The Sinking Of The Titanic

Jay Henry Mowbray

• Publisher: Jazzybee Verlag
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN: 9783849621674
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: 20th Century History
• Index: History

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.The ship that went to her final resting place two miles below the placid, unconfessing level of the sea represented all that science and art knew how to contribute to the expedition of traffic, to the comfort and enjoyment of voyagers. She had 15 watertight steel compartments supposed to render her unsinkable. She was possessed of submarine signals with micro-phones, to tell the bridge by means of wires when shore or ship or any other object was at hand.There was a collision bulkhead to safeguard the ship against the invasion of water amidships should the bow be torn away. In a word, the boat was as safe and sound as the shipbuilder could make it. It was the pride of the owners and the commander that what has happened could not possibly occur.And yet the Titanic went down, and carried to their doom hundreds of passengers and men who intimately knew the sea and had faced every peril that the navigator meets.

The Sinking of The Titanic

Jay Henry Mowbray

Table of Contents:

Steamships and Steamship Lines

The Sinking of The Titanic

Preface

Introduction

Chapter I - From A Day Of Delight To Death

Chapter II - Heart-Rending Scenes On Carpathia

Chapter III - Band Played To The Last

Chapter IV - Neglect Caused Disaster

Chapter V - Believed Ship Unsinkable

Chapter VI - How Survivors Escaped

Chapter VII - Woman's Thrilling Narrative

Chapter VIII - Survivors' Stirring Stories

Chapter IX - How Astor Went To Death

Chapter X - Notable Woman Saved

Chapter XI - Major Butt, Martyr To Duty

Chapter XII - Mrs. Astor's Bravery

Chapter XIII - Lifeboats Bunglingly Handled

Chapter XIV - Not Like Bourgogne Disaster

Chapter XV - Boy's Desperate Fight For Life

Chapter XVI - Carpathia To The Rescue

Chapter XVII - Refused To Leave Husband

Chapter XVIII - Lady Duff-Gordon's Experiences

Chapter XIX - Senators Hear Startling Stories

Chapter XX - Surviving Operator's Experiences

Chapter XXI - The Funeral Ship And Its Dead

Chapter XXII - Inquiry By United States Senate

Hymn For The Survivors Of The Titanic

Great Marine Disasters From 1866 To 1911

The Sinking Of The Titanic, A. Gracie

Jazzybee Verlag Jürgen Beck

86450 Altenmünster, Germany

ISBN: 9783849621674

www.jazzybee-verlag.de

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Steamships and Steamship Lines

It appears that self-moving vessels were first imagined by Roger Bacon, a learned monk of the Middle Ages. Though the application of steam-power to the propulsion of steam-vessels was once claimed for a Spaniard, Blasco de Garay, about 1540, it is now known that what he exhibited to Charles V. was simply a vessel with a paddle-wheel, worked by man-power. Papin's practical exhibit of a steam-vessel at Cassel (1707), was a success, but the vessel was only a model. It was the work of Newcomen and Hills in England, and Henry and others. In America, which furnished Fulton with the idea that earned him fame as the inventor of the "steam-boat." All these, with others besides, were experimenters of the latter part of the eighteenth century. In addition there was Runsey in Maryland and Fitch on the Delaware, the latter using on his boat both paddle-wheels and propeller. Symington built a steam towboat as early as 1801. Fulton's first experiments, made in France, were unsuccessful, and it was not until he secured a backer in Chancellor Livingston of New York, then American Ambassador to England, that he was able to buy a Boulton and Watt Engine in England to equip his "Clermont."

John Stevens of New York, was making even earlier attempts in this field, and it was not long after that first trip up the Hudson that the river and sound were covered with a fleet of steamboats. The first steamboat in British waters was the "Comet" on the Clyde, 1812. The first steam-vessel to cross the Atlantic was the "Savannah," 1819. She was a sailing vessel using steam as an auxiliary power, and she made the passage to Liverpool in 31 days, 8 of which were under steam. In 1825, one Captain Johnson, was awarded £10,000 ($50,000) in England for taking the first steam-vessel to India. About this time, the "Royal William," of Quebec crossed the ocean under steam in 21 days. In 1837, Ericsson (q. v.), later the builder of the "Monitor." Constructed in England the first screw-propeller. Regular transatlantic traffic by steamships was inaugurated by the " Sirius" which made the voyage from Queenstown to New York in 1838. The Cunard Line, the first regular line, was started in 1840: the same year the first war steamer was built. The Collins Line, a rival of the Cunard, was organized in 1848. and the following year, 1853, the Inman and the Allan Lines. The Guion Line began business in 1864. The Cunard Line still flourishes, though most of its old time rivals are gone. The principal lines in the transatlantic service of the early 20^th century were the Hamburg American, founded 1847: Anchor. 1852: North German Lloyd, 1857: French Line, 1800; White Star, 1870; Holland American, 1872; Red Star, 1873; Scandinavian American, 1879; Atlantic Transport and the American Line, 1892.

The following shows the size of some of these leviathans of their time: "Olympic," of the White Star Line, 45,000 gross tons: "Mauretania" and "Lusitania," Cunarders, 32,500 tons each; "Kaiserin Augusta Victoria," Hamburg American Line, 24,581 tons; the "George Washington," North German Lloyd Line. 27.000 tons. The "Great Eastern," built in 1859. Was 692 feet long of 80 feet beam and 22.800 tons displacement; the "Olympic" of was 882 feet long, 92 ½ feet beam and 45,000 tons. In 1856 when the "Persia" made the passage from New York to Queenstown in 9 days, 10 hours, and 45 minutes, it was considered extraordinary. In 1910 the "Mauretania" made the trip from Queenstown to New York in 4 days, 10 hours and 41 minutes. The "Deutschland" ran out from New York to Naples in 7 days, 16 hours and 44 minutes, and the "City of New York" of the Pacific Mail Steamship Co., with Commander Philip of the Navy to navigate her, made the run from New York to San Francisco, 13.533 miles, without a stop in 54 days, 14 hours. The progress of ocean shipbuilding for size, speed and luxury was one of the extraordinary accomplishments of the age. In 60 years the speed of Atlantic steamships has increased from 8 to 25 knots: the power of marine engines from 700 to 70,000 horse power; length of vessels from 250 to 882 feet; boiler steam pressure from 13 to 250 pounds; gross tonnage from 1.200 to 45.000; while the length of time required for the passage has decreased from 15 days to less than five. Though not built for speed, the "Olympic's" time across the Atlantic is 5 days, 16 hours, 42 minutes. Some facts about this vessel are interesting. Largest plates employed in the hull were 36 feet long. Rudder, operated electrically, weighed 100 tons. There were more than 2,000 windows. There were 3,000.000 rivets, weighing 1,200 tons. There was an eighteen-hole g...

Table of contents

• Steamships and Steamship Lines
• The Sinking of The Titanic