The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1912-04-26
THRILLING ACCOUNT OF
TRAGIC ENDING OF
TITANIC

Sacred Music as the Doomed Vessel
| Went to the Bottom-Titanic's Life.
Saving Apparatus Inadequate Say
Many of the Survivors
The latest Geographic reports from
New York regarding the unfortunate
Titanic, says: The Cunard liner
Carpathia came into New York Thurs
day night with first news direct from
the great White Star liner Titanic,
which sank off the grand banks of
New Foundland early last Monday.
To the awful death list six persons
We're added One died in the lifeboat
when it put off from the liners side
and five subsequently succumbed on
the rescue ship Carpathia. The list
of prominent men missing stands as
previously reported, and the total
death list as brought to port by the
Carpathia is 1901.
| Survivors in the lifeboats huddled
in the darkness at a safe distance
from the stricken ship and saw her
go down.
AS to the scene on board when the
liner struck, accounts disagree wide
ly. Some maintain that a compare
tive calm prevailed; others say that
wild disorder broke out, and that
there was a maniacal struggle for the
lifeboats. That the liner struck an
iceberg, as reported by wireless, was
confirmed by all.
Sensational rumors told by hyster-
ical passengers who would not give
their names, said that Captain Smith
had killed himself on the bridge;
that the chief engineer had taken his
life, and that three Italians were shot
in the struggle for the boats. These
rumors could not be confirmed in the
early confusion attendant upon the
landing of the survivors.
Ripped from stem to engine room
by the great mass of ice she struck,
the Titanic's side was laid open as if
by gigantic can opener. She quick
ly listed to starboard, and shower
of ice fell onto the forecastle deck.
Shortly before she sank she broke
in two abaft the engine and as she
disappeared beneath the water, the
expulsion of air caused two explo-
sions, which were plainly heard by
the survivors adrift. A moment more
and the Titasic had gone to her doom
with the helpless passengers on
board.
To the survivors were visible the
remaining passengers, moaning and
crying as the vessel sank from sight.
Every woman and child, with the
exception of those women who refus-
ed to leave their husbands were saw
ed.
The steamer went down with the
survivors watching the lights ablaze,
heard her band playing amid the
groans of those left on deck.
Probably the most accurate &C.
count of the sinking of the Titanic
by one who was on board and passed
through the terrible ordeal is that of
Charles L. Hurd, staff correspondent
of the New York Evening World.
Mr.. Hurd says:
THE crash against the iceberg.
which had been sighted at only a.
quarter OF mile distant, came al
most simultaneously with the click
of the levers operated from the
bridge, which stopped the engines
and closed the watef-tight doors.
Captain Smith was on the bridge a
moment later, summoned all on
board to put on life preseryers, and
ordered the lifeboats lowered. The
first boats had more male passengers,
as the men were the first to reach
the decks When the rush of fright
ened men and women and crying
children to the deck began, The 'wo-
men first rule was rigidly enforced.
Harold Cotton, Marconi operator
on the Carpathia, did not go to bed
at his usual time Sunday night, and
as a result caught the first message
of the Titanic's plight, which was re-
sponsible for saving the hundreds
who were landed in New York.
Officers Knew Icebergs Were Near
THE facts which l have establish
ed by inquiries on the Carpathia,
says Mr. Hurd, "in. view of the silence
of the surviving officers, are:
That the Titanics officers knew.
several hours before the crash, of the
possible nearness of ieebergs.
That the Titanic's speed, nearly
twenty-three knots an hour, was not
slackened.
THAT the number of lifebOats on