The Washington times., 1912-04-21

| In front of his beautiful ship He grab
bed the telephone, and rang with all
| fury TO the man on the bridge. Some
thing dead ahead" was his terse in
| formation, that showed Its value In the
| three tinkles of that bell.
Hardly had the last tinkle died away
when there was a crash. The iceberg,
| formed of thousands of tons of the weld
| ed water stood against the assault of
| the Titanic like Gibralter assailed by a
mauser gun. The vessel cast itself at
this mountain of paIlid death. driven
forward by the Iessened power of her
great engines. The monster of the
North never felt the shock. The ice
giant threw back the Titanic into the
waters again. her bow bent and crum-
pied beneath the staggering violence of
! the blow.
AS the impact of collision hurled the
Titanic, about, the iceberg battered at
ner SIDE; The huge arm of ice tore
from bow to midship and allowed the
rushing waters to billow unrestrained
This was in H.1O North latitude. the
place where the Mistress of the ocean
| met the Monster of the Seas
Inc instant the ship struck it's mari
time foe, Captain Smith took command
! mander s place on the bridge and mega
phone in hand, beloved his orders.
roTty,three years of service on the sea
a dignity and official presence that
| awed. ''"s
Commander at Ease.
Never did the commander seem more
| at ease than with the stress of death
upon him. Well he knew the answer to
this collision even II fate held the scales
lives. 1t meant that Edward ]. Smith.
known and loved in maritime circles,
had sailed his last voyage as COM
| mander of a vessel, for he had been in
| a collision at sea. Not the laws of the
Medes and the Persians are more mex
orable than the laws of the seas, and
the captain knew.
But If thoughts like these were rum
! ming riot through his mind he gave no
| outward or visible sign. With that ease
! that born power gives to a person he
took command of the ship and the sit
uation.
"Officers, to your posts" beloved
that aged voice through the mega
| phone. Send down the ships carpen-
ter to sound ship was his next order.
The carpenter of the ship went down
into the bowels of that great leviathan.
He never returned, meeting death like
rat in trap, overwhelmed in the
waters that. poured into the vessel.
1t required less time almost than II
| takes to tell these incidents, to pave the
way for the loss OF a noble ship and
| 1885 lives. The passengers retained
their calm in a wonderful manner.
Many Of them were asleep or had re-
! tired for the night when the crash
came. To many the shock was slight.
| to others 1t sounded as IL the ship was
| groaning In its death throes as the i'm
pact Of the collision caused her to
| shudder from stem to stern.
Immediately after the crash the Of
| ficers took their stations. Stewards. the
| non -combatants of the sea, went among
the passengers. calming their fears and
| deprecating the presence of immediate
| danger. This had the effect of steady
| ing the frayed nerves of the passen-
gers. those whose nervous systems were
| troubled.
Flirted With Death.
But not all of those aboard needed
this reinsurance. Many flirted with
! death, others joked at it's presence;
others worshiped at the shrine of man,
mon and reviled and scoffed nature and
her emissaries of disaster SO impressed
were the officers and men that the Ti-
foe that they had impressed this deep
| seated conviction on the ma jority of
| those aboard
doubly easy. Men like william T. Stead.
the famous English journalist came to
| the deck. heard the story of the COL
lision, and then with sublime confidence
| in the Titanic. retired again. Stead
went below with the calm sententious
comment: Il think I'll retire; we'll be
| all right in the morning" He never
awakened on this earth again, nor was
he seen by his fellow-passsengers after
| his senile footsteps wandered down the
| companionway.
Once the captains command breathed
| the spirit of confidence-women and
children seemed to have been eased in
| their minds. The women rushed to
the deck. escorted by their husbands or
| the male relatives aboard. Many OF
these were in a state of dishabille; in
their first rush for the upper deck they
had forgotten the conventional attire
for such a visit in the stress of condi-
tions.
However, once they reached the deck
and they were assured that not the
| slightest danger existed, the women be-
! gan to make hasty toilet. With the
water pouring into the wounded levi
athan, and the mastodon of the deep.
| lying in the sea on. her injured side,
the spectacle of maids dressing the
| hair of their mistresses amid such
scenes was one calculated to awaken
the risibilities.
Women Got Wraps.
Women in whom the eternal feminine
could not be denied. even in the face
of disaster, went below again and hur-
ried into outside wraps and came TO
deck again clad for any emergency.
Meanwhile the unconscious sneerinG
at death went on apace. This had been
stimulated and fathered by the entire
official list. OF the Titanic. who believed
in the slogan themselves and were not
guilty Of conscious falsehood when they
impaired their own beliefs to the pas
sengers.
Captain Smiths one fetch had been
the unsinkability OF the Titanic.
fetch that was to demand an awful
sacrifice later to prove that when ma.
ture collides with man that the mere
human is bound to inevitable defeat.
His optimism about his ship had been
reflected so often that Its light mad