TERRIBLE CATASTROPHE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1032, 18 April 1912, Page 3

TERRIBLE CATASTROPHE.

WRECK OF THE TITANIC

GREAT TOSS OF RIFE

New York, April 15

The White Star liner Titanic, inward bound from Southampton, communicated by wireless with New York that she had collided with an iceberg off Cape Race, at the south-east extremity of Newfoundland, and was sinking fast by the head. The message stated that the women were being taken off. The liner Virginian is hastening to her aid. The Titanic was on her maiden voyage, and left Southampton on Wednesday with nearly three thousand souls aboard. London, April 15. The Titanic struck on Sunday evening. There were X3BO P as ' sengers aboard, including 300 in the first class. The crew numbered 650. The Virginian received the Titanic’s appeal when 170 miles away. The Olympic and Baltic have also gone to the rescue. It is doubtful whether the relief ships will arrive in time. The last signals were blurred and ended abruptly. The women debarked by the lifeboats. The weather is calm. The passengers included Mr W. T. Stead, editor ot the Review of Reviews; Mr James Ismay, ot Ismay, Imrie and Company, owners of the White Star line; Colonel J. Astor, the well-known millionaire; and several New York bankers. New York, April 16. The Olympic reports that when she reached the scene of the collision of the Titanic with an iceberg, only wreckage remained. London, April 16. White Star officials believe that 1500 passengers were drowned. Details are meagre and contradictory. It is believed all in the first class were rescued. This estimate is based on those aboard the Carpathia, to which the Virginian transferred the people R-t Uj uer. It is not known whether the Parisian saved any. 866 CASTAWAYS PICKED UP. London, April x 6. The Carpathio, while sailing to New York, picked up 866 people in lifeboats. Most ot the castaways are women. Those saved include Mrs Jacob Astor, Countess Rothes, Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon, Bart., Mr Bruce Ismay and Behr, the tenuis player. The Titanic lies two miles deep between Sable Island and Cape Race. The wrecked vessel carried a million pounds worth of diamonds and halt a million in pearls. The vessel cost ,£1,250,000, and the hull and cargo were insured for ,£2,350,000. Reinsurances were effected at fifty guineas per centum. New York, April 16. Mr Franklin, vice-president ol the White Star Company, admits that there is heavy loss of life from the Titanic disaster. The offices of the company are besieged by friends of wealthy Americans on board, and the absence of news caused excitement approaching a panic. Ottawa, April 16. Liners arriving at Montreal leport abnormal ice in the North Atlantic. Several vessels met large icefields off the Nova Scotia coast. London, April 16. Veteran Atlantic voyagers state that they have not before seen ice so far south in such great bulks. As it is now, they are mostly topless bergs, the upper surfaces of which are merely awash, and difficult to discern. London, April 16. The members of the House ol Commons stood bareheaded as Mr Asquith read the latest telegrams. He said : “All the boats are accounted for, and 675 souls are saved. We must brace ourselves to confront an event which appals the imagination.” He expressed the House’s deep admiration of the manner in which the best traditions of the sea had been upheld in the saving ot those least able to save themselves. Piteous scenes are being witnessed at the White Star office in Cockspur Street. Relatives waited for hours. Many people from the provinces, failing to get news from Liverpool, came to London, but the officials are only able to point to the Carpathian’s wireless that she had found the. boats and wreckage only. Similar scenes are occuriug at Southampton, of which place practically the whole ot the crew, numbering 903, are' natives, and there is scarcely a family in the town which has not lost a relative or friend. Paris, April 16. The office of the White Star Company is besieged with weeping inquirers. Shipping at Continental ports is half-masted. New York, April 16. There were pathetic scenes all night ontside the White Star line offices. Vincent Astor, son of Colonel John Jacob Astor, conferred for an hour with the vice-president, and departed in tears. Later. The latest news of the disaster to the Titanic shows that less than 700 out of over 2000 souls on board were saved. Of these, nearly all are women.