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10 - Loss of the S. S. Titanic by Lawrence Beesley · Loss of the S. S. Titanic

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Speaker 1: Chapter nine of the Loss of the s S Titanic
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Speaker 1: by Lawrence Beasley. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain,
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Speaker 1: recorded by Alison Hester, Chapter nine, Some Impressions. No one
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Speaker 1: can pass through an event like the wreck of the
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Speaker 1: Titanic without recording mentally many impressions, deep and vivid of
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Speaker 1: what has been seen and felt. In so far as
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Speaker 1: such impressions are of benefit to mankind, they should not
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Speaker 1: be allowed to pass unnoticed. And this chapter is an
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Speaker 1: attempt to picture how people thought and felt from the
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Speaker 1: time they first heard of the disaster to the landing
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Speaker 1: in New York, when there was opportunity to judge of
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Speaker 1: events somewhat from a distance. While it is to some
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Speaker 1: extent a personal record, the mental impressions of other survivors
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Speaker 1: have been compared and found to be in many cases
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Speaker 1: closely in agreement. Naturally, it is very imperfect and pretends
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Speaker 1: to be no more than a sketch of the way
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Speaker 1: people act under the influence of strong emotions produced by
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Speaker 1: imminent danger. In the first place, the principal fact that
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Speaker 1: stands out is the almost entire absence of any expressions
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Speaker 1: of fear or alarm on the part of passengers, and
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Speaker 1: the conformity to the normal on the part of almost everyone.
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Speaker 1: I think it is no exaggeration to say that those
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Speaker 1: who read of the disaster quietly at home and picture
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Speaker 1: to themselves the scene as the Titanic was sinking had
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Speaker 1: more of the sense of horror than those who stood
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Speaker 1: on the deck and watched her go down inch by inch.
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Speaker 1: The fact is that the sense of fear came to
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Speaker 1: the passengers very slowly, a result of the absence of
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Speaker 1: any signs of danger and the peaceful night, And as
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Speaker 1: it became evident gradually that there was serious damage to
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Speaker 1: the ship, the fear that came with the knowledge was
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Speaker 1: largely destroyed as it came. There was no sudden, overwhelming
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Speaker 1: sense of danger that passed through thoughts so quickly that
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Speaker 1: it was difficult to catch up and grapple with it.
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Speaker 1: No need for the warning to be not afraid of
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Speaker 1: sudden fear such as might have been present had we
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Speaker 1: collided head on with a crash and a shock that
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Speaker 1: flung everyone out of his bunk to the floor. Everyone
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Speaker 1: had time to give each condition of danger attention as
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Speaker 1: it came along, and the result of their judgment was
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Speaker 1: as if they had said, well, here is this thing
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Speaker 1: to be faced, and we must see it through as
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Speaker 1: quietly as we can. Quietness and self control were undoubtedly
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Speaker 1: the two qualities most expressed. There were times when danger
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Speaker 1: loomed more nearly, and there was temporarily some excitement, for
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Speaker 1: example when the first rocket went up, But after the
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Speaker 1: first realization of what it meant, the crowd took hold
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Speaker 1: of the situation and soon gained the same quiet control
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Speaker 1: that was ever at first. As the sense of fear
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Speaker 1: ebbed and flowed, it was so obviously a thing within
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Speaker 1: one's own power to control that, quite unconsciously, realizing the
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Speaker 1: absolute necessity of keeping cool, everyone for his own safety
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Speaker 1: put away the thought of danger as far as was possible. Then, too,
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Speaker 1: the curious sense of the whole thing being a dream
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Speaker 1: was very prominent, that all were looking on at the
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Speaker 1: scene from a nearby vantage point, in a position of
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Speaker 1: perfect safety, and that those who walked the decks or
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Speaker 1: tied one another's life belts on were the actors and
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Speaker 1: a scene of which we were but spectators. That the
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Speaker 1: dream would end soon and we should wake up to
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Speaker 1: find the scene had vanished. Many people have had a
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Speaker 1: similar experience in times of danger, but it was very
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Speaker 1: noticeable standing on the Titanic's deck. I remember observing it,
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Speaker 1: particularly while tying on a line. I felt for a
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Speaker 1: man on the deck. It is fortunate that it should
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Speaker 1: be so. To be able to survey such a scene
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Speaker 1: dispassionately is a wonderful aid in the destruction of the
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Speaker 1: fear that go with it. One thing that helped considerably
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Speaker 1: to establish this orderly condition of affairs was the quietness
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Speaker 1: of the surroundings. It may seem weariness to refer again
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Speaker 1: to this, but I am convinced it had much to
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Speaker 1: do with keeping everyone calm. The ship was motionless, there
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Speaker 1: was not a breath of wind, The sky was clear,
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Speaker 1: the sea like a mill pond. The general atmosphere was peaceful,
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Speaker 1: and all on board responded unconsciously to it. But what
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Speaker 1: controlled the situation principally was the quality of obedience and
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Speaker 1: respect for authority, which is a dominant characteristic of the
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Speaker 1: Teutonic race. Passengers did as they were told by the
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Speaker 1: officers in charge. Women went to the deck below. Men
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Speaker 1: remained where they were told and waited in silence for
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Speaker 1: the next order, knowing instinctively that this was the only
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Speaker 1: way to bring about the best result for all on board.
