The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-04-19
Many Returned to Rooms After
Going on Deck.
Captain, Crew and Passengers
Acted Heroes Part.
TORE GREAT HOLE IN SIDE
Water Poured in and the Boil
ers Exploded.
Shock of Collision With Iceberg
Not Severe.

| New York, April 19.-Fifteen hundred
and eighty-nine lives were lost on the
Titanic which struck an iceberg 1T
Has p. M, Sunday, and were at the
oceans bottom hours and thirty
five minutes after. OF the Titanics BAL
first cabin passengers, 212 were saved,
154 of them were women and children,
and of the 262 second cabin passengers,
lis were saved, 102 of them were wom-
en- and children.
OF the third class passengers, 800 n
number, 1856 were saved; SO of whom
were women and children OF 985 off,
GERS and crew 1919. including % women,
were rescued.
No survivor can question the courage
of the crew, hundreds of whom gave
their lives with heroism which equal
led, but could not exceed that of John
Jacob AstOr, Henry B. Harris, jacques
Futrelle and others in the long list of
first cabin passengers.
The bulkhead system, though prob
ably working, prevailed only to day
the ships sinking. The position of the
ships wound on the starboard quarter
admitted cold water, which caused the
boilers to explode, and their explosions |
broke the ship in two.
The crash against the iceberg, which |
had been sighted at only a quarter of
mile came almost simultaneously |
with the click of the levers operated |
from the bridge which stopped the en- |
gines and closed the air tight doors |
Captain Smith was on the bridge d |
moment later He summoned all on
board to put on life preservers and or
dered the Hfeboats lowered.
The first boat had more men pas |
sengers as they were the first to reach !
the deck.
When the rush of frightened men !
and women and crying children to the |
decks began, the women first rule |
was enforced. officers drew revolvers, |
but in most cases there was no use |
for them.
Smith Not Suicide.
Revolver shots heard shortly before |
the Titanic went down caused many !
rumors, one that Captain Smith had |
shot himself, another that First Of |
ficer Murdoch had ended his life, blu |
members of the crew discredit these
rumo-..
Captain Smith was last seen on the
bridge just before the ship sank, leap
ing only after the decks had been |
washed away. What became of the |
men with life preservers, was the J
question asked by many since the dis !
aster. Many of those with life pre-
servers were seen to go down despite I
the preservers, and dead bodies hoated
on the surface as the last boats moved /
away.
1t is stated positively the ships !
string band gathered in the saloon,
near the end, and played Nearer My
God to Thee"
Mrs. Isidor Straus refused to leave
her husbands side, and both persisted +
together.
Hear G. Q. d. Call.
Harold Cotton, the Marconi operator
of the Carpathia, did not go to bed at
his usual time Sunday night and as a
result caught the first message of the
THAMES plight. He had been relaying
messages to the Titanic on Sunday
night and shortly after II O'Clock bade
the Titanic operator good night. Just
as he was about to take the receiver
off his head, the c. Q. D. call sound
ed. This was followed by the words,
We've hit something; come at once"
the Carpathia's officers and her course
was at once changed in the direction
of the Titanic at full speed of 8 knots
for the full distance of so miles inter-
venfng between the two ships.
Before Cotton could make reply to
the c. Q. D., the Titanic's I'm afraid
we are gone" Cotton sent word of the
coming of the Carpathia. No further
doomed ship.
The Titanic's speed of % knots hour
was never slackened, and she was going
at that speed when she struck
Not Alarmed at First
S. V. Silverthorne of ST. Louis was one
of three or four saloon passengers on the /
Titanic who saw the deadly iceberg just
after the collision.
Il was in the. smoking room, reading
near a Dr10R0 WHIST game at one of the |
tables" he said. when the crash came
1 said: We've hit something and went !
out on the starboard side to look. None
of US was alarmed. 1t occurred to me
that might have bumped some small
craft
81 went back in the smoking room with
had not left the smoking room at all and
was waiting impatiently for the others to
returned and took up their hands, and
we were all about to settle down when an
officer ordered US on deck and told US TO
get into the boats.
There not being enough women on
deck to fill the first ones. we did not like
the idea of leaving the ship then but did
rooms would have had to stand aside, |
as other men did then
People Died in Life Boats.
H. Haven of Indianapolis said the
she struck and the the helmsman ap-
parently had seen the danger and put
the helm over, for the boat veered to
port and struck the iceberg a glanc-
ing blow. This ripped off large
section of the plates on the starboard
side and the water began to pour in.
There was a great rush for the life
boats as soon as it was known there
was any real danger. So precipitate
was this rush that many in apparent
frenzy jumped into the sea. "A re-
markable thing was that the lights
continued to burn although the Ii
tanic settled lower and lower. When
we were at some distance from the
sinking ship we could still see the
figures of hundreds of persons on the
deck at the railing. There were sever
al explosions.
More persons went overheard
Presently the Titanic buckled amid
ship and we could see persons sliding
off into the water both fore and aft.
Then the boat settled somewhat by the
bow, the lights went out and that was
the last we saw of the Titanic
1.-THE temperature must have been
helnW freezing and neither men nor