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Jürgen Sorgenfrei
Port Business
ISBN 978-1-5474-1702-5
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-1-5474-0087-4
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-1-5474-0089-8
www.degruyter.com
for:
Anke
Alex
Gigi
About De|G PRESS
Appendices
Appendix A: Abbreviations
Appendix B: Glossary
Appendix C: Bibliography
Articles and Working Papers
Books
Dissertations and Theses
Magazines, Newspapers, and Periodicals
Maritime Statistics
Private Reports and Documents
Public Internet Websites (plus date when visited)
Index
Preface to the Second Edition
Five years ago, when the first edition of this book was published, there was
widely accepted confidence in the maritime markets that in 2015, or 2016 at
the latest, the global conditions for ports and shipping would be back to
normal. This meant: back to the situation before the Financial Crisis, and all
the problems in its aftermath. But this did not happen! Ten years later the
maritime industry, and so ports, still suffer. All types of ports were directly
or indirectly affected.
According to the International Chamber of Shipping around 90% of
world trade is maritime trade, and ports are the gateways to the markets for
the shipping industry. Everyone who eats Argentinian meat, uses an Asian
manufactured mobile phone or laptop, who drives a European car or wears
clothes made in South Asia indirectly participates in the advantages the
efficient maritime supply chains offer. However, despite the huge economic
importance, the economic framework for the maritime industry and so for
the commercial ports around the world is still challenging. There have been
periods of favorable market performance over the past decade for shipping,
but they led to an overbuilding of new vessels, and these ships needed to be
employed. The result for some ports was a gain of new services, while
others lost the calls. Rate collapses followed vessel oversupply, and the
pressure on all partners along the supply chain deteriorated. Nevertheless,
the pressure to invest in new equipment in order to serve the vessels and to
create a wider network of potential ports of call was still there.
In the past, ports often were considered as gateways to the world,
growth poles, job-machines, tax generators, facilitators of trade, but the
positive image has been tarnished. At the same time multiple new mega
trends evolved. For instance, the Chinese government announced the huge
trade and transport initiative “OBOR” One Belt, One Road. The melting ice
in the Arctic already today offers new alternatives for East Asia—Europe
trade, with the consequence of new routes. A series of international
regulations will kick in, and the maritime industry will need to follow
several new emission rules set by the International Maritime Organization,
and ports will need to collect the waste. On shore power supply for vessels
becomes an increasingly important topic, but as there is no standard, ports
are confronted with multiple technical solutions. New emission rules will
lead to revised bunker activities very soon, and ports are requested to
provide the necessary infrastructure. Big ships like the 20,000+ TEU
container vessel offer economy of scale savings for the ship owners, and
ports need to invest in bigger cranes, larger terminals and deeper water or
miss participating in the efficiency increase. The need for attractive inner-
city residential areas squeezes especially old ports to vacate their attractive
locations and to find new areas for their business.
This book provides a unique study of the business of ports: what makes
them work, what makes them fail, and how they might operate in the future.
For this purpose, the first chapters look back into the history of ports, then
provide a status quo view of ports today. Part 2 concentrates on the supply
chain view and provides trade and transportation background information,
explaining the role ports play along the transportation chain and focuses
finally on the cargos that are transported and the problems that may occur in
cargo measurement.
Part 3 explains basic port management models, discusses trends,
analyzes the fundamentals of port governance and port operations and
discusses the role of port lobbying. The explanations of port business end in
Part 4 with a discussion of mega trends that already or may in future impact
ports and terminals.
As the title “Port Business” indicates, this book is written for everybody
with interests in trade and transportation and the role ports play in the
global supply chain. It shall explain what ports are, which role they can play
and what the restrictions are, how they are managed, what drives the
business and which trends influence them.
