By the time the April 15, 1912 edition of the New York Sun reached its readers, the Titanic was at the bottom of the sea. I was surprised that, the newspaper reported not only the Titanic being struck by an iceberg, but also that oceanliner Niagara was struck!
LINER NIAGARA, HIT BY ICE, CALLS HELP
Then Reports All Right–She Got in Here Late Last Night.
CARMANIA GOT THE WORD
She Also Was Afoul of the Ice Fields and Saw 25 Bergs at Once.
The French liner Niagara, bound for this port from Havre with about 100 cabin and more than 600 steerage passengers, was for an hour in peril off the Banks on Thursday afternoon the sea flowing into her through two holes stove in her hull by ice floes, through which she had been picking her way for several hours. She got here safely late last night and will dock to-day. The Cunarder Carmania, in yesterday from Liverpool and Queenstown, brought word of the French ship’s temporary distress.
Capt. Dow of the Carmania found the Atlantic lane unexpectedly frosted when he looked from the bridge, seventy feet above the sea, on Thursday morning and descried dimly on his starboard bow half a dozen stumpy but long icebergs. He changed his course to the southward, but he had already become emmeshed in an extended field of ice, which to starboard and dead ahead reached beyond the vision and to port for miles. At noon the passengers came from their luncheon to take in the unusual Arctic aspect and look at the bergs. One that looked like a floating table mountain formed of solid green ice, inspired the snapshotters to get out their cameras. Some of the passengers were frightened by the crunching of the ice under the bows and the scraping of floes alongside the ship, but the officers said there was no danger.
The wireless operator startled Capt. Dow about 12:10 P. M. by bringing him a wireless from the Niagara, which was out of sight on the starboard quarter of the Cunarder, saying that the Frenchman had two holes punched in her below the water line and would the Carmania stand by her as she was in imminent peril.
Capt. Dow thought a little over this urgent request and, partly with the idea of getting out of the ice field and partly to go immediately to the help of the Niagara, he turned his ship around and started northeastward. In about an hour another message came from the Niagara, saying that she could take care of herself. Capt. Dow inferred that the holes were not so big as the French skipper had at first surmised and that he had stopped the leaks. Another message said a steamship was standing by the Niagara. The Carmania then turned and stood on her course again…
Another headline was “CHURCH FLOOR FALLS WITH 300”. A floor in an unfinished Roman Catholic church collapsed in New Jersey, killing two women (by suffocation!) and injuring fifty people.
The article on the Titanic was pretty guarded as to the liner’s fate.
TITANIC REPORTED TO HAVE HIT ICEBERG
Wireless From S. S. Virginian, Which Is Rushing to Titanic’s Aid.
NO WORD COMES DIRECT
White Star People Puzzled by Seeming Conflict in Dispatches.
Montreal, April 14.–A report is current here to-night that the new White Star liner Titanic has struck an iceberg.
What news has been received here came to the Allen line offices in a wireless message from the captain of that line’s ship Virginian.
The captain reported that he had been in communication with the Titanic, which had asked for assistance after having struck an iceberg.
The captain of the Virginian, which left Halifax this morning and which should have been somewhere off Cape Race, reported that he was on his way to the Titanic. The Virginian has 900 passengers aboard.
The message from the Virginian was sent by wireless to Cape Race and from there by cable to Halifax and then by wire to Montreal.
Passenger Agent Jeffries of the White Star line said this morning that the Titanic, according to their reports received yesterday morning, was 500 miles south of Sable Island. While he could not question the report received from the Virginian, he was puzzled to know why, if such an accident had happened, the Titanic herself had not been in direct communication with the shore.
The United Wireless station here early this morning said that their station at Eastport, Me., had picked up wirelss messages from the Titanic saying that she had struck an iceberg. Her position was then 1,248 miles east of Sandy Hook.
The Titanic was reported by wireless to be 1,288 miles east of Sandy Hook at 2:15 A. M. yesterday. At the pier last night it was said that nothing had been heard of any such accident to the Titanic. She is due here late to-morrow evening or early Wednesday morning. The Titanic is the newest of the White Star fleet and the biggest liner afloat.
The Titanic is of 45,000 tons register and 66,000 tons displacement. She is 886 1/2 feet long and 912 1/2 feet beam. She will carry 3,000 passengers, 600 in the saloon, 500 in the second cabin and 1,900 in the steerage, and this number can be increased if the company should desire to carry less cargo and more steerage passengers. The vessel carries a crew of 860 men.
Among the saloon passengers are Mr. and Mrs. John Jacob Astor, F. D. Millet, the artist and president of the Consolidated American Academy at Rome; C. M. Hays, president of the Grand Trunk Railway; the Earl of Rothes and Major Archibald Butt, military aid to President Taft; Joseph Bruce Ismay, Clarence Moore, H. B. Harris, Rose Stahl, W. T. Stead, Benjamin Guggenheim, Mr. and Mrs. G. D. Widener and Mr. and Mrs. Harry Widener.
As far as I can tell, the Earl of Rothes wasn’t actually on board, but his wife the Countess of Rothes was a fairly famous survivor, known for steering her lifeboat. As far as I can tell, actress Rose Stahl wasn’t on board, either, but victim Henry B. Harris was her manager. I don’t see any record of Mrs. Harry Widener having ever existed, either.
Other than that, the women listed survived the sinking while the men, aside from J. Bruce Ismay, perished.
I hope all the victims and survivors rest in pease.