The New York Times, 15 April 1912
NEW LINER TITANIC HITS AN ICEBERG;
SINKING BY THE BOW AT MIDNIGHT;
WOMEN PUT OFF IN LIFE BOATS;
LAST WIRELESS AT 12:27 A.M. BLURRED
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Allan Liner Virginian Now Speeding Toward the Big Ship
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BALTIC TO THE RESCUE, TOO
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The Olympic Also Rushing To Give Aid---Other Ships Within Call
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CARMANIA DODGED BERGS
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Reports French Liner Niagara Injured and Several Ships Caught
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BIG TITANIC’S FIRST TRIP
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Bringing Many Prominent Americans, and Was Due in New York To-Morrow
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MISHAP AT THE VERY START
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Narrowly Escaped Collision with the American Liner New York When Leaving
Port
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LATEST NEWS FROM THE SINKING SHIP
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CAPE RACE, N. F., Sunday night, April 14---At 10:25 o’clock to-night the
White Star line steamship Titanic called “C. Q. D.” to the Marconi
wireless station here, and reported having struck an iceberg. The
steamer said that immediate assistance was required.
Half an hour afterward another message came reporting that they were
sinking by the head and that women were being put off in the lifeboats.
The weather was calm and clear, the Titanic’s wireless operator
reported, and gave the position of the vessel as 41.46 north latitude
and 50.14 west longitude.
The Marconi station at Cape Race notified the Allan liner Virginian, the
captain of which immediately advised that he was proceeding for the
scene of the disaster.
The Virginian at midnight was about 170 miles distant from the Titanic
and expected to reach that vessel about 10 A. M. Monday.
2 AM M., Monday---The Olympic at an early hour this, Monday, morning,
was in latitude 40.32 north and longitude 61.18 west. She was in direct
communication with the Titanic, and is now making all haste toward her.
The steamship Baltic also reported herself as about 200 miles east of
the Titanic, and was making all possible speed toward her.
The last signals from the Titanic were heard by the Virginian at 12:27
A. M.
The wireless operator on the Virginian says these signals were blurred
and ended abruptly.
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Special to The New York Times
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HALIFAX, N.S., April 14---A wireless dispatch received to-night by the
Allan line officials here from Capt. Gambell of the steamer Virginian,
states that the White Star liner Titanic struck an iceberg off the
Newfoundland Coast and flashed out wireless calls for assistance.
The Virginian put on full speed and headed for the Titanic.
No particulars have been received as to the extent of the damage
sustained by Titanic.
The Virginian sailed from Halifax at midnight on Saturday night, and
would probably be 300 miles off this coast when she picked up the calls
from the Titanic for assistance.
The Allan liner has only about 200 passengers on board and would have
ample accommodations for a large number of persons in case a transfer
from the Titanic was necessary. The Virginian is a mail steamer, and so
she is not likely to take the Titanic in tow.
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MONTREAL, April 14---The new White Star liner Titanic is reported in
advices received here late to-night to have struck an iceberg.
The news was received at the Allan line offices here in a wireless
message from the Captain of the steamer Virginian of that line.
It was stated that the Virginian had been in wireless communication with
the Titanic, that she had reported being in collision with an iceberg
and asked for assistance.
The Virginian reported that she was on her way to the Titanic.
The Virginian sailed from Halifax this morning, and at the time the
wireless was sent she is reckoned to have been about abeam of Cape Race.
She has 200 passengers on board, but can accommodate 900 more of the
Titanic’s passengers should their removal be necessary.
The message from the Virginian’s Captain was sent by wireless to Cape
Race, and thence by cable to Halifax, and then by wire to Montreal.
The Allan Line officials here expect to bear further news at any moment.
