DISASTERS OF THE PAST

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2164, 1 June 1914, Page 8

DISASTERS OF THE PAST

THE TITANIC TRAGEDY. In the number of lives lost and in its dramatic suddenness, tho sinking of the White Star liner Titanic, with a los 3 of 1500 lives, is almost paralleled by tho disaster .to tho Empress of Ireland, hut tho Titanic wreck was the more appalling through the very confidence in her safety that inspired her passengers until the end. The Titanic crashed into an ioeberg off the coast of Nova Scotia while on her maiden voyage from England, and when within a few hours' steam of her destination, New York, early on Sunday morning, April 15, 1912. The great liner earned 1680 passengers, many of* them being amongst the most prominent in literary and financial circles in England and America; there were women who'were leaders of fashion, great bankers, millionaires and literary men amongst them, all going upon a pleasant trip in the world's finest boat, which everyone believed to bo unsinkable, because it had so often been reiterated that the ample provision of watertight compartments made her so. Besides her passengers, the Titanic carried crew and officers to' the number of 903—in all, the population of a small town. The officers realised the danger, and tho order was given out, "All passengers on deck with lifebelts on," but even . then they believed the order to be nierely a precautionary measure, and there was no panic. Then the boats were swung out, and the order given, "All men stand from boats, women retire' to deck below." Then it was that the seriousness of the position Ittgan to be realised, women had to be forcibly dragged from their husbands and pushed into the boats'. Then the men were allowed to follow, but so great was the confidence displayed' that even then many preferred to remain aboard, and so, while many ; boats went away crowded, others contained, only a. few. The wireless operator's frantic appeal for help brought several great liners on the' scene, but when they awived tho Titanic had plunged to the bottom, and all that remained for tho rescuers to do was pick up tho This appaling disaster thrilled the whole world. Other great British sea' disasters of recent yeara aro:— Lives lost. 1892—Namchow, off Cupchl Point, China 509 1894—Wararapa, Great Barrer Island 125 1896—Drummond Castle, wrecked off Ushant 247 1899—Stella, excursion steamer, lost off Alderney 105 1904—Norge, emigrant steamer, ■ wrcckcd off Rockall Reef 637 1905—Hilda, railway steamer, wrecked off St. Malo- 128 1906—Larchmont, steamer, Block Island Sound ;... 200 1909—Waratah, steamer, off. African Coast 300 1912—Titanic, collision with iceberg off Cape Race 1500 In foreign shipping disasters, the outstanding losses were:— 189G—Elbe, German liner, sunk in collision off Lowestoft ..: 334 1898—La Bourgoyne, French liner, off Nova Sootia .................... 545 1904—General Slocum, Now York excursion steamer, burnt 1000 1906—Sirio, Italian emigrant ship, wrecked on the Spanish coast 300 1907—Berlin, a German steamer, lost off Hook of Holland 128 1910 —General Cauzy, French steamer, lost off Minorca 200