pyramid, Gizeh, Africa | 451 Feet High |
| 9 St. Peter’s Church, Rome, Italy | 448 Feet High |
ENTRANCE HALL AND GRAND STAIRCASE OF THE “TITANIC”
A striking introduction to the wonders and beauty of the “Titanic” is the entrance hall and grand staircase in the forward section where one begins to realize for the first time the magnificence of this surpassing steamer. It is the largest and finest steamship in the world. It is indeed a floating palace.
CAPTAIN ROSTRON, OF THE “CARPATHIA,” WHO RUSHED HIS SHIP TO THE RESCUE OF THE “TITANIC’S” PASSENGERS AND BROUGHT THEM TO NEW YORK. THIS BOOK CONTAINS MANY THRILLING STORIES THAT WERE TOLD BY PASSENGERS WHILE ABOARD THIS RESCUE SHIP
º
WILLIAM T. STEAD OF LONDON, ENGLAND
EDITOR REVIEW OF REVIEWS, WHO STOOD BY CAPTAIN SMITH WHEN THE SHIP WAS SINKING AND WITHOUT TREPIDATION WENT TO A WATERY GRAVE
HUGE ICEBERG AS PHOTOGRAPHED ABOUT 100 MILES NORTH OF THE SCENE OF THE “TITANIC” DISASTER.
ISADORE STRAUS
THE NEW YORK MILLIONAIRE MERCHANT AND PHILANTHROPIST WHO LOST HIS LIFE ON THE GIANT TITANIC.
A TYPE OF MAGNIFICENT OCEAN GREY HOUND. THE STEAMSHIP “KAISERIN AUGUSTE VICTORIA” OF HAMBURG-AMERICAN LINE.
This steamer is 700 feet long, 77 feet wide and 54 feet deep. She has accommodations for 550 first-class passengers, 350 second-class, 300 third-class and 2300 steerage passengers, making altogether a floating city of 3500 population.
MAIN DINING ROOM, STEAMSHIP “KAISERIN AUGUSTE VICTORIA,” OF THE HAMBURG-AMERICAN LINE.
It has promenade decks, large cabins with lower berths only, grand combination suites of rooms, and in addition to the grand dining saloon a perfectly equipped restaurant. Small tables have been provided in place of the long tables that have for many years been in use on steamships.
SEEKING INFORMATION ABOUT LOST RELATIVES AND FRIENDS AT THE OFFICE OF THE STEAMSHIP COMPANY.
EFFECT OF THE MIRAGE AS SEEN AMONG THE ICE FLOES.
THE SINKING “TITANIC” CARRYING HUNDREDS OF SOULS TO WATERY GRAVES BEFORE THE EYES OF TERRIFIED SURVIVORS IN LIFEBOATS. THIS AWFUL TRAGEDY SENT A MAGNIFICENT SHIP THAT WAS CALLED “UNSINKABLE” TO THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN AFTER RUNNING INTO AN ICEBERG
COPYRIGHT BY UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD, N. Y.
THESE BRIGHT LITTLE FRENCH CHILDREN WERE RESCUED FROM THE “TITANIC;” MISS HAYS, HERSELF A SURVIVOR, IS TAKING CARE OF THEM. THEY WERE COMING TO AMERICA WITH THEIR FATHER, WHO WENT DOWN WITH THE SHIP
SINKING OF THE “TITANIC.” THERE WAS A MIGHTY ROAR WHEN THE SHIP WENT DOWN. THE BOW SANK FIRST, WITH STERN POISED IN THE AIR, WHEN SUDDENLY IT PLUNGED OUT OF SIGHT, CARRYING HUNDREDS OF SOULS TO ETERNITY
CHAPTER I.
FROM A DAY OF DELIGHT TO DEATH.
April 14, 1912, a Fateful Date—Lulled to False Security—Peaceful Sabbath Ends in Dire Disaster—Hopes Sink Beneath the Cruel and Treacherous Waves of the Atlantic—Man’s Proudest Craft Crumbles Like an Eggshell.
The hands of the ship’s clock pointed to 11.40. The beautiful day of April 14, 1912, rapidly was drawing to its close.
A solemn hush brooded over the ocean, the stillness broken only by the swish of the waters as they protested against being so rudely brushed aside by the mammoth creation of man. Then, too, the soft cadences of sacred music from the ship’s orchestra sent their strains dancing o’er the billows to mingle with the star beam and intensify rather than mar the stillness.
Above, the stars and planets twinkled and glittered as they beam only in the rarified atmosphere of the far northern latitudes.
The day had been one of rare beauty. A soft and caressing breeze had kissed the sea and rocked the waves in a harmonious symphony against the steel-ribbed sides of the world’s largest, greatest and most luxurious floating palace, the majestic Titanic, the newest addition to the trans-Atlantic fleet of the White Star Line of the International Navigation Company.
The star-sprinkled dome of heaven and the phosphorescent sea alike breathed forth peace, quiet and security.
Despite the lateness of the hour, aboard the Titanic all was animation. A few, to be sure, had wearied of Nature’s marvels and had sought their slumber, but the gorgeous quarters of the first cabin and the scarcely less pretentious sections set apart for second class passengers were alike teeming with life and light.
Meanwhile, as they had for days past, the mighty engines of this monster of the sea pulsed and throbbed, while the rhythmic beat of the Titanic’s great bronze-bladed propellors churned up a fast and steadily lengthening wake behind the speeded vessel.
“We’ll break the record today,” her officers laughed, and the passengers gleefully shared their mirth.
A record; a record!
And a record she made—but of death and destruction!
But who could know? And since no mortal could, why not eat, drink and be merry?
Britain’s shores had been left behind far back across the waste of waters. America, the land of hope, was almost in sight ahead.