The Thibodaux sentinel. (Thibodaux, La.) 1905-1912, 1912-04-20
argest Steamer Ever Aaoat Goes
Head-on Into Mountain Of Ice.
OVER FOURTEEN HUNDRED LIVES LOST
Women and Children Set Adrift in Lifeboats
and Are Among Survivors, The Men
Remained and Went Down With
the Ship---Millionaires Aboard.


from the Titanic received soon after
midnight Monday announced that the
giant new liner had struck an ice
berg off the banks of New Foundland
and was in a sinking condition.
Transfer of the passengers to the
life boats began at once. The acci-
dent occurred at 1925 o'clock at
night. Two hours later the ships
wireless apparatus, which had been
working so badly as to permit of
only intermittent and fragmentary
messages, failed completely.
The last words sent by the operator
told that the vessel was apparently
doomed, sinking by the head" and
that the women passengers were be-
ing rushed into the life boats. A re-
assuring feature was that the weather
was calm and clear and help only a
few hours away.
A Wireless Message.
Boston, sMass.-A wireless message
picked up late Monday night, relayed
from the Olympic, says she is on her
way to New York with 866 passengers
from the steamer Titanic aboard.
They are mostly women and children,
the message said. and it concluded:
Grave fears are felt for the safety
of the balance of the passengers and
crew"
Whf1e the fate or the ma1ority ~
the 2,20O persons on board the mann.
moth White Star Liner Titanic, which
sank early Monday near the New
Foundland banks after a collision
with an iceberg, still remains in
doubt, and it is feared more than 1900
persons were lost.
The mammoth White Star Line
steamer Titanic, bound from Liver
pool to New York On her maiden voy-
age, went to the bottom off Newfound-
land Banks. OF the approximately
2,2OO persons on board the giant liner,
some of them of worldwide promi-
nence, CTS are known to have been
saved. The White Star offices in New
York, while keeping up hope to the
last, were free to admit that there
had been "a horrible loss of life.'
Greatest in History Of World.
Accepting the early estimates OF
the fatality list as accurate, the dis
aster is the greatest in the marine
history of the world. Nearest ap-
preaching it in magnitude were the
disasters to the steamer Atlantic in
1873, when 574 lives were lost, and
La Bourgoyne, in 1898, with fatal
ity list of 571.
Should it prove that other liners,
notably the Allan liners Partisan and
Virginian, known to have been in the
vicinity of the Titanic early Monday,
had picked up other passengers, the
extent of the calamity would be great,
ly reduced. This hope still remains.
The Shock Is Intensified.
News of the sinking of the liner
and the terrible loss of life in conse-
uuence, came with all the greater
shock because hope had been buoyed
up by reports that the steamship, al
though badly damaged, was not in a
sinking condition, and that all her pas
sengers had been taken off. None OF
the reports came direct from the liner,
so a lurking fear remained of possible
bad news to come.
There was flashing over the wires
from Cape Race, within 400 miles OF
which the liner had struck the ice
berg, word that at 2:20 o'clock Mon
day morning, three hours and fifty
five minutes after receiving her
death blow, the Titanic had sunk.
The news came from the steamer Car
pathia, relayed by the White Star
liner Olympic and revealed that by
the time the Carpathia, outward
bound from New York, and racing
for the Titanic on a wireless call,
reached the scene, the doomed vessel
had sunk.
675 Survivors on Surface.
Left on the surface, however, were
Iifeboats from. the Titanic, and in
them, as appears from the meager re
ports. we're some CTS survivors of the
disaster. These, according to the ad'
vices, the Carpathia picked up, and
she is now on her way with them to
New York.
For the rest, the scene as the Car
pathia came up, was one OF desola-
tion. All that remained of the $Io..
100000 flating palace, on which near.
ly l,4OO first and second cabin pas
sengers had been voyaging luxurious
ly to this side of the Atlantic, were
some bits of wreckage. The biggest
ship in the world had gone down,
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