TITANIC IN DANGER

Collided with Berg in Mid-Ocean.

VESSEL SINKING

Reported Passengers Were Being Placed in Boats.

STEAMERS TO RESCUE

Three Fast Steamers Are Rushing to Scene of Disaster

PASSENGERS WELL-KNOWN

Mr. Charles M. Hays Is One of the Number-News of Accident First Communicated by the Virginian.

Cape Race, April 14-At 10.25 tonight the steamship Titanic called “C.Q.D.,” and reported having struck an iceberg. The steamer said that immediate assistance was required.

Half an hour afterwards another message came reporting that they were sinking by the head, and that women were being put off in the lifeboats.

The weather was calm and clear, the Titanic’s wireless operator reported, and gave the position of the vessel 41.46 north latitude and 50.14 west longitude.

The Marconi station at Cape Race notified the Allan liner Virginian, the captain of which immediately advised that he was proceeding for the scene of the disaster.

The Virginian at midnight was about 150 miles distant from the Titanic and expected to reach that vessel about 10 a.m. Monday.

The Olympic at an early hour Monday morning was in latitude 40.32 north and longitude 61.18 west. She was in direct communication with the Titanic and is now making all haste toward her.

The steamship Baltic also reported herself as about 200 miles east of the Titanic and was making all possible speed toward her.

The last signals from the Titanic were heard by the Virginian at 12.27 a.m. The wireless operator on the Virginian says these signals were blurred and ended abruptly.

“Titanic has struck an iceberg, and sends Marconigram asking for assistance. Virginian going to her rescue.”

Such was the tenor of a Marconigram sent by the Allan liner Virginian via Cape Race last night, and received at Halifax about 10.30. The news was communicated from Halifax to Mr. Geo. Hananh at Montreal, passenger traffic manager of the Allan line.

As the Virginian only sailed from Halifax for Liverpool at 8 o’clock yesterday morning, she would not be far from Cape Race at the time Titanic’s wireless message reached her. It is difficult to gauge the distance between the Titanic and Virginian at the time the message was received, but the distance separating them was not too great for a Marconigram to be sent and received, and the chances are that it was not more than 200 to 300 miles.

Asked last night as to how many passengers from the Titanic the Virginian could accommodate, Mr. Hannan replied that she would certainly take all of them on board if there should be need. Virginian’s passenger list on the eastbound trip is not a heavy one, consisting of 47 first, 75 second, and 105 third class passengers so that she could accommodate without strain 150 more first, 250 second, and 500 third class passengers or 900 in all. Titanic’s passenger list numbers 1,200. There is also a large crew to be thought of, but Virginian will be able to bring them all ashore if such an emergency arises.

It is not improbable that the wireless message received by the Virginian would be picked up by other steamships within the range of the electric waves. The Virginian divides the honor with her sister ship, the Victorian, of being the fastest of the Allan line vessels. She is capable of steaming more than twenty knots and perhaps by daybreak this morning may be near the big ship in distress.

MR. C. M. HAYS ON BOARD

The White Star liner Titanic, the largest vessel afloat, left Southampton April 10 on her maiden voyage for New York. When she left Southampton she had about 1,300 passengers on board, of whom 150 were in the first cabin. Among these latter are F.D. Millet, the artist and president of the Consolidated American Academy at Home; Major Archibald Butt, military aide to President Taft; C. M. Hays, president of the Grand Trunk Railway; J. Bruce Ismay, chairman and managing director of the White Star line; Henry B. Harris, the American theatrical manager; W.T. Stead, Mrs. Isador Strauss, Mr. and Mrs. John Jacob Astor, Mr. and Mrs. George D. Widener, Benjamin Guggenheim, and Mr. and Mrs. Harry Widener.

38 WATERTIGHT COMPARTMENTS

Titanic, which is a sister ship of Olympic, was only put into service this month, after being built at Belfast. She is 882½ feet long, 92½ feet broad, 45,000 tons register, 66,000 tons displacement with a height from keel to top of funnels of 175 feet. She is fitted with elevators, private promenade decks, Turkish baths, squash racket courts, verandah cafe and palm gardens, gymnasium and other novel features. She is a triple screw steamer with 50,000 h.p. engines and could travel at a speed of 21 knots. Her crew number 390.

Titanic is divided into thirty-eight water-tight compartments so no matter how severely damaged the Titanic may be from her impact with the iceberg, she would be able to keep afloat until the Virginian reaches her. The distance from Halifax to Cape Race is 462 miles, which is more than an average day’s run for even such a fast boat as the Virginian, and as such she was only 14 hours out, it is certain her distance from Cape Race, though comparatively little for a Marconigram to be sent, must actually have been by no means inconsiderable.

The Titanic’s sister ship, Olympic, has suffered accidents on two occasions since she was built. There was the collision with H.M.S. Hawke last September, which is still engaging the attention of courts of law on the other side, and then only this year she struck some submerged wreckage which broke a blade of one of her propellers and necessitated her going into dry dock at Belfast.

WHAT SHIPPING MEN THINK

Shipping men who were communicated with late last night were inclined to the opinion that the mammoth liner was simply unable to make her way along to any extent and had been heading for Halifax when she got in communication with the Virginian. With her 38 water-tinght compartments, danger had been reduced to a minimum, as far as marine and engineering science could make a ship.

HAD MISHAP WEDNESDAY

On leaving Southampton last Wednesday the Titanic had a rather exciting moment while proceeding down Southampton water. Passing the White Star liner Oceanic and the American liner New York, which were berthed alongside one another, the suction of the Titanic’s triple screws dragged the New York from her moorings and seven of that vessel’s stern ropes parted. The stern of the New York swung into mid stream and narrowly escaped striking the Titanic, which had to stop until the New York was towed to a safer berth.

FIRST NEWS HERE

New York received from Montreal its first news of the accident to the Titanic. The only news received on land from either vessel was the Marconigram from Captain Gamble, of the Virginian, which was in turn transmitted by land from Cape Breton to Mr. George Hannah of the Allan line offices here. From Montreal the message was communicated to New York where the news caused a big sensation. Early this morning a flood of messages came from New York, asking for additional details, but up to three o’clock nothing more had come from Captain Gamble.

NEW YORK UNINFORMED

New York, April 14. The White Star liner officers here had received no information tonight of any accident to the Titanic until notified of the despatches from Montreal. The last wireless message from the liner was received at 11 o’clock this morning giving her position as 500 miles southeast of Cape Race, at 2 a.m. today.

VIRGINIAN SAILED SATURDAY

Halifax, N.S. April 15 – The Allan steamer Virginian which reports that she has gone to the assistance of the White Star liner Titanic, left Halifax at 9.20 p.m. Saturday night for Liverpool, with mails, and 300 passengers. She also took 1,800 barrels of apples from this port. The Virginian daily runs something like three hundred and fifty miles so that by midnight tonight the mail steamer would be about 420 miles east of Halifax. The Allan liner Corsican also reports passing thick ice near this coast, which is the furtherest south her officers remember ever having seen ice. The steamer made a wide detour to avoid it, which she succeeded in doing.