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CHAPTER V
THE TITANIC STRIKES AN ICEBERG!
TARDY ATTENTION TO WARNING RESPONSIBLE FOR ACCIDENT—THE
DANGER NOT REALIZED AT FIRST—AN INTERRUPTED
CARD GAME—PASSENGERS JOKE AMONG THEMSELVES—THE
REAL TRUTH DAWNS—PANIC ON BOARD—WIRELESS CALLS
FOR HELP
Sinking of the Titanic and Great Sea Disasters |  |
BRIDGE GAME NOT DISTURBED
To illustrate the placidity with which practically all the men regarded the accident it is related that Pierre Maréchal, son of the vice-admiral of the French navy, Lucien Smith, Paul Chevré, a French sculptor, and A. F. Ormont, a cotton broker, were in the Café Parisien playing bridge.
The four calmly got up from the table and after walking on deck and looking over the rail returned to their game.
They remained only for a few moments on deck, and then resumed their game under the impression that the ship had stopped for reasons best known to the captain and not involving any danger to her. Later, in describing the scene that took place, M. Maréchal, who was among the survivors, said: "When three-quarters of a mile away we stopped, the spectacle before our eyes was in its way magnificent. In a very calm sea, beneath a sky moonless but sown with millions of stars, the enormous Titanic lay on the water, illuminated from the water line to the boat deck. The bow was slowly sinking into the black water."
The tendency of the whole ship's company except the men in the engine department, who were made aware of the danger by the inrushing water, was to make light of and in some instances even to ridicule the thought of danger to so substantial a fabric.
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CHAPTER V
THE TITANIC STRIKES AN ICEBERG!
TARDY ATTENTION TO WARNING RESPONSIBLE FOR ACCIDENT—THE
DANGER NOT REALIZED AT FIRST—AN INTERRUPTED
CARD GAME—PASSENGERS JOKE AMONG THEMSELVES—THE
REAL TRUTH DAWNS—PANIC ON BOARD—WIRELESS CALLS
FOR HELP
Sinking of the Titanic and Great Sea Disasters | |