Logan Marshall

“ Those who heard the frenzied calls of the officers for the passengers to hurry on deck lost no time in obeying them, rushing up from their cabins in scanty attire. They piled into the boats, which were rapidly lowered, and were rowed away. Many who waited to dress were drowned.
The horror of the interval during which the Empress of Ireland was rapidly filling and the frightened throngs on board her were hurrying every effort to escape before she sank was added to by what seemed like an explosion, which quickly followed the ripping and tearing given the liner by the Storstad’s bow. ”

“ Life is probably sweet to them as it is to everyone, but what physical and mental torture has been the price of life to those who were brought back to land on the Carpathia—the hours in life-boats, amid the crashing of ice, the days of anguish that have succeeded, the horrors of body and mind still experienced and never to be entirely absent until death affords them its relief. ”

“ From each appalling tragedy of the sea we laboriously spell out some lessons which are to teach us how to escape these strokes of fate for the future. Then comes another tragedy, and shows us the futility of these dearly-bought lessons. From the Titanic, we deduced that what is needed is a plentiful supply of life-boats and life-rafts. Given enough of these to easily carry all the passengers and crew, and so terrible a disaster as that which engulfed this peerless ship would, we believed, become impossible. ”

“ His name is on that list of branded rescued men who were neither picked up from the sea when the ship went down nor were in the boats under orders to help get them safe away. His identity is not yet known, though it will be in good time. So foul an act as that will out like murder.
The eyes of strong men who have read this crowded record of golden deeds, who have read and re-read that deathless roll of honor of the dead, are still wet with tears of pity and of pride. This man still lives. Surely he was born and saved to set for men a new standard by which to measure infamy and shame. ”

“ To pluckily leap from the deck of the sinking liner and swim around for nearly an hour in the river, and then to fall dead from exhaustion on the deck of the Eureka, was the fate of an unknown woman.
Fourteen minutes settled the whole affair. With the decks careening, the captain, officers and crew strove like fiends to release the boats. One after one, laden with a mass of humanity, sped away. The Storstad followed suit with as much ability, but the time was brief. ”

“ They found the ship sunk, and the surface of the water, fortunately calm, dotted with life-boats and smeared with floating debris from which many poor souls had been forced by exhaustion to loosen their hold.
In the life-boats were huddled the survivors, dazed and moaning, some then dying of injuries sustained in the crash or in the rush of leaving the sinking Empress. Crushed by the collision, injured in their efforts to leap into life-boats, or suffering from immersion in the icy water and exposure in the life-boats in which they escaped, the survivors presented a pitiable condition. ”

“ There were stories of self-sacrifice where men died that women might live, of battles in the water, of life-boats falling on struggling men and women in the water.
Every such disaster as that which befell the Empress of Ireland seems to bring out at least one man who stands out above all others for coolness, resource, and courage. These are men who control mobs and who bring order out of chaos. ”

“ Forever, so far as finite vision can see, the mighty piles of the Laurentian and other ranges of this part of the continent will stand as memorials of still more mighty world-movements, as a somber environment for the history of the Indians and the early struggles of the French Canadian people, and as solemn witnesses of the civilization which has now taken possession of this inherited greatness and hopes in its own fleeting, fitful, fighting way to build upon and refine and cultivate nature’s splendid storehouse for its own purposes and the advancement of its people. ”

“ The band had broken out in the strains of “Nearer, My God, to Thee,” some minutes before Murdock lifted the revolver to his head, fired and toppled over on his face. Moody saw all this in a vision that filled his brain, while his ears drank in the tragic strain of the beautiful hymn that the band played as their own dirge, even to the moment when the waters sucked them down.
Wherever Murdock’s eye swept the water in that instant, before he drew his revolver, it looked upon veritable seas of drowning men and women. ”

