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A TITAN OF THE POLAR SEA LAZILY DRIFTING WITH THE CURRENT
GRAND DINING SALOONS.S. TITANIC
Photo Underwood & Underwood
CAPT. E. J. SMITH
The Commander of the Titanic, who went down with his ship
Bibliographical Note
This Dover edition, first published in 2011, is an unabridged republication of the Memorial Edition of the work, originally published by L. H. Walter, New York, in 1912 under the title and subtitle Story of the Wreck of the Titanic: The Oceans Greatest Disaster.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Everett, Marshall, 18631939.
The story of the wreck of the Titanic / edited by Marshall Everett.Dover ed.
p. cm.
Previous edition entered under: Everett, Marshall.
Originally published: Memorial ed. New York : L.H. Walter, 1912.
9780486310893
1. Titanic (Steamship). 2. ShipwrecksNorth Atlantic Ocean. I. Title.
G530.T6E83 2011
910.91634dc23
2011020387
Manufactured in the United States by Courier Corporation
48587001
www.doverpublications.com
PREFACE
THE disastrous collision, with an iceberg in midocean, of the mighty ocean linerthe Titanic the finest example of modern ship buildingand the awful loss of 1,595 of the 2,340 passengers aboard, goes down easily in history as the greatest of ocean catastrophes.
The Titanic, a floating palace of luxury, the largest and finest steamship ever built, set forth on her maiden trip with the avowed purpose of following the shortest course at the highest possible speed. Her 2,340 passengers, for the most part on pleasure bent, among whom were some of the wealthiest and most distinguished people of both sides of the Atlantic, felt such perfect confidence in the liner that, even after she was struck and when she was sinking, they could not believe her destruction possible.
But the largest and finest steamship ever built as she ploughed her way swiftly through the quiet Atlantic, plunged against a monster iceberg which lay stretched out for miles over the sea. Her side was ripped open, her boilers exposed to the icy waters, yet the people were not alarmed.
Not until the twenty lifeboats were put off with their protesting cargoes and the decks were tilted up dangerously did the people really lose their faith. The ship went down filling the quiet night with the cries of horror of the victims plunged to their untimely death.
Four agonizing hours were spent by the survivors suffering unbelievably from exposure and grief until they were picked up by the rescue ship Carpathia, utterly exhausted by their terrible experience. Thrilling tales of bravery and of sacrifice make this one of the most impressive tragedies of modern history. And the fact that the awful loss of life was avoidable by the simple provision of sufficient lifeboats to keep the passengers afloat till help could come, lays heavy indictment upon the modern commercial spirit which willingly takes in its care hundreds of people trusting to sheer luck to ward off danger.
This is the grim lesson to be learned from the tragedy. For the criminal neglect of others, these hundreds of innocent people atoned, and as an everlasting memorial to them will be the stringent laws made and enforced for safeguarding the millions who will trust their lives to the ocean in the future.
In this book the thrilling story is set forth clearly, the facts about the ship and the voyage, the passengers, the pathetic details of the wreck, the first-hand accounts of the survivors. The whole sad story is here.
Table of Contents
THE GUARDIAN ANGEL OF THE SEA PAYS TRIBUTE TO THE MARTYRED HEROES
CHAPTER I
THE TWO TITANS
AS the Titanic drew away from the wharf to begin her only voyage, a common emotion quickened the thousands who were aboard her. Grimy slaves who worked and withered deep down in the glaring heat of her boiler rooms, on her breezy decks men of achievement and fame and millionaire pleasure seekers for whom the boat provided countless luxuries, in the steerage hordes of emigrants huddled in straited quarters but with their hearts fired for the new free land of hope; these, and also he whose anxious office placed him high above allcharged with the keeping of all of their livesthis care-furrowed captain on the bridge, his many-varied passengers, and even the remotest menial of his crew, experienced alike a glow of triumph as they faced the unknown dangers of the deep, a triumph born of pride in the enormous, wonderful new ship that carried them.
For she was the biggest boat that ever had been in the world. She implied the utmost stretch of construction, the furthest achievement in efficiency, the bewildering embodiment of an immense multitude of luxuries for which only the richest of the earth could pay. The cost of the Titanic was tremendousit had taken many millions of dollarsmany months to complete her. Besides (and best of all) she was practically unsinkable her owners said; pierce her hull anywhere, and behind was a watertight bulkhead, a sure defense to flout the floods and hold the angry ocean from its prey.
Angry is the wordfor in all her triumph of perfection the Titanic was but mans latest insolence to the sea. Every article in her was a sheer defiance to the Deeps might and majesty. The ship is not the oceans bride; steel hull and mast, whirling shaft and throbbing engine-heart (products, all, of serviceable wonderworking fire)what kinship have these with the wild and watery waste? They are an affront and not an affinity for the cold and alien and elusive element that at all times threatens to overwhelm them.
But no one on the Titanic dreamed of danger when her prow was first set westward and her blades began the rhythmic beat that must not cease until the Atlantic had been crossed. Of all the statesmen, journalists, authors, famous financiers who were among her passengers (many of whom had arranged their affairs especially to secure passage in this splendid vessel), in all that brilliant company it may be doubted if a single mind secreted the faintest lurking premonition of a fear. Other ships could come safely and safely go, much more this monsterwhy, if an accident occurred and worse came to worst, she was literally too big to sink! Such was the instinctive reasoning of her passengers and crew, and such the unconsidered opinion of the world that read of her departure on the fatal day which marked the beginning of her first voyage and her last.
