Latest / Loss of the S. S. Titanic / 02 - Loss of the S. S. Titanic by Lawrence Beesley

Transcript

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

0:00
Speaker 1: Chapter two of the Loss of the Titanic by Lawrence Beasley.
0:05
Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, recorded by
0:09
Speaker 1: Alison Hester chapter two from Southampton to the night of
0:14
Speaker 1: the collision. Soon after noon, the whistles blew for friends
0:20
Speaker 1: to go ashore, The gangways were withdrawn, and the Titanic
0:25
Speaker 1: moved slowly down the dock to the accompaniment of last
0:29
Speaker 1: messages and shouted farewells of those on the key. There
0:34
Speaker 1: was no cheering or hooting of steamer's whistles from the
0:37
Speaker 1: fleet of ships that lined the dock, as might seem
0:40
Speaker 1: probable on the occasion of the largest vessel in the
0:43
Speaker 1: world putting to sea on her maiden voyage. The whole
0:47
Speaker 1: scene was quiet and rather ordinary, with little of the
0:51
Speaker 1: picturesque and interesting ceremonial which imagination paints as usual in
0:57
Speaker 1: such circumstances. But if this was two unexpected dramatic incidents
1:03
Speaker 1: supplied a thrill of excitement and interest to the departure
1:07
Speaker 1: from doc The first of these occurred just before the
1:11
Speaker 1: last gangway was withdrawn. A knot of stokers ran along
1:16
Speaker 1: the key with their kits slung over their shoulders in bundles,
1:20
Speaker 1: and made for the gangway with the evident intention of
1:23
Speaker 1: joining the ship, but a petty officer guarding the shore
1:28
Speaker 1: end of the gangway firmly refused to allow them on board.
1:32
Speaker 1: They argued, gesticulated, apparently attempting to explain the reasons why
1:37
Speaker 1: they were late, but he remained obdurate and waved them
1:41
Speaker 1: back with a determined hand. The gangway was dragged back
1:45
Speaker 1: amid their protests, putting a summary ending to their determined
1:50
Speaker 1: efforts to join the Titanic. Those stokers must be thankful
1:55
Speaker 1: men today that some circumstance, whether their own lack of
1:59
Speaker 1: punctuality or some unforeseen delay over which they had no control,
2:04
Speaker 1: prevented their being in time to run up that last gangway.
2:09
Speaker 1: They will have told, and will no doubt tell for years,
2:13
Speaker 1: the story of how their lives were probably saved by
2:16
Speaker 1: being too late to join the Titanic. The second incident
2:21
Speaker 1: occurred soon afterwards, and while it has no doubt been
2:24
Speaker 1: thoroughly described at the time by those on shore, perhaps
2:28
Speaker 1: a view of the occurrence from the deck of the
2:30
Speaker 1: Titanic will not be without interest. As the Titanic moved
2:35
Speaker 1: majestically down the dock, the crowd of friends keeping pace
2:40
Speaker 1: with us along the quay, we came together level with
2:43
Speaker 1: the steamer New York, lying moored to the side of
2:47
Speaker 1: the dock along with the Oceanic, the crowd waving good
2:51
Speaker 1: byes to those on board as well as they could
2:54
Speaker 1: for the intervening bulk of the two ships. But as
2:57
Speaker 1: the bowels of our ship came about life level with
3:00
Speaker 1: those of the New York, there came a series of
3:03
Speaker 1: reports like those of a revolver, and on the key
3:07
Speaker 1: side of the New York, snaky coils of thick rope
3:11
Speaker 1: flung themselves high in the air and fell backwards among
3:14
Speaker 1: the crowd, which retreated in alarm to escape the flying ropes.
3:19
Speaker 1: We hoped that no one was struck by the ropes,
3:22
Speaker 1: but a sailor next to me was certain he saw
3:25
Speaker 1: a woman carried away to receive attention. And then, to
3:29
Speaker 1: our amazement, the New York crept towards us, slowly and stealthily,
3:35
Speaker 1: as if drawn by some invisible force which she was
3:39
Speaker 1: powerless to withstand. It reminded me instantly of an experiment
3:44
Speaker 1: I had shown many times to a form of boys
3:47
Speaker 1: learning the elements of physics, and a laboratory in which
3:50
Speaker 1: a small magnet is made to float on a cork
3:54
Speaker 1: and a bowl of water, and small stiel objects placed
3:58
Speaker 1: on neighboring pieces of cork are drawn up to the
4:01
Speaker 1: floating magnet by magnetic force. It reminded me too of
4:06
Speaker 1: seeing in my little boy's bath how a large celluloid
4:10
Speaker 1: floating duck would draw towards itself by what is called
4:15
Speaker 1: capillary attraction smaller ducks, frogs, beetles, and other animal folk,
4:21
Speaker 1: until the menagerie floated about as a unit, oblivious of
4:25
Speaker 1: their natural antipathies, and reminding us of the happy families
4:30
Speaker 1: one seas in cages and on the seashore. On the
4:34
Speaker 1: New York there was shouting of orders, sailors running to
4:38
Speaker 1: and fro paying out ropes, and putting mats over the
4:42
Speaker 1: side where it seemed likely we should collide. The tug,
4:46
Speaker 1: which had a few moments before cast off from the
4:49
Speaker 1: bowels of the Titanic, came up around our stern and
4:53
Speaker 1: passed to the key side of the New York's stern
4:56
Speaker 1: made fast to her and started to haul her back
4:59
Speaker 1: with with all the force her engines were capable of.