Preface
The world economy has globalized at a tremendous pace over the past 30
years, exporting over a quarter of its merchandise output in 2010, up from
17% in 1980. Economies have become more interdependent and the digital
revolution has brought buyers and sellers from around the globe closer
together. While some 16% of world trade passes overland, 6.7% through
pipelines, and 0.3 via air, it is estimated that world seaborne trade by
volume amounts to 77% of total world trade. In 2010, this meant a total of
7.9 bn tonnes were transported by sea in the world. With the globalization
of the world economy, a nation’s economic competitiveness is linked
increasingly to its ability to ship raw materials, intermediate goods, and
final products efficiently and economically, and to receive these goods in
productive, efficient and cost-effective ports. Excessive port costs on the
other hand, or delays, can prompt investors to locate new production
facilities in other countries or regions. Ports failing to adapt these trends and
falling back in modernization could be left behind.
Throughout history, port locations have been selected to optimize access
to land and navigable water, for commercial or military demand, and for
shelter from wind and waves. Ports handled every kind of traffic and every
kind of cargo, provided all kinds of logistics services, and have been an
inherent part of historic city life. Today, in times of raising vessel sizes,
ports struggle with deeper water and the pressure to be more efficient at
lower costs. Medium-sized ports face new pressures of specialization and
targeting selected market niches, while the very few so-called Mega-Ports
have to offer the whole range of activities, yet remain specialists for all
kinds of goods that are traded around the world.
Commercial databases list more than 11,000 commercial ports and
terminals around the world, and port business increases in complexity every
year. It is the intention of this book to put the port business into the right
perspective and provide insight. For this purpose, the first part looks back
into the history of ports then provides a status quo of ports today. Part two
concentrates on the supply chain view and provides trade and transportation
background information, explaining the role ports play along the
transportation chain and focusing finally on the cargoes that are transported
and the problems that may occur in cargo measurement.
Part three explains basic port management models, discusses trends and
analyzes the fundamentals of port governance and port operations and
discusses the role of port lobbying. The explanations of port business end in
part four with a discussion of mega trends that already or may in future
impact ports and terminals.
As the title “Port Business” indicates, this book is written for everybody
with interests in trade and transportation and the role ports play in the
global supply chain. It shall explain what ports are, which role they can play
and what the restrictions are, how they are managed, what drives the
business and which trends influence them. Whilst all the information is
published in good faith the author cannot accept any liability for any errors
contained herein. The author can be contacted via mail: www.juergen.sorge
[email protected] and would love to receive comments and suggestions for
improvements.
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Part 1: Development of Ports
Chapter 1
History of Ports: The Ten Aims of a
Port
The maritime movement of goods and people has always been the cheapest
and most convenient form of transportation, and for that reason the world
has built ports since at least 6,000 BC. The advancements made to ports
over their historical development reveal their major functions and what
drives port business. Below are the highlights of ancient port development:
a brief history of the moments and motivations that led us to the harbors of
today. In all, there are ten objectives that ports could be designed to
accomplish. They will be introduced as we proceed through the chapter.
It is more than fifty years ago that Fritz Voigt published his famous
textbook about transport science theory and global traffic development,
named “Verkehr.” In the first half of Part II he gave an overview about the
historic development of all modes of transportation. Already in the
preliminary remarks he stated: “Der geschichtliche Teil soll ... vorzugsweise
die Theorie der Verkehrswirtschaft ergänzen und die volkswirtschaftliche
Gestaltungskraft des Verkehrs systems … aufzeigen” (Voigt 1965, page 3),
loosely translated: “The historical studies should preferably complement the
theory of transport science and demonstrate the economic power of the
transport system.” His understanding was that theory should always be
measured at reality. Landing stages and ports evolved alongside the
technology of the ships that they served. Initially, ports were simple wooden
posts that served to tie rafts, dugout logs or curved wooden branches
covered with the hides of animals.1 As river traffic increased, simple piers
were built to accommodate deeper ships that carried larger and heavier
loads. The first two of the ten targets were accomplished back in Ancient
Egypt.
