Sinking of the Titanic
and Great Sea Disasters
Edited by Logan Marshall
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Pre-Frontispiece Caption:
THE TITANIC
The largest and finest steamship in the world; on her maiden voyage,
loaded with a human freight of over 2,300 souls, she collided with
a huge iceberg 600 miles southeast of Halifax, at 11.40 P.M. Sunday
April 14, 1912, and sank two and a half hours later, carrying over
1,600 of her passengers and crew with her.
Frontispiece Caption:
CAPTAIN E. J. SMITH
Of the ill-fated giant of the sea; a brave and seasoned commander
who was carried to his death with his last and greatest ship.}
Sinking of the Titanic
and
Great Sea Disasters
A Detailed and Accurate Account of the Most
Awful Marine Disaster in History, Constructed
from the Real Facts as Obtained from Those on
Board Who Survived .. .. .. .. ..
ONLY AUTHORITATIVE BOOK
INCLUDING
Records of Previous Great Disasters of the Sea,
Descriptions of the Developments of Safety and
Life-saving Appliances, a Plain Statement of
the Causes of Such Catastrophes and How to
Avoid Them, the Marvelous Development of
Shipbuilding, etc.
With a Message of Spiritual Consolation by
REV. HENRY VAN DYKE, D.D.
EDITED BY
LOGAN MARSHALL
Author of "Life of Theodore Roosevelt," etc.
ILLUSTRATED
With Numerous Authentic Photographs and Drawings
Dedication
To the 1635 souls who were lost with the
ill-fated Titanic, and especially to those
heroic men, who, instead of trying to
save themselves, stood aside that women
and children might have their chance; of
each of them let it be written, as it was
written of a Greater One--
"He Died that Others might Live"
"I stood in unimaginable trance
And agony that cannot be remembered."
--COLERIDGE
Dr. Van Dyke's Spiritual Consolation
to the Survivors of the Titanic
The Titanic, greatest of ships, has gone to her ocean
grave. What has she left behind her? Think clearly.
She has left debts. Vast sums of money have been lost.
Some of them are covered by insurance which will be paid.
The rest is gone. All wealth is insecure.
She has left lessons. The risk of running the northern
course when it is menaced by icebergs is revealed. The
cruelty of sending a ship to sea without enough life-boats and
life-rafts to hold her company is exhibited and underlined
in black.
She has left sorrows. Hundreds of human hearts and
homes are in mourning for the loss of dear companions and
friends. The universal sympathy which is written in every
face and heard in every voice proves that man is more than
the beasts that perish. It is an evidence of the divine in
humanity. Why should we care? There is no reason in
the world, unless there is something in us that is different
from lime and carbon and phosphorus, something that makes
us mortals able to suffer together--
"For we have all of us an human heart."
But there is more than this harvest of debts, and lessons,
and sorrows, in the tragedy of the sinking of the Titanic.
There is a great ideal. It is clearly outlined and set before
the mind and heart of the modern world, to approve and follow,
or to despise and reject.
It is, "Women and children first!"
Whatever happened on that dreadful April night among
the arctic ice, certainly that was the order given by the brave
and steadfast captain; certainly that was the law obeyed by
the men on the doomed ship. But why? There is no statute
or enactment of any nation to enforce such an order. There
is no trace of such a rule to be found in the history of ancient
civilizations. There is no authority for it among the heathen
races to-day. On a Chinese ship, if we may believe the report
of an official representative, the rule would have been "Men
First, children next, and women last."
There is certainly no argument against this barbaric
rule on physical or material grounds. On the average, a