Five minutes after the Titanic struck the iceberg, one of the ship’s designers knew that the ship was going to go down. This designer also went down with the ship.
After the horrendous tragedy, the morgue ship went through the area to collect the floating bodies of prominent men.
Bodies of Prominent Men Reported Found
Titanic Distress Signals Were Seen by Californian Crew
Olympic Calls Trips Offs
Washington, April 26 — One of the designers of the Titanic, a passenger aboard her, knew that the “greatest ship afloat” was going to sink five minutes after she struck the iceberg.
The Titanic, going full speed, passed within plain sight of the Leyland liner Californian, standing still, one hour before the Titanic struck.
The rockets and distress signals sent up by the Titanic immediately after striking were plainly visible to the officers and crew of the Californian, yet that vessel did not go to the assistance of the stricken ship.
These were the important points brought out at todays session of the senate committee investigating the Titanic disaster.
The committee proceeded on a new plan today. Each member individually examined witnesses. This was to save time, and to hurry the day when the British subjects held under subpoena will be able to return to their own country.
Samuel Hemming, a lamp trimmer aboard the Titanic, gave the evidence showing that Andrews, one of the Titanic’s designers, who went down with the ship he helped create, knew she was doomed five minutes after the collision.
Hemming’s story was corroborated by John Hardy, a steward of the Titanic.
“I was awakened by the crash of the collision,” said Hemming. “I went back to my bunk. I did not leave it until the boatswain came into the forecastle. He shouted:
“‘Turn out you fellows. You haven’t half an hour to live.’
“We asked the boatswain what he meant. He answered.
“‘I got that from Mr. Andrews. Keep it to yourself, and let no one aboard know that we are going down.’”
The evidence in regard to the nearness of the Californian came from Earnest Gill, a donkey man of the Californian’s crew, and was corroborated by John Edward Buley, an able seaman of the Titanic.
“I was on the Californian’s deck at 11:56 p.m. Sunday, April 14,” Gill said. “The engines were stopped. The Californian was drifting through a field of floe ice.
“I saw the lights of a big vessel, going at full speed, about ten miles away on the starboard bow.
“I went below and told my bunkmate. Half an hour later I saw a white rocket on our starboard. I said it must be a vessel in distress.
“It was not my business to notify the bridge. But the officers could not have helped seeing it.
“I turned in soon after. I was not ordered out until 6:40 in the morning.
“I heard the ship’s engineers and crew talking of seeing the rockets and distress signals. The entire crew was talking about the conduct of the captain in not going to the vessel’s assistance until too late.
“I am quite sure we were less than twenty miles away from the ship when I saw the rockets. I could see them quite plainly.
“I guess I am losing my job by telling this, but it is the truth.”
Buley, the sailor of the Titanic, who corroborated this, said:
“There was a ship of some description there when the Titanic struck. She passed right by us. We thought she was coming to us. You could see she was a steamer. She had her steamer lights burning.
“She was off our port bow when we struck, and we all started for her lights. That is what kept the boats together.
“She was stationary most of the night, I am very positive she never moved for three hours. Then she made tracks.”
New York, April 26 — The bodies of John Jacob Astor, Isidor Straus and Charles Melville Hays are among those recovered from the sea by the morgue ship Mackay-Bennett, according to a wireless message received here by the White Star today.
Portsmouth, Eng., April 26 — The fate of the Titanic has laid up her sister ship, the giant Olympic.
The Olympic today put back into port. The voyage she should have begun Wednesday, and that she was to have made May 6 have been abandoned. Her passengers and mail have been transferred to Cunard ships.
Source: (1912, April 26). Bodies of Prominent Men Reported Found. The Day Book.
