105 years ago, Titanic tragedy stunned Petaluma

1n 1912, first news of Titanic sinking was initially somewhat hopeful.|

April 15 was the 105th anniversary of the sinking of the steamship Titanic, upon its maiden voyage. Many hundreds of articles, scripts, books and movies have been written about this tragedy. Petaluma’s reaction 100 years ago was quite compelling.

In case you’ve missed the news, the luxury liner Titanic, on her maiden voyage, hit a giant ice floe in the North Atlantic Ocean on April 14, 1912, in the middle of the night. Almost all of the passengers were asleep. The ship sank in two-and-a-half hours at approximately 2 a.m. More than 1,500 souls were lost in the sea.

One should consider the 1912 times in which this tragedy occurred. Seeing an automobile on Petaluma streets was still unusual then, and most of those cars were owned by the wealthy. Henry Ford’s “Model T” was in its third year of production as Ford’s goal was to “put America on wheels,” but the automobile was still laboriously started with a crank in 1912, as the electric starter was not invented until later that year. And that was just one problem.

The big news of the year, (other than The Titanic), was that New Mexico and Arizona had just been admitted to The Union as the 47th and 48th States and Alaska had been made a U.S. Territory. Woodrow Wilson was President and Theodore Roosevelt announced that he would run again for the presidency with a new political gang called The Bull Moose Party.

Other important names of 1912 were: magician Harry Houdini, singer Al Jolsen, movie-maker Mack Sennett and baseball great Ty Cobb. In Russia, a young unknown had become Editor of the Communist newspaper, Pravda. His name was Joseph Stalin. And in California, The Beverly Hills Hotel was opened in 1912, and the first running of San Francisco’s “Bay to Breakers Race was held in January of that year.

Just five weeks prior to the Titanic tragedy, explorer Roald Amundsen had carefully dodged hundreds of ice floes to discover the South Pole. One would think the Captain and Manager of The White Star Liner, Titanic, would have taken notes about ice floes.

Never in history had a ship so huge, so powerful, and so luxurious been constructed. She was 882 feet long and 92 feet in beam. She had a double-bottomed hull with watertight compartments that could be closed remotely. It was broadcast widely that the great new SS Titanic was “Unsinkable!”

The world was in awe.

Britain’s White Star Steamship Lines was, at the time, in fierce competition with that country’s Cunard Lines and Cunard’s big vessels, Mauritania and Lusitania. (Lusitania was sunk in 1915 by a German U-Boat, an event that precipitated bringing America into World War I).

Titanic’s ownership and its captain were determined that she would break all speed records on that maiden trip. She was traveling at an incredible 25 miles per hour when she hit an immovable object. White Star Lines was to be accused of gross negligence and attempts to cover-up the disaster in issuing false wireless reports to the press.

The Petaluma Daily Courier on April 15th, 1912 headlined; “Titanic reported safe. Women and children rescued!” It continued, “The great liner, badly damaged by collision with an iceberg, is crawling slowly toward Halifax Nova Scotia.” And this: “Passengers taken aboard other vessels.” The world press had been grossly misled by White Star, which could not believe the reports from the sea, and had deliberately changed them.

Among the passengers listed by The Courier were such well-known names as the John Jacob Astors, the Guggenheims, the Dodges (autos), the Isador Straus’ (owners of Macys) and the Vanderbilts - all of them first class passengers, of course. It wasn’t until after the sinking that the steerage passengers names became known … most of them lost at sea.

On April 16, The Courier’s headline read, “Only 705 survivors of the wreck are aboard The Carpathia.” The Liner Carpathia had responded to the urgent SOS from Titanic. But, She was 58 miles away. It was unknown then, but Titanic only had 20 lifeboats, which could carry a maximum of 1,200 passengers, and yet, the vessel had 2,223 passengers and crew aboard.

“All hope abandoned of more survivors of Titanic! Only survivors rescued by Carpathia,” said The Courier.

On April 18, The Courier procl;aimed, “J. Bruce Ismay, Manager of White Star Lines (and a survivor) Withholding story of Titanic wreck.” And this: “Attempted speeding the cause.” Petaluma’s Christian Elder Ferguson was quoted from his sermon that Sunday: “This was a result of the morbid craze of the 20th century for the spectacular.” He went on to say it was the “Competition between rival companies, in their greed for gold, that no marine glasses (binoculars) were furnished for the crows’ nest.”

On April 19, The Courier said, “Mrs. John Jacob Astor to testify at inquest.” (She had survived, her husband had not). And, “Danger signals ignored” (“Ice conditions hazardous“) and “remains of John Jacob Astor & Isador Straus recovered. 189 corpses coming to Halifax.”

April 29, in The Courier: “Rescued Titanic passengers appear before Senate committee.” And this: “Bodies packed in ice and burlap on board the SS Macky-Bennett.” This steamer had arrived on scene in an attempt to locate survivors, but found no life boats, only floating corpses on the sea. The Courier that day went on to say, “No indications of bullet marks have been found.” (This comment was in response to the rumor that some passengers had committed suicide rather than face the icy water and possible sharks).

May 3, in The Courier: A steerage passenger, in testifying before the Senate Committee, said: “The first we knew of the accident was when the water rushed in!” One of the great issues of this tragedy was that steerage passengers were gated-off from going to the decks for what lifeboats were there, and there was no public address system to warn passengers.

And finally, this from The Courier, May 28th: “The Senate Committee report of the Titanic disaster finds that Titanic, in running 24.5 knots per hour, caused 68% of its passengers to be lost due to negligence and indifference.” It continued, “We recommend increased life-saving equipment on board vessels and the regulation of the wireless transmissions.”

But this incredible tragedy was more than just due to the lack of life-saving equipment. It was also caused by “class separation” that actually locked-up the lower class passengers! And, it was caused by the unbelievable hubris of being “the first and the fastest in the 20th Century.”

The hard lesson was this: Nothing ... that floats upon the sea is “unsinkable.”

(Historian Skip Sommer is an Honorary Life Member of Heritage Homes and the Petaluma Historical Museum. Contact him at skipsommer@hotmail.com.)

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