5:03
Speaker 1: But it did not seem that the tug made much
5:05
Speaker 1: impression on the New York. Apart from the serious nature
5:09
Speaker 1: of the accident, it made an irresistibly comic picture to
5:13
Speaker 1: see the huge vessel drifting down the dock with a
5:16
Speaker 1: snorting tug at its heels for all the world like
5:20
Speaker 1: a small boy dragging a diminutive puppy down the road,
5:24
Speaker 1: with its teeth locked on a piece of rope, its
5:27
Speaker 1: feet splayed out, its head and body shaking from side
5:30
Speaker 1: to side in the effort to get every ounce of
5:33
Speaker 1: its weight used to the best advantage. At first, all
5:38
Speaker 1: appearance showed that the sterns of the two vessels would collide,
5:42
Speaker 1: but from the stern bridge of the Titanic, an officer
5:46
Speaker 1: directing operations stopped us dead. The suction ceased, and the
5:51
Speaker 1: New York, with her tug trailing behind, moved obliquely down
5:56
Speaker 1: the dock, her stern gliding along the side of the
5:59
Speaker 1: Titanic some few yards away. It gave an extraordinary impression
6:04
Speaker 1: of the absolute helplessness of a big liner in the
6:08
Speaker 1: absence of any motive power to guide her. But all
6:12
Speaker 1: excitement was not yet over. The New York turned her
6:16
Speaker 1: bows inward towards the key, her sterns swinging just clear
6:20
Speaker 1: of and passing in front of our bows, and moved
6:24
Speaker 1: slowly head on for the Teutonic, lying moored to the side.
6:29
Speaker 1: Matts were quickly got out and so deadened the force
6:33
Speaker 1: of the collision, which from where we were seemed to
6:36
Speaker 1: be too slight to cause any damage. Another tug came
6:41
Speaker 1: up and took hold of the New York by the bows,
6:44
Speaker 1: and between the two of them they dragged her round
6:47
Speaker 1: the corner of the Key, which just here came to
6:50
Speaker 1: an end on the side of the river. We now
6:53
Speaker 1: moved slowly ahead and passed the Teutonic at a creeping pace,
6:59
Speaker 1: But notwithstanding this, the latter strained at her ropes so
7:04
Speaker 1: much that she healed over several degrees in her effort
7:07
Speaker 1: to follow the Titanic. The crowd were shouted back. A
7:12
Speaker 1: group of gold braided officials, probably the harbor master and
7:16
Speaker 1: his staff, standing on the sea side of the moored ropes,
7:20
Speaker 1: jumped back over them as they drew up taunt to
7:23
Speaker 1: a rigid line, and urged the crowd back still farther,
7:28
Speaker 1: but we were just clear, and as we slowly turned
7:31
Speaker 1: the corner into the river, I saw the Teutonic swing
7:35
Speaker 1: slowly back into her normal station, relieving the tension alike
7:40
Speaker 1: of the ropes and of the minds of all who
7:43
Speaker 1: witnessed the incident. Unpleasant as this incident was, it was
7:48
Speaker 1: interesting to all the passengers leaning over the rails to
7:52
Speaker 1: see the means adopted by the officers and crew of
7:55
Speaker 1: the various vessels to avoid collision. To see on the
7:59
Speaker 1: tight Titanic's docking bridge at the stern an officer and
8:03
Speaker 1: seaman telephoning and ringing bells, hauling up and down little
8:08
Speaker 1: red and white flags as danger of collision alternately threatened
8:13
Speaker 1: and diminished. No one was more interested than a young
8:17
Speaker 1: American kinematograph photographer, who, with his wife, followed the whole
8:22
Speaker 1: scene with eager eyes, turning the handle of his camera
8:26
Speaker 1: with the most evident pleasure as he recorded the unexpected
8:30
Speaker 1: incident on his films. It was obviously quite a windfall
8:35
Speaker 1: for him to have been on board at such a time,
8:38
Speaker 1: But neither the film nor those who exposed it reached
8:42
Speaker 1: the other side, and the record of the accident from
8:45
Speaker 1: the Titanic's deck has never been thrown on screen. As
8:50
Speaker 1: we steamed down the river, the scene we had just
8:53
Speaker 1: witnessed was the topic of every conversation. The comparison with
8:58
Speaker 1: the Olympic hawk color was drawn in every little group
9:02
Speaker 1: of passengers, and it seemed to be generally agreed that
9:06
Speaker 1: this would confirm the suction theory which was so successfully
9:10
Speaker 1: advanced by the cruiser Halk in the law courts, but
9:14
Speaker 1: which many people scoffed at when the British Admiralty first
9:19
Speaker 1: suggested it as the explanation of the cruiser ramming the Olympic.
9:24
Speaker 1: And since this is an attempt to chronicle facts as
9:27
Speaker 1: they happened on board the Titanic, it must be recorded
9:31
Speaker 1: that there were among the passengers and such of the
9:34
Speaker 1: crew as were heard to speak on the matter the
9:37
Speaker 1: direst misgivings at the incident we had just witnessed. Sailors
9:42
Speaker 1: are proverbial, superstitious. Far too many people are prone to
9:47
Speaker 1: follow their lead, or indeed the lead of anyone who
9:51
Speaker 1: asserts a statement with an air of conviction and the
9:54
Speaker 1: opportunity of constant repetition. The sense of mystery that shrouds
9:59
Speaker 1: a prophetic utterance, particularly if it be an ominous one.
