The Thibodaux sentinel. (Thibodaux, La.) 1905-1912, 1912-04-27
Titanic WENT DOWN
WITH BAND PLAYING
CARRYING SIXTEEN HUNDRED
AND ONE SOULS WITH HER,
SEVEN HUNDRED SAVED.
GREAT VESSEL BROKE AM|DSH|P
Practically Every voman and cn''o
Saved Captain Smith TOOK
His Life-Astor Finds
Watery Grave.

bringing glad reunion to some' pu'
misery unutterable to many, the Gar
pathia, with the survivors of the los'
Titanic aboard. came back to grief
stricken city and nation at O'CLOCK
Thursday night.
The story she brought home was
one to Grush the heart with It's patnos,
hut at the same time to thrill it with
pride in the manly and womaniy fortl'
tude displayed in the face OF the
most awful peril and inevitable death.
AS the Titanic went down. accord
ing to the story of those who were
among the last to leave her wounded
| hulk, the ships band was playing,
Captain Smith stood to his post, calm,
resolute. efficient to the last, and
when all that mortal man could dc for
the 1000 lives intrusted to his care
! had been done, raised his revolver
| and shot himself while standing on
| the bridge. The passenger who told
| the story of the captains end said
that he made two attempts upon his
life before he succeeded, fellow Of
ficers wrestling his weapon from his
hand the first time as he stood in the
ships library He then broke away
and, standing at his post on the
bridge, discharged the revolver into
his mouth. The chief engineer, 1t is
said. also committed suicide.
Steaming Eighteen Knots.
The night was clear, and the ma
jestic ship was steaming at rate OF
eighteen knots when she struck the
iceberg that sent her to the bottom,
two thousand fathoms deep. Her hull
rose on shelf of the berg, just as
has been surmised, and in so doing
and in the subsequent recoil her bot
tom plates and her port side were
was no such terrific shock from the
impact as might have been supposed,
according to the preponderance of the
evidence.
The captain and officers at once re-
assured the passengers, believing that
der this encouragement, many OF them
went back to their staterooms, and
not a few calmly returned to their
berths. That is said to account for
the fact that many of the women were
not even ON deck when the imminence
of their danger was realized, and
scores of them were drowned in the
staterooms like rats in trap.
Three Separate Explosions.
About one hour before the ship
plunged to the bottom there were
three separate explosions from the
boiler rooms as the vessel filled.
These we're at intervals of about fiji
teen minutes. Until then there had
been no panic and but little disorder.
From that moment, however, there
was a different scene. The rush for
the remaining boats became STAN
pede. The officers had to assert their
authority and some were shot down
without mercy, it is declared by some
and denied by others.
Henry B. Harris, the theatrical man
ager of this city, was one of the men
who showed superb courage in the
u 1919 " ASu IHS l1SDOdlS "SIc llISt
being filled, Mr. Harris went to the
side of his wife before the boat was
lowered away.
women first" shouted one of the
ships officers. Mr.. Harris glanced up
and saw that the remark was ad-
dressed to him.
"All right" he replied, coolly;
goodbye, my DEAR" he said as he
kissed his wife, pressed her a mo-
ment to his breast and then climbed |
back to the Titanic's deck
Tells Of Terrible Scenes.
Robert Daniel, Philadelphia pas
senger, tells of terrible scenes at this |
period of the disaster; he says men
fought and bit and struck one another |
like madmen and exhibits wounds |
upon his face to prove the assertion.
Mr.. Daniel says that he was picked up
naked from the ice cold water and al
most persisted from exposure before
he was rescued. He and others say
that the Titanics bow was completely
torn away by the impact with the
berg.
Death Toll Over 1000.
AS brought to this port, the total
death list is placed at 1,601 and the
total number of those saved at 745,
the ship having had aboard In all
. $40 persons