The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1912-04-18

Other liners beside the Virginian
heard the call. The big Baltic, 1920
miles to the eastward and west
bound, turned again to try to save
life as it did when the Republic was
cut down in a fog in January, 1909.
The Titanic's mate, the Olympic,
the greatest of seagoers save the
Titanic itself, turned in it's tracks.
All along the northern lane the mir
acle of the wireless worked for the
distressed and, sinking White Star
ship.
The Hamburg-American Cincin-
natl, the Partisan, from Glasgow;
the North German Lloyd Prinz Freid-
rich Wilhelm, the Hamburg-Ameri-
can liners Prinz Adabert and Amer
ika all heard the appeal and the
rapid, condensed explanation of
what had happened.
Virginian First to Hear.
But the Virginian-barely 10
miles away-was the first to know of
the Titanic's danger. 1t went about
and headed under forced draught for
the spot indicated in one of the last
wireless messages 40.32
north and longitude 61.1S west.
The final fluttering Marconigrams
that were released from the Titanic
made it certain that the great steam
ship was filling and in desperate
peril.
Farther out at sea was the Car
pathia, which left New York for the
Meditteranian on April .13., This
boat plunge back westward. And
the third steamship within short
sailing of the Titanic was the Allan
Partisan, away to the eastward on
it's way from Glasgow from Halifax
Appeal Sent Broadcast.
While these vessels hastened with
all the drive that steam could give
them the Titanic's call reached to
Cape Race, in New Foundland, and
message which quickly reached New
York.
"Have struck an iceberg. We are
badly damaged. Titanic. Latitude
ALAG north, 50.14 west"
Cape Race threw the appeal broad
cast wherever its apparatus could
carry. So that for hours, while the
world waited for a crumb Of news as
to the safety of the great ships peo-
pie, not one thing more was known
save that it was drifting, broken
helpless and alone, in the midst of
a waste of ice.
And it was not until seventeen
hours after the Titanic had sunk,
carrying with it-as now seems GER
tain-a great part of it's passengers
q 10 10 10
of the air as to the vessels fate.
There was confusion and tangle Of
tumble of rumors.
Good tidings were trOdden upon
by evil, and no man knew clearly
what was taking place in that stretch
of water where the giant icebergs
were making mock of all that the.
world knew best, in ship-building,,
b IT. was 1871 a. m. while the; Vir-tt
gilman was still Rlunging eastward, J,
that all communication from the Ti-.
talic ceased, The Virginian's oper-
ator, with the captain at his elbow,
fed the air with blue flashes in a
desperate effort to know what was
to the crippled liner, but
no message came back.
"Sinking," is Last Word.
The last word from the Titanic
was that it was sinking. Then the
sparkling became fainter. The call
was dying to nothing. The Vir-
giniA's operator labored over blur
of signals. IT was hopeless, So the
Allan ship strove on, fearing that
the worst had happened.
1t was this ominous silence that
SO alarmed the other vessels hurry
ing to the Titanic that caused sus-
pense and then horror here. And in
the long hours that followed there
was no explanation of that dying
away of the wireless.
Maybe the apparatus was injured
when the vessel plunged against the
iceberg; possibly the supply of fuel
for the wireless motors gave out, or
it may have been that some one in
authority decided it was best to wait
before f1inging futile news abroad.
At any rate, the Titanic, already
water logged, it's end certainty, it's
people straining their eyes for the
first streak of fire against the hori-
zon that would show the approach
of. help, was as much cut off
from the world as II 1t was already
on ocean bottom. ;,
Carpathia First to Aid.
Although the Virginia had been
the first to hear the appeal, the Car
pathia was the first of the relief ships
to arrive. And it is the vessel which
is reported to have rescued the 675
persons off the Titanic.
s What took place in the time be-
tween the arrival of the Carpathia
and the Virginian and before the IT.
tanic sank is not known. Indeed,
the huge steamship may have gone
down before the aid came, and those
of the passengers who were saved
may all have been taken from life
boats. -, ~
It is assumed here, that before
help came Capt. E. J. Smith of the
Titanic, the admiral of the White
Star feet, the careful veteran who
has brought so many of the lines
finest ships to this port on their
maiden trips, realized early that
there was small chance of his vessel