CERTIFICATE FOR THE DEAD.
The first body claimed and removed from the rink was that of John Jacob Astor. The certificate, the first issued for one of the Titanic dead, reads:
Name of deceased—John Jacob Astor. Sex—M. Age—47. Date of death—April 15, 1912. Residence, street, etc.—840 Fifth Av. N. Y. C. Occupation—Gentleman. Married. Cause—Accidental drowning. S. S. Titanic at sea. Length of illness—Suddenly. Name of physician in attendance.
Such details as these filled the day.
After the greater part of the Titanic’s dead had been shifted from the Mackay-Bennett to the pier, Captain Lardner descended to the dining saloon, and with the reporters from all over the country gathered around the table, he opened the ship’s log and, slowly tracing his fingers over the terse entries, he told them the story of the death ship’s voyage.
Lardner is English by birth and accent, and tall and square of build, with a full brown beard and eyes of unusual keenness.
“We left Halifax,” he began, “shortly after noon on Wednesday, April 17, but fog and bad weather delayed us on the run out, and we did not get there till Saturday night at 8 o’clock.
“We asked all ships to report to us if they passed any wreckage or bodies, and on Saturday at noon we received a communication from the German mailboat steamship Rhein to the effect that in latitude 42.1. N. longitude 49.13, she had passed wreckage and bodies.
“The course was shaped for that position. Later in the afternoon we spoke to the German steamship Bremen, and they reported having passed three large icebergs and some bodies in 42 N. 49.20 W.
“We arrived on the scene at 8 o’clock Saturday evening, and then we stopped and let the ship drift. It was in the middle of the watch that some of the wreckage and a few bodies were sighted.
“At daylight the boats were lowered, and though there was a heavy sea running at the time, fifty-one bodies were recovered.”
The Rev. Canon K. C. Hinds, rector of All Saints’ Cathedral, who officiated at the burial of 116 bodies, the greatest number consigned to the ocean at one time, tells the story of the Mackay-Bennett’s trip as follows: