Latest / Loss of the S. S. Titanic / 01 - Loss of the S. S. Titanic by Lawrence Beesley

Transcript

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

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Preface and Chapter one of the Loss of the S. S. Titanic,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Its Stories and Its Lessons by Lawrence Besley. This is
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Recorded by Alison Hester. The Loss of the S. S.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Titanic by Lawrence Beasley preface. The circumstances in which this
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: book came to be written are as follows. Some five
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: weeks after the survivors from the Titanic landed in New York,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: I was the guest at luncheon of Honorable Samuel J.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Elder and Honorable Charles T. Gallagher, both well known lawyers
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: in Boston. After luncheon, I was asked to relate to
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: those present the experiences of the survivors in leaving the
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Titanic and reach the Carpathia. When I had done so,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: mister Robert Lincoln O'Brien, the editor of the Boston Herald,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: urged me, as a matter of public interest, to write
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: a correct history of the Titanic disaster, his reason being
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: that he knew several publications were in preparation by people
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: who had not been present at the disaster, but from
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: newspaper accounts were piecing together a description of it. He
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: said that these publications would probably be erroneous, full of
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: highly colored details, and generally calculated to disturb public thought
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: on the matter. He was supported in his request by
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: all present, and under this general pressure I accompanied him
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: to Mesure's Hoton Mifflin Company, where we discussed the question
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: of publication. Mehsr's Houghton Mifflin Company took at that time
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: exactly the same view that I did, that it was
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: probably not advisable to put on record the incident connected
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: with the Titanic sinking. It seemed better to forget details
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: as rapidly as possible. However, we decided to take a
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: few days to think about it. At our next meeting,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: we found ourselves in agreement again, but this time on
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: the common ground that it would probably be a wise
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: thing to write a history of the Titanic disaster as
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: correctly as possible. I was supported in this decision by
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: the fact that a short account which I wrote at
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: intervals aboard the Carpathia, in the hope that it would
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: calm public opinion by stating the truth of what had
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: happened as nearly as I could recollect. It appeared in
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: all the American English and Colonial papers, and had exactly
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: the effect it was intended to have. This encourages me
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: to hope that the effect of this work will be
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: the same. Another matter aided me in coming to a decision.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: The duty that we, as survivors of the disaster owe
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: to those who went down with the ship to see
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: that the reforms so urgently needed are not allowed to
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: be forgotten. Whoever reads the account of the cries that
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: came to us afloat on the sea from those sinking
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: in the ice cold water, must remember that they were
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: addressed to him just as much as to those who
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: heard them, and that the duty of seeing that reforms
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: are carried out devolves on everyone who knows that such
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: cries were heard in utter helplessness the night the Titanic sank.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: End of preface, Chapter one, Construction and Preparations for the
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: First Voyage. The history of the RMS Titanic of the
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: White Star Line is one of the most tragically short.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: It is possible to conceive the world had waited expectantly
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: for its launching and again for its sailing, had read
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: accounts of its tremendous size and its unexampled completeness and luxury,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: had felt it a matter of the greatest satisfaction that
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: such a comfortable and above all, such a safe boat
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: had been designed and built, the unsinkable lifeboat, and then
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: in a moment to hear that it had gone to
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: the bottom, as if it had been the veriest tramp
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: steamer of a few hundred tons, and with it fifteen
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: hundred passengers, some of them known the world over. The
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: improbability of such a thing, ever happening was what staggered humanity.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: If its history had to be written in a single paragraph,
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: it would be somewhat as follows. The RMS Titanic was
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: built by Messrs Harland and Wolf at their well known
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: shipbuilding works at Queen's Island, Belfast, side by side with
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: her sister ship, the Olympic. The twin vessels marked such
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: an increase in size that specially laid out joiner and
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: boiler shops were prepared to aid in their construction, and
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: the space usually taken up by three building slips was
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: given to them. The keel of the Titanic was laid
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: on March thirty first, nineteen o nine, and she was
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: launched on May thirty first, nineteen eleven. She passed her
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: trials before the Board of Trade Officials on March thirty first,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: nineteen twelve. At Belfast. Arrived in Southampton on April fourth,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: and sailed the following Wednesday, April tenth, with two thousand,
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: two hundred eight passengers and crew on her maiden voyage
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: to New York. She called at Cherbourg the same day
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Queenstown Thursday, and left for New York in the afternoon,
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: expecting to arrive the following Wednesday morning, but the voyage
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: was never completed. She collised with an iceberg on Sunday
