xi ACROSS THE BORDER 299 



He was first able to communicate with the wireless 

 station at Siasconsett, Massachusetts, which in turn 

 sent the news of the distress of the Republic to the Baltic, 

 the Lorraine and other vessels equipped with the 

 Marconi apparatus. The dense fog hindered the speedy 

 approach of the relieving vessels, but at last the Baltic 

 came within reach, and succeeded in rescuing the whole 

 of the imperilled passengers and crew of the sinking ship. 



A few months after the wreck of the Republic, all the 

 passengers and crew of another ocean liner, the Slavonia, 

 which had been stranded on the South-west of Flores 

 Island, were rescued by a vessel which had heard the 

 call for help when at a distance of 180 miles, and turned 

 back at once to give assistance. But the most dramatic 

 use of wireless telegraphy at sea occurred in April, 1912, 

 when the Titanic, the largest vessel in the world, struck 

 an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton to 

 New York. She was installed with Marconi instruments 

 having a sphere of influence of about five hundred miles 

 by day and treble that distance at night. Several 

 vessels heard the wireless appeal for help, but none was 

 able to reach her before she foundered, four hours after 

 collision with the iceberg. When the relieving vessels 

 reached the scene of the disaster they were able to rescue 

 nearly nine hundred survivors, who had taken to the 

 boats, but the remainder of the human freight of more 

 than two thousand souls had found a grave with the 

 Titanic in the waters of the Atlantic. The only bright 

 spot in this sorrowful history is that the passengers and 

 crew in the crowded boats owe their lives to wireless 

 telegraphy, which summoned the vessels that saved them. 



One further impressive instance of the aid rendered 

 by this development of science is that of the steamship 

 Volturno, which was destroyed by fire in mid- Atlantic 



