don’t care what it costs or what it is; bring it to me.’
{illust. caption = DIAGRAM OF THE TITANIC’S ARRANGEMENT AND EQUIPMENT
The Titanic was far and away the largest and finest vessel ever built, excepting only her sister-ship, the Olympic. Her dimensions were: Length, 882? feet; Beam, 92 feet, Depth (from keel to tops of funnels), 175 feet Tonnage, 45,000. Her huge hull, divided into thirty watertight compartments, contained nine steel decks, and provided accommodation for 2,500 passengers, besides a crew of 890.}
{illust. caption = UPPER DECK OF THE TITANIC, LOOKING FORWARD}
“McGuire brought Mr. Ismay a load of stuff and when he had finished it, he handed McGuire a two dollar bill. ‘Your money is no good on this ship,’ McGuire told him. ‘Take it.’ insisted Mr. Ismay, shoving the bill in McGuire’s hand. I am well able to afford it. I will see to it that the boys of the Carpathia are well rewarded for this night’s work.’ This promise started McGuire making inquiries as to the identity of the man he had waited on. Then we learned that he was Mr. Ismay. I did not see Mr. Ismay after the first few hours. He must have kept to his cabin.”
A passenger on the Carpathia said there was no wonder that none of the wireless telegrams addressed to Mr. Ismay were answered until the one that he sent yesterday afternoon to his line, the White Star.
“Mr. Ismay was beside himself,” said this woman passenger, “and on most of the voyage after we had picked him up he was being quieted with opiates on orders of the ship’s doctor.
“Five women saved their pet dogs, carrying them in their arms. Another woman saved a little pig, which she said was her mascot. Though her husband is an Englishman and she lives in England she is an American and was on her way to visit her folks here. How she cared for the pig aboard ship I do not know, but she carried it up the side of the ship in a big bag. I did not mind the dogs so much, but it seemed to me to be too much when a pig was saved and human beings went to death.
“It was not until noon on Monday that we cleared the last of the ice, and Monday night a dense fog came up and continued until the following morning, then a strong wind, a heavy sea, a thunderstorm and a dense fog Tuesday night, caused some uneasiness among the more unnerved, the fog continuing all of Tuesday.
“A number of whales were sighted as the Carpathia was clearing the last of the ice, one large one being close by, and all were spouting like geysers.”
“On Tuesday afternoon a meeting of the uninjured survivors was called in the main saloon for the purpose of devising means of assisting the more unfortunate, many of whom had lost relatives and all their personal belongings, and thanking Divine Providence for their deliverance. The meeting was called to order and Mr. Samuel Goldenberg was elected chairman. Resolutions were then passed thanking the officers, surgeons, passengers and crew of the Carpathia for their splendid services in aiding the rescued and like resolutions for the admirable work done by the officers, surgeons and crew of the Titanic.
“A committee was then appointed to raise funds on board the Carpathia to relieve the immediate wants of the destitute and assist them in reaching their destinations and also to present a loving cup to the officers of the Carpathia and also a loving cup to the surviving officers of the Titanic.
“Mr. T. G. Frauenthal, of New York, was made chairman of the Committee on Subscriptions.
“A committee, consisting of Mrs. J. J. Brown, Mrs William Bucknell and Mrs. George Stone, was appointed to look after the destitute. There was a subscription taken up and up to Wednesday the amount contributed totaled $15,000.
“The work of the crew on board the Carpathia in rescuing was most noble and remarkable, and these four days that the ship has been overcrowded with its 710 extra passengers could not have been better handled. The stewards have worked with undying strength—although one was overcome with so much work and died and was put to his grave at sea.
“I have never seen or felt the benefits of such royal treatment. I have heard the captain criticised because he did not answer telegrams, but all that I can say is that he showed us every possible courtesy, and if we had been on our own boats, having paid our fares there, we could not have had better food or better accommodations.
“Men who had paid for the best staterooms on the Carpathia left their rooms so that we might have them. They fixed up beds in the smoking rooms, and mattresses everywhere. All the women who were rescued were given the best staterooms, which were surrendered by the regular passengers. None of the regular passengers grumbled because their trip to Europe was interrupted, nor did they complain that they were put to the inconvenience of receiving hundreds of strangers.
“The women on board the Carpathia were particularly kind. It shows that for every cruelty of nature there is a kindness, for every misfortune there is some goodness. The men and women took up collections on board for the rescued steerage passengers. Mrs. Astor, I believe, contributed $2000, her check being cashed by the Carpathia. Altogether something like $15,000 was collected and all the women were provided with sufficient money to reach their destination after they were landed in New York.”
Under any other circumstances the suffering would have been intolerable. But the Good Samaritans on the Carpathia gave many women heart’s-ease.
The spectacle on board the Carpathia on the return trip to New York at times was heartrending, while at other times those on board were quite cheerful.
CHAPTER XI. PREPARATIONS ON LAND TO RECEIVE THE SUFFERERS
NEW YORK CITY, touched to the heart by the great ocean calamity and desiring to do what it could to lighten the woes and relieve the sufferings of the pitiful little band of men and women rescued from the Titanic, opened both its heart and its purse.
The most careful and systematic plans were made for the reception and transfer to homes, hotels or institutions of the Titanic’s survivors. Mayor Gaynor, with Police Commissioner Waldo, arranged to go down the bay on the police boat Patrol, to come up with the Carpathia and take charge of the police arrangements at the pier.
In anticipation of the enormous number that would, for a variety of reasons, creditable or otherwise, surge about the Cunard pier at the coming of the Carpathia, Mayor Gaynor and the police commissioner had seen to it that the streets should be rigidly sentineled by continuous lines of policemen Under Inspector George McClusky, the man of most experience, perhaps, in handling large crowds, there were 200 men, including twelve mounted men and a number in citizens’ clothes. For two blocks to the north, south and east of the docks lines were established through which none save those bearing passes from the Government and the Cunard Line could penetrate.
With all arrangements made that experience or information could suggest, the authorities settled down to await the docking of the Carpathia. No word had come to either the White Star Line or the Cunard Line, they said, that any of the Titanic’s people had died on that ship or that bodies had been recovered from the sea, but in the afternoon Mayor Gaynor sent word to the Board of Coroners that it might be well for some of that body to meet the incoming ship. Coroners Feinberg and Holtzhauser with Coroner’s Physician Weston arranged to go down the bay on the Patrol, while Coroner Hellenstein waited at the pier. An undertaker was notified to be ready if needed. Fortunately there was no such need.
Every possible measure of relief for the survivors that could be thought of by officials of the city, of the Federal Government, by the heads of hospitals and the Red Cross and relief societies was arranged for. The Municipal Lodging House, which has accommodations for 700 persons, agreed to throw open its doors and furnish lodging and food to any of the survivors as long as they should need it. Commissioner of Charities Drummond did not know, of course, just how great the call would be for the services of his department. He went to the Cunard pier to direct his part of the work in person. Meanwhile he had twenty ambulances ready for instant movement on the city’s pier at the foot of East Twenty-sixth Street. They were ready to take patients to the reception hospital