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Speaker 1: The officers, in their turn, carried out the work assigned
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Speaker 1: to them by their superior officers as quickly and orderly
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Speaker 1: as circumstances permitted, the senior ones being in control of
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Speaker 1: the manning, filling, and lowering of the life boats, while
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Speaker 1: the junior officers were lowered in individual boats to take
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Speaker 1: command of the fleet adrift on the sea. Similarly, the
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Speaker 1: engineers below the band the gymnasium instructor were all performing
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Speaker 1: their tasks as they came along, orderly, quietly, without question
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Speaker 1: or stopping to consider what was their chance of safety.
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Speaker 1: This correlation on the part of passengers, officers and crew
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Speaker 1: was simply obedience to duty, and it was innate rather
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Speaker 1: than the product of reasons to gil judgment. I hope
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Speaker 1: it will not seem to detract in any way from
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Speaker 1: the heroism of those who faced the last plunge of
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Speaker 1: the Titanic so courageously when all the boats had gone.
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Speaker 1: If it does, it is the difficulty of expressing an
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Speaker 1: idea in adequate words to say, their quiet heroism was
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Speaker 1: largely unconscious, temperamental, not a definite choice between two ways
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Speaker 1: of acting. All that was visible on deck before the
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Speaker 1: boats left tended to this conclusion, and the testimony of
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Speaker 1: those who went down with the ship and were afterwards
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Speaker 1: rescued is of the same kind. Certainly, it seems to
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Speaker 1: express much more general nobility of character in a race
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Speaker 1: of people consisting of different nationalities to find heroism and
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Speaker 1: unconscious quality of the race, than to have it arising
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Speaker 1: as an effort of will to have to bring it
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Speaker 1: out consciously. It is unfortunate that some sections of the
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Speaker 1: press should seek to chronicle mainly the individual acts of heroism.
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Speaker 1: The collective behavior of a crowd is of so much
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Speaker 1: more importance to the world, and so much more a test.
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Speaker 1: If a test be wanted of how a race of
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Speaker 1: people behaves. The attempt to record the acts of individuals
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Speaker 1: leads apparently to such false reports as that of Major
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Speaker 1: Butt holding at bay with a revolver a crowd of
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Speaker 1: passengers and shooting them down as they tried to rush
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Speaker 1: the boats, or of Captain Smith shouting b British through
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Speaker 1: a megaphone and subsequently committing suicide along with First Officer Murdoch.
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Speaker 1: It is only a morbid sense of things that would
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Speaker 1: describe such incidents as heroic. Everyone knows that Major Butt
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Speaker 1: was a brave man, but his record of heroism would
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Speaker 1: not be enhanced if he, a trained army officer, were
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Speaker 1: compelled under orders from the cat to shoot down unarmed passengers.
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Speaker 1: It might, in other conditions have been necessary, but it
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Speaker 1: would not be heroic. Similarly, there could be nothing heroic
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Speaker 1: in Captain Smith or Murdoch putting an end to their lives.
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Speaker 1: It is conceivable men might be so overwhelmed by the
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Speaker 1: sense of disaster that they knew not how they were acting.