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OTHER SHIPS WITHIN CALL
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Many Near the Titanic’s Course---Prominent Persons Aboard
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The White Star liner Titanic, the largest ship in the world, which
sailed from Southampton on last Wednesday, is on her maiden voyage to
New York and has aboard a large list of passengers, among whom are Major
Archibald Butt, President Taft’s military aid; Mr. and Mrs. John Jacob
Astor, Mr. and Mrs. Isidor Straus, Alfred G. Vanderbilt, J. E. Widener
of Philadelphia, Robert W. Daniels, a Philadelphia banker; Mrs. J.
Stuart White, the Countess Rothes, Mr. and Mrs. Henry B. Harris,
Clarence Moore of Washington, F. D. Millet, the artist and President of
the Consolidated American Academy of Rome; C. M. Hays, President of the
Grand Trunk Railway;
J. Bruce Ismay, President of the International
Mercantile Marine, the corporation that owns the Titanic; Benjamin
Guggenheim, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Widener, Mr. and Mrs. G. D. Widener, and
W. T. Stead.
Other ships beside the Virginian may have received the Titanic’s
wireless for help. The Cincinnati of the Hamburg-American Line is due
here to-morrow, and should be close enough to reach the Titanic in a few
hours’ steaming. The Cunarder Mauretania, the fastest vessel in the
world, is also bound this way and should have been within the Titanic’s
wireless zone.
To the southeast of her and also heading westward at noon on Sunday was
the Prinz Adelbert of the Hamburg-American Line, bound from Hamburg for
Philadelphia. A little west of the Prinz Adelbert and to the southward
was the Steiermark of the same line, bound here. Almost directly south
of the latter was the Amerika. [A misplaced line of type which appeared
here has been omitted.] To the direct west of the Amerika was the rPinz
[sic] Friedrich Wilhelm, the North German Lloyd liner, bound from this
port to Plymouth. In her vicinity and directly south was the White Star
Line steamship Baltic.
The last report received in New York from the Titanic was at 2:15 A. M.
yesterday. She was then 1,284 miles east of Sandy Hook, and in that
message her commander said that he expected to reach New York in time to
dock late to-morrow afternoon.
Since that message no word was received from the Titanic until the news
from Montreal last night.
The Titanic undoubtedly ran into the same ice field off the Grand Banks
that was reported by the Cunarder Carmania on her arrival yesterday.
The ice was so thickly jammed that crevices between the pieces could not
be seen, and great icebergs, to the number of at least twenty-five, were
drifting about in the field. The French liner Niagara, which is due
here to-day, encountered the ice, and in making her way through it had
two holes stove below the water line. The steamers Kura and Lord Cromer,
both of which have arrived in New York in the last few days, were
damaged in making their way through the ice packs.
Last Wednesday when the Titanic left Southampton for New York a disaster
was narrowly averted as the Titanic passed from her berth out into the
open water stream. The big liner sucked the water between herself and
the quay to such a degree that the strain broke the hawsers with which
the American liner New York was moored to the quayside. For a while it
looked as if t he two vessels would collide.
The New York drifted helplessly stern first toward the Titanic and had
not the Titanic reversed her engines and come to a dead stop it is
certain that the Titanic would not now be on her way to New York. Tugs
that were near by steamed to the aid of the New York and pulled her back
to the quay. As soon as the New York was made fast the Titanic got
under way toward the open water.
At the piers of the White Star Line at the foot of Twentieth Street,
North River, it was stated at 1:20 o’clock this morning that up to that
time the line had not received any word from the Titanic beyond the
information conveyed in press dispatches.
The Titanic is a luxuriously fitted out vessel. One may get an idea as
to the immensity of the Titanic when it is known that in length she will
stretch over four city blocks and would be considerably higher, standing
on her end, than the highest building in New York.
The vessel has accommodations for 3,500 passengers and carries a crew of
860. She was built in the River Laffan at Belfast and was launched May
31 of last year. Among those who saw her take to the water was J.
Pierpont Morgan.
Capt. Smith, the commander of the Titanic, was in command of the Titanic’s sister ship Olympic at the time of her collision with the cruiser Hawke in the Solent last year.
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