10:03
Speaker 1: For so constituted, apparently is the human mind that it
10:07
Speaker 1: will receive the impress of an evil prophecy far more
10:11
Speaker 1: readily than it will that of a beneficent one, possibly
10:15
Speaker 1: through subservient fear to the thing it dreads, possibly through
10:19
Speaker 1: the degraded morbid attraction which the sense of evil has
10:23
Speaker 1: for the innate evil in the human mind. Leads many
10:26
Speaker 1: people to pay a certain respect to superstitious theories. Not
10:31
Speaker 1: that they wholly believe in them, or would wish their
10:35
Speaker 1: dearest friends to know they ever gave them a second thought,
10:38
Speaker 1: but the feeling that other people do so, and the
10:42
Speaker 1: half conviction that there may be something in it after all,
10:46
Speaker 1: sways them into tacit obedience to the most absurd and
10:50
Speaker 1: childish theories. I wish in a later chapter to discuss
10:55
Speaker 1: the subject of superstition in its reference to our life
10:59
Speaker 1: on board the Titanic, but will anticipate events here a
11:02
Speaker 1: little by relating a second so called bad Omen, which
11:06
Speaker 1: was hatched at Queenstown. As one of the tenders containing
11:11
Speaker 1: passengers and mails. Near the Titanic, some of those on
11:15
Speaker 1: board gazed up at the liner towering above them, and
11:18
Speaker 1: saw a stoker's head black from his work in the
11:22
Speaker 1: stoke hold below, peering out at them from the top
11:25
Speaker 1: of one of the enormous funnels, a dummy one for
11:28
Speaker 1: ventilation that rose many feet above the highest deck. He
11:33
Speaker 1: had climbed up inside for a joke. But to some
11:36
Speaker 1: of those who saw him there, the sight was seed
11:39
Speaker 1: for the growth of an omen which bore fruit in
11:42
Speaker 1: an unknown dread of dangers to come. An American lady,
11:46
Speaker 1: may she forgive me, if she reads these lines, has
11:49
Speaker 1: related to me with the deepest conviction and earnestness of manner,
11:54
Speaker 1: that she saw the man and attributes the sinking of
11:57
Speaker 1: the Titanic largely to that arrant foolishness. You may say, yes, indeed,
12:03
Speaker 1: but not to those who believe in it. And it
12:06
Speaker 1: is well not to have such prophetic thoughts of danger
12:09
Speaker 1: passed round among the passengers and crew. It would seem
12:13
Speaker 1: to have an unhealthy influence. We dropped down Spitthead past
12:18
Speaker 1: the shores of the Isle of Wight, looking superbly beautiful
12:23
Speaker 1: in its new spring foliage, exchanged salutes with a white
12:28
Speaker 1: star tug lying two in wait for one of their
12:31
Speaker 1: liners inward bound, and saw in the distance several warships
12:36
Speaker 1: with attendant black destroyers guarding the entrance from the sea.
12:40
Speaker 1: In the calmest weather, we made Cherbourg just as it
12:44
Speaker 1: grew dusk, and left again about eight thirty. After taking
12:48
Speaker 1: on board passengers and mails, we reached Queenstown about twelve
12:53
Speaker 1: noon on Thursday, after a most enjoyable passage across the Channel,
12:58
Speaker 1: although the wind was almost too cold to allow of
13:01
Speaker 1: sitting out on deck on Thursday morning. The coast of
13:05
Speaker 1: Ireland looked very beautiful as we approached Queenstown Harbor, the
13:10
Speaker 1: brilliant morning sun showing up the green hillsides and picking
13:14
Speaker 1: out groups of dwellings dotted here and there above the
13:18
Speaker 1: rugged gray cliffs that fringed the coast. We took on
13:22
Speaker 1: board our pilot, ran slowly towards the harbor, with the
13:26
Speaker 1: sounding line dropping all the time, and came to a
13:29
Speaker 1: stop well out to sea, with our screws churning up
13:33
Speaker 1: the bottom and turning the sea all brown with sand
13:37
Speaker 1: from below. It had seemed to me that the ships
13:40
Speaker 1: stopped rather suddenly, and, in my ignorance of the depth
13:44
Speaker 1: of the harbor entrance, that perhaps the sounding line had
13:48
Speaker 1: revealed a smaller depth than was thought safe for the
13:52
Speaker 1: great size of the Titanic. This seemed to be confirmed
13:56
Speaker 1: by the sight of sand churned up from the bottom.