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Speaker 1: But to be really heroic would have been to stop
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Speaker 1: with the ship, as of course they did, with the
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Speaker 1: hope of being picked up along with passengers and crew,
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Speaker 1: and returning to face an inquiry and to give evidence
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Speaker 1: that would be of supreme value to the whole world
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Speaker 1: for the prevention of similar disasters. It was not possible,
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Speaker 1: but if heroism consists in doing the greatest good to
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Speaker 1: the greatest number, it would have been heroic for both
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Speaker 1: officers to expect to be saved. We do not know
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Speaker 1: what they thought, but I, for one, like to imagine
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Speaker 1: that they did so. Second Officer Letoler worked steadily at
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Speaker 1: the boats until the last possible moment went down with
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Speaker 1: the ship was saved in what seemed like a miraculous manner,
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Speaker 1: and returned to give valuable evidence before the commissions of
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Speaker 1: two countries. The second thing that stands out prominently in
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Speaker 1: the emotions produced by the disaster is that, in moments
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Speaker 1: of urgent need, men and women turned for help to
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Speaker 1: something entirely outside themselves. I remember reading some years ago
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Speaker 1: a story of an atheist who was the guest at
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Speaker 1: dinner of a regimental mess in India. The colonel listened
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Speaker 1: to his remarks on atheism in silence and invited him
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Speaker 1: for a drive. The following morning. He took his guests
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Speaker 1: up a rough mountain road in a light carriage drawn
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Speaker 1: by two ponies, and when some distance from the plain below,
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Speaker 1: turned the carriage round and allowed the ponies to run
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Speaker 1: away as it seemed downhill. In the terror of approaching disaster,
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Speaker 1: the atheist was lifted out of his reasoned convictions and
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Speaker 1: prayed aloud for help. When the colonel reigned in his ponies,
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Speaker 1: and with the remark that the whole drive had been
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Speaker 1: planned with the intention of proving to his guest that
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Speaker 1: there was a power outside his own reason, descended quietly
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Speaker 1: to level ground. The story may or may not be true,
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Speaker 1: and in any case is not introduced as an attack
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Speaker 1: on atheism, but it illustrates in a striking way the
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Speaker 1: frailty of dependence on a man's own power and resource
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Speaker 1: in imminent danger to those men standing on the top
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Speaker 1: deck with the boats all lowered, and still more so
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Speaker 1: when the boats had all left, there came the realization
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Speaker 1: that human resources were exhausted and human avenues of escape closed.
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Speaker 1: With it came the appeal to whatever consciousness each had,
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Speaker 1: of a power that had created the universe. After all,
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Speaker 1: some power had made the brilliant stars above countless millions
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Speaker 1: of miles away, moving in definite order, formed on a
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Speaker 1: definite plan, and obeying a definite law, had made each
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Speaker 1: one of the passengers with ability to think and act
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Speaker 1: with the best proof after all, of being created, the
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Speaker 1: knowledge of their own existence. And now, if at any time,
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Speaker 1: was the time to appeal to that power. When the
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Speaker 1: boats had left and it was seen the ship was
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Speaker 1: going down rapidly, men stood in groups on the deck,
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Speaker 1: engaged in prayer, and later, as some of them lay
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Speaker 1: on the overturned collapsible boat, they repeated together over and
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Speaker 1: over again, the Lord's prayer irrespective of religious beliefs, some
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Speaker 1: perhaps without religious beliefs, united in a common appeal for
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Speaker 1: deliverance from their surroundings. And this was not because it
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Speaker 1: was a habit, because they had learned this prayer at
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Speaker 1: their mother's knee. Men do not do such things through habit.
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Speaker 1: It must have been because each one saw removed the
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Speaker 1: thousand and one ways in which he had relied on
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Speaker 1: human material things to help him, including even dependence on
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Speaker 1: the overturned boat with its bubble of air inside which
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Speaker 1: any moment a rising swell might remove as it tilted
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Speaker 1: the boat too far sideways and sink below the surface.
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Speaker 1: Saul laid bare his utter dependence on something that had
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Speaker 1: made him and given him power to think, whether he
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Speaker 1: named it God or divine power, or first Cause or creator,
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Speaker 1: or named it not at all, but recognized it unconsciously
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Speaker 1: saw these things and expressed them in the form of
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Speaker 1: words he was best acquainted with in common with his
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Speaker 1: fellow man. He did so not through a sense of
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Speaker 1: duty to his particular religon, not because he had learned
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Speaker 1: the words, but because he recognized that it was the
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Speaker 1: most practical thing to do, the thing best fitted to
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Speaker 1: help him. Men do practical things in times like that.
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Speaker 1: They would not waste a moment on mere words if
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Speaker 1: those words were not an expression of the most intensely
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Speaker 1: real conviction of which they were capable. Again, like the
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Speaker 1: feeling of heroism, this appeal is innate and intuitive, and
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Speaker 1: it certainly has its foundation on a knowledge largely concealed
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Speaker 1: no doubt of immortality. I think this must be obvious.
