Voices from the Titanic (40 page)
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Authors: Geoff Tibballs
Mr Franklin admitted that he had received during the day personal messages from J. Bruce Ismay, managing director of White Star Line. It was learnt that one of these messages dealt with the engaging of rooms at the Ritz-Carlton for Mr and Mrs Ismay. Mr Franklin said that he was sure Mr Ismay was under the deepest distress because of the disaster, but he denied a rumour that Mr Ismay was mentally unbalanced.
âWe will know nothing till the ship docks,' said Mr Franklin, âconcerning the condition of her passengers. As a precautionary measure we have ordered several ambulances and we have also retained physicians and taken all other measures for the relief of any sick, injured or destitute aboard the
Carpathia
. There must be some, but we have no specific news of any.
âThe White Star Line,' added Mr Franklin, âfinds itself in a very unpleasant situation owing to what we consider unfair and unjust criticism. We have given the Press every atom of information we have been able to get just as soon as we could get it. Yet we are constantly accused of holding back important news. We are doing all we can to relieve the situation. Yet one would think to read the papers, that we are acting in a cruel and high-handed manner towards the survivors.
âI wish to say that the White Star Line, so far from trying to escape any government inquiry, courts and solicits such an inquiry by both the US and British governments. These inquiries cannot be too broad for us, and if they result in the adoption of any measures calculated to prevent the recurrence of such a disaster as the
Titanic
's loss the White Star Line will be only too thankful that such has been the outcome.
âMr Ismay will not shirk his duty, nor will any other officer at the company. All the information the Senate committee seeks will be cheerfully afforded and we will co-operate in every way with the committee.'
A report was current that J. P. Morgan had intended to return to New York on the
Titanic
's maiden trip, but had changed his mind some weeks ago. Henry C. Frick and Mrs Frick had engaged state rooms but owing to an accident to Mrs Frick in Europe the state rooms were transferred to Mr Morgan, who later cancelled the engagement, so ran the report. The story could not be verified at the White Star offices.
(
New York World
, 19 April 1912)
A clear statement on the number of boats and life-saving appliances carried by the
Titanic
was made yesterday in the House of Commons by the President of the Board of Trade in answer to questions.
âComing to the actual facts of the case,' said Mr Buxton, âthe present rule of the Board of Trade with regard to shipping of 10,000 tons and upwards requires a minimum boat accommodation of 9,625 cubic feet (that is, sixteen boats under davits with a capacity of 5,500 cubic feet and an addition of 75 per cent, in the shape of other boats, rafts, etc). This would provide for about 960 persons.
âThe
Titanic
actually carried sixteen boats under davits, with accommodation for 990 persons, and four Engelhardt boats accommodating 188 persons in addition. That is, altogether, accommodation for 1,178 persons. Besides these, there were 48 lifebuoys and 3,560 lifebelts.
âThe total number of passengers and crew which the vessel was certified to carry was 3,547, and on the recent voyage the actual number on board when the vessel left Queenstown was 2,208.'
Mr Buxton began his statement by explaining that the Board of Trade were empowered by Sec. 427 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, to make rules for life-saving appliances on British ships, and Sec. 428 required owner and master to give effect to the rules.
The rules now in force were originally drawn up in 1890, and revised in 1894 and subsequently, and prescribed a scale indicating the minimum number of boats to be provided in accordance with the gross tonnage of the ship.
The highest provision made in this scale was for vessels of 10,000 tons and upwards. In view of the increased size of modern passenger steamers the Board of Trade early last year referred to the Advisory Committee on Merchant Shipping the question of the revision of the rules, and in particular the provision to be made in the case of steamers of very large size.
After considering this report, together with the views of their expert advisers, the Board of Trade were not satisfied that the increased provision recommended by the Advisory Committee was altogether adequate. After additional investigations and tests in regard to the best type and proportions of lifeboats, the Board within the last few days referred the question back to the Committee for further examination.