“ And there was left to the survivors only the gently heaving sea, the life-boats filled with men and women in every conceivable condition of dress and undress, above the perfect sky of brilliant stars with not a cloud, all tempered with a bitter cold that made [Pg 237] each man and woman long to be one of the crew who toiled away with the oars and kept themselves warm thereby—a curious, deadening, bitter cold unlike anything they had felt before. ”

“ Women wept for lost husbands and sons, sailors sobbed for the ship which had been their pride. Men choked back tears and sought to comfort the widowed. Perhaps, they said, other boats might have put off in another direction. They strove, though none too sure themselves, to convince the women of the certainty that a rescue ship would appear.
In the distance the Titanic looked an enormous length, her great bulk outlined in black against the starry sky, every port-hole and saloon blazing with light. ”

“ As it broadens and deepens into beautiful lakes or narrows and shallows into restless rapids, as it sweeps past cliffs crowned with verdure or great natural ridges capped with dense forests, as these break frequently to reveal fertile valleys and a rolling country, or rise into rugged and yet exquisitely picturesque embodiments of nature such as the heights of Quebec, there comes the thought that here, indeed, is a fitting entrance to a great country, an adequate environment for the history of a romantic people, a natural stage-setting for great events and gallant deeds. ”

“ The collision which sent the Empress of Ireland to the bottom of the St. Lawrence with hundreds of passengers in their berths produced a shudder throughout the civilized world. And the effect on the spirits of the millions who received the shock will not soon pass off. The Titanic tragedy sat heavy on the minds of the people of this generation for months after it happened.
There is hardly any one in touch with world affairs who will not feel himself drawn into the circle of mourners over such a disaster. ”

“ Tourmente, there is this wall of mountains, like a sea of rolling rocks, cleft here and there by such recesses as Murray Bay or the Saguenay. Everywhere, also, are footprints of the early explorers. Here Cartier landed, there Champlain camped, here De Roberval is supposed to have disappeared forever between the wide walls of the Saguenay, there Pont-Gravé or Chauvin left traces of adventurous exploits.
QUEBEC
At Quebec there looms up the sentinel on the rock which overlooks all the pages of Canadian history and still stands as the most picturesque and impressive city of the new world. ”

“ When one thinks of jumping from the deck of a vessel as high as a house the terror of contemplation results in demoralization just at a moment when the keenest wit is needed. Of course, this does not argue that we must not have the best boat and boat-lowering equipment possible.
“The safe transfer of all passengers into the life-boats is, of course, the most desirable outcome, but, as we see, this is not always possible. ”

“ In the face of the great calamity which had befallen the Army, men of every religious denomination and every sphere of life were present to bow their heads in humble submission to the will of the Almighty Father. A still stronger and deeper note was struck by two of the survivors of the disaster, who, in simple, eloquent words, brought home to all anew the great truth of the Resurrection. The wonderful sustaining power of Christianity, they said, was shown in the early morning hours when the vessel sank, and when the sudden call came none was afraid to answer the summons. ”

“ Just at that moment, a young man was arguing to get into a life-boat, and Major Butt had a hold [Pg 201] of the lad by the arm, like a big brother, and was telling him to keep his head and be a man.
“Major Butt helped those poor frightened steerage people so wonderfully, so tenderly and yet with such cool and manly firmness that he prevented the loss of many lives from panic. He was a soldier to the last. He was one of God’s greatest noblemen, and I think I can say he was an example of bravery even to men on the ship.” ”

“ It is not only necessary to have the man in the water kept afloat until relief comes. We all know of the grewsome sight of numerous corpses floating on the ocean, dead from exposure, after the loss of the Titanic. It is perfectly possible to don a life-saving suit that one can be comfortable in for many hours in an icy sea.
“It may be said that such a device is too bulky to be carried and that it will not often be used. Yet if such devices had been available the greater part of the passengers of the Titanic and the Empress of Ireland would now be alive. ”

