Clearwater Republican. [volume] (Orofino, Idaho) 1912-1922, 1912-04-25
SURVIVORS OF THE Inflated
STEAMSHIP, BIGGEST BUILT,
tell OF The ACCIDENT.
AS Great Ship Went Down With 1900
Souls the Band Played Nearer, My
God, to Thee'--Captain Smith
Went Down With His Ship-Rich
and Poor Gave Way to Weaker Sex.

and body, wrote into the annals Of mari
time history the loss of the biggest
steamship ever built by man.
They were the survivors of the White
Star liner Titanic, which sank, bow
foremost, with nearly 1000 souls aboard,
her captain at the bridge, her colors
flying and her band playing "Nearer
My God to Thee" in 1000 fathoms of
water Off the banks of Newfoundland
under the starlit skies at ago a. M,
April IS.
With one voice they told of the
splendid heroism of those who remained
behind to find watery grave that 9TH
ers might live.
Captain Smith died, they said, as a
gallant sailor should, after first having
placed all the women who would go
aboard the lifeboats. They were many
who staid behind to die in their hus-
band s arms.
From their narratives stand out in
bold relief the following facts:
Fifteen hundred and eighty-nine per-
sons persisted when the great ship went
down or died after a vain struggle
amid the mass Of wreckage in the icy
water.
Six more died from exposure and ex-
haustion after succor had reached them,
bringing the total death loss in the
greatest that ocean travel has ever
known, to 1895.
The Titanic was making 81 knots an
hour when she struck the iceberg.
No one at first thought she would
sink.
She remained aloat more than two
hours.
The iceberg ripped open her hull be-
low the water line.
Instant panic was averted by Cap
tain Smith terse appeal to his crew !:
"Be British, my men!"
A small number of steerage passeng.
ers tried to rush for the lifeboats and
were held back by the crew and other
passengers.
Men Of wealth and world wide prom.
inence, with hundreds more of obscurer
station, chose to remain to die on the
doomed vessel.
Many women refused to leave the
ship, but chung to their husbands, pre-.
ferring to face death with them.
The Titanic turned her nose to the
bottom when the last lifeboat was less
than hundred yards away, reared he,
stern high in the air and trembled for
moment before seeking the bottom.
There were two explosions when the
in rushing waters reached her boilers
When she sank there was silence; a
moment later the cries and supplica-
lions of dying men rose in chorus in
describable over the spot where she
went down. For hours the survivors
rowed in lifeboats over a calm sea in
bitter cold until the Carpathia picked
them up.
In the aftermath today of the disas-
ter, principal developments were the
testimony of J. Bruce Ismay, managing
director of the White Star line, before
the senate Investigating committee, and
the removal of surviving members of
the Titanic's crew aboard the Lapland.
berg Ninety Feet High.
The Titanic struck an iceberg about
80 feet high, which ripped the liner Is
sides open and made the watertight
compartments useless. While the yes
sci was gradually sinking the water
reached her steaming boilers, causing
an explosion which sent her to the bot
tom.
Among the hundreds on her decks to
the last were Colonel John Jacob Astor
and Major Archibald Butt, President
Taft's military aide; Benjamin Gug-
genheim, Jacques Futrelle, George D.
Wldener, Henry B. Harris, the theatri-
cal man, and scores of other we'll known
persons. Isador Straus was among them
also, with Mrs. Straus, who refused to
leave her husband behind when she had
the opportunity to go herself.
Heroism of Butt and Aston.
Major Butt is reported to have been
one of the heroes. With an iron bar
IN his hands, he is said to have stood |
1T the steerage passage and defended |
he women and children from the fear |
stricken men in that part of the ship.
Colonel Astor also is said to have met |
MS fate bravely after seeing his bride
20 hfeboat, drawing aside to watch
'ther women step to safety and await |
ng his own fate.
1t was only because the maximum
capacity of the steamer s lifeboats was
barely third the complement of the
ship that the crew and hundreds of de-
spairing passengers had to be left to
their fate.
J. Bruce Ismay, managing director of
the White Star line, who was one of the
few prominent men who escaped with
their lives, is said by some of the pas
sengers to have been one of the first
to get into the lifeboats, but this is
denied by Mr.. Ismay himself.
The Unbelievable Happened.
The survivors of the Titanic, still suf.
fering from exhaustion, arrived in New
York last night, releasing a series of