A Night to Remember

Overriding everything else, the Titanic also marked the end of a general feeling of confidence.

The night was a magnificent confirmation of "women and children first," yet somehow the loss rate was higher for Third Class children than First Class men.

The Titanic woke them up. Never again would they be quite so sure of themselves. In technology especially, the disaster was a terrible blow. Here was the "unsinkable ship" -- perhaps man's greatest engineering achievement -- going down the first time it sailed. But it went beyond that. If this supreme achievement was so terribly fragile, what about everything else? If wealth mean so little on this cold April night, did it mean so much the rest of the year?

The clock in the wireless shack said 12:45 A.M. when the Titanic sent the first SOS call in history.

This was the era when gentlemen formally offered their services to "unprotected ladies" at the start of an Atlantic voyage.

Before the Titanic, all was quiet. Afterward all was tumult. That is why, to anybody who lived at the time, the Titanic more than any other single event marks the end of the old days, and the beginning of a new, uneasy era.

Robertson called his ship the Titan; the White Star Line called its ship the Titanic. This is the story of her last night.

Suddenly he was amazed to see a lifeboat floating near the starboard side. He phoned the bridge—did they know there was a boat afloat? An incredulous voice asked who he was. Rowe explained, and the bridge then realized he had been overlooked. They told him to come to the bridge right away and bring some rockets with him.

Try and get off with Major Butt

Mrs. George Widener was met not by automobile but by a special train—consisting of a private Pullman, another car for ballast, and a locomotive.

It is a rash man indeed who would set himself up as final arbiter on all that happened the incredible night the Titanic went down.

If wealth meant so little on this cold April night, did it mean so much the rest of the year?

Possession of the ice didn’t remain a Third Class monopoly for long.

But legends are part of great events, and if they help keep alive the memory of gallant self-sacrifice, they serve their purpose.

Seen and unseen, the great and the unknown tumbled together in a writhing heap as the bow plunged deeper and the stern rose higher.