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: at eleven forty five pm in latitude forty one degrees
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: forty six north and longitude fifty degrees fourteen west, and
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: sank two and a half hours later. Eight hundred fifteen
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: of her passengers and six hundred eighty eight of her
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: crew were drowned and seven hundred five rescued by the Carpathia.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: Such as the record of the Titanic, the largest ship
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: the world had ever seen. She was three inches longer
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: than the Olympic and one thousand tons more in gross
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: tonnage and her end was the greatest maritime disaster known.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: The whole civilized world was stirred to its depths when
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: the full extent of loss of life was learned, and
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: it has not yet recovered from the shock, and that is,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: without doubt a good thing. It should not recover from
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: it until the possibility of such a disaster occurred. Ring
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: again has been utterly removed from human society, whether by
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: separate legislation in different countries or by international agreement. No
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: living person should seek to dwell in thought for one
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: moment on such a disaster, except in the endeavor to
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: glean from it knowledge that will be of profit to
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: the whole world in the future when such knowledge is
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: practically applied in the construction, equipment, and navigation of passenger steamers.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: And not until then will be the time to cease
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: to think of the Titanic disaster and of the hundreds
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: of men and women so needlessly sacrificed. A few words
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: on the ship's construction and equipment will be necessary in
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: order to make clear many points that arise in the
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: course of this book. A few figures have been added,
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: which it is hoped will help the reader to follow
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: events more closely than he otherwise could. The considered rations
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: that inspired the builders to design the Titanic on the
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: lines on which she was constructed were those of speed,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: weight of displacement, passenger and cargo accommodation. High speed is
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: very expensive because the initial cost of the necessary powerful
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: machinery is enormous, the running expenses and trail very heavy,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: and passenger and cargo accommodation have to be fined down
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: to make the resistance through the water as little as
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: possible and to keep the weight down. An increase in
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: size brings a builder at once into conflict with the
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: question of dock and harbor accommodation at the ports she
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: will touch. If her total displacement is very great, while
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: the lines are kept slender for speed, the draft limit
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: may be exceeded. The Titanic, therefore, was built on broader
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: lines than the ocean racers, increasing the total deals placement.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: But because of the broader build, she was able to
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: keep within the draft limit at each port she visited.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: At the same time, she was able to accommodate more
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: passengers and cargo, and thereby increased largely her earning capacity.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: The vessel when completed was eight hundred eighty three feet
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: long ninety two and one half feet broad. Her height
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: from keel to bridge was one hundred four feet. She
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: had eight steel decks, a cellular double bottom five and
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: one fourth feet through the inner and outer skins, so
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: called and with bilge keels projecting two feet for three
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: hundred feet of her length. Amid ships, These latter were
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: intended to lessen the tendency to roll in a sea.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: They no doubt did so very well, but as it happened,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: they proved to be a weakness. For this was the
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: th the first portion of the ship touched by the iceberg,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: and it has been suggested that the keels were forced
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: inwards by the collision and made the work of smashing
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: in the two skins a more simple matter, not that
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: the final result would have been any different. Her machinery
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: was an expression of the latest progress in marine engineering,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: being a combination of reciprocating engines with parsons low pressure
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: turbine engine, a combination which gives increased power with the
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: same steam consumption, an advance on the use of reciprocating
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: engines alone. The reciprocating engines drove the wing propellers and
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: the turbine amid propeller, making her a triple screw vessel.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: To drive these engines, she had twenty nine enormous boilers
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: and one hundred fifty nine furnaces. Three elliptical funnels twenty
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: four feet six inches in the way diameter took away
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: smoke and water gases. The fourth one was a dummy
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: for ventilation. She was fitted with sixteen lifeboats thirty feet long,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: swung on davits of the wheelan double acting type. These
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: davits are specially designed for dealing with two and were
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: necessary three sets of lifeboats i e. Forty eight altogether
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: more than enough to have saved every soul on board
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: on the night of the collision. She was divided into
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: sixteen compartments by fifteen transverse watertight bulkheads, reaching from the
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: double bottom to the upper deck in the forward end
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: and to the saloon deck in the after end, in
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: both cases well above the water line. Communication between the
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: engine rooms and boiler rooms was through watertight doors, which
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: could all be closed instantly from the captain's bridge. A
