The Loss of the S. S. Titanic: Its Story and Its LessonsBeesley, Lawrence
History
The Loss of the S. S. Titanic: Its Story and Its Lessons
Beesley, Lawrence
Shipwrecks -- North Atlantic Ocean; Titanic (Steamship)
Coming now to Sunday, the day on which the Titanic struck the iceberg,
it will be interesting, perhaps, to give the day's events in some
detail, to appreciate the general attitude of passengers to their
surroundings just before the collision. Service was held in the saloon
by the purser in the morning, and going on deck after lunch we found
such a change in temperature that not many cared to remain to face the
bitter wind--an artificial wind created mainly, if not entirely, by
the ship's rapid motion through the chilly atmosphere. I should judge
there was no wind blowing at the time, for I had noticed about the
same force of wind approaching Queenstown, to find that it died away
as soon as we stopped, only to rise again as we steamed away from the
harbour.
Returning to the library, I stopped for a moment to read again the
day's run and observe our position on the chart; the Rev. Mr. Carter,
a clergyman of the Church of England, was similarly engaged, and we
renewed a conversation we had enjoyed for some days: it had
commenced with a discussion of the relative merits of his
university--Oxford--with mine--Cambridge--as world-wide educational
agencies, the opportunities at each for the formation of character
apart from mere education as such, and had led on to the lack of
sufficiently qualified men to take up the work of the Church of
England (a matter apparently on which he felt very deeply) and from
that to his own work in England as a priest. He told me some of his
parish problems and spoke of the impossibility of doing half his work
in his Church without the help his wife gave. I knew her only slightly
at that time, but meeting her later in the day, I realized something
of what he meant in attributing a large part of what success he had as
a vicar to her. My only excuse for mentioning these details about the
Carters--now and later in the day--is that, while they have perhaps
not much interest for the average reader, they will no doubt be some
comfort to the parish over which he presided and where I am sure he
was loved. He next mentioned the absence of a service in the evening
and asked if I knew the purser well enough to request the use of the
saloon in the evening where he would like to have a "hymn sing-song";
the purser gave his consent at once, and Mr. Carter made preparations
during the afternoon by asking all he knew--and many he did not--to
come to the saloon at 8.30 P.M.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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