STILL UNCERTAINTY AS TO NUMBER OF SURVIVORS

WIRELESS MESSAGE REDUCES NUMBER OF THE RESCUED

NO OFFICIAL STATEMENT CONFIRMING THIS REPORT

Communication Between the Carpathia and the Shore Confined Largely to Private Messages Between Passengers and Friends – Of the Crew 163 May Have Been Saved – U.S. Vessels in Touch With Carpathia - Vessel Will Dock To-night

THE MUSTER ROLL

There seems to be almost as much doubt this morning as to the total number of persons saved from the Titanic as there was two days ago. A Boston newspaper man, Winfield Thompson, who is on the Franconia, which was in wireless communication early yesterday with the Carpathia, sent a message to Sable Island wireless station that there were 705 survivors of the Titanic on the Carpathia. The former messages, believed to be accurate, gave a total of 868 survivors. The officials of the White Star Line still assert that the greater number were saved. The theory is advanced that the difference between 868 and 705 represents 163 members of the crew who manned the boats, the 705 being the number of surviving passengers.

Another element of uncertainty is that no one seems quite able to say whether the passengers taken aboard at Cherbourg were included in the total of 2,170 persons said to have been aboard the Titanic. If the Cherbourg passengers were not included in that list the total loss of life may be nearer 2,000 than the figures formerly given. Assuming, however, the correctness of the figures, and of the explanation as to the discrepancies between the figures 868 and 705 as the total of the survivors, the muster roll shows thus:

Total on board. Saved.
First-class passengers 318 202
Second-class passengers 362 126
Third-class passengers 730 377
Crew 860 163
Total 868

CARPATHIA MAKING STEADY PROGRESS.

NEW YORK, April 17. – (Special.) – Steaming steadily at thirteen knots an hour, the Cunard Liner Carpathia – which left the scene of the White Star Line Titanic’s disaster at 7:30 o’clock on Monday morning with about 700 persons, probably the only ones of the big ship’s complement to be saved - came within wireless range yesterday of nearly a score of stations along the New England coast. Operators who for two days had listened anxiously for the first direct message from the Carpathia keyed their instruments to catch the story of the disaster which had sent the biggest ship in the world to the ocean’s bottom, and had occasioned a loss of life unparalleled in marine history.