The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1912-05-02
Heroic Men Die With Band Playing,
Waving Farewell to Those Whom
Their Unselfishness Had Spared.
Death Toll of Worlds Greatest Disaster Is Placed
at 1,726---Wives Torn From Husbands
and Forced Into Lifeboats.

| in wild confusion men. women and
children rushed about the saloons and
| cabins OF the great steamship as
though driven out of their senses No
one knew what had happened and
| everyone feared that the vessel would
sink before they could reach the boats.
In a wild. apparently ungovernable
mob they poured out of the saloons
to witness one of the most appalling
scenes possible to conceive. Towering
high above the shattered bow of the
great steamship were the glistening
pinnacles of the monster iceberg
against which the Titanic hao hurled
itself with the force of half a hun
| dred express trains.
BOW A SHAPELESs MASS.
For hundred feet the bow was in
a shapeless mass of bent, broken and
splintered stee, and iron. Cries of the
injured added to the panic. A fear
crazed mob OF steerage passengers
broke loose from the lower cabins and
poured upon the deck with cries of
fright
Women and children were hurled
aside In the first mad rush for the
boats. Two hundred of the crew lay
crushed to death in the bow of the
great steamship, where they had been
killed as they slept. Above all the din
OF the panic were the hoarse orders of
the captain. repeated by the second,
third and fourth officers down the list.
mt @f Il
about the lifeboats, and while some
b back the panic-stricken passen-
gers crowded about them, others pre-
pared to lower the boats.
ORDERED TO SHOOT MEN.
Everybody to the boats" was the
startling cry that was repeated from
end to end of the Titanic.
Women and children firstl" was
! the hoarse order that went along the
line of lifeboats.
Shoot the first man who attempts to
get into boat"
Armed officers with revolvers in
their hands faced the fear-crazed
throng that poured like an overwhelm-
ing flood through the gangways and
upon the upper deck First class pas
sengers who kept their wits amid the
awful confusion of the first ten min
utes rallied to the support of the
crew and with drawn revolvers awed
the MOB which fought to climb into
the lifeboats.
hulk of the once magnificent steam
ship as it slid back from the shelving
ice upon which it had driven, and its
bow settled deeply into the water.
We're lost! We're LOST" was the
cry that rose from hundreds Of threats.
The ship is sinking. We mus,
drown 44ike- rats P
Women in evening gowns. with jew.
els about their necks, knelt on deck
amid the vast, fear-stricken tAreng,
crowded about the lifeboats and pray
ed for help. Others, clad in their
nightclorhing. begged the officers to
let them enter the boats
NO CHOICE BETWEEN CLASSES,
Men whose names and rep1tation
were prominent in two hemispheres
were shouldered out of the way by
roughly dressed Slavs and Hungarians
Husbands were separated from theil
wives in. 1.-The battle to reach the boats
fearful 1eave-takfngs as the nfeboats
one after another. were filed with sob
bling women and lowered upon the ice
covered surface Of the ocean were
heart-breaking.
There was no time to pick OF
choose. The first woman to step into
Hfeboat held her place even though
she were maid or the wife of q
Hungarian peasant. Many womer
chung to their husbands and refused to
be separated. In some cases they
dragged their husbands to the boat:
and in the confusion the men foune
places in the boats.
] FLEET DRAWS AWAY.
One by one the little fleet drew
away from the towering sides of tn,
. giant steamship. whose decks were al
ready Keeling as it sank lower in thu
/ water
I The Titanic Is doomed" was thu
verdict that passed from lip to LID.
I'VE will sink before help car
comet"
Water poured into every compart
ment of the SSO-foot hull, where grea
. plates had been torn apart and hug.
rivets were sheared off as though the,
We're so much cheese.
i Pumps were started in the engine
room, but the water poured into tn.
great hull in such torrents through
. scores OF rents that all knew the figh
to save the steamship was hopeless.
: Overhead the wireless buzzed th.
news to the other steamships. Tn.
| little fleet of lifeboats withdrew to
/ safe distance and the 1900 left az
, board with no boats waited four Ion,
hours for the nerciful death plunr.
Il which ended ali.