1.1 Ancient Egypt
Egyptian history dates to about 4000 BC, when the kingdoms of Upper and
Lower Egypt, already highly sophisticated, were united. The earliest known
pyramids in Egypt are the pyramids of Saqqara, located approximately 20
km south of modern-day Cairo. Of huge interest from a construction point
of view is also the so-called forgotten pyramid in Abu Rawash; built by
Khufu’s2 son Djedefre, and most likely destroyed during the reign of roman
emperor Octavian. The area of Giza plateau, today a tourist highlight in
Egypt, is a vast burial ground, serving as the necropolis for the ancient
Egyptian capital Memphis. Saqqara features numerous pyramids, including
the world-famous Step Pyramid of Djoser, built during the Third Dynasty,
which spans approximately from 2686 to 2613 BC.
Before, by the time of the early dynastic period of Egyptian history,
approximately 3100 BC, those with sufficient means were buried in bench-
like structures known as Mastabas. The first documented Egyptian pyramid
is attributed to the architect Imhotep, who planned what Egyptologists
believe to be a tomb for the pharaoh Djoser. Imhotep is credited with being
the first to conceive the notion of stacking Mastabas on top of each other—
creating an edifice composed of several “steps” that decreased in size
toward its apex. The result was the Step Pyramid of Djoser that was
designed to serve as a gigantic stairway by which the soul of the deceased
pharaoh could ascend to the heavens. Such was the importance of Imhotep’s
achievement that he was deified by later Egyptians. Both Mastabas and
Pyramids functioned as tombs for pharaohs. In Ancient Egypt, a pyramid
was referred to as mer, literally “place of ascendance.”
Mastabas and Pyramids continue to be some of the most impressive
human buildings.3 Although it is impossible to measure the real weight of a
pyramid, calculations show that still today in the 21st century the later built
Great Pyramid of Khufu on the Giza plateau is still one of the largest
structures ever raised by man. And it is the only one of the Seven Wonders
of the Ancient World still in existence.
Having the impressive dimensions of the ancient Egyptian buildings in
mind, and bearing in mind that we talk about a historic time that is
approximately 5,000 years ago, consider: how did they erect these
impressive buildings? Where did the material come from? How did they
organize the transport from the mines to the construction field? And finally:
what role did ancient harbors and ports play in the building of the
pyramids?
At construction, the Great Pyramid is estimated to have weighed 5.9
million tons. Based on this estimate, building the structure in twenty years
would require installing approximately 800 metric tons (mt) of stone every
day. Similarly, since it consists of an estimated 2.3 million blocks,
completing the building in twenty years would involve moving an average
of more than twelve of the blocks into place each hour, day and night.4
Additionally, many of the casing stones and inner chamber blocks of the
Great Pyramid were fit together with extremely high precision. Based on
measurements taken on the north eastern casing stones, the mean opening
of the joints is only 0.5 millimeters wide (1/50th of an inch). Where did the
millions of limestone and granite blocks come from, and how did the
Egyptians organize deliveries of twelve blocks per hour, every hour, for
twenty years? In modern words: how were the logistics organized?
It is generally believed that much of the limestone was transported from
nearby quarries. The Tura limestone used for the casing was quarried across
the river Nile. The largest granite stones in the pyramid, found in the
“King’s chamber,” weigh 25 to 80 mt and were transported from Aswan,
more than 500 miles away. Once the blocks were cut, they were carried by
boat either up or down the Nile to the pyramid site. It is estimated that 5.5
million tons of limestone, 8,000 tons of granite (imported from Aswan), and
500,000 tons of mortar were used in the construction of the Great Pyramid.
A huge part of this has been carried by ship on the river and on special
canals, which allowed having the material directly at the construction field.
At the end of the canal there must have been a special purpose unloading
facility, that is, a specialized port.
Generally speaking, a harbor is a protected area of water. A port is a
harbor, plus terminal facilities: piers, wharves, docks, store buildings, and
an infrastructure of roads and rivers or canals. Therefore, a harbor is just a
very important part of a port. On the Giza construction field there was no
natural harbor. It can thus be concluded that the ancient Egyptians were the
first civilization to construct purpose-built artificial canals and harbors,
equipped with specialized handling facilities, that is, the first ports in
human history.