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Speaker 1: There could be no other explanation of such a general
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Speaker 1: sinking of all the emotions of the human mind, expressed
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Speaker 1: in a thousand different ways by a thousand different people,
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Speaker 1: in favor of this single appeal. The behavior of people
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Speaker 1: during the hours in the lifeboats, the landing on the Carpathia,
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Speaker 1: the life there, and the landing in New York can
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Speaker 1: all be summarized by saying that people did not act
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Speaker 1: at all as they were expected to act, or rather
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Speaker 1: as most people expected they would act, and in some
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Speaker 1: cases have erroneously said they did act. Events were there
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Speaker 1: to be faced and not to crush people down. Situations
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Speaker 1: arose which demanded courage, resource, and in the cases of
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Speaker 1: those who had lost friends most dear to them enormous
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Speaker 1: self control, but very wonderfully they responded. There was the
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Speaker 1: same quiet demeanor and poise, the same inborn dominion over circumstances,
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Speaker 1: the same conformity to a normal standard, which characterized the
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Speaker 1: crowd of passengers on the deck of the Titanic, and
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Speaker 1: for the same reasons. The first two or three days
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Speaker 1: ashore were undoubtedly rather trying. To some of the survivors,
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Speaker 1: it seemed as if coming into the world again, the
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Speaker 1: four days shut off from any news seemed a long time,
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Speaker 1: and finding what a shock the disaster had produced. The
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Speaker 1: flags half masts, the staring headlines, the sense of gloom
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Speaker 1: noticeable everywhere, made things worse than they had been on
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Speaker 1: the Carpathia. The difference in atmosphere was very marked, and
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Speaker 1: people gave way to some extent under it, and felt
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Speaker 1: the reaction. Gratitude for their deliverance and a desire to
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Speaker 1: make the best of things must have helped soon, however,
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Speaker 1: to restore them to normal conditions. It is not at
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Speaker 1: all surprising that some of the survivors felt quieter on
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Speaker 1: the Carpathia, with its lack of news from the outside world.
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Speaker 1: If the following extract from a leading New York evening
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Speaker 1: paper was some of the material of which the atmosphere
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Speaker 1: on shore was composed quote. Stunned by the terrifa impact,
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Speaker 1: the dazed passengers rushed from their state rooms into the
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Speaker 1: main saloon amid the crash of splintering steel, rending of plates,
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Speaker 1: and shattering of girders, while the boom of falling pinnacles
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Speaker 1: of ice upon the broken deck of the great vessel
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Speaker 1: added to the horror. In a wild, ungovernable mob, they
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Speaker 1: poured out of the saloons to witness one of the
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Speaker 1: most appalling scenes possible to conceive. For one hundred feet
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Speaker 1: the bow was a shapeless mass of bent, broken and
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Speaker 1: splintered steel and iron and so on. Horror piled on horror,
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Speaker 1: and not a word of it true or remotely approaching
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Speaker 1: the truth. This paper was selling in the streets of
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Speaker 1: New York while the Carpathia was coming into dock, while
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Speaker 1: relatives of those on board were at the docks to
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Speaker 1: meet them and anxiously buying any paper that might contain news.
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Speaker 1: No one on the Carpathia could have supplied such information.
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Speaker 1: There was no one else in the world at that
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Speaker 1: moment who knew any details of the Titanic disaster and
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Speaker 1: the only possible conclusion is that the whole thing was
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Speaker 1: a deliberate fabrication to sell the paper. There is a
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Speaker 1: repetition of the same defect in human nature noticed in
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Speaker 1: the provision of safety appliances on board ship. The lack
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Speaker 1: of consideration for the other man. The remedy is the
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Speaker 1: same the law, it should be a criminal offense for
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Speaker 1: any one to disseminate deliberate falsehoods that cause fear and grief.
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Speaker 1: The moral responsibility of the press is very great, and
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Speaker 1: its duty of supplying the public with only clean, correct
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Speaker 1: news is correspondingly heavy. If the general public is not
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Speaker 1: yet prepared to go so far as to stop the
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Speaker 1: publication of such news by refusing to buy those papers
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Speaker 1: that publish it, then the law should be enlarged to
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Speaker 1: include such cases. Libel is an offense, and this is
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Speaker 1: very much worse than any libel ever could be. It
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Speaker 1: is only right to add that the majority of the
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Speaker 1: New York papers were careful only to report such news
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Speaker 1: as had been obtained legitimately from survivors or from Carpathia passengers.
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Speaker 1: It was sometimes exaggerated and sometimes not true at all,
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Speaker 1: but from the point of reporting what was heard most
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Speaker 1: of it was quite correct. One more thing must be
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Speaker 1: referred to the prevalence of superstitious beliefs concerning the Titanic.
