Such is the story of the greatest maritime crime in history and, now that the war is over, it is well that it should not be forgotten, with its record of heroism and self-sacrifice, of competent seamanship and resourceful initiative, of suffering and death. Lord Mersey’s report on the disaster, after he had heard a mass of evidence from officers and men, as well as from surviving passengers, is a document which after generations will read with pride. It contains not the personal opinion merely of a former President of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division of the High Court of Justice, but is a considered judgment in which Admiral Sir F. S. Inglefield and Lieutenant Commander Hearn, both officers of the Royal Navy, and Captain D. Davies and Captain J. Spedding, of the Merchant Service, acting as the four assessors, concurred. The report contained a short, but consolatory statement of the competency with which the sudden emergency was confronted when the ship was attacked. “The Captain was on the bridge at the time his ship was struck,” Lord Mersey recorded, “and he remained there giving orders until the ship foundered. His first order was to lower all the boats to the rail. This order was obeyed as far as it possibly could be. He then called out ‘Women and children first.’ The order was then given to hard-a-starboard the helm with a view to heading towards the land, and orders were telegraphed to the engine-room. The orders given to the engine-room are difficult to follow and there is obvious confusion about them. It is not, however, important to consider them, for the engines were put out of commission almost at once by the inrush of water and ceased working, and the lights in the engine-room were blown out. Leith, the Marconi operator, immediately sent out an S.O.S. signal, and, later on, another message, ‘Come at once, big list, 10 miles south Head Old Kinsale.’ These messages were repeated continually and were acknowledged. At first, the messages were sent out by the power supplied from the ship’s dynamo; but in three or four minutes this power gave out and the messages were sent out by means of the emergency apparatus in the wireless cabin.” [Illustration: WELCOMING THE FIRST CONTINGENT OF RETURNING AMERICAN TROOPS, NEW YORK, DECEMBER, 1918] [Illustration: THE “MAURETANIA” ARRIVING AT NEW YORK, DECEMBER, 1918]