Figure 1.1, a copy taken from a relief in Hatschepsut temple in Dar el-
Bahari (Eggebrecht 1984, page 374), shows the ship transport of two
obelisks on the river Nile. Calculations assume that both obelisks shown in
the relief have a length of 29.50 m, and each of them is fixed on its own
wooden sledge. The total weight of the obelisks is expected to sum up to
650 tons. On both sides of the ship transport there must have been
specialized loading and unloading facilities; the first known heavy lift port
facilities.
It is very likely that the first ports that were built for the construction of the
pyramids were the first specialized cargo handling facility for maritime
trade in human history. No specialized facilities were necessary for the
cargoes carried before the pyramids, also not for fishery boats. We do not
know in which years the first ports were constructed, nor do we know
where exactly these ports were located; but to honor the ancient Egyptians
we will call these first commercial cargo ports with specialized facilities
Egyptian Pyramid Ports.
Calculations from Egyptologists show that the capacity of a typical
“Pyramid Port” like the specialized cargo port for the Great Khufu pyramid
must have been able to unload on average seven vessels per day, each boat
carrying ten blocks of stone (Illig 1999, page 46). It is very likely that for
the great pyramid two specialized port facilities in Giza were in operation.
Total annual capacities of these port facilities were:
Small wonder that hundreds still strolled the Titanic’s spotless, unsullied
decks and talked of home and friends and life and joy and hope. Small
wonder that other hundreds lounged at ease in her luxurious saloons and
smoking rooms, while other scores of voyagers, their appetites whetted by
the invigorating air, sat at a midnight supper to welcome the new week with
a feast.
Why sleep when the wealth, the beauty, the brains, the aristocracy as well
as the bone and sinew of a nation were all around one?
For, be it known, never before did ship carry so distinguished a company
—a passenger list that reads like a Social Blue Book.
This maiden trip of the Titanic was an event that was to go down in
history, they thought.
And so it will, but with tears on every page of the narrative and the wails
of women and children in every syllable.
But since the future is unrolled only in God’s own good time, how could
they know?
Why wonder at their presence?
Was this not the first trip of the greatest triumph of marine architecture?
Had not the wealth and fashion of two continents so arranged their plans
as to be numbered on its first passenger list?
Had not the hardy immigrant skimped and saved and schemed that he and
his family should be carried to the Land of Promise aboard this greatest of
all ships?
What mattered it to him that his place was in the steerage? Did not each
pulsing throb of the Titanic’s mighty engines bear him as far and as fast as
though he, too, already held in his hand the millions he felt he was destined
to win in this golden land of opportunity beyond the seas?
And so, from the loftiest promenade deck to the lowest stoke hole in the
vitals of the ship peace and comfort and happiness reigned.
APPROACHING HOME AND FRIENDS.
To many of those who went it was harder to go than to stay there on the
vessel gaping with its mortal wounds and ready to go down. It meant that
tossing on the waters they must wait in suspense, hour after hour even after
the lights of the ship were engulfed in appalling darkness, hoping against
hope for the miracle of a rescue dearer to them than their own lives.
It was the tradition of Anglo-Saxon heroism that was fulfilled in the
frozen seas during the black hours of that Sunday night. The heroism was
that of the women who went, as well as of the men who remained.
The most adequate story of the terrible disaster is told by a trained
newspaper man, who was on the Carpathia. He says:
Cause, responsibility and similar questions regarding the stupendous
disaster will be taken up in time by the British marine authorities. No
disposition has been shown by any survivor to question the courage of the
crew, hundreds of whom saved others and gave their own lives with a
heroism which equaled, but could not exceed, that of John Jacob Astor,
Henry B. Harris, Jacques Futrelle and others in the long list of the first cabin
missing.
Facts which I have established by inquiries on the Carpathia, as positively
as they could be established in view of the silence of the few surviving
officers, are:
That the Titanic’s officers knew, several hours before the crash, of the
possible nearness of icebergs.
That the Titanic’s speed, nearly twenty-three knots an hour, was not
slackened.
INSUFFICIENT LIFE-BOATS.
Captain Smith was on the bridge a moment later, giving orders for the
summoning of all on board and for the putting on of life preservers and the
lowering of the lifeboats.
