Monday night the world slept in peace and assurance. A wireless message had finally been received, reading:
"All Titanic's passengers safe."
It was not until nearly a week later that the fact was discovered that this message had been wrongly received in the confusion of messages flashing through the air, and that in reality the message should have read:
"Are all Titanic's passengers safe?"
With the dawning of Tuesday morning came the awful news of the true fate of the Titanic.
This is a very satisfying beginning. Sinking of the Titanic and Great Sea Disasters by Marshall Logan, is a book from 1912, published shortly after the sinking.
This version should have been re-titled, because the chapters on other disasters have been removed. The book stands on its own of course, just recounting the story of the Titanic.
PASSENGERS IN IGNORANCE
"Of course," he went on, "the passengers knew nothing of the fire. Do you think we'd have let them know about it? No, sir. "The fire started in bunker No. 6. There were hundreds of tons of coal stored there.
The coal on top of the bunker was wet, as all the coal should have been, but down at the bottom of the bunker the coal had been permitted to get dry.
"The dry coal at the bottom of the pile took fire, and smoldered for days. The wet coal on top kept the flames from coming through, but down in the bottom of the bunkers the flames were raging.
"Two men from each watch of stokers were tolled off, to fight that fire. The stokers worked four hours at a time, so twelve of us were fighting flames from the day we put out of Southampton until we hit the iceberg.
And there is this heartbreaking story
Among the many hundreds of heroic souls who went bravely and quietly to their end were fifty happy-go-lucky youngsters shipped as bell boys or messengers to serve the first cabin passengers. James Humphreys, a quartermaster, who commanded life-boat No. 11, told a little story that shows how these fifty lads met death.
Humphreys said the boys were called to their regular posts in the main cabin entry and taken in charge by their captain, a steward. They were ordered to remain in the cabin and not get in the way. Throughout the first hour of confusion and terror these lads sat quietly on their benches in various parts of the first cabin.
Then, just toward the end when the order was passed around that the ship was going down and every man was free to save himself, if he kept away from the life-boats in which the women were being taken, the bell boys scattered to all parts of the ship.
Humphreys said he saw numbers of them smoking cigarettes and joking with the passengers. They seemed to think that their violation of the rule against smoking while on duty was a sufficient breach of discipline.
Not one of them attempted to enter a life-boat. Not one of them was saved.
The book has some quirky formatting; as the many illustrations are missing, but the captions in brackets remain.
The 100 year anniversary of the Titanic’s sinking has been brought to public attention with the Carnival Cruise ship sinking and parallels with the Titanic disaster. This book will help you if you are interested in comparing the two disasters.
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