Offers Evidence as to Time Officials Knew the Vessel Was Lost
[by The Associated Pres.]
New Haven, Conn., April 23—In connection with the question at the time at which the White Star line officers at New York received information of the seriousness of the Titanic disaster President C. S. Mellen of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad company today authorizes the statement that Monday, April 15, at 11:38 a.m. he received by long distance telephone from New York city notice by J. Pierpont Morgan, Jr., of the International Mercantile Marine corporation, of the necessity of providing a considerable number of special trains to meet at Halifax passengers of the Titanic, then headed for that port.
Mr. Mellen says he immediately telephoned to Mr. McDonald, vice-president and general manager of the Maine Central railroad at Portland, Me., ordering him to gather and entrain cars sufficient to accommodate 1,400 passengers.
No other communication was received by Mr. Mellen from Mr. Morgan or the White Star line officers in New York until 7:40 pm, when one of the vice-presidents of the New Haven company informed him of the sinking of the Titanic and of the cancellation of the orders providing for special trains at Halifax.
Chicago Daily News, Tuesday, April 23, 1912, p. 2, c. 4