Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913, 1912-05-02
SURVIVORS OF The ILL-FATED
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.

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
Ny God to Thee" in 1000 fathoms of
water off the banks of Newfoundland
under the starlit skies at 2:20 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
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-
bands 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.
hours.
The iceberg ripped open her hull be-
low the water line.
Instant panic was averted by Cap
tain Smiths terse appeal to his crew:
"Be British, my men!"
A small number of steerage passeng.
ers tried to rush for the lifeboats and
passengers.
Men of wealth and world wide prom
inence, with hundreds more of obscureI
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 les.
than hundred yards away, reared hel
stern high in the air and trembled fol
a moment before seeking the bottom.
There were two explosions when tn,
in-rushing waters reached her boilers
When she sank there was silence;
moment later the cries and supplica
tions of dying men rose in chorus in
describable over the spot where sh
went down. For hours the survivor
rowed in lifeboats over calm sea il
bitter cold until the Carpathia picke'
them up.
In the aftermath today of the disas
ter, principal developments were tn
testimony of J. Bruce Ismay, managing
director of the White Star line, befor
the senate investigating committee, an
the removal of surviving members o
the Titanic crew aboard the Lapland
Berg Ninety Feet High.
The Titanic struck an iceberg abou
80 feet high, which ripped the liner
sides open and made the watertigh
compartments useless. While the vet
sci was gradually sinking the waite
reached her steaming boilers, causin
an explosion which sent her to the boz
tom.
Among the hundreds on her decks
the last were Colonel John Jacob AstC
and Major Archibald Butt, Presider
Taft Is military aide; Benjamin Gu,
genheim, Jacques Futrelle, George I
Widener, Henry B. Harris, the theatr
cal man, and scores of other well-know
persons. Isador Straus was among thel
also, with Mrs. Straus, who refused
leave her husband behind when she ha
the opportunity to go herself.
Heroism of Butt and Aston.
Major Butt is reported to have bee
one of the heroes. With an iron b,
in his hands, he is said to have stoc
at the steerage passage and defende
the women and children from the fea
stricken men in that part of the shi
Colonel Astor also is said to have m
his fate bravely after seeing his brio
to a lifeboat, drawing aside to watt
other women step to safety and avail
ing his own fate.
It was only because the maximu
capacity of the steamer g lifeboats W
barely third the complement Of 81