13:59
Speaker 1: But this this is mere supposition. Passengers and mails were
14:03
Speaker 1: put on board from two tenders, and nothing could have
14:07
Speaker 1: given us a better idea of the enormous length and
14:10
Speaker 1: bulk of the Titanic than to stand as far as
14:13
Speaker 1: stern as possible and look over the side from the
14:17
Speaker 1: top deck forwards and downwards to where the tenders rolled
14:21
Speaker 1: at her bows, the merest cockle shells beside the majestic
14:26
Speaker 1: vessel that rose deck after deck above them. Truly, she
14:31
Speaker 1: was a magnificent boat. There was something so graceful in
14:35
Speaker 1: her movement as she rowed up and down on the
14:38
Speaker 1: slight swell in the harbor, a slow, stately dip and
14:42
Speaker 1: recover only noticeable by watching her bows in comparison with
14:47
Speaker 1: some landmark on the coast in the near distance. The
14:50
Speaker 1: two little tenders tossing up and down like corks beside her,
14:55
Speaker 1: illustrated vividly the advance made in comfort of motion from
14:59
Speaker 1: the time of the small steamer. Presently the work of
15:03
Speaker 1: transfer was ended, the tenders cast off, and at one
15:07
Speaker 1: thirty PM, with the screws churning up the sea bottom again,
15:11
Speaker 1: the Titanic turned slowly through a quarter circle until her
15:15
Speaker 1: nose pointed down along the Irish coast, and then steamed
15:19
Speaker 1: rapidly away from Queenstown, the little house on the left
15:23
Speaker 1: of the town gleaming white on the hillside for many
15:26
Speaker 1: miles astern. In our wake soared and screamed hundreds of
15:31
Speaker 1: gulls which had quarreled and fought over the remnants of
15:35
Speaker 1: lunch pouring out of the waste pipes as we lay
15:38
Speaker 1: to in the harbor entrance. And now they followed us
15:42
Speaker 1: in the expectation of further spoil. I watched them for
15:46
Speaker 1: a long time, and was astonished at the ease with
15:49
Speaker 1: which they soared and kept up with the ship, with
15:52
Speaker 1: hardly a motion of their wings peeking out a particular goal.
15:56
Speaker 1: I would keep him under observation for minutes at a
15:59
Speaker 1: time and see no motion of his wings downwards or upwards.
16:04
Speaker 1: To aid in his flight. He would tilt all of
16:07
Speaker 1: a piece to one side or another as the gusts
16:10
Speaker 1: of wind caught him rigidly, unbendable as an aeroplane tilts
16:16
Speaker 1: sideways in a puff of wind. And yet with graceful
16:20
Speaker 1: ease he kept pace with the Titanic, foraging through the
16:23
Speaker 1: water at twenty knots as the wind met him, he
16:27
Speaker 1: would rise upwards and obliquely forwards, and come down slantingly again,
16:33
Speaker 1: his wings curved in a beautiful arch, and his tail
16:36
Speaker 1: feathers outspread as a fan. It was plain that he
16:40
Speaker 1: was possessed of a secret. We are only just beginning
16:43
Speaker 1: to learn that of utilizing air currents as escalators up
16:48
Speaker 1: and down which he can glide at will with the
16:50
Speaker 1: expenditure of the minimum amount of energy, or of using
16:55
Speaker 1: them as a ship does when it sails within one
16:58
Speaker 1: or two points of a head wind. Eightyators, of course,
17:02
Speaker 1: are imitating the gull and soon perhaps we may see
17:06
Speaker 1: an aeroplane or a glider dipping gracefully up and down
17:10
Speaker 1: in the face of an opposing wind, and all the
17:13
Speaker 1: time forging ahead across the Atlantic Ocean. The gulls were
17:18
Speaker 1: still behind us when night fell, and still they screamed
17:22
Speaker 1: and dipped down into the broad wake of foam which
17:24
Speaker 1: we left behind. But in the morning they were gone.
17:28
Speaker 1: Perhaps they had seen in the night a steamer bound
17:31
Speaker 1: for their Queenstown home and had escorted her back. All
17:37
Speaker 1: afternoon we steamed along the coast of Ireland, with gray
17:41
Speaker 1: cliffs guarding the shores, and hills rising behind gaunt and barren.
17:46
Speaker 1: As dusk fell, the coast rounded away from us to
17:50
Speaker 1: the northwest, and the last we saw of Europe was
17:53
Speaker 1: the Irish mountains, dim and faint in the dropping darkness.
17:58
Speaker 1: With the thought that we had seen the last of
18:01
Speaker 1: land until we set foot on the shores of America,
18:04
Speaker 1: I retired to the library to write letters, little knowing
18:08
Speaker 1: that many things would happen to us, all many experiences sudden,
18:13
Speaker 1: vivid and impressive to be encountered, many perils to be faced,
18:18
Speaker 1: many good and true people for whom we should have
18:21
Speaker 1: to mourn before we saw land again. There is very
18:25
Speaker 1: little to relate. From the time of leaving Queenstown on
18:29
Speaker 1: Thursday to Sunday morning. The sea was calm, so calm indeed,
18:34
Speaker 1: that very few were absent from mills, the wind westerly
18:38
Speaker 1: and southwesterly, fresh as the daily chart described it, but
18:42
Speaker 1: often rather cold, generally too cold to sit on deck
18:46
Speaker 1: to read or write, so that many of us spent
18:49
Speaker 1: a good part of the time in the library reading
18:52
Speaker 1: and writing. I wrote a large number of letters and
18:56
Speaker 1: posted them day by day in the box outside the library.
