Sinking of the Titanic -1912- by Jay Henry Mowbray - PDF ebook

Sinking of the Titanic -1912- by Jay Henry Mowbray - PDF ebook

Sinking of the "Titanic," most appalling ocean horror

It is a heart-rending story, redeemed and ennobled by the heroism of the victims. Its details are appalling. The world is full of mournings for the dead. Nature has conquered again^ destroying with ruthless hand the most marvelous ship that ever floated on the bosom of the deep. It is the worst disaster that ever befell any vessel. It is the wrecking of a whole armada within one hull of steel, vaunted as unsinkable. 

The sinking of the '' Titanic " is an appalling catastrophe, in the contemplation of which any words that can be uttered are as futile as in the presence of the awful majesty of the Angel of Death. The maiden trip of the newest, staunchest, and greatest of the modern ocean greyhounds has thus apparently ended in the most appalling marine disaster ever recorded.

 The first advice brought word of the safe removal of all the passengers and the possible success of the crew in their endeavor to bring the noblest ship afloat to shallow water. Another triumph of the wireless telegraph was hailed, and from both shores went up a paean of thanksgiving that the overwhelming loss was not of life but of things material, that, however valuable, is far less dear and can one day be replaced..

 But now as a bolt from the blue, and as a forecast of the final mortal terrors of the Day of Judgment, comes the message that of 2300 souls aboard, but 700 — chiefly women and children — have been saved. All earthly concerns besides this calamity seem to fade into littleness and nothingness. The sole redeeming circumstance is that heroes met their death like men and that human love was victorious over human terror and mightier than Death and the open grave of the remorseless deep. The one alleviating circumstance in this terrible tragedy is the fact that the men stood aside and insisted that the women and children should first have places in the boats.

 There were men who were accustomed merely to pronounce a wish to have it gratified. For one of the humblest fishing smacks or a dory, they could have given the price that was paid to build the immense ship that has become the most imposing mausoleum that ever housed the bones of men since the Pyramids rose from the desert sands. But these men stood aside — one can see them — and gave place not merely to the delicate and the refined, but to the scared woman from the steerage with her toddler by her side, coming through the very gate of Death and out of the mouth of Hell to the imagined Eden of America. 

To many of those who went, it was harder to go than to stay there on the vessel gaping with its mortal wounds and ready to go down. It meant that tossing on the waters they must wait in suspense, hour after hour, even after the lights of the ship were engulfed m appalling darkness, hoping against hope for the miracle of a rescue dearer to them than their own lives.

 It was the tradition of Anglo-Saxon heroism that was fulfilled in the frozen seas during the black hours of the night. The heroism was that of the women who went, as well as of the men who remained. The sympathy of all the world will go out to the stricken survivors of the victims of a worldwide calamity.

The human imagination is unequal to the reconstruction of the appalling scene of the disaster in the North Atlantic. No picture of the pen or of the painter's brush can adequately represent the magnitude of the calamity that has made the whole world kin. How trivial in such an hour seem the ordinary affairs of civilized mankind — the minor ramifications of politics, the frenetic rivalry of candidates, the haggle of stock speculators. We are suddenly, by an awful visitation, made to see our human transactions in their true perspective, as small as they really are. Man's pride is profoundly humbled: he must confess that the victory this time has gone to the blind, inexorable forces of nature, except in so far as the manifestation of the heroic virtues is concerned.

Some contents of the book:

CHAPTER XII.
MRS. ASTOR'S BRAVERY.
Showed Wonderful Fortitude in the Hour of Peril —Sailors in Lifeboat
Tell of Her Heroism—Pleaded to Remain With Husband—Change
Clothes to Embark—Seamen Confirm Murdock's Suicide—One
Heartless Fiend—Williams Killed as Funnel Fell 148
CHAPTER XIII.
LIFEBOATS BUNGLINGLY HANDLED.
Widow of College Founder Scores Management for Lack of Drill—First
Thought Damage was Slight—Aid May Have Been Near—No Oil in Life Lamps—Hudson, N. Y., Woman's Pathetic Recital—A. A.
Dick, of New York, Talks 159
CHAPTER XIV.
NOT LIKE BOURGOGNE DISASTER.
Lone Woman Survivor Makes Comparison—Does Not Like " Law of the
Sea"—Families First, It Should Be, She Says—Husband Greeted
Like the Hero He was—Privations and Horror Hasten Death. 171
CHAPTER XV.
BOY'S DESPERATE FIGHT FOR LIFE.
Plunged Into Icy Sea—Did Not See Berg—Parted From Parents—Saw
Many Jump Overboard—Leaped Into Ocean—Eight-Year-Old Boy's
Narrative—Was *' Very Quiet After He Was In Boat"—Another
Lad Tells How He Saw His Uncle Die 188
CHAPTER XVL
CARPATHIA TO THE RESCUE.
Cunarder's Race to Titanic's Aid—Captain Rostrom's L^nvarnished but
Dramatic Report—Knot in Operator's Shoelace Saved Hundreds of
Lives—^Was About to Retire, But Slight Delay Enabled Him to Hear Message—Icebergs Defied in Desperate Rush 199
CHAPTER XVII.
REFUSED TO LEAVE HER HUSBAND.
"Where You Are I Shall Be," Says Mrs. Isidor Straus—He Begged
Her in Vain to Enter the Waiting Lifeboat—Women Row Lifeboats—Stokers no Oarsmen—Crazed Men Rescued—Collapsible
Boats Failed to Work 205

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