The first boats lowered contained more men passengers than the latter
ones, as the men were on deck first, and not enough women were there to fill
them.
When, a moment later, the rush of frightened women and crying children
to the deck began, enforcement of the women-first rule became rigid.
Officers loading some of the boats drew revolvers, but in most cases the
men, both passengers and crew, behaved in a way that called for no such
restraint.
Revolver shots, heard by many persons shortly before the end of the
Titanic caused many rumors. One was that Captain Smith shot himself,
another was that First Officer Murdock ended his life. Smith, Murdock and
Sixth Officer Moody are known to have been lost. The surviving officers,
Lightoller, Pitman, Boxhall and Lowe, have made no statement.
Members of the crew discredit all reports of suicide, and say Captain
Smith remained on the bridge until just before the ship sank, leaping only
after those on the decks had been washed away. It is also related that, when a
cook later sought to pull him aboard a lifeboat, he exclaimed, “Let me go!”
and, jerking away, went down.
What became of the men with life preservers? is a question asked since
the disaster by many persons. The preservers did their work of supporting
their wearers in the water until the ship went down. Many of those drawn
into the vortex, despite the preservers, did not come up again. Dead bodies
floated on the surface as the last boats moved away.
“NEARER MY GOD TO THEE.”
To relate that the ship’s string band gathered in the saloon, near the end,
and played “Nearer, My God, To Thee,” sounds like an attempt to give an
added solemn color to a scene which was in itself the climax of solemnity.
But various passengers and survivors of the crew agree in the declaration
that they heard this music. To some of the hearers, with husbands among the
dying men in the water, and at the ship’s rail, the strain brought in thought
the words
“So, by my woes I’ll be
Nearer, My God, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee.”
“Women and children first,” was the order in the filling of the Titanic’s
lifeboats. How well that order was fulfilled, the list of missing first and
second cabin passengers bears eloquent witness. “Mr.” is before almost
every name, and the contrast is but made stronger by the presence of a few
names of women—Mrs. Isidor Straus, who chose death rather than to leave
her husband’s side; Mrs. Allison, who remained below with her husband and
daughter, and others who, in various ways, were kept from entering the line
of those to be saved.
To most of the passengers, the midnight crash against the ice mountain
did not seem of terrific force. Many were so little disturbed by it that they
hesitated to dress and put on life preservers, even when summoned by that
thundering knocks and shouts of the stewards. Bridge players in the smoking
room kept on with their game.
Once on deck, many hesitated to enter the swinging lifeboats. The glassy
sea, the starlit sky, the absence, in the first few moments, of intense
excitement, gave them the feeling that there was only some slight mishap—
that those who got into the boats would have a chilly half-hour below, and
might later be laughed at.
It was such a feeling as this, from all accounts, which caused John Jacob
Astor and his wife to refuse the places offered them in the first boat, and to
retire to the gymnasium. In the same way, H. J. Allison, Montreal banker,
laughed at the warning, and his wife, reassured by him, took her time about
dressing. They and their daughter did not reach the Carpathia. Their son, less
than two years old, was carried into a lifeboat by his nurse, and was taken in
charge by Major Arthur Peuchen.
ADMIRATION AND CONFIDENCE.
The admiration felt by passengers and crew for the matchlessly appointed
vessel was translated, in those first few moments, into a confidence which
for some proved deadly.
In the loading of the first boat restrictions of sex were not made, and it
seemed to the men who piled in beside the women that there would be boats
enough for all. But the ship’s officers knew better than this, and as the
spreading fear caused an earnest advance toward the suspended craft, the
order, “Women first!” was heard, and the men were pushed aside.
To the scenes of the next two hours on those decks and in the waters
below, such adjectives as “dramatic” and “tragic” do but poor justice. With
the knowledge of deadly peril gaining greater power each moment over
those men and women, the nobility of the greater part, both among cabin
passengers, officers, crew and steerage, asserted itself.
Isidor Straus, supporting his wife on her way to a lifeboat, was held back
by an inexorable guard. Another officer strove to help her to a seat of safety,
but she brushed away his arm and clung to her husband, crying, “I will not
go without you.”
