16 GENERAL BOOTH 



course; thirdly, better and more regular organisation on ship-board, by boat-drill (there 

 had been none on the "Titanic") and otherwise, for the emergency of having to abandon 

 ship; and fourthly, a compulsory service of "wireless" on all liners, working day and 

 night, for it was one of the most lamentable incidents in the whole terrible story that 

 the " Titanic's " "wireless " call for help, picked up all over the ocean and nobly responded 

 to by the " Carpathia " (Capt. Rostron) seventy miles off, fell on deaf ears on the " Calif or- 

 nian" only 8 or 10 miles away. 1 The full record of the disaster is contained in the : reports 

 of the inquiries held at once in America by a committee of Congress under Senator Smith, 

 and later in London by a special commission presided over by Lord Mersey (report 

 issued July soth). Painful and difficult though it may be to distribute blame in such a 

 case, there can be little doubt that the loss of life 817 passengers out of 1316, and 696 

 out of a crew of 908 was much greater than ought to have been possible. Captain E. 

 J. Smith (b, 1853), a highly experienced seaman who had been for 38 years in the service 

 of the White Star Company and who now went down with his ship, seems to have been 

 averse from taking steps at first which might cause a panic on board; otherwise there 

 should have been time, if adequate means of organisation and of commanding discipline 

 had existed, not only to get more people into the boats but to improvise rafts. In naval 

 circles it is known that the opinion is strongly held that this should have been done, 

 since the injuries received by the ship made it certain that she would sink in a given 

 time. If this be so, it points to a weakness in the higher command, or the means provid- 

 ed for exercising it in the organisation of the crew on the " Titanic," for which no merely 

 material equipment could compensate. It may be admitted that a natural expectation 

 of security had been engendered, alike among the owners, officers and passengers of 

 these magnificently appointed liners, which, until a crisis actually came, had made it 

 almost unthinkable that it could come in that way; but the fact remains. that the re- 

 sponsibility for the lives of passengers rests with those who control the ship. In this 

 case it was not the inadequacy of the physical means of escape that accounts for the large 

 proportion of the lost who remained on board; it was the inadequate organisation . fop 

 purposes of using them, and inadequate information as to the necessity. Apart from 

 that, both Great Britain and America could mingle sorrow and pride over many fine 

 incidents of the tragedy, with its long death-roll of prominent people from both sides of 

 the Atlantic. When it came to the sending away of the boats, the order was " women 

 and children first." The figures of the 711 saved by the "Carpathia" (including about 60 

 who were picked up in the boats after the ship went down) speak for themselves: 

 Women: ist class, 140 out of 144; 2nd class, 80 out of 93; 3rd class, 76 out of 165; crew, 20 

 out of 23. Children: ist class, 6 out of 6; 2nd class, 24.out of 24; 3rd class, 27 out of 79: 

 Men: ist class, 57 out of 175; 2nd class, 14 out of 168; 3rd class, 75 out of 462; crew, 192 

 out of 885. Altogether the percentage of women saved was 74.35, of children 52.29, of 

 men 20.27. The comparatively small proportion of 3rd class passengers saved was shown 

 to be purely accidental and not due to any preference being deliberately given to others; 

 they were handicapped however by their quarters being remote from the boat -deck, and 

 by so many of them being foreigners. 



GENERAL BOOTH 



The death of '' General " Booth on August 20, 1912, at the age of eighty-three; has 

 removed a remarkable personality from the world. The founder of the Salvation Army 2 

 had lived to see it grow from small revivalist beginnings in the 'sixties the name itself 

 being adopted and a definite system established in 1880 and to pass through a period 

 of contempt and hostility, till for some years before he died it had become a recognised 

 institution, of widespread religious power and social efficiency. The " General " was 



1 Apart from the " Californian's" "wireless" operator having gone to bed, however, Lore 

 Mersey was satisfied that if her captain had realised the situation properly she could havf 

 saved " many, if not all, of the lives that were lost;" for evidence showed that distress rockets 

 sent up on the " Titanic " were actually seen from the " Californian," though no action was taken 

 in response to them. The incredibility of such a disaster appears, in that case, to have 

 paralysed the capacity for inference. 



2 See E. B. iv, 239, and xxiv, 100. 