19:01
Speaker 1: Possibly they are there, Yet each morning the sun rose
19:06
Speaker 1: behind us in a sky of circular clouds, stretching round
19:10
Speaker 1: the horizon in long, narrow streaks, and rising tier upon
19:15
Speaker 1: tier above the sky line, red and pink, and fading
19:19
Speaker 1: from pink to white as the sun rose higher in
19:22
Speaker 1: the sky. It was a beautiful sight to one who
19:25
Speaker 1: had not crossed the ocean before, or indeed been out
19:29
Speaker 1: of sight of the shores of England, to stand on
19:32
Speaker 1: the top deck and watch the swell of the sea
19:35
Speaker 1: extending outwards from the ship in an unbroken circle until
19:39
Speaker 1: it met the skyline with its hint of infinity. Behind
19:44
Speaker 1: the wake of the vessel, white with foam, where fancy
19:48
Speaker 1: suggested the propeller blades had cut up the long Atlantic
19:52
Speaker 1: rollers and with them made a level white road, bounded
19:57
Speaker 1: on either side by banks of green, blue and blue
20:01
Speaker 1: green waves that would presently sweep away the white road,
20:05
Speaker 1: though as yet it stretched back to the horizon and
20:08
Speaker 1: dipped over the edge of the world, back to Ireland
20:11
Speaker 1: and the Goals. While along it the morning sun glittered
20:15
Speaker 1: and sparkled, and each night the sun sank right in
20:19
Speaker 1: our eyes along the sea, making an undulating, glittering pathway,
20:25
Speaker 1: a golden track charted on the surface of the ocean,
20:28
Speaker 1: which our ship followed unswervingly until the sun dipped below
20:32
Speaker 1: the edge of the horizon, and the pathway ran ahead
20:36
Speaker 1: of us faster than we could steam and slipped over
20:39
Speaker 1: the edge of the skyline, as if the sun had
20:42
Speaker 1: been a golden ball and had wound up its thread
20:45
Speaker 1: of gold too quickly for us to follow. From twelve
20:49
Speaker 1: noon Thursday to twelve noon Friday, we ran three hundred
20:53
Speaker 1: eighty six miles. Friday to Saturday five hundred nineteen miles,
20:59
Speaker 1: Saturday day to Sunday five hundred forty six miles. The
21:04
Speaker 1: second day's run of five hundred nineteen miles was the
21:08
Speaker 1: purser told us a disappointment, and we should not dock
21:11
Speaker 1: until Wednesday morning instead of Tuesday night as we had expected. However,
21:17
Speaker 1: on Sunday we were glad to see a longer run
21:20
Speaker 1: had been made, and it was thought we should make
21:23
Speaker 1: New York after all. On Tuesday night, the purser remarked,
21:28
Speaker 1: they are not pushing her this trip and don't intend
21:31
Speaker 1: to make any fast running. I don't suppose we shall
21:34
Speaker 1: do more than five hundred forty six now. It is
21:37
Speaker 1: not a bad day's run for the first trip. This
21:41
Speaker 1: was at lunch, and I remember the conversation then turned
21:45
Speaker 1: to the speed and build of Atlantic liners as factors
21:49
Speaker 1: in their comfort of motion. All those who had crossed
21:52
Speaker 1: many times were unanimous in saying the Titanic was the
21:56
Speaker 1: most comfortable boat they had been on, and they preferred
21:59
Speaker 1: the speed we were making to that of the faster
22:02
Speaker 1: boats from the point of view of lessened vibration, as
22:06
Speaker 1: well as because the faster boats would bore through the
22:09
Speaker 1: waves with a twisted screw like motion instead of the
22:13
Speaker 1: straight up and down swing of the Titanic. I then
22:18
Speaker 1: called the attention of our table to the way the
22:21
Speaker 1: Titanic listed to port. I had noticed this before, and
22:25
Speaker 1: we all watched the skyline through the portholes as we
22:29
Speaker 1: sat at the purser's table in the saloon. It was
22:32
Speaker 1: plain she did so, for the skyline and sea on
22:35
Speaker 1: the port side were visible most of the time, and
22:38
Speaker 1: on the starboard only sky. The purser remarked that probably
22:43
Speaker 1: coal had been used mostly from the starboard side. It
22:46
Speaker 1: is no doubt a common occurrence for all vessels to
22:50
Speaker 1: list to some degree, but in view of the fact
22:53
Speaker 1: that the Titanic was cut open on the starboard side,
22:57
Speaker 1: and before she sank listed so much to that there
23:01
Speaker 1: was quite a chasm between her and the swinging lifeboats,
23:05
Speaker 1: across which ladies had to be thrown or to cross
23:08
Speaker 1: on chairs laid flat. The previous listing to port may
23:12
Speaker 1: be of interest returning for a moment to the motion
23:16
Speaker 1: of the Titanic. It was interesting to stand on the
23:19
Speaker 1: boat deck, as I frequently did, in the angle between
23:22
Speaker 1: lifeboats thirteen and fifteen, on the starboard side. Two boats,
23:27
Speaker 1: I have every reason to remember, for the first carried
23:30
Speaker 1: me in safety to the Carpathia, and it seemed likely
23:34
Speaker 1: at one time that the other would come down on
23:36
Speaker 1: our heads. As we sat in thirteen trying to get
23:39
Speaker 1: away from the ship's side and watch the general motion
23:44
Speaker 1: of the ship through the waves resolve itself into two motions,
23:48
Speaker 1: one to be observed by contrasting the docking bridge, from
23:52
Speaker 1: which the log line trailed away behind in the foaming
23:56
Speaker 1: wake with the horizon, and observing the long, slow heave
24:01