He did not desire to forecast in any way the result of the inquiry which would be held into the loss of the
Titanic
, or any modification of policy that might be necessitated by the finding of that inquiry or by the new situation created by the present disaster. He wished the House, however, to understand quite clearly that up to the present it had never been the intention of the Board of Trade regulations, and so far as he knew it had not been suggested by any responsible expert authority, that every vessel, however large and however well equipped as regarded watertight compartments, should necessarily carry lifeboats adequate to accommodate all on board.
(
Daily Graphic
, 19 April 1912)
Touching Message From The Wife Of The Captain
The following message from Mrs E. J. Smith, widow of Captain Smith, was posted at Southampton yesterday afternoon.
âTo my poor fellow sufferers: My heart overflows with grief for you all, and is laden with sorrow that you are weighed down with this terrible burden that has been thrust upon us.
âMay God be with us and comfort us all. â Yours in deep sympathy, Eleanor Smith.'
(
Daily Graphic
, 19 April 1912)
Friends of Steerage Survivors Learn Record Was Not Kept
Another drama of sorrow, rage and despair was enacted around the Cunard dock yesterday, where Thursday night the pier groaned beneath the weight of grief and joy when the rescue ship
Carpathia
brought
Titanic
survivors to land.
It was the relatives and friends of the steerage passengers of the wrecked liner who haunted the pier yesterday. The night previous while loved ones of those on the first and second cabin list of the
Titanic
were given passes to the pier and permitted to strain their hearts for those succoured from the leviathan that was, a pitiful crowd of poorly dressed men, women and children from the East Side pleaded and stormed behind police lines for the same privilege. They were denied access to the pier. Those whom they sought to see were hurried off to hospitals, Salvation Army homes, the Municipal Lodging House, and missions. Not a glimpse did they get of anxious loved ones.
When the last of the survivors had been taken off and the pier was cleared, this crowd of the disappointed invaded the dock. Then it was that officials remembered that in the hurry and excitement of the landing no record had been kept of where the steer-age passengers were sent. Grief-stricken men and women poured out their hearts in protestation and appeal, but officials could give them no news of their loved ones.
The arrival of the
Carpathia
with the survivors of the
Titanic
disaster did not diminish the crowds of anxious-faced persons at the White Star offices in Bowling Green yesterday.
Many went there refusing to believe that the published lists of survivors were complete and hoping to find that relatives and friends might by chance have been on the rescue ship.
(
New York Call
, 20 April 1912)
TITANIC
'S STEERAGE
While great physical suffering was endured by all of the survivors of the
Titanic
, the most acute privation fell to the lot of the steerage passengers, many of whom lost not only husbands, fathers, children and relatives but all their worldly belongings, to be thrust penniless upon a foreign shore. That much of the misery inflicted upon the poor third-class passengers was preventable was made apparent by the stories told by the steerage survivors landed by the
Carpathia
.
Of the thrilling stories of the disaster one had a happy ending. It was told by Mrs Leah Aks, who is on her way to Norfolk, Virginia, with her eight-month-old baby, Philip, to join her husband, Samuel Aks, a tailor. The father has never seen the baby.
Mrs Aks says that when the alarm was given she ran into her room to arouse other women sleeping there and to get her baby. Carrying her child wrapped in a shawl, she tried to make her way up the stairs leading to the boat deck, but the jam of struggling humanity was too great for her to get past. Four sailors who saw her told her they would lift her and the baby to the boat deck from the outside. One of the sailors climbed the rail and swung himself to the deck above, and the other three formed a human ladder, passing the woman and her child from one level to another.
Nadji Narsani, an Armenian peasant, died with the
Titanic
. Maria Narsani, his widow, is about to become a mother.
No greater in death was John Jacob Astor than Nadji Narsani, who kissed his wife, placed her in the small boat and said: âMaria, perhaps we may never meet again: but some day you tell our child how I died.'
Perhaps the master of millions and the peasant stood together at the rail as the sea carried off their hopes and loves, but that chapter in the
Titanic
tragedy will never be written, the story of just what happened when the small boats floated off and left millionaire and peasant, savant and deckhand to wait for death.
When Maria Narsani stepped off the steerage gangway of the
Carpathia
she was at once the ward of charity.
