TH E LOSS OF TH E S S . TITANIC ITS STORY AND ITS LESSONS B Y LAWRENCE BEESLEY B . A. (Ca n ta b. ) Sc holar of Gon ville a n d Caius Colle ge ONE OF THE SURVIVORS B OS TON AND N E W Y ORK H OU GH T ON MIFFLIN COMPANY (dtbc minerfi me 1m m Qt am b t ibge 1 9 1 2 PREFACE The c ir c um st an c e s in whic h this book came ll t o be written ar e as fo ows. Some five weeks after the survivor s from the Titanic landed in a s of New Y ork, I w s the gue t at luncheon Ho Hon . n . Samuel J . Elder and Charles T - s Bos Gallagher, both well known lawyer in t o r t on . After luncheon I wa s asked elate to those present the experiences of the sur vivor s in leaving the Titanic and reac hing the Carpathia . When I had done so, Mr . Robert Lincoln ’ O Bri n B st He r d e , the editor of the o on al , urged me as a matter of public interest t o write a correc t history of the Titanic disas l h , ter, is reason being that he knew severa publications were in prepar ation by people who had not been present at the disaster, but from newspaper accounts wer e piecing ( V ) PREFACE f together a description o it . He said that these publications would probably be erron c e n ous , full of highly coloured details , and g e r a lly calculate d to disturb public thought on t he matte r . He was supported in his reque st by all present, and under this ge neral pressure I accompanied him to Me ssrs . Houghton Mitflin Company , where we discussed the e of qu stion publication . i in Messrs . Houghton M ffl Company took at that time exactly the same view that I did , that it was probably not advisable to put on record t he incidents connected with ’ the Tit a n ic s sinking : it seeme d be tter to ' forget details as rapidly as possible . e However, we d cided to take a few days r e e e to think about it . At o u n xt m ting we found ourselves in agre ement again , b ut this tim e on the common ground that it would probably b e a wise thing to write a history of the Titanic disaster as correctly as possible . I ( vi ) PREFACE wa s supported in this decision by the fact e that a short account, which I wrote at int r vals on board the Carpathia , in the hope that it would calm public opinion by stating the truth of what happened as nearly as I could recolle ct it , appeared in all the American , English , and Colonial papers and had exactly e ff t the ect it was intended o have . This e u courages me t o hope that the effect of this work will be the same . Another matter aided me in coming t o a decision , the duty that we , as survivors owe o of the disaster, t those who went down with the ship; t o see that the reforms so urgently needed are n ot allowed t o be for gotten . Whoever reads the account of the cries that came to us afloat on the sea from those sink ing in the ice - cold water must remember that they were addressed t o him just as much as t o o e f th s who heard them , and that the duty o ( vii ) PREFACE seeing that reforms are carried out devolves on e ve ry on e who knows that such crie s we re he ard in utter helplessn ess the night the Titanic sank. CONTENTS S D I . CON TRUCTION AN PRE PARATIONS FOR THE FIRS T VOY AGE FROM SOUTHAMPTON To THE NIGHT O F THE COLLIS ION THE COLLIS ION AND EMB ARKATION IN LIFEB OATS IV THE K OF THE S EE . SIN ING TITANIC, N FROM A LIFE B OAT THE RE SCUE HE K OF THE S EE T SIN ING TITANIC, N FROM HE R DE CK ’ THE CARPATHIA S RE TURN TO NE W THE ES S S B Y THE SS VIII . L ON TAUGHT LO OF THE TITANIC I' E M E S S N S . SOM I PR IO ILLUSTRATIONS THE TITANIC Fr on tispie c e ‘ ' m o o r a t a e n e fast a r ur Ih o a ph t g ph k in B l H bo . C o r t e b Un e r woo an d Un e r woo Ne w py igh d y d d d d, V E W O F E KS O F TH E Y I FOUR D C OL MPIC, S IS TER S HIP O F TH E TITANIC rom a ot o ra u s e in the S e re Ma F ph g ph p bli h d ph , y 4 , 1 912 . TRANS VE RS E (am id ship) SE CTION THROUGH THE TITANIC a r a n e Aft e r d wi g furn ish d b y the Whit e St a r Lin e . LONGITUDINAL SE CTIONS AND DE CK PLAN O F THE TITANIC e r n s u s e in the S e r Aft pla p bli h d hipbuild . THE CARPATHIA Fr om a phot ogr a ph furn ishe d b y the Cun a r d St e am LO SS OF THE SS . TITANIC CHAPTER I CONS TRU CTIO N AND PREPARATIONS FOR THE FIRS T VOYAG E f f . o i . THE h story o the R . M S Titanic , the White Star Line , is one of the most tragically short it is possible to conceive . The world had waited expectantly for its launching and again for its sailing ; had read accounts of its tremendous size and its unexampled complete n ess and luxury ; had felt it a matter of the greatest satisfaction that such a comfortable , and above all such a safe boat had been de and then in a moment to hear that it had gone t o the bottom a s if it had been the verie st ( 1 ) THE LOSS OF THE SS . TITANIC tramp steamer of a few hundred tons ; and with it fifteen hundred passengers , some of the m known the world over ' The improba b ilit y of such a thing ever happening was what staggered humanity . If its history had to be written in a single paragraph it would be somewhat as follo ws : M R. S . M The Titanic was built by essrs . Harland Wolff at their well -known ship ’ a t building works Queen s Island , Belfast , e side by sid with her sister ship the Olympic . The twin vesse ls marke d such an increase in size that specially laid - out j oiner and boiler shops we re pre pared to aid in their construe e tion , and the space usually taken up by thr e building S lips was given up to them . The kee l 31 1 909 of the Titanic was laid on March , , and 31 1 9 1 1 she was launched on May , ; she passe d her trials before the Board of Trade Officials 1 1 91 2 on March 3 , , at Belfast , arrived at 4 . Southampton on April , and sailed the follow 9 V Y PREPARATIONS FOR , FIRST O AGE 1 0 2208 ing We dne sday , April , with passen e on gers and cr w, her maiden voyage to New he York . S called at Cherbourg the same day , Queenstown Thursday , and left for New York in the afternoon , expecting to arrive the following Wednesday morning . But the voy e age was never completed . She collid d with an 4 1 ° M . iceberg on Sunday at P . in Lat 46 ' ° ’ d . 50 an N and Long 1 4 W . , sank two hours and a half later ; 81 5 of her passengers and 688 of her crew were drowned and 705 ' rescued by the Carpathia . Such is the record of the Titanic, the largest ship the world had ever seen she was three inches longer than the Olympic and on e thou sand tons more in gross tonnage and her n end was the greatest maritime disaster know . The whole civilized world was stirred to its depths when the full extent of loss of life was n lear ed , and it has not yet recovered from the Shock . An d that is without doubt a good thing . ( 3 ) THE LOSS OF THE SS . TITANIC It should not recover from it until the possi b ility of such a disaster occurring again has been utterly removed from human society , whether by separate legislation in differe nt countries or by international agreement . NO living person should seek t o dwell in thought for one moment on such a disaster except in the endeavour t o glean from it knowledge that will be of profit to the whole world in the fu e ture . When such knowledg is practically a p plied in the construction , equipment, and navigation of passenger steamers — and not until then will be the time t o cease to think of the Titanic disaster and of the hundreds of men and women so needlessly sacrificed .