Another woman took her place, and her form, clinging to her husband’s,
became part of a picture now drawn indelibly in many minds. Neither wife
nor husband reached a place of safety.
Colonel Astor, holding his young wife’s arm, stood decorously aside as
the officers spoke to him, and Mrs. Astor and her maid were ushered to
seats. Mrs. Henry B. Harris, parted in like manner from her husband, saw
him last at the rail, beside Colonel Astor. Walter M. Clark, of Los Angeles,
nephew of the Montana Senator, joined the line of men as his young wife,
sobbing, was placed in one of the boats.
AN AGONIZING SEPARATION.
“Let him come! There is room!” cried Mrs. Emil Taussig as the men of
the White Star Line motioned to her husband to leave her. It was with
difficulty that he released her hold to permit her to be led to her place.
George D. Widener, who had been in Captain Smith’s company a few
moments after the crash, was another whose wife was parted from him and
lowered a moment later to the surface of the calm sea.
Of Major Archie Butt, a favorite with his fellow tourists; of Charles M.
Hayes, president of the Grand Trunk; of Benjamin Guggenheim and of
William T. Stead, no one seems to know whether they tarried too long in
their staterooms or whether they forebore to approach the fast filling boats,
none of them was in the throng which, weary hours afterward, reached the
Carpathia.
Simultaneously on all the upper decks of the ship the ropes creaked with
the lowering of the boats. As they reached the water, those in the boats saw
what those on the decks could not see—that the Titanic was listing rapidly to
starboard, and that her stern was rising at a portentous angle. A rush of
steerage men toward the boats was checked by officers with revolvers in
hand.
Some of the boats, crowded too full to give rowers a chance, drifted for a
time. None had provisions or water; there was lack of covering from the icy
air, and the only lights were the still undimmed arcs and incandescents of the
settling ship, save for one of the first boats. There a steward, who explained
to the passengers that he had been shipwrecked twice before, appeared
carrying three oranges and a green light.
That green light, many of the survivors say, was to the shipwrecked
hundreds as the pillar of fire by night. Long after the ship had disappeared,
and while confusing false lights danced about the boats, the green lantern
kept them together on the course which led them to the Carpathia.
ECHOING SPLASH OF CHILLY WATERS.
As the end of the Titanic became manifestly but a matter of moments, the
oarsmen pulled their boats away, and the chilling waters began to echo
splash after splash as the passengers and sailors in life preservers leaped over
and started swimming away to escape the expected suction.
Only the hardiest of constitutions could endure for more than a few
moments such a numbing bath. The first vigorous strokes gave way to the
heart-breaking cries of “Help! Help!” and stiffened forms were seen floating,
the faces relaxed in death.
Revolver shots were heard in the ship’s last moments. The first report
spread among the boats was that Captain Smith had ended his life with a
bullet. Then it was said that a mate had shot a steward who tried to push his
way upon a boat against orders. None of these tales has been verified, and
many of the crew say the captain, without a preserver, leaped in at the last
and went down, refusing a cook’s offered aid.
The last of the boats, a collapsible, was launched too late to get away, and
was overturned by the ship’s sinking. Some of those in it—all, say some
witnesses—found safety on a raft or were picked up by lifeboats.
In the Marconi tower, almost to the last, the loud click of the sending
instrument was heard over the waters. Who was receiving the message, those
in the boats did not know, and they would least of all have supposed that a
Mediterranean ship in the distant South Atlantic track would be their rescuer.
As the screams in the water multiplied, another sound was heard, strong
and clear at first, then fainter in the distance. It was the melody of the hymn
“Nearer, My God, to Thee,” played by the string orchestra in the dining
saloon. Some of those on the water started to sing the words, but grew silent
as they realized that for the men who played the music was a sacrament soon
to be consummated by death. The serene strains of the hymn and the frantic
cries of the dying blended in a symphony of sorrow.
BOATS FOLLOW THE GREEN LIGHT.
