The Penn's Grove record., 1912-04-26

out most prominently in the investlga-
ton into the loss of the Titanic is that
1885 lives and a $10,0 00, 900 floating
palace might have been saved from
destruction by a pair Of binoculars
costing less than $50.
Two witnesses before the Senate in
vestigating committee agreed on this.
They were Frederick Fleet, a lookout
on the liner, and Major Arthur Cod
frey Peuchen, Canadian manufacture
er and yachtsman, who was among
the rescued passengers.
Fleet acknowledged that if he had
been aided in his observations by a
good glass he probably could have
seen the iceberg into which the ship
crashed in time to have warned the
officer on the bridge to avoid it.
Major Arthur G.. Peuchen, a pas
senger, also testified to the much
greater sweep of vision afforded by
binoculars, and, as a yachtsman, said
he believed the presence of the ice
berg might have been detected in
time to escape the collision had the
lookout men been so equipped.
1t was made to appear that the
blame for being without glasses did
not rest with the lookout men. Fleet
said they had asked for them at
Southampton and were told there
were none for them. One glass in a
pinch would have served in the crows
nest.
Fleet testified he sent the custom
airy three bells warning to the bridge
and also telephoned that ice was
ahead just before the vessel crashed.
He had not noticed the iceberg until
near it, and it looked quite black and
dim until they got very close to it.
AS soon as he had telephoned, he
said, an acknowledgment was sent
back from the bridge, but it was IN
til the Titanic had collided with the
iceberg that any change was made in
the vessels direction. Her helm was
then swung hard to starboard and the
vessel veered to port.
Bulkheads, Not Boilers, Exploded.
H. j. Pitman, third officer of the I'll
tanic, testified it was his opinion that
the bulkheads gave way with an ex-
plosive noise, instead of her boilers
exploding, as has been stated. He
heard, he says, after he took to sea
in a lifeboat, a long, low continual
moan from the drowning people. 1t
caused him to make an effort to re-
turn to try to rescue some, he said, as
his boat could hold more, but he gave
up the attempt on the protest of the
passengers in his boat, who said the
crowd would swamp the boat and add
these heartrending cries for an hour,
gradually dying away as victim after
victim persisted. He said when the
Titanic went down it plunged almost
perpendicularly, bow first.
Turned Deaf Ear to Cries for Help.
For fully an hour, according to the
testimony of Pitman, third officer,
there came from the spot where the
Titanic had sunk that awful wall of
the helpless and abandoned, begging
and imploring for assistance, while
those who manned at least sixteen
lifeboats, none more than two-thirds
filled, rested on their oars from one
half to five-eighths of a mile away,
turning a deaf ear alike t othe piteous
pleadings of the women in their
agonizing e of the abandoned.
This statement by Pitman, was con-
firmed by Major Peuchen, of Toronto,
a man with nautical experience and
of obvious intelligence.
Then We heard those dreadful
cries, moaning and crying and pray
ing and cursing. Oh, it was simply
awful" said Major Peuchen. And
when Pitman was asked about it he
begged the chairman not to press the
subject because at was so awful"
This was that chorus of death of
which n of the survivors said. God
alone knows what it was like. 1t will
ring in our ears for all eternity
Gradually the picture of the sinking
Of the Titanic, with its remaining
complement of fifteen hundred lives,
is being painted by those who saw it,
and as the details are sketched in by
these witnesses its horror only in
creases, while the needless loss of life
becomes more and more obvious.
Not fewer than three hundred lives
were sacrificed by failure to fill the
boats and by the wanton heartless-
ness to use no stronger term-of
those who commanded them and who
refused to return to the scene of the
wreck in order to take on more, ore,
at least, deliberately ~disobeying the or
ders of his commanding officer, be-
cause, he said, "It's our lives, not
thairSo