The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1912-04-26
SIXTEEN HUNDRED LIVES LOST
RESULT OF SINKING OF TITANIC
GIGANTIC VESSEL WAS SPEED.
ING WHEN SHE CRASHED INTO
IcEBEG AND WAS SENT TO
BOTTOM or SEA.
Rescued Passengers Tell Of IeroIsnn
Of Men Of Means Who Gave Up
Their Lives That Women and
Children Might BE Saved.

New YorkSo far as the loss Of
life is concerned, the first reports Of
the terrible disaster which befell the
worlds largest steamship, the III.
tanic, which struck an iceberg and
sank on April IA, while on her
maiden trip from Southampton to
New York, seems to be correct
With the arrival at New York on
Thursday of the Carpathis, bearing
the survivors, TAG in number, 1t was
at last admitted that at least 1,601
lives had been lost as a result of the
terrible accident
The passengers all tell practically
the same story of the heroism of the
men, passengers and crew.. who gave
up their chances of being saved by
insisting that the women and chill
dren be the first to enter the life
boats.
A number OF the worlds most
noted men went down to their death,
calmly, and In many instances with
as little apparent concern as though
setting out upon pleasure trip.
Among this band of noted men were
John Jacob Astor, multi-millionaire;
Benjamin Guggenheim, Isador
Staruss, William T. Stead, Major Ar
chibald w. Butt, Washington Roeb-
ling, Charles M. Hays, F. D. Millet,
Henry H. Harris! Jacques Furtelle,
George d. Wick, George D. Widener,
Harry Widener, Arthur Ryerson, Will
liam c. Dulles, @. Duane Williams,
Frederick Sutton, and many others.
!, Twelve of the men mentioned pos
sessed fortunes which totaled $751;
10000. Yet all these men, with
everything worth living for, calmly
assisted women and children to pos
sible safety, and remained on the
doomed ship.
EFT AIONANI etaoi rhdlu entaois chr
Not that these men were alone in
their heroism. The general verdict
seems to be that from the highest to
the lowest on the doomed vessel, the
first thought seems to have been to
protect the weaker ones.
When the Titanic struck the iceberg,
after the greater portion of the pas
sengers had retired for the night, it
was at first thought that the damage
was slight. Even after the order had
been issued to secure life preservers
and lower the boats, many thought
they were safer on the vesSel than in
the boats.
The great ship went down, however,
before the lifeboats were mile away,
the survivors Witnessing the fatal dive
which took hundreds of souls into
eternity
A little over four hours after the
passengers mad left the sinking Titanic,
they we're picked up by the Carpathia,
which had hurried to the assistance
of the doomed vessel, after being ad-
vised of the accident by wireless.
That the Carpathia received the
wireless message announcing the &C
cident was due to the fact that the
wireless operator on the Carpathia
had remained on duty ten minutes
longer than was his usual custom.
Captain E. ]. Smith, commander of
the Titanic, went down with his ship.
One of the survivors declares that just
before the Titanic plunged v the bot
tom, Captain Smith was washed over
board, and came within a few fec of
raft on which he, with others, was
clinging. He called to the captain, who
replied, Good bye. boys; l am going
to follow the ship" He then swan
back to the Titanic.
Some of the boats, it seems. were
not sufficiently manned by seamen,
and in many cases the women were
forced, to row. In other instances
there were more seamen in the boats
than were necessary, while it is
charged that some of the boats were
only half filed.
The Titanic was going at the rate
Of twenty-one knots an hour at the
time of the accident, and there seems
to be no doubt that the officers were