Led by the green light, under the light of the stars, the boats drew away,
and the bow, then the quarter, then the stacks and at last the stern of the
marvel-ship of a few days before passed beneath the waters. The great force
of the ship’s sinking was unaided by any violence of the elements, and the
suction, into so great as had been feared, rocked but mildly the group of
boats now a quarter of a mile distant from it.
Sixteen boats were in the forlorn procession which entered on the terrible
hours of rowing, drifting and suspense. Women wept for lost husbands and
sons. Sailors sobbed for the ship which had been their pride. Men chocked
back tears and sought to comfort the widowed. Perhaps, they said, other
boats might have put off in another direction toward the last. They strove,
though none too sure themselves, to convince the women of the certainty
that a rescue ship would appear.
Early dawn brought no ship, but not long after 5 A. M. the Carpathia, far
out of her path and making eighteen knots, instead of her wonted fifteen,
showed her single red and black smokestack upon the horizon. In the joy of
that moment, the heaviest griefs were forgotten.
Soon afterward Captain Rostrom and Chief Steward Hughes were
welcoming the chilled and bedraggled arrivals over the Carpathia’s side.
Terrible as were the San Francisco, Slocum and Iroquois disasters, they
shrink to local events in comparison with this world-catastrophe.
True, there were others of greater qualifications and longer experience
than I nearer the tragedy—but they, by every token of likelihood, have
become a part of the tragedy. The honored—must I say lamented—Stead, the
adroit Jacques Futrelle, what might they not tell were their hands able to
hold pencil?
The silence of the Carpathia’s engines, the piercing cold, the clamor of
many voices in the companionways, caused me to dress hurriedly and
awaken my wife at 5.40 A. M. Monday. Our stewardess, meeting me outside,
pointed to a wailing host in the rear dining room and said, “From the Titanic.
She’s at the bottom of the ocean.”
THE LAST OF THE LINE OF BOATS.
At the ship’s side, a moment later, I saw the last of the line of boats
discharge their loads, and saw women, some with cheap shawls about their
heads, some with the costliest of fur cloaks, ascending the ship’s side. And
such joy as the first sight of our ship may have given them had disappeared
from their faces, and there were tears and signs of faltering as the women
were helped up the ladders or hoisted aboard in swings. For lack of room to
put them, several of the Titanic’s boats after unloading were set adrift.
At our north was a broad icefield, the length of hundreds of Carpathias.
Around us on other sides were sharp and glistening peaks. One black berg,
seen about 10 A. M., was said to be that which sunk the Titanic.
In his tiny house over the second cabin smoking room was Harold
Cotton, the Marconi operator, a ruddy English youth, whose work at his
post, on what seemed ordinary duty, until almost midnight, had probably
saved the lives of the huddling hundreds below.
Already he was knitting his brows over the problem of handling the
messages which were coming in batches from the purser’s office. The haste
with which these Marconigrams were prepared by their senders was
needless, in view of the wait of two days and two nights for a long
connection. “Safe” was the word with which most of the messages began;
then, in many of them, came the words “—— missing.”
Dishevelled women, who the night before could have drawn thousands
from husbands’ letters of credit or from Titanic’s safe, stood penniless before
the Carpathia’s purser, asking that their messages be forwarded—collect.
Their messages were taken with the rest.
HOPE REVIVED BY SIGHT OF CATTLE BOAT.
The Californian, a cattle ship, came near us, and though it gave no sign of
having any of the Titanic’s refugees on board, its presence in the vicinity
gave hope to many women who were encouraged in the belief that the
Californian might have picked up their loved ones.
Captain Rostrom’s decision to abandon the Mediterranean course, begun
the Thursday before, and to return to an American port, was soon known to
the passengers. At first it was reported that Halifax or Boston would be the
destination, but at noon the notice of the intended arrival at New York three
days later was posted. At that time the Carpathia, at an increase over her
usual moderate speed, was westward bound and her passengers were
deferring their hopes of Gibraltar, Naples and Trieste, and were sharing their
rooms with the newcomers. Few men of the Carpathia’s passenger list slept
in a bed in any of the nights that followed. They had the men of the Titanic
lay in chairs on deck, on dining tables or smoking-room couches, or on the
floors of the rooms which held their hand baggage and their curtained-off
guests. The captain was the first to vacate his room, which was used as a
hospital.
