THIS disaster has been of such unprecedented magnitude that it calls for more than ordinary notice. The steamship “Titanic,” the newly-built and largest ship in the world, left Southampton on Wednesday, the 10th April, for its first voyage across the Atlantic. The vessel was considered a masterpiece of engineering, and was so constructed with water-tight compartments that it was regarded as capable of remaining afloat, notwithstanding serious damage. Indeed, so confident did its admirers become that some of them were declaring it to be positively unsinkable. Rash saying! The total number on board, including the crew, was 2,340 souls. The ship was able to carry fully a thousand more. This huge liner, with its immense freight of human beings, made a quiet and successful voyage for several days until on Sabbath night, the 14th, it came into touch with some ice which turned out to be “the edge of a vast icefield some thirty-five miles or so across, studded with several towering bergs.” The night was calm and beautifully clear, and a fairly wide view was to be had of the surrounding water. The “Titanic” was already warned by another steamship through wireless telegraphy of the dangers to which she was exposed, but notwithstanding this, her speed was not slackened—and she was going at 23 knots per hour. What daring procedure was this, but all, of course, with a view to make her first trip a record one! Instead, however, of a record triumph, it was a record disaster that the White Star Line obtained for its daring folly. The first shock was felt at about 10.30 p.m. “with varying force in different parts of the ship”—very faintly in some. Scarcely a person on board “suspected the extreme seriousness of what occurred,” but gradually the danger became manifest, and at last the crew got instructions to lower the boats and send away the women and children. It was at this point clearly seen that there was not a sufficient number of lifeboats on board to carry a third of the people—surely a most fatal lack. A number of persons were provided with lifebelts. It is not necessary to go into all the sad details here—these have been already published in the papers—but the “Titanic” went down at 2.20 on Monday morning with the greater part of her human cargo, namely, 1,635 souls, 705 only being saved. Help had been signalled for, and the S.S. “Carpathia” caught the signals and came on the scene after several hours, in time to rescue those who had found safety in the boats.
Many and heart-rending are the tales which the survivors tell of the scenes which took place as they parted with the doomed vessel—men pressing away their wives and children, other wives again refusing to go, and determining to abide by their husbands. It must be said to the credit of Captain Smith, the crew, and the passengers in general, that they behaved on the whole with calmness and heroism. Very few violent scenes were enacted. The band, which at first played light and popular airs, turned, as the ship was about to sink, to a well-known hymn, whose refrain is “Nearer, my God, to Thee”—not a safe plank after all—the composition of a poor Unitarian. The unsinkable steamship then went gently down under the surface of water two miles deep, to rise no more.
Many are the solemn reflections that occur in view of this great calamity. God is speaking very loudly in it to all, whether on sea or on land. How vain and useless oftentimes is human wealth when death is staring men in the face! On board this ship were many millionaires, but their millions could afford them no help. The loss of this ship is a blow to the proud achievements of human genius. Men refuse to take God into account, and they think they can defy that great and spacious sea which He has made, but with a single blow He can knock their leviathan vessels to the bottom, as if they were but tiny cobbles. “The Lord reigneth; let the people tremble.” And what are we to say about such a multitude of human beings, in a most unlooked-for moment, hurried into eternity, there to meet the righteous Judge of all the earth? It is perfectly safe to say that the most of them were quite unprepared in a spiritual sense, many of them, indeed, being leading figures in the fashionable and frivolous world, where the fear of God is absent. Playing at cards and indulging in other vain amusements were their last occupations on that solemn Sabbath evening when the “Titanic” struck the ice. What a dreadfully awakening was in store in eternity for such votaries of ungodly pleasure! Here, however, is a voice to all on land as well as on sea. “It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment.” “Prepare to meet thy God.” “Watch, therefore; for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.”
J. S. S.