8 The Guardian, Charlottetown, Mon. April 16, 1962.

Sea Tragedy Anniversary :

Recalls Ending Of An Era

By CAROL KENNEDY LONDON (CP) “They're breaking all records this time,” said the people of Southamnton that Wednesday morning in the spring of 1912. All eyes were drawn to the four huge funnels of the new White Star ‘mer towering above the rooftops She was the largest. fastest and most glamorous ship in the world. At noon she would sai! on her maiden voyage to New York

Small boys whose parents took them down to the dockside were to remember April 10, 1912, for the rest of their lives, and re- member the stunned breakfast tables six days later when noth- Ing would ever seem quite as safe or secure again

The Titanic had cost £2,000.- 000 to build. Already legends were growing around her. Though only 1,004 tons bigger than her 45,324-ton sister the Olympic, she gave the impres- sion of being twice as huge, twice as soli COULDN’T SINK

She was 11 storeys high and a sixth of a mile long. A Te- porter on the quay wrote: ‘It was like standing the wall of

St. Paul's Cathedra d she was Oe Not only ae travel brochures, but

even such sober technical jour- nals as the Shipbuilder said so. By moving an electric switch the captain could instantly close 15 bulkheads and divide the hull into a. honeycomb of watertight compartments The ship could vy as four of

ed Pride in the ran high,

“unsinkable ship"’ from ramrod, white-

inlaid with mother

bearded Capt. Edward J. Smith, commodore of the White Star fleet, down to the deckhand who told a woman (passenger:

“Lady, God Himself could not sink this ship.’

Some travellers may have felt a twinge of uneasiness about all the ballyhoo. There was a spate of last-minute cancellations and the first-class passenger list was less than half full.

But it was an impressive list, worth some $250,000,000. There was New York millionaire Jobn Jacob Astor and his wife return- ing from a European vacation; the British editor W. T. Stead; J. Bruce Ismay, chairman of the White Star Line, and Montreal magnate Charles M. Hays, president of the Grand Trunk Railroad.

SUITE FOR £850

Their accommodation afloat was more sumptuous than any London hotel.

he Georgian smoke - room was panelled in mahogany and inlai of pearl. There was a restaurant, run by Gatti’s of London, lined ceiling to rose-pink carpet in French figured walnut and hung with crystal chandeliers. A Turkish bath gleamed with mosaic, teak and antique bronze. There was

open - air Cafe Parisien wreathed in trailing ivy, a swimming pool — rare for the

period—and two £850 suites with their own private stretch of promenade deck.

But in all the new liner’s costly equipment, two ihings had been overlooked. The liook- out men had no binoculars. And under a set of antiquated board of trade rules, the 20 lifeboats

could carry only 1,178 people— a third of the liner’s total capac- ity

‘When the Titanic sailed for

sengers ;

She nearly didn’t leave South- ampton at all that April day. As she edged away from the quay the suction from her triple screws tore another steamer rom its moorings and swung it within yards of a collision. SIDE RIPPED OPEN

was a sensational the most sensational voyage of all time.

On the fifth night out, Sunday, April 14, the Titanic was racing at 22% knots across a sea that looked like plate glass in the brilliant starlight

Within three hours the tem-

perature had dropped 11 ae to freezing point. Look- out Frederick Fleet was on the alert for icebergs. But without binoculars he saw the black shape ahead just 15 seconds too late for the ship to swing aside.

At 11:40 the iceberg shaved along the starboard side with a sound like tearing calico and five of the 16 watertight compartments lay open to the

start to maiden

sea Two hours and 40 minutes later the ‘‘unsinkable’’ Titanic went down, taking with her a

cargo insured for £1,250,000 and 1,502 lives.

It was the worst sea disaster in history—and the that need never have _ happened. the papers called the

“lifeboat scandar’ was bad enough, but when the full story came out it revealed a chain of almost unbelievable human er-

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vers buflt on a blind faith in may

logy. ROCKETS IGNORED

The ice warnings that were tossed aside because the Mar- coni operator was too busy sead-

g greeting cables; the dis- ee rockets another ship saw but ignored; the way boats were put off half empty — all were partly due to the apparent in- ability of anyone to believe the Titanie could sink.

