Titanic Disaster.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 255, 27 April 1912, Page 5

Titanic Disaster.

NATIONAL ETIQUETTE. ' THE SENATORIAL ENQUIRY. ' THE WIRELESS APPARATUS. By Cable—Pre#* Association—Copyright Received 27, 9.30 p.m. London, April 26. In the House of Lords, Lord Stanhope drew attention to the Titanic flying the British flag. The Senatorial enquiry struck at the root of the position in war time, rendering her nationality doubtful. American feeling would be forcibly expressed if the position was reversed.

Mr. Morley deprecated the discussion, Baying that any State may institute an enquiry into a foreign wreck whereby the lives of its subjects were lost. Powers to detain witnesses existed in , most countries, and it was obvious that they should be exercised in consideration of the necessities of other ...countries, Washington, April 26. It is rumored that there are internal dissensions in the committee, owing to Semator Smith monopolising its time. After a ■ vote overruling Senator • Smith's ruling, several of the committee resented his plan of holding forty witnesses in Washington until the examina- . tion of all was completed. Senator Smith announced that the rest of the . witnesses would be apportioned to various members of the committee, who would decide whether it was important enough to examine them before the full committee, thus saving time. Marconi was sharply examined concerning an alleged wireless message to the operator on the Carpathia, advising him to withhold the narrative of the wreck. He said that he did not know of any telegrams sent through authorised operators offering to sell their stories. Bride received £IOO .from one news-, paper. The Marconi Company was not responsible for the delay in publishing details. It left the conduct of the wireless apparatus to the Carpathia's captain. Marconi advocated each Government controlling certain wave lengths, issuing licenses to use these when available. When the wave lengths were exhausted they should refuse to license more stations.

Ottawa, April 26. In memory of Mr. Ila.vs, the entire Grand Trunk system was suspended for five minutes, and the stations were draped with mourning.

CANADA'S CONTRIBUTION. Received 27. 10.10 p.m. Ottawa. April 26. The Dominion Government has voted £2OOO to the Titanic relief fund. AUSTRALIAN PR ECAUTTONS. Received 28. 1.5 a.m. Melbourne. April 27. The Marine Board has decided to appoint a committee to enquire into the 'boat accommodation on vessels trading to Victoria.

PITIABLE DETAILS. THE LIST OF SAVED. IMPERATIVE WIRELESS. New York, April 25. The Bremen lias arrived. She passed the iceberg which wrecked the Titanic. The passengers state that it was a pitiable spectable. In the water they saw one woman in a night dress "with a baby clasped to her breast, and another fully dressed clutching a shaggy dog. > Three men were clinging to a steamer chair, and elsewhere a dozen, all with lifebelts on, were locked together, as though, they had died in a struggle for life. London, April 25. . Mr. Buxton, president of the Board of Trade, states that 139 out of 144 women in the first class, 78 .out of 93 in the second class, and 98 out of 179 in the third class were saved. All the childTen in the first and second classes were saved', and 23 out of 70 in the third. There were 126 men out of 777 saved, and 189 out of 876 of the crew. Nineteen per cent, of the men were saved, and' 77 per cent, of the women. Melbourne, April 28. The Federal Government intends inserting a clause in the Navigation Bill demanding continuous attention to wireless on steamers trading to Australia.

SENATOR SMITH. New York, April 25. One paper points out that Senator Smith's term expires in March, and this is his first opportunity to catch the limelight for the election campaign. Smith is a well-known hustler, and was once a newsboy.

SOME OF THE DEAD. New York, April 25. The steamer Mackay Bennett is conveying to Halifax 205 bodies from the Titanic wreck. THOSE ILLUSIONARY ROCKETS. New York, April 25. Several passengers and members of the crew of the steamer Mount Temple, which arrived at St. John's, New Brunswick, alleged that they saw the Titanic's rockets and flare lights, but the steamer continued on her course. The officers of the ship deny the statements.

THE MARK OF CAIN. EXTRAVAC! A XT STATEMENTS. PRONOUNCED ANdLOPTTORTA. Rerlin. April 25. The Vossiselio Zoilurijr attributed the wreck of the Titanic to tlie British sporting instincts. which it denounces, The paper further alleges that the contemptuous dismissal of the steamer

j Frankfurt was due to the fact that I she was a German boat.

The Frankfurter Zeitung censures Mr. Ismay for abandoning the ship, and says he will bear the mark of Cain all his life. The Lokalanzeiger says that the captain aimed, with criminal ruthlessness, at a record voyage. The Germauia says that the tragedy was a judgment of God, similar to the destruction of the Tower of Babel.