“ The last life-boat was only a few yards away from me, passing by the side of the sinking Empress, when suddenly a huge, heavy superstructure broke from the steamer’s side, falling with a terrible crash into the boat. I shut my eyes in horror. When I looked up again all that was left of the life-boat and her forty-five occupants were a few stumps of wreckage. Poor people, they had gone to their doom! Fortunately death was sudden and merciful.
“A few minutes afterwards I was picked up by one of the boats from the Storstad. ”

“ He recovered after a few minutes and swam toward one of the life-boats and was taken aboard.
Said one survivor, speaking of the men who remained on the ship: “There they stood—Major Butt, Colonel Astor waving a farewell to his wife; Mr. Thayer, Mr. Case, Mr. Clarence Moore, Mr. Widener, all multimillionaires, and hundreds of other men, bravely smiling at us all. Never have I seen such chivalry and fortitude. Such courage in the face of fate horrible to contemplate filled us even then with wonder and admiration.” ”

“ One man said there was absolutely no danger, that the boat was the finest ever built, with water-tight compartments, and that it could not sink. That seemed to be the general impression.
A few of the men, however, were panic-stricken even when the first of the fifty-six foot life-boats was being filled. Fully ten men threw themselves into the boats already crowded with women and children. These men were dragged back and hurled sprawling across the deck. Six of them, screaming with fear, struggled to their feet and made a second attempt to rush to the boats. ”

“ When Captain Kendall shouted through the megaphone, I shouted back, but I did not have the megaphone at hand, so I shouted as loud as I could; our man on the lookout heard me call. I did go full speed ahead. I kept my hand on the telegraph to the engine-room, and the very moment we touched the other ship I rang the engineer full speed ahead, but the Empress was going at a good speed and it was impossible for me to keep our bow in the hold. She disappeared from this ship and for a long time I kept my whistle blowing, but I heard nothing until the cries. ”

“ Headed with the heavily white-draped standards of the Army from all the city corps, at the slow march, and followed by the first section of the massed bands playing the “Dead March,” the cortege presented a melancholy and impressive sight. The funeral cars, draped heavily with crepe and purple, and each drawn by four black horses caparisoned with black and purple trappings, and each led by an attendant, were preceded by two draped cars heavily laden with the beautiful floral tributes. ”

“ More than 1,400 persons were fighting for life in the black dark; yet, for the most part the flight was not one of panic, but grim determination to find, if possible, some means of safety.
Wireless operator Bomford and others who managed to win a way to the top deck saw scores leap into the sea. They saw hundreds trying to crawl up decks that were sloping precipitously, lose their balance and fall backward into the rising water. Passengers who couldn’t get to the few life-boats in time seized chairs, anything loose they could find, and leaped into the river. ”

“ He gave the order for each life-boat to make off and he remained until every boat was gone. Standing on the bridge he finally called out the order: “Each man save himself.” At that moment all discipline fled. It was the last call of death. If there had been any hope among those on board before, the hope now had fled.
The bearded admiral of the White Star Line fleet, with every life-saving device launched from the decks, was returning to the deck to perform the sacred office of going down with his ship when a wave dashed over the side and tore him from the ladder. ”

“ Without Marconi’s invention it is altogether probable that the world would never have known of the nature of the Titanic’s fate, for it is only barely within the realm of possibility that any of the Titanic’s passengers, poorly clad, without proper provisions of food and water, and exposed in the open boats to the frigid weather, would have survived long enough to have been picked up by a transatlantic liner in ignorance of the accident to the Titanic. ”

“ Proudly the Empress of Ireland, under the command of Lieutenant Henry George Kendall of the Royal Navy Reserves, moved from her dock at Quebec, about half past four on the afternoon of Thursday, May 28, 1914, bound for Liverpool. Amid scenes that are ever new and full of deep feeling to those who are taking their leave or bidding God-speed to dear ones, the majestic ship began what her hundreds of light-hearted passengers anticipated as a bon voyage. ”