THE TITANIC DISASTER.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXX, Issue 3512, 1 May 1912, Page 5

THE TITANIC DISASTER.

WORK IN THE STOKEHOLDS I KEPT UP TILL THE LAST MINUTE ' i ENGINEER’S DREADFUL FATE. i • i HEROIC STOKERS’ TERRIBLE STORY.. I [UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT'! (Received May 1, 12.30 a.m.) LONDON, April 30. Leading stokers in the Titanic state that- the bulkhead doors were opened once to admit Air Shepperd, the engineer, who broke his leg by falling down a manhole. Four of the stokeholds remained dry and work in the engine room was continued until 2 o’clock. Before tho end an engineer shouted to the stokers: “You have done your best! Get on deck!” The last stoker, looking back, saw the floor of the engine room break and a great bole appeared, and the engineer in question fell through the bottom of the vessel. ORIGIN OF FALSE REPORTS. POSTMASTER-GENERAL HAS NO PARTICULARS. A QUESTION IN THE HOUSE. (Received April 30, 11.10 p.m.) LONDON, April 30. Air Herbert Samuel (PostmasterGeneral), replying to a question as to the origin of false reports as to the Titanic’s safety, said that they had not been traced. IN MEMORIAM. AN IMPRESSIVE REQUIEM. RUSSIA’S TRIBUTE. ST. PETERSBURG, April 29. An impressive Russian requiem was held for all the Titanic victims at the Admiraltv Church. It was atte- ded by the British and American ambassadors, naval aiul miltiary officers, and representatives of the Duma. THE SCENE OF THE DISASTER. PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS LOCALITY. A SHIPMASTER’S EXPERIENCE. Air. H. Bramwoll, of Bathurst, wlm lias spent twenty-nine years at sea and holds a- master’s certificate, a Sydney Daily Telegraph representative some interesting details of the dangers attending navigation in the I vicinity of Cape Race. “I have crossed the Atlantic over 200 times,” said Air- B ram well, “and the neighborhood of Cape Race, in which tho Titanic is said to have collided with an iceberg, is particularly dangerous on account of the fogs which almost continually hang around there. It is about there that all steamer lines converge. It ma v be news to some to know that the outward and homeward tracks across the Atlantic are followed almost along strictly defined lines, which in nautical phraseology arc called steamer lines. The lines are from. 50 to 100 miles apart generally, and thus diminish t-he risk of collision between the steamers of the outward and homeward routes. But towards Cape Race they converge, and after leaving there diverge more or less as the steamers arc bound to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, or Baltimore. “The vicinity of Cape Race is particularly dangerous, also, from the fact that it is near the fishing ground of the cod fleet, which Kipling, in his “Captains Courageous,’ describes with such fullness and accuracy. “What surprises me is that bergs are so far south so early in the year. June is generally Hie earliest they are looked for. It is rather exhilarating work being in charge of a ship about Cape Race in a fog. You are continually fancying you can see ship; and fishing boats or a derelict. It might) be a berg at any time, and if you do meet one it. is generally too late to avoid it.; “Can the presence or vicinity of icebergs be determined P”—-“By some experts they can be. The waters about Cape Race are in the Gulf Stream, the temperature of which is very much higher than tli© water on either side of it. In a- fog a man is employed drawing water and taking the temperature of it, and any considerable drop is an indication that ice is in the vicinity. But it is a matter fraught with the greatest difficulty.” IN THE 3GE DRIFT. EFFECTS OF THE WARMER WATER. HUGE FLOATING MASSES OVERTURN. Huge floating masses of ice, which break away from a glacier or from an ice sheet, frequently drift from the polar regions into navigable rivers. They are occasionally encountered far ‘beyond the polar regions. AVhen, however, they rest in comparatively warm water, melting takes place most rapidly at tho base, and they sometimes overturn, whereupon one ninth only of the mass is seen above water. When a glacier descends to the sea, as in Alaska,'arid advances into the water, the depths of which are broken off, and the detached masses float away as icebergs. Many of the bergs are overturned, or, at least ,tilted, as they set sail. If this does not happen at onoo it is likely to occur later as the result of the

wave-cutting and molting which disturb their equilibrium. These borgs carry a load of debris from the glacier, and gradually strew their load upon the seashore. They do not travel far before losing all their stony and earthy debris, but glacial material found in dredgings show that icebergs occasionally carry their load far from land. r i'he structure of the iceberg varies in its origin, and is always that of the glacier or ice sheet from which it was broken. The breaking-off of the ice sheet from a Greenland glacier is called locally tho “calving” of the glacier. Tho constantly renewed . material from which the icebergs aro formed is brought down by tho motion of the glacier. The ice-sheet cracks at tho end, and masses break off, owing to the upward pressure of the water upon the lighter ice, which is pushed into it. This is accomplished with considerable violeneo.