Speaker 1: as we rode up and down. I timed the average
24:05
Speaker 1: period occupied in one up and down vibration, but do
24:09
Speaker 1: not now remember the figures. The second motion was a
24:13
Speaker 1: side to side roll and could be calculated by watching
24:17
Speaker 1: the port rail and contrasting it with the horizon. As before,
24:22
Speaker 1: it seemed likely that this double motion is due to
24:25
Speaker 1: the angle at which our direction to New York cuts
24:28
Speaker 1: the general set of the Gulf stream sweeping from the
24:31
Speaker 1: Gulf of Mexico across to Europe. But the almost clock
24:36
Speaker 1: like regularity of the two vibratory movements was what attracted
24:40
Speaker 1: my attention. It was while watching the side roll that
24:44
Speaker 1: I first became aware of the list to port. Looking
24:49
Speaker 1: down astern from the boat deck or from b deck
24:53
Speaker 1: to the steerage quarters, I often noticed how the third
24:56
Speaker 1: class passengers were enjoying every minute of the time. A
25:01
Speaker 1: most uproarious skipping game of the mixed double type was
25:05
Speaker 1: the great favorite. While in and out and roundabout went
25:09
Speaker 1: a scotchman with his bagpipes, playing something that Gilbert says
25:14
Speaker 1: faintly resembled an air standing aloof from all of them,
25:20
Speaker 1: generally on the raised stern deck above the playing field,
25:24
Speaker 1: was a man of about twenty to twenty four years
25:27
Speaker 1: of age, well dressed, always gloved and nicely groomed, and
25:32
Speaker 1: obviously quite out of place among his fellow passengers. He
25:36
Speaker 1: never looked happy, all the time I watched him and
25:40
Speaker 1: classified him at hazard as the man who had been
25:44
Speaker 1: a failure in some way at home and had received
25:47
Speaker 1: the proverbial shilling plus third class fare to America. He
25:52
Speaker 1: did not look resolute enough or happy enough to be
25:55
Speaker 1: working out his own problem. Another interesting man was traveling steerage,
26:01
Speaker 1: but had placed his wife in the second cabin. He
26:04
Speaker 1: would climb the stairs leading from the steerage to the
26:07
Speaker 1: second deck and talk affectionately with his wife across the
26:11
Speaker 1: low gate which separated them. I never saw him after
26:15
Speaker 1: the collision, but I think his wife was on the Carpathia.
26:19
Speaker 1: Whether they ever saw each other on the Sunday night
26:22
Speaker 1: is very doubtful. He would not at first be allowed
26:26
Speaker 1: on the second class deck, and if he were, the
26:29
Speaker 1: chances of seeing his wife in the darkness and the
26:32
Speaker 1: crowd would be very small. Indeed, of all those playing
26:36
Speaker 1: so happily on the steerage deck, I did not recognize
26:40
Speaker 1: many afterwards on the Carpathia. Coming now to Sunday, the
26:45
Speaker 1: day on which the Titanic struck the Iceberg, it will
26:49
Speaker 1: be interesting, perhaps to give the day's events in some detail,
26:53
Speaker 1: to appreciate the general attitude of passengers to their surroundings
26:58
Speaker 1: just before the collision. Service was held in the saloon
27:02
Speaker 1: by the purser in the morning, and going on deck
27:05
Speaker 1: after lunch, we found such a change in temperature that
27:09
Speaker 1: not many cared to remain to face the bitter wind,
27:12
Speaker 1: an artificial wind created mainly, if not entirely, by the
27:17
Speaker 1: ship's rapid motion through the chilly atmosphere. I should judge
27:21
Speaker 1: there was no wind blowing at the time, for I
27:24
Speaker 1: had noticed about the same force of wind approaching Queenstown,
27:28
Speaker 1: to find that it died away as soon as we stopped,
27:31
Speaker 1: only to rise again as we steamed away from the harbor.
27:36
Speaker 1: Returning to the library, I stopped for a moment to
27:39
Speaker 1: read again the day's run and observe our position on
27:43
Speaker 1: the chart. The Reverend mister Carter, a clergyman of the
27:47
Speaker 1: Church of England, was similarly engaged, and we renewed a
27:51
Speaker 1: conversation we had enjoyed for some days. It had commenced
27:56
Speaker 1: with a discussion of the relative merits of his university
27:59
Speaker 1: ak with mine Cambridge, as worldwide educational agencies, the opportunities
28:06
Speaker 1: at each for the formation of character apart from mere
28:10
Speaker 1: education as such, and had led on to the lack
28:14
Speaker 1: of sufficiently qualified men to take up the work of
28:17
Speaker 1: the Church of England, a matter apparently on which he
28:21
Speaker 1: felt very deeply, and from that to his own work
28:24
Speaker 1: in England as a priest. He told me some of
28:27
Speaker 1: his parish problems and spoke of the impossibility of doing
28:31
Speaker 1: half his work in his church without the help his
28:34
Speaker 1: wife gave. I knew her only slightly at that time,
28:38
Speaker 1: but meeting her later in the day, I realized something
28:42
Speaker 1: of what he meant, and attributing a large part of
28:46
Speaker 1: what success he had as a vicar to her. My
28:49
Speaker 1: only excuse for mentioning these details about the Carters now
28:54
Speaker 1: and later in the day is that while they have
28:57
Speaker 1: perhaps not much interest for the average reader, they will
29:00
Speaker 1: no doubt be some comfort to the parish over which
29:04
Speaker 1: he presided, and where I am sure he was loved.