In the first cabin library, women of wealth and refinement mingled their
grief and asked eagerly for news of the possible arrival of a belated boat, or a
message from some other steamer telling of the safety of their husbands.
Mrs. Henry B. Harris, wife of a New York theatrical manager, checked her
tears long enough to beg that some message of hope be sent to her father-in-
law. Mrs. Ella Thor, Miss Marie Young, Mrs. Emil Taussig and her daughter,
Ruth; Mrs. Martin Rothschild, Mrs. William Augustus Spencer, Mrs. J.
Stuart White and Mrs. Walter M. Clark were a few of those who lay back,
exhausted, on the leather cushions and told in shuttering sentences of their
experiences.
PROUD OF HER HUSBAND’S OARSMANSHIP.
Mrs. John Jacob Astor and the Countess of Rothes had been taken to
staterooms soon after their arrival on shipboard. Those who talked with Mrs.
Astor said she spoke often of her husband’s ability as an oarsman and said he
could save himself if he had a chance. That he could have had such a chance,
she seemed hardly to hope.
To another stateroom a tall, dark man had been conducted, his head
bowed, anguish in his face. He was Bruce Ismay, head of the International
Mercantile Marine and chief owner of the Titanic and her sister ship, the
Olympic. He has made the maiden voyage on each of his company’s great
ships. He remained in his room in a physician’s care during the voyage back
to New York. Captain Rostrom, his only caller, was not admitted to see him
until Tuesday evening.
Before noon, at the captain’s request, the first cabin passengers of the
Titanic gathered in the saloon, and the passengers of other classes in
corresponding places on the rescue ship. Then the collecting of names was
begun by the purser and the stewards. A second table was served in both
cabins for the new guests, and the Carpathia’s second cabin, being better
fitted than its first, the second class arrivals had to be sent to the steerage.
In the middle of the morning, the Carpathia passed near the spot, seamen
said, where the Titanic went down. Only a few floating chairs marked the
place. The ice peaks had changed their position. Which of those in sight, if
any, caused the wreck was matter of conjecture.
Those of the refugees who had not lost relatives found subject for distress
in the reflection that their money and jewels were at the bottom of the sea.
Miss Edith L. Rosenbaum, writer for a fashion trade journal, mourned the
loss of trunks containing robes from Paris and Tunis. Several of the late
works of Philip Mock, miniature painter, were in his lost baggage, but the
artist was not inclined to dwell on this mishap.
AN OBJECT OF PITYING SIGHS.
The child of the Montreal Allisons, bereft of both parents and carried by a
nurse, was an object of pitying sighs in the saloon. In the second cabin, two
French children engaged pitying attention. The two boys, four and two years
old, who had lost their mother a year before and their father the night before,
were children of beauty and intelligence, but were too abashed to answer any
questions, even those put in their native tongue. Their surname is believed to
be Hoffman. They are now in the care of Miss Margaret Hays, of 304 West
Eighty-third street, New York.
Reminiscences of two bridge whist games of Sunday night in the
smoking-room and the lounge room were exchanged by passengers who
believed that the protracted games, a violation of the strict Sabbath rules of
English vessels, saved their lives. Alfred Drachenstadt was leader in the
smoking-room game, Miss Dorothy Gibson in the other.
Mrs. Jacques Futrelle, wife of the novelist, herself a writer of note, sat
dry-eyed in the saloon, telling her friends that she had given up hope for her
husband. She joined with the rest in inquiries as to the chances of rescue by
another ship, and no one told her what soon came to be the fixed opinion of
the men—that all those saved were on the Carpathia.
PHOTO. BY UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD, N. Y.
CAPTAIN SMITH, OF THE “TITANIC” WHO HEROICALLY DID ALL HE COULD DO TO SAVE
WOMEN AND CHILDREN AND THEN LIKE THE TRUE HERO HE WAS WENT DOWN WITH
HIS SHIP.