The Vorwaerts says that the captaia was the victim of his irresponsible unscrupulo'uaness, but Mr. Ismay was guiltier. The Kaiser has ordered a searching investigation and the extension of lifesaving appliances on passenger ships.

The Government has circularised ilie Powers, suggesting an international conference to discuss the improvement of life-saving precautions at sea.

STEAD MEMORIAL SERVICE. 1 London, April 25. There was a large attendance at the memorial service to Mr. W. T. Stead. Queen Alexandra was represented. Among those present were Earl Grey, Lords Esher and Milner, and many members of Parliament and journalists. Letters of sympathy from all over the world have been received.

IN THE ICE. London, April 25. The steamer Rappanhanimock, from Halifax, passed the Titanic on Saturday night. The Rappanhammock's rudder was twisted and her bows dented by the icefield 4 where the Titanic was lost. The captain was surprised that the Titanic failed to see the ice on a clear night. SERVICE IN PARIS.

Paris, April 25. The British and American Ambassadors attended the Titanic memorial service at the Madeleine. , ABOUT CAPE RACE. THE SCENE OF THE COLLISION. SHIPMA STEPS' EXPERIENCES. Mr. H. Bramwell, of thi Park Hotel, Bathurst, who has had twenty-nine years at sea, and holds a master's certificate, had something to say concerning the ill-fated Titanic. "I have crossed the Atlantic over 200 times," said Mr. Bramwell, "and the neighborhood of Cape Race, in which the Titanic is said to have collided with an iceberg.'is particularly dangerous on account of the fogs which almost continually hang around there. It is about there that all the steamer lines converge. It may be news to some to know 'that the outward and homeward tracks across the Atlantic are followed almost along strictly defined lines, which in nautical phraseology are called steamer lanes. The lanes are from fifty to a hundred miles apart generally, and thus diminish the risk of collision between the steamers of the outward and homeward routes. But towards Cape Race they converge, and after leaving there diverge more or less as the steamers are bound to Boston, New York, Philadelphia or Baltimore. "The vicinity of Cape Race is particularly dangerous, also, from the fact that it is near the fishing ground of the fleet, which Kipling, in his. 'Captains Courageous,' describes with such fulness and 'accuracy.

"What.surprises me is that bergs are so far south so earlv in the year. June is generally the earliest they are looked for. It is rather exhilarating work being in charge of a ship about Cape Race in a fog. You are continually fancying you can see ships and fishing boats or a derelict. It might be a berg at any time, and if you do meet one it is generally too late to avoid it."

He was asked if the presence or vicinity of icebergs could be determined. "By some experts they can be," he replied. ''The waters about Cape Race are in the Gulf Stream, the temperature of which is very much higher than the water on either side of it. In a fog a man is employed drawing water and taking the temperature of it, and any considerable drop is an indication that ice is in the vicinity. But it is not by any means a reliable test, as the berg may be shifting towards you and thus leaving ing the old track behind."

CONCERNING ICEBERGS,

Captain Stollberg, commander of the German mail steamer Gneisenau, which was in Sydney last week, was for nearly nine years in the N.D.L. Company's ex-, press steamers crossing the North Atlantic, and he states that the Bank of Newfoundland is a locality where icebergs and fields of floating ice are of particularly frequent occurrence, and from April to July dense fogs are quite the rule. On the big liners, he explained, it is the practice to test the temperature of the sea water every ten minutes, and any excessive drop in the thermometer readings is a warning that icebergs are probably in the vicinity. Captain Stollberg says he has known a difference of from 6 degrees to 7 degrees centigrade (10.8 degrees to 12.fi degrees Falir.) in two consecutive tests of the sea's tern-' perature. Shipmasters aTe assisted also by the publication in Germany and America every month of charts showing the furthest positions south that icebergs had been sighted from the big liners, the officers of which report regularly any berg 3 that may be noticed. An iceberg is a much larger object than it appears. Above the water from one-eighth to one-third of the total mass only can be seen, and as they melt from huge mountains of ice perhaps miles in extent down to nothing, it can be judged how easily a vessel can collide faith a lump of ice, say, as big as a housequite large enough to wreck a ship, and small enough to be unnoticed on a dark night. Icebergs come down as far south as 35 deg. north, and from there upwards shipmasters have to keep on the look-out. They are seldom met further east than the 40th meridian, which is about 300 miles beyond the Great Bank of Newfoundland. The North Atlantic Directory says that icebergs have a natural effulgence or "ice-blink." which frequently renders thorn invisible at some distance even on the darkest nights. At a short distance this effulgence may appear like a white cloud extending over or nearly over a vessel's masts. The presence of floating ice may often be detected by a decrease in the temperature of the sea, and possibly a roaring of the waves at the base of the bergs in rough weather.