29:07
Speaker 1: He next mentioned the absence of a service in the
29:10
Speaker 1: evening and asked if I knew the purser well enough
29:14
Speaker 1: to request the use of the saloon in the evening,
29:17
Speaker 1: where he would like to have a hymn sing song.
29:20
Speaker 1: The purser gave his consent at once, and mister Carter
29:24
Speaker 1: made preparations during the afternoon by asking all he knew
29:28
Speaker 1: and many he did not to come to the saloon
29:31
Speaker 1: at eight thirty pm. The library was crowded that afternoon
29:36
Speaker 1: owing to the cold on deck, but through the windows
29:39
Speaker 1: we could see the clear sky with brilliant sunlight that
29:42
Speaker 1: seemed to augur a fine night and a clear day tomorrow,
29:47
Speaker 1: and the prospect of landing in two days with calm
29:50
Speaker 1: weather all the way to New York was a matter
29:53
Speaker 1: of general satisfaction among us. All I can look back
29:58
Speaker 1: and see every detail of the library that afternoon, the
30:02
Speaker 1: beautifully furnished room with lounges, armchairs, and small writing or
30:08
Speaker 1: card tables scattered about, writing bureaus round the walls of
30:12
Speaker 1: the room, and the library in glass cased shelves flanking
30:17
Speaker 1: one side. The hole finished in mahogany, relieved with white
30:22
Speaker 1: fluted wooden columns that supported the deck. Above through the
30:27
Speaker 1: windows there is the covered corridor reserved by general consent
30:32
Speaker 1: as the children's playground, And here are playing the two
30:36
Speaker 1: Navitrill children, with their father devoted to them, never absent
30:41
Speaker 1: from them. Who would have thought of the dramatic history
30:45
Speaker 1: of the happy group at play in the corridor that afternoon,
30:49
Speaker 1: the abduction of the children in Nice the assumed name,
30:53
Speaker 1: the separation of father and children in a few hours
30:58
Speaker 1: his death, and their subsequent union with their mother after
31:02
Speaker 1: a period of doubt as to their parentage. How many
31:05
Speaker 1: more similar secrets the Titanic revealed in the privacy of
31:09
Speaker 1: family life, or carried down with her untold, we shall
31:14
Speaker 1: never know. In the same corridor is a man and
31:18
Speaker 1: his wife with two children, and one of them he
31:21
Speaker 1: is generally carrying. They are all young and happy. He
31:26
Speaker 1: is dressed always in a gray knickerbocker suit, with a
31:30
Speaker 1: camera slung over his shoulder. I have not seen any
31:33
Speaker 1: of them since that afternoon. Close beside me, so near
31:38
Speaker 1: that I cannot avoid hearing scraps of their conversation are
31:42
Speaker 1: two American ladies, both dressed in white, young, probably friends.
31:48
Speaker 1: Only one has been to India and is returning by
31:52
Speaker 1: way of England. The other is a school teacher in America.
31:56
Speaker 1: A graceful girl with a distinguished air heightened by a
31:59
Speaker 1: pair of pantney. Engaged in conversation with them is a
32:04
Speaker 1: gentleman whom I subsequently identified from a photograph as a
32:08
Speaker 1: well known resident of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Genial, polished and with
32:13
Speaker 1: a courtly air, towards the two ladies, whom he has
32:16
Speaker 1: known but a few hours. From time to time as
32:20
Speaker 1: they talk, a child acquaintance breaks in on their conversation
32:24
Speaker 1: and insists on their taking notice of a large doll
32:28
Speaker 1: clasped in her arms. I have seen none of this
32:31
Speaker 1: group since then. In the opposite corner are the young
32:35
Speaker 1: American kinematograph photographer and his young wife, evidently French, very
32:41
Speaker 1: fond of playing patients, which she is doing now while
32:45
Speaker 1: he sits back in his chair, watching the game and
32:48
Speaker 1: interposing from time to time with suggestions. I did not
32:53
Speaker 1: see them again. In the middle of the room are
32:56
Speaker 1: two Catholic priests, one quietly reading either English or Irish,
33:01
Speaker 1: and probably the latter, the other dark bearded with broad
33:06
Speaker 1: brimmed hat, talking earnestly to a friend in German and
33:10
Speaker 1: evidently explaining some verse in the open Bible before him.
33:15
Speaker 1: Near them a young fire engineer on his way to
33:18
Speaker 1: Mexico and of the same religion as the rest of
33:21
Speaker 1: the group. None of them were saved. It may be
33:25
Speaker 1: noted here that the percentage of men saved in the
33:29
Speaker 1: second class is the lowest of any other division only
33:33
Speaker 1: eight percent. Many other faces recur to thought, but it
33:38
Speaker 1: is impossible to describe them all in the space of
33:41
Speaker 1: a short book. Of all those in the library that
33:45
Speaker 1: Sunday afternoon, I can remember only two or three persons
33:49
Speaker 1: who found their way to the carpathia. Looking over this
33:53
Speaker 1: room with his back to the library shelves. Is the
33:56
Speaker 1: library steward, thin, stooping, sad faced, and generally with nothing
34:02
Speaker 1: to do but serve out books. But this afternoon he
34:06
Speaker 1: is busier than I have ever seen him, serving out
34:09
Speaker 1: baggage declaration forms for passengers to fill in. Mine is
34:14
Speaker 1: before me, as I write form for non residents in
34:19
Speaker 1: the United States steamship Titanic number three one four four, d,
34:26
Speaker 1: et cetera. I had filled it in that afternoon and
34:30
Speaker 1: slipped it in my pocket book instead of returning it
34:33
Speaker 1: to the steward. Before me, too is a small cardboard
34:37
Speaker 1: square white star line RMS Titanic two hundred eight. This
34:44
Speaker 1: label must be given up when the article is returned.