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Speaker 1: I suppose no ship ever left port with so much
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Speaker 1: miserable nonsense showered on her. In the first place, there
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Speaker 1: is no doubt many people refused to sail on her
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Speaker 1: because it was her maiden voyage, and this apparently is
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Speaker 1: a common superstition. Even the clerk of the White Star
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Speaker 1: office where I purchased my ticket admitted it was a
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Speaker 1: reason that prevented people from safe. A number of people
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Speaker 1: have written to the press to say they had thought
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Speaker 1: of sailing on her, or had decided to sail on her,
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Speaker 1: but because of omens canceled the passage. Many referred to
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Speaker 1: the sister ship the Olympic pointed to the ill luck
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Speaker 1: they say that has dogged her her collision with the
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Speaker 1: Hawk and a second mishap necessitating repairs and a weight
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Speaker 1: in the harbor where passengers deserted her. They prophesied even
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Speaker 1: greater disaster for the Titanic, saying they would not dream
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Speaker 1: of traveling on the boat. Even some aboard were very
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Speaker 1: nervous in an undefined way. One lady said She had
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Speaker 1: never wished to take this boat, but her friends had
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Speaker 1: insisted and bought her a ticket, and she had not
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Speaker 1: a happy moment since a friend told me of the
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Speaker 1: voyage of the Olympic from Southampton after the weight in
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Speaker 1: harbor and said there was a sense of gloom pervading
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Speaker 1: the whole ship. The stewards and stewardess is even going
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Speaker 1: so far as to say it was a death ship.
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Speaker 1: This crew, by the way, was largely transferred to the Titanic.
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Speaker 1: The incident with the New York at Southampton, the appearance
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Speaker 1: of the stoker at Queenstown in the funnel combine with
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Speaker 1: all this to make a mass of nonsense in which
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Speaker 1: apparently sensible people believe, or which at any rate they discuss.
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Speaker 1: Correspondence is published with an official of the White Star
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Speaker 1: Line from someone imploring them not to name the new
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Speaker 1: ship Gigantic, because it seems like tempting fate. When the
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Speaker 1: Titanic has been sunk. It would seem almost as if
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Speaker 1: we were back in the Middle Ages, when witches were
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Speaker 1: burned because they kept black cats. There seems no more
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Speaker 1: reason why a black stoker should be an ill omen
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Speaker 1: for the Titanic than a black cat should be for
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Speaker 1: an old woman. The only reason for referring to these
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Speaker 1: foolish details is that a a prizingly large number of
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Speaker 1: people think there may be something in it. The effect
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Speaker 1: is this that if a ship's company and a number
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Speaker 1: of passengers get imbued with that undefined dread of the unknown,
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Speaker 1: the relics no doubt of the savagest fear of what
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Speaker 1: he does not understand. It has an unpleasant effect on
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Speaker 1: the harmonious working of the ship. The officers and crew
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Speaker 1: feel the depressing influence, and it may even spread so
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Speaker 1: far as to prevent them being as alert and keen
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Speaker 1: as they otherwise would. May even result in some duty
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Speaker 1: not being as well done as usual, Just as the
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Speaker 1: unconscious demand for speed and haste to get across the
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Speaker 1: Atlantic may have tempted captains to take a risk they
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Speaker 1: might otherwise not have done. So, these gloomy forebodings may
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Speaker 1: have more effect sometimes than we imagine. Only a little
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Speaker 1: thing is required sometimes to weigh down the balance for
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Speaker 1: and against a certain course of action. At the end
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Speaker 1: of this chapter of mental impressions, it must be recorded
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Speaker 1: that one impression remains constant with us all to day,
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Speaker 1: that of the deepest gratitude that we came safely through
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Speaker 1: the wreck of the Titanic, and its corollary that our
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Speaker 1: legacy from the wreck, our debt to those who were
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Speaker 1: lost with her, is to see, as far as in
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Speaker 1: us lies, that such things are impossible. Ever again, meanwhile,
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Speaker 1: we can say of them, as Shelley himself, the victim
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Speaker 1: of a similar disaster, says of his friend Keats in
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Speaker 1: ad one eye, peace, Peace, He is not dead. He
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Speaker 1: doth not sleep. He hath awakened from the dream of life.
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Speaker 1: He lives, he wakes tis death is dead. Not he
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Speaker 1: more not for adone eyes. The end end of Chapter
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Speaker 1: nine and end of the Loss of the s S.
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Speaker 1: Titanic