The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1912-04-19
APPALLING DISASTER
Greatest Atlantic Steamer Destroyed
by Huge Iceberg.
400 LIVES ARE LOST--S66 RESCUED
When Ships Reach Scene of Disaster There Was
Nothing But Debris and Collection of Life
boats into Which Women and Chill
dren Had Been Bundled.

les from Cape Race that at least 1874
persons went to their death in the sink
ing Of the Titanic, which from now on
will be known as the creates. marine
disaster OF modern times. The liner,
bearing the proud title of the largest
vessel otloat, Is at the bottom Of the
Atlantic with all Of her crew and prac.
tIcally all OF her male passengers. Prob
ably 500 omen were taken of the liner
after her appalling collision with a sub
merged iceberg, and they are o. the car
pathIa, masking for either Boston or
New York.
1t ~ feared that not one OF the
TitauIc's passenger list OF distinguished
aud wealthy men is alive. 1t is believed
that not a man OF the crew Of the
Titanic is left to tell Of the cpochaI sea
horror. As mute evidence of the disas-
tcs that overwhelmed the Titanic on her
maiden trip i, the comment Of the cap
tain OF the Carpatbia III a wireless mes
sage received;
I'VE found only a sea covered with
wrcchaRc and debris"
Vessels Rush to Aid.
The Carpathla's captain also said he
had picked mp the survivors in the boats
and had sheltered them on board.
The giant boat, racing for America in
an attempt to delight its distinguished
passengers with a trip that would strike
the world, hit the iceberg with terrific
forca. The impact was sufficient TO tear
great seams in the vessels prov and
open ono or more water,tight compart-
ucnts.
Fighting a losing battle, the pride Of
the maritime world went off to her
doom.
At every wireless station on the At
lant.ic coast from New York 10 Cape
Race vessels are bending over their in
strumeuts feeling for the puIsations of
the marvellous telegraph waves that will
bring further details Of the catas,
trophe,
News Of the sinking of the liner and
the terrible Ioss of life in consequence
came with all the greater shock be
cause hope bad been buoyed up all day
by reports that the steamship, although
badly damaged, was not in a sinking CON
dition and that all her passengers had
keen safely taken of. The messages
were mostly unofficial, however, and
none came direct from the liner, so a
lurking fear remained of possible bad
news to come.
shortly after : o'clock there came
flashed over the wires from Cape Race,
within 400 miles of which the liner had
struck the iceberg, word that at 2;20
o'clock Monday morning, three hours
and tfty.fve minutes after receiving her
death blow, the Titanic had sunk. The
Jews came from the steamer Carplthia,
relayed by the White star liner Olympic,
and revealed that by the time the Car
and racing for TIE Titanic on a wire.
less call, reached the scene the doomed
vcs-W had sunk.
Left on the surface, however, we're
lifcboats from the Titanic, and in them,
MS appears from the mcagcr reports re-
ceiyed up to a late hour, were some 675
survivors of the disaster. These, ac-
cording to the adyiccs, the Carpathia
picked up.
For the rest, the scene as the Car.
pathia came up was one of dcsOlation.
All that remained of the $4,000, 900
floating palace, on which nearly l,400
passengers had been %voyaging luxurious.
" to this side of the Atlantic, were some
bits Of wrcckage. The biggest ship in
the world had gone down, snuffng out
in her downward plunge, it appears,
hundreds Of human lives.
All Saved Women.
A significant line in the Cape Race
dispatch was the announcement that of
those saved by the Carpathia, nearly all
were women and children.
Should it prove that no other vessel
picked up any passengers of the sinking
liner, this might mean that few of the
men on board had been saved, as the
proportion Of women and children among
the passengers was large, The same
facts would likewise spell the doom of
the entire crew of about SEQ.
In the cabins We're $40 women and
children, hut II is not known how many
passengers.
In the first cabin there were 12s
women and Is children. and in the
second cabin 70 women and s children.
Notable persons, travellers on the
Titanic, whose fate was in doubt in the
lack of definite advices as to the identity
of the survivors, were Mr.. and Mrs. John
Jacob Aston, Maj. Archibald Butt,
Charles NJ. Hays, president of the Grand
Trunk Pacific of Canada. his wife and
daughter; w. r. Stead, BENJAMIN Gug-