34:48
Speaker 1: The property will be deposited in the purser's safe. The
34:52
Speaker 1: company will not be liable to passengers for the loss
34:55
Speaker 1: of money, jewels, or ornaments. By theft or otherwise so deposited.
35:02
Speaker 1: The property deposited in my case was money placed in
35:06
Speaker 1: an envelope sealed with my name written across the flap,
35:10
Speaker 1: and handed to the purser. The label is my receipt,
35:15
Speaker 1: along with other similar envelopes. It may still be intact
35:19
Speaker 1: in the safe at the bottom of the sea, but
35:22
Speaker 1: in all probability it is not, as will be seen presently.
35:27
Speaker 1: After dinner, mister Carter invited all who wished to the saloon,
35:32
Speaker 1: and with the assistants at the piano of a gentleman
35:35
Speaker 1: who sat at the purser's table opposite me, a young
35:38
Speaker 1: Scotch engineer going out to join his brother fruit farming
35:42
Speaker 1: at the foot of the rockies. He started some hundred
35:45
Speaker 1: passengers singing hymns. They were asked to choose whichever hymn
35:50
Speaker 1: they wished, and with so many to choose, it was
35:53
Speaker 1: impossible for him to do more than have the greatest
35:56
Speaker 1: favorite song. As he announced each hymn, it was evident
36:00
Speaker 1: that he was thoroughly versed in their history. No hymn
36:04
Speaker 1: was sung, but that he gave a short sketch of
36:07
Speaker 1: its author, and in some cases a description of the
36:10
Speaker 1: circumstances in which it was composed. I think all were
36:14
Speaker 1: impressed with his knowledge of hymns, and with his eagerness
36:17
Speaker 1: to tell us all he knew of them. It was
36:20
Speaker 1: curious to see how many chose hymns dealing with dangers
36:24
Speaker 1: at sea. I noticed the hushed tone with which all
36:29
Speaker 1: sang the hymn for those in peril on the sea.
36:34
Speaker 1: The singing must have gone on until after ten o'clock.
36:38
Speaker 1: When seeing the steward standing about waiting to serve biscuits
36:41
Speaker 1: and coffee before going off duty, mister Carter brought the
36:45
Speaker 1: evening to a close by a few words of thanks
36:48
Speaker 1: to the purser for the use of the saloon, a
36:51
Speaker 1: short sketch of the happiness and safety of the voyage.
36:54
Speaker 1: Hitherto the great confidence all felt on board this great liner,
36:59
Speaker 1: with her steadiness and her size, and the happy outlook
37:03
Speaker 1: of landing in a few hours in New York at
37:06
Speaker 1: the close of a delightful voyage, and all the time
37:10
Speaker 1: he spoke, a few miles ahead of us lay the
37:14
Speaker 1: peril on the sea that was to sink this same
37:18
Speaker 1: great liner. With many of those on board who listened
37:21
Speaker 1: with gratitude to his simple heartfelt words. So much for
37:26
Speaker 1: the frailty of human hopes and for the confidence reposed
37:31
Speaker 1: in material human designs. Think of the shame of it
37:35
Speaker 1: that a mass of ice, of no use to anyone
37:39
Speaker 1: or anything should have the power fatally to injure the
37:42
Speaker 1: beautiful Titanic, That an insensible block should be able to threaten,
37:48
Speaker 1: even in the smallest degree, the lives of many good
37:52
Speaker 1: men and women who think and plan, and hope and love,
37:57
Speaker 1: and not only to threaten, but to end their life lives.
38:01
Speaker 1: It is unbearable, are we never to educate ourselves to
38:05
Speaker 1: foresee such dangers and to prevent them before they happen.
38:09
Speaker 1: All the evidence of history shows that laws unknown and
38:13
Speaker 1: unsuspected are being discovered day by day. As this knowledge
38:17
Speaker 1: accumulates for the use of man. It is not certain
38:20
Speaker 1: that the ability to see and destroy beforehand the threat
38:24
Speaker 1: of danger will be one of the privileges the whole
38:27
Speaker 1: world will utilize. May that day come soon. Until it does,
38:32
Speaker 1: no precaution too rigorous can be taken. No safety appliance,
38:37
Speaker 1: however costly, must be omitted from a ship's equipment. After
38:42
Speaker 1: the meeting had broken up, I talked with the carters
38:45
Speaker 1: over a cup of coffee, said good night to them,
38:48
Speaker 1: and retired to my cabin at about quarter to eleven.
38:52
Speaker 1: They were good people, and this world is much poorer
38:55
Speaker 1: by their loss. It may be a matter of pleasure
38:59
Speaker 1: to many people to know that their friends were perhaps
39:03
Speaker 1: among that gathering of people in the saloon, and that
39:06
Speaker 1: at the last sound of the hymns still echoed in
39:11
Speaker 1: their ears as they stood on the deck so quietly
39:14
Speaker 1: and courageously. Who can tell how much it had to
39:18
Speaker 1: do with the demeanor of some of them and the
39:20
Speaker 1: example this would set to others. End of Chapter two,