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: single switch controlling powerful electromagnets operated them. They could also
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: be closed by hand with a lever, and in case
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: the floor below them was flooded by accident, a float
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: underneath the flooring shut them automatically. These compartments were so
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: designed that if the two largest were flooded with water,
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: a most unlikely contingency in the ordinary way, the ship
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: would still be quite safe. Of course, more than two
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: were flooded the night of the collision, but exactly how
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: many is not yet thoroughly established. Her crew had a
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: complement of eight hundred sixty made up of four hundred
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: seventy five stewards, cooks, et cetera, three hundred twenty engineers,
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: and sixty five engaged in her navigation. The machinery and
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: equipment of the Titanic was the finest obtainable, and represented
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: the last war and marine construction. All her structure was
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: of steel, of a weight, size and thickness greater than
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: that of any ship yet known. The girders, beams, bulkheads
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: and floors all of exceptional strength. It would hardly seem
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: necessary to mention this were it not that there is
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: an impression among a portion of the general public that
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: the provision of Turkish baths, gymnasiums and others so called
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: luxuries involved a sacrifice of some more essential things, the
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: absence of which was responsible for the loss of so
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: many lives. But this is quite an erroneous impression. All
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: these things were an additional provision for the comfort and
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: convenience of passengers, and there is no more reason why
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: they should not be provided on these ships than in
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: a large hotel. There were places on the Titanic's deck
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: where more boats and rafts could have been stored without
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: sacrificing these things. Default lay in not providing them, not
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: in designing the ship without places to put them, on
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: whom the responsibility must rest for their not being provided
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: is another matter, and must be left until later. When
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: arranging a tour round the United States. I had decided
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: to cross in the Titanic for several reasons, one that
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: it was a rather novelty to be on board the
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: largest ship yet launched, and another that friends who had
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: crossed in the Olympic described her as a most comfortable
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: boat in a seaway, and it was reported that the
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: Titanic had been still further improved in this respect by
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: having one thousand tons more built in to steady her.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: I went on board at Southampton. At ten a m Wednesday,
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: April tenth, after staying the night in the town. It
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: is pathetic to recall that as I sat that morning
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: in the breakfast room of a hotel, from the windows
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: of which could be seen the four huge funnels of
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: the Titanic towering over the roofs of the various shipping
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: offices opposite, and the procession of stokers and stewards winding
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: their way to the ship. There sat behind me three
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: of the Titanic's passengers, discussing the coming voyage and estimating,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: among other things, the probabilities of an accident at sea
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: to the ship. As I rose from breakfast, I glanced
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: at the group and recognized them later on board, but
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: they were not among the number who answered to the
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: roll call on the Carpathia the following Monday morning. Between
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: the time of going on board and sailing, I inspected,
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: in the company of two friends who had come from
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: Exeter to see me off the various decks, dining saloons
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: and libraries, and so extensive were they that it is
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: there's no exaggeration to say it was quite easy to
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: lose one's way on such a ship. We wandered casually
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: into the gymnasium on the boat deck and were engaged
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: in bicycle exercise when the instructor came in with two
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: photographers and insisted on our remaining there while his friends,
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: as we thought at the time, made a record for
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: him of his apparatus in use. It was only later
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: that we discovered that they were the photographers of one
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: of the illustrated London papers. More passengers came in, and
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: the instructor ran here and there, looking the very picture
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: of robust, rosy cheeked health and fitness in his white flannels,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: placing one passenger on the electric horse, another on the camel,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: while the laughing group of onlookers watched the inexperienced riders
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: vigorously shaken up and down as he controlled the little
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: motor which made the machines imitate so realistically horse and
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: camel exercise. It is related that on the night of
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: the disaster, right up to the time before the Titanic sinking,
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: while the band grouped outside the gymnasium doors, played with
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: such supreme courage in face of the water which rose
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: foot by foot before their eyes. The instructor was on
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: duty inside with passengers on the bicycles and the rowing machines,
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: still assisting and encouraging to the last, along with the
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: band's men. It is fitting that his name, which I
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: do not think has yet been put on record, it
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: is Macaulay, should have a place in the honorable list
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: of those who did their duty faithfully to the ship
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: and the line they served. End of Chapter one,