Etlitors found it so hard to be- lieve that the first news flashes got incredibly garbled. A ship- ping office in Montreal was the first to hear from one of its liners that the Titanic was cal- ling for

The first stories to hit New York and London papers re- ported the liner being towed a crippled wreck to Halifax with

all her passengers rescue one of the unluckiest gambles in Fleet Street history, The Daily Express added: “Only the Ti- tanic’s watertight bulkheads prevented the most appalling catastrophe of modern times.”

n New York, crowds besieged the White Star offices on lower Broadway, but 0 ere what happening.

knew was

Twelve hours after the Titanic |

went down, special trains were still being chartered to meet her | at Halifax STUNNED WORLD

It took until April 18, the 705 survivors reached New

York on the Cunard liner Carp. |

athia, for the full story e filter through to a stunned w Newspapers brought = ‘one special edition after another as the details became known. The Illustrated London News Daily Graphic edged In Memoriam numbers. King George V, President Taft of the United States and acting prime minister George Foster of Canada sent mies- sages of sympathy to the White Star Line. Its chairman had survived the wreck, but he was soon the victim of a public that

seemed to think he should have

gone down with his flagship. Is-

In |

| when

and | issued black- |

retired the following year | the final list of lost and saved | safer and eventually died in obscurity | went up the death rate was in Ireland, a broken man. higher for Third- assy children | In London, the much-heralded | than First-Class 1912 social season opened under But a pall of national mourning. So- with a theatrical flourish that | hymn ciety ladies cancelled balls and tone the volunteered to help the Lord | Mayor’s fund for the bereaved. Peto mining

millionaire | Thee. At the memorial service held im | Ben Guggenheim and his valet And then the unearthly roar

boat. the ‘ } out ragtime until atic suai went down | moment when they broke into a

here than in that little (‘—

t band money tae! = the the dram on the

just before the end, | were

b world’s imagination. | thought by most who heard it | cableship Mackay Bennett, ho could forget the picture of | to have been Nearer My God to | cluding those of Astor and C. M. Hays

The a - ~ ee — -

St. Paul’s April 19, the Titanic’s | standing on deck in full evening | of boilers exploding and furni- | off dr Car.

designer, Alexander dress declarin lisle, acmroet or shock, END OF AN ER ared to go down like gentle- | stars

pa eekeas could have nanan men.’ They did. | from how far the shock-waves of tha’ April week would reach Edi SENT FIRST S torials of the time saw the sink- | Or the scene in the Marcont |

g: “We have | ture crashing loose as the huge | pinned = un wat a i r ‘ a teen ones in our best and are pre-| ship stood on end against the -promin

Tm slowly saat

Inevitably, the eye - witness | fiiones Irish |accounts left tantalizing gaps.

happened first officer, who was e | rumored

sengers. ae. wale h Lord in his book |

(Continued on page 9) }

survivors to Capt. et to have a himselt bridge. rought to

milder finer better

A by the in-

In fact,

ght to Remember, it was a | lad from the

ing of the Titanic as a shatter- | T0om where young Jack Phillips | ing lesson in humility, but the | Stayed tapping at his set until disaster was to echo down five | the sea swirled in the

decades as something more— | lights went out. He was the first the end of a emu and settled | oh — the new distess call that era in social histo b _ z i, nee nnn: a The curtain ee to go ome CONPREUS down on a whole way of fiving | i= Bride. “It er be your last that — night. Much of it | “"4nce to send 4 i was privileged, arrogant and The survivors ee drifted for riddled “with prejudices that van- four hours in the icy sea had |ished with it. Never again on aa vivid tale to tell reporters in | sinking ship st a stew Ae York. The scene has slam a door marked First Class haunted ees and movie- Only in the face of steerage | Makers ever sinc passengers rushing to the beat| The boats sce tl around the eck, brightly lit liner, sagging at the Th e night was hailed as a/| bows but still so Serrenns triumph for the code of ‘‘women | that J. J, Astor called out con- | and children first’’—yet when | fidently from the rails: owe are

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