The jewels, a king's ransom, of Madeline Force Astor, went down with the ship, but Maria Narsani lost everything she had in the world, the linens she had made against the day of her marriage, and Nadji had saved up $100 in addition to the price of the steamship tickets, and this, too, was lost.
C. M. Hays, president of the Grand Trunk Line, and Jim Hawkins perished. Six months ago old man Hawkins died in Ireland and left his son and widow a little farm and a home. They sold these and mother and son started for America. They were going to the northwest. Jim was to work as a farmhand.
âAnd we were going to have a farm ourselves some day,' said his mother. âJim was a strapping boy. He could have been saved, but he gave his place to a lady.'
(
New York Call
, 20 April 1912)
Some of the survivors' accounts as reported in the jingoistic American press were wildly inaccurate. Blaming Britain for the loss of so many American passengers, newspapers revelled in the opportunity to depict the British officers as little more than callous murderers. A typical story was that attributed to
Ellen Shine
, a twenty-year-old steerage passenger from Cork in Ireland who had been on her way to visit her brother in New York.
Those who were able to get out of bed went to the upper decks, where they were met by the members of the crew, and first and second class passengers, who endeavoured to keep them in the steerage quarters. However, the women rushed by the officers and crew, knocking them down, and finally reached the upper decks. There the women, when they saw the excitement and when informed that the boat was sinking, got down on their knees and started to pray.
I saw one of the lifeboats and made for it. In it were four men from steerage. They were ordered out by an officer and they refused to leave. Then one of the officers jumped into the boat and, drawing a revolver, shot them dead. Their bodies were picked out from the bottom of the boat and thrown into the water. In this boat there were about forty women and men, and we were drifting about for more than four hours before we were picked up.
(
New York Call
, 20 April 1912)
The âUnsinkable'
Molly Brown
's reported story also had a number of holes in it.
A story shockingly brutal in contrast with the tales of heroism and sacrifice that have come from the
Titanic
disaster was told by Mrs J. J. Brown of Denver, Colorado, one of the survivors who is stopping at the Ritz-Carlton.
Col. Astor and Isidor Straus and Mrs Straus would have been saved had it not been for the officers in command of the first lifeboat, Mrs Brown declares. In addition to this, she accused the officer of having made Mrs Astor row the lifeboat for two hours and also says she was compelled to handle the oars for four hours herself.
âWe'll teach these rich Yankee wives we're running things,' the officer sneered, she says, when the women in the boat pleaded with him to save a man who was drowning close to the boat, and he refused. Mrs Brown's story follows:
I was in one of the lifeboats â the first to be made ready â when Col. Astor and his wife came out. The colonel helped Mrs Astor in the boat, then got in himself, as there was plenty of room. âGet out!' shouted the officer. âAll right, sir,' Col. Astor replied politely. And he got out of the boat.
Col. Astor was very nice about it. He told the officer there was plenty of room in the boat, and he would like to be with his wife, if possible, because she was ill. Then he lit a cigarette he had taken from his pocket and walked into the saloon. That was the last I saw of him.
It was only a minute or so later when almost the same scene was repeated, Mrs Brown said:
Mr and Mrs Straus came out of the saloon, and both took seats in the boat, in which there was still plenty of room. âGet out of this boat: it's for the women,' the officer said. All the ladies in the boat protested that Mr Straus should remain. They pointed to the empty seats.
Mr Straus, however, said of course he would get out and did so. It was then that Mrs Straus, saying that she would not leave his side, started to follow him out of the boat, despite his protests. He begged her to retain her seat, saying he would get in another boat.
âNo, if you get out I will follow you,' Mrs Straus said, and clambered out of the boat. The ladies again protested to the officer, who was firm in his refusal to allow Mr Straus in the boat. Mrs Straus walked away with her husband clinging to her. After the
Titanic
had sunk, the officer started to bulldoze the women, Mrs Brown says, and commanded them to man the oars.
âI rowed until my arms ached as though they would fall off,' she continued. âIt must have been fully four hours. Mrs Astor was compelled to row, too. She was rowing about half as long as I was.'
There was ample room in the lifeboats for all the first and second cabin passengers, Mrs Brown declares. She saw